Electric Kettweisel

[skelo]

don't know if anyone is interested, but after what seems like an interminable wait, finally Had a Heinzmann Direct drive fitted to the kett, after a fairly flat 35K ride in and around York this morning the display says there is still 44K left in the battery, so the range islooking like 70-80K - until i meet a big hill!

its been a long wait but looks like the £1.5K is going to be a good investment

[tyreon]

Yes. Posted a decent reply,deleted by techno fault.

Apologies. Aint up to going thru it all again

[Lodge]

Interested - yes.

We've recently taken delivery of a Shimano Steps Kettwiesel Kross. Very similar electric range possible as long as one stays in eco mode. High power and hills or soft off road conditions really deplete the battery rather quickly. Brilliant fun though. It can climb steep off-road slopes quite easily and cope with slippery and bumpy tracks. I reckon it would give the ICE Full Fat a run for its money and is more stable going fast downhill (how do I know? Tested both and rolled the ICE, going straight over the front down a steep hill. Embarrassing).

One question - do you take your Kett off road? How well does the front wheel drive cope with slippery conditions, especially going uphill? Or is the weight of the wheel sufficient to keep it on the ground and give it some grip?

[nigelnightmare]

The extra weight should help with the front wheel skipping on steep hills.
Where have you got the battery mounted?
Any pic's?

[hercule]

I've been thinking of electrifying my Kettwiesel for my OH to ride. My thought has been to use a crank drive unit like the Bafang 8Fun for various practical reasons. The trike has a diff and has no problems going up hills (in fact it's way better than than my Trice when it comes to hill climbing. We've also got a few steep long hills round here which would I think make more efficient use of the motor as it's powering through the drive chain . It does mean losing the gear range afforded by the triple chainset but having ridden an electric bike with an 8 speed Alfine hub gear, I'm not sure that the range is so necessary when you've got the benefit of electric assist. It also means it's easy to swap into tandem mode... like when the battery runs flat... or I want to get a bit of a push too!

Hase say that the new Shimano Steps unit can be retrofitted to all post 2005 Kettwiesels (with the aluminium frame), but unfortunately nothing from Hase comes cheap!

[skelo]

i will post a few pics when i work out how to do it!( I have put a couple on the Hasebikers Facebook Forum)

the battery is mounted on a plate on the back of the seat, i just plug it in to charge on the trike in my garage. the battery locks to the mounting to prevent it being stolen. i haven't tried removing it as my left hand is paralysed and i don't want to drop it!

I haven't tried it off road yet but i think the weight of the hub motor in the front should give it some traction.

i thought about 'Steps' but couldnt even get a quote from Hase to adapt the frame/boom, the bike shop suggested a trade in against a new one but that would have cost me around £3K so for a retrofit i think £1.5K fitted for the Heinzmann was the best option.

roll- on next spring, for a few big trips!

[Lodge]

If a Bafang would fit, that could be a good option. Looking at the schematics I would be worried as to clearance between the bottom bracket and motor housing and whether the Kettwiesel frame tube is too large a diameter.

We tried the Bafang when we tested the ICE Full Fat. The demo model at Radieschen in Freiburg had one fitted. It was very good, pulling strongly yet very controllable with power in proportion to applied torque on the pedals.

With regard to cost, the 2016 price list states 2590 Euro for the Steps motor with 170 mm cranks, 100 Euro more for 155 mm (!). Then one would have to factor in a replacement boom and, unless doing it yourself, the fitting of said boom and electrics. Not ridiculously difficult, looking at mine, but potentially fiddly.So a 3000 GBP trade in could be a realistic price.

The Heinzmann motor looks like the better deal. It's a good motor; a couple on the Pino forum give good reports except for a minor control issue at one point. See https://sevenleagueboots.wordpress.com/ ... em-part-1/

[Lodge]

Another question, skelo. You say the battery is mounted behind the seat - this is the same as for the Shimano motor. Do you have problems with bags coming into contact with the battery? With mine I'm concerned with damage to the battery (and the bag). Those batteries are darned expensive. The Ortlieb bag is not cheap either.

Also, the lower bag clips for the 42 L Kett specific Ortlieb bag do not work with the battery. Clearly Hase didn't design this correctly. I'm still trying to think of a workaround as the response my dealer got from Hase was that most people don't use the lower securing clips anyway but just leave the bags to dangle to and fro.

[hercule]

The fit of the Bafang motor is one thing that has concerned me, obviously there's no problem with a DF frame where the various tubes around the bottom bracket leave a window of over maybe 230 degrees to hang controllers, etc. My other idea was to fit it to my BikeE for commuting purposes, but that has the same problem (maybe more so as the frame tube is square and not round). I'd be interested to hear if anyone has fitted a crank drive to a Kett, I haven't seen anything on the web (though anything may well be in German).

Front wheel drive might work OK on the BikeE anyway, as normally the front wheel is pretty lightly laden. A crank motor might also mangle the aged Sachs 3x7 gear...

[skelo]

HI, in reply to your query Lodge, Yes, i have the 42L Ortleib bag, it fits OK, I went out yesterday morning and put the newspapers and croissants in it and even managed to get some brownie points from the wife!

as and when i find the snags with it (which I no doubt will) I will post, hopefully with solutions...