Upgrade your power lines of your e-bike and get at least 20 to 30% more juice out of your old battery and the same range increase. Extend your mileage! Watch your battery meter needle stand still when you moving, instead of helplessly diving into the red. Unleash the power you lose daily, uselessly heating the wires and eventually whole the planet! :)

The ad is here:

http://toronto.kijiji...


Lubo

If that's as effective at improving efficiency as you claim, that does sound like a decent deal.

How much of the wiring are you replacing when you do this? In the picture it shows an open battery case with some heavy gauge wires, are only those wires replaced or are other parts of the wiring redone as well?

That's what I see on my bike. results may vary, but definitely there is no way that there is no improvement whatsoever! It's plain physic if you remember from your school years what I mean :) So the increase is certainly guaranteed. I do not use much of the wire though, running them only between the battery and controller under the seat in the shortest possible way since the longer the wire, the more resistance and heat and losses and cost... etc. Same physic :) Besides, better wires are excellent base for future mods like the famous "Shunt mod", which increases the level of current allowable to pass through the controller and which does not even make sense to undertake with the flimsy and tiny standard wires and connectors, they would just melt. Furthermore, also it makes sense to run the same wires from the controller to the motor. This is next highly suggested upgrade after battery wires. These usually are a couple of feet long though, because I can't run them from controller straight to the motor. I have to bend them instead and run along the frame and rear fork and then put sort of the waterproofed junction box on the fork next to your motor on the left side to connect the motor and run around the box those tiny sensor wires. What comes to wires in the battery box, that's actually a part of the short wire loop that comes with the fuse box. Only wires in the box are replaced, the other wires run along the existing ones to allow even more current to run through.

Surely these are just standard higher gauge wires with good connectors joining the batteries? Anyone know what gauge makes sense for carrying the currents we are typically dealing with here?

You're right. And since typical wires are 12 or 10 gauge, the next would be AWG #8 for batteries, because there is nothing in between and besides you can't put anything more than that in the battery box). For the main carriers outside the battery box you can use any gauge i.e #4, or even #0, or... the same #8 which I'm sure is more than adequate for a limited at 30A standard unmodified controller. I used #4 on my bike mainly because I can carry up to three more extra batteries of the same size as my main one, so main wires naturally should be thicker, then the ones used in the battery boxes inside. But, on the second thought I would probably use the same #8 everywhere mainly because #4 is such a pain to solder without special tools! You'd have to use torch :) But isolation doesn't like torching for some reason :( So... #8 - best of best! :)

With the right terminals ya can just double up the wires eg two #10 together. Two smaller wires in parallel are easier to bend around tight spaces than one of the larger wire sizes. Plan B ya can go to solid brass plate connectors between adjacent batteries... These usually are fab'ed with a "knuckle" in them to allow some give to avoid sideway pressure on the battery terminals.

Ya can roll yer own by laminating from thin metal sheets:

tks
LocK

With the right terminals ya can just double up the wires eg two #10 together. Two smaller wires in parallel are easier to bend around tight spaces than one of the larger wire sizes. Plan B ya can go to solid brass plate connectors between adjacent batteries... These usually are fab'ed with a "knuckle" in them to allow some give to avoid sideway pressure on the battery terminals.

Ya can roll yer own by laminating from thin metal sheets:

tks
LocK

Ups... empty post... Sorry, people :) You are right about doubling the wires, but when you compare the cross section of even doubled or quadrupled wire and gauge 8 wire... you'll see the difference right away, believe me :) Same with the current :) Solid plates... I've had already the chance to use them just before I've come up with the idea of using speaker wire. What I used though was plain copper ties from home depot, you know, it's like the coiled strip with lot's of holes in it which contractors use piece by piece to screw the copper pipes to the ceiling and walls. I also used 5 or 6 of them together in a shrink tubing like on this picture. But the problem was that the cells were moving in the battery box (and there's no way to prevent that 100%) and soon, within the time, contacts became very loose no matter how tight I tightened them before with some serious bolts and nuts. Also the ruggedness and lack of flexibility of such connection damaged one battery terminal so now it's loosely sits in the battery plastic, but the battery is still ok. That's why I use superflexible, soft and cool looking speaker wires and thick plain copper soldered terminals.

You are right about doubling the wires, but when you compare the cross section of even doubled or quadrupled wire and gauge 8 wire... you'll see the difference right away, believe me

The math is pretty simple. 8 gauge has 60% more area than 10g, so 2x10g gets ya about 25% more area than 8g.
Lock

Math is that simple... I agree... in the book :) In the real life my old wires where like 5 times smaller than the 8GA :) Definitely those weren't 10 gauge wires or... maybe it isn't really 8 after all, since where I picked them all 8ga wires of different colors were actually different in a copper diameter and you could feel even the difference in the weight (surplus, you know) So, I just picked the thickest one, genuinely believing, that it really is #8 :) Well, whatever it is it serves me way much better than the old wires. That's whole my point :)