Increasing Ebike hub Motor Torque & Speed-(Guide with Pictures)


 

Increasing Ebike hub Motor Torque

 

 

If you have a hub motor on your electric bike, you may have noticed a difference in torque & speed in your bike’s motor than any other bike with a mid-drive motor, and this is normal for a hub motor (check out this post that talks about the torque of the electric bike motor in detail).

 

Personally, I like the mid-drive motor the most, but I am not against the Hub Motor because it represents the beginning for anyone who wants to enter the world of electric bikes or anyone who does not have multiple needs for an ebike.

 

The good news here is that there are some inexpensive steps that you can take to increase the torque & speed of your electric bike motor, especially if the motor is basically high-powered, such as 500 watts or 750 watts.

 

 

It should be noted that one of these steps may require some modifications to the motor wiring, which can affect its warranty, so you should be alerted, but if you have a kit, there is no problem.

 

How do you increase ebike hub motor torque & speed?

Let’s agree on the general plan to increase the torque & speed of the motor hub.
This plan will consist of 3 steps, the goal of them is to increase the electric current entering the motor so that the number of times the motor rotates increases and thus increases the speed & torque.
The three steps are:
  1. Check the controller.
  2. Check the battery.
  3. Increase the thickness of the phase wire.

 

1-Upgrade your ebike controller.

 

The controller is the brain of the electric bike, which connects all the parts of the electric bike together because it passes the electric current to it.

 

The goal here is not only to upgrade the controller, but the goal is to make sure that your controller can pass a greater electric current from the battery to the motor.

 

For example, if you have a controller with 36 volts, and 15 amps, upgrading to a 30 amp controller would be a good idea that will help you pass a higher electric current.

You can view this post that explains in detail upgrading the ebike controller from Here

 

Check your battery BMS capacity.

 

I often receive questions about increasing the torque of the hub motor, and when I ask a person what is the capacity of the BMS in your battery, the answer is I don’t know?!

 

Knowing the capacity of the battery protection system or BMS is very important because if you have an 80-volt battery and the BMS has a lower capacity (usually this case happens in the cheap ebike batteries), then in the end no more current will be passed than the capacity of the BMS.

 

So always make sure that the battery has a protection system that allows the passage of an electric current that is higher than the existing current and equal to the same electric current that the new controller will pass to the motor.

 

If the BMS system in your electric bike battery is small, it may be a good idea to consider a higher capacity battery.

 

“You can check this post that explains in detail all the information you need when choosing a new battery for your electric bike”

 

3-Increase the thickness of the phase wire.

 

After we have made sure that the controller and battery are able to pass a higher electric current to the motor, we have one last step, which is to make sure that the internal wires of the motor can carry the electric current, and we will do this by increasing their thickness to a higher degree.

 

Disclaimer: the below steps can get your ebike motor out of warranty so do it at your own risk.

 

Tools needed.

1- 14 gauge wire (red, black, white)

2- soldering iron

3-Screws

4- Liquid tape.

 

Now let’s go to the steps of opening the motor and changing the phase wire.

1- Remove the frame that holds the motor
2- Remove the motor from the electric bike frame
3- Open the motor using the appropriate screwdriver for your motor type

Note: Some hub motors may need a puller to open the outer cover, and others can be pulled out by hand.

 

Puller to remove the hub motor cover

 

4- After opening the motor, you will notice that there are three wires of different colors connected to the motor. We will insert the new wires in the same path as the old wires.

 

Opened hub motor

 

5- After inserting the new wires in the same path as the old wires, cut the old wires and connect the new wires instead in the same order.

 

Replacing hub motor phase wires

 

6-Using the liquid tape, cover the hall sensors so that no shorting occurs.

 

7- Connect the new wires to the controller.

 

phase wires connected to controller

 

8-Test the motor with throttle (just a very light push)
9-close the motor again.
10-install the hub motor on the tire of the electric bike.

 

Q & A

 

Will I get more speed if I upgrade the phase wires If my controller is 48v with 30A current? 

this will depend on your battery BMS capacity.

 

Will the torque increase significantly if I did the above steps?

the above step will give your ebike more speed which may increase the torque a little bit but not a huge difference as more voltage = more speed.

 

I need more torque from my ebike hub motor what I should do?

 

As we mentioned earlier, the previous method increases speed more than torque, so if you want much higher torque, you can change the motor to a mid-drive motor

 

Conclusion.

 

As a general rule, you can increase the Speed & torque of the hub motor by upgrading the controller and changing the phase wires with thicker wires, taking into account the battery’s ability to pass the required electric current.

 

 

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