Enter Electric Hellfire

Well, Electro took me about a year of evenings and weekends to complete. Electric Hellfire took me exactly one. This kit, from GoldenMotor.com, took a couple of hours to fit to Matt's mountain bike. Here is a pic:



The motor is very subtle - a larger than usual hub on the front wheel. Everything fit perfectly, and although no instructions came with the kit, the PDF from the website and the color-coding of the wires and connectors helped make this assembly a cakewalk. Here is a picture of the controls:


Cruise control and horn on the left, thumb throttle on the right. The kit came with brake controls that hook into the normal brake cables. The only difference with these is that the brakes also are wired into the controller to signal stopping cruise control if it's on.

The installation components are very well manufactured. The wheel went on with no issues (albeit minor brake caliper tuning, which you would do with any new wheel), and the battery box fit easily as well. The only downside to this kit was the motor controller, which arrived with no enclosure. I didn't have an electrical enclosure this narrow to house it, so I made due with some tupperware for now.

The first test ride went flawlessly. Hellfire goes FAST. At full throttle, it can approach 25-30MPH on the flats. It takes hills easily, although super steep hills are still an issue - the draconian hill in our neighborhood was the acid test, and Hellfire made it 3/4 of the way up before conceding. Note: this was while taking Big Daddy up the hill - Matt made it to the top just fine!

I'll try getting a video or two of riding Hellfire posted soon. I also want to test range of the lithium pack.