Electric Sun Handcycle
Extreme mobility for the disabled
updated 11-16-2015
Current technology can provide extreme mobility for the disabled. Just apply it to your needs


My YouTube What could you do with this much mobility?
How about a park where the bathroom is a 1/4 mile away? The sidewalk is impossible for anyone but a serious athlete. The wheelchair ramp was built in 1972. It doesn't matter cause ya can't get there from here. None of that is a problem with a small change in technology. Get to the bathroom faster than a person on a bicycle The next video shows how mobile you can be in a wheelchair. A trip around the lake (Tempe AZ, by ASU) and down Mill Ave, then over the old Mill Avenue bridge... in minutes... even the strongest athlete in a manual chair, won't do this in less than an hour. Great views of the park, Mill Ave. and the old bridge Carving the bowl at a skate park in a power wheelchair First half of a high speed wheelchair trip to the park Second half of a high speed wheelchair trip to the park


Catalog Manual
What is it?

It started out as a Sun HT3 Handcycle, but it got upgrades Electric scooters are worthless junk that won't go anywhere, too slow, get high centered on a gum wrapper and most of all, the seats are so bad I can't even sit in one long enough to get through the grocery store. I don't have $20,000.00 to spend on a power chair that still won't do what I need. I bought a Sun handcycle for physical therapy. Built by a bicycle company, it's not like similar models made by wheelchair companies. It's less than half the cost and far stronger, far heavier and far more difficult to crank. For about a month I went around the block a few times a day, then two blocks as I built strength and endurance. I could never have become strong enough to use it like a bicycle to actually go places. A few minutes cranking required at least an hour of recuperation. My plan from the start was to make it into a power assisted handcycle. Still crank, but with an electric motor helping.
Hallomotor
The first motor kit came from Hallomotor. The design of the front fork did not allow me to have a hand crank and motor. I replaced the crank system with bicycle handlebars which only allowed use of the motor for propulsion. It didn't work well and it broke several times in the first five hundred miles. It had enough power to run about twelve miles per hour but took a great deal of effort getting up to speed. Under ideal conditions it could reach eighteen miles per hour. The motor also had speeds with horrible vibrations. It was unable to get up short hills on a paved bike path. The motor windings started rubbing on the magnets, grinding and squealing. Soon after that the handcycle fork broke off at the left drop out. The following day I went to an electric bike show and test rode a tadpole recumbent with a Lectric Cycles 500 watt motor kit. It about killed me trying to ride the thing. I had difficulty just getting in the seat. Riding it for a few minutes exhausted me. Tossing out the hub motor was a simple decision because the tadpole bike had a vast amount of smooth power.
Lectric Cycles Controller Manual
The second motor kit came from Lectric Cycles. It's rated 750 watts, same as the previous motor but this one is heavily geared instead of direct drive. There are many options for sprockets on the motor output, in addition to the built in gear reduction. At the wheel (the other end of the chain) you have even more opportunity for gear options. I'm using the wheel, sprocket and hub shifter which came on the handcycle from Sun. It's a 21 tooth sprocket and Shimano Nexus 3 speed hub shifter. I explained to Chris at Lectric Cycles that I wanted a top speed of 20 miles per hour and wanted it to easily climb any paved surface. With that input he provided a 34 tooth main sprocket. Chris's sprocket selection works perfectly. I now have four days using this system and about 150 miles. I rode 40 miles the first day, endlessly testing hill climbing and high speed, as well as creeping around in several large stores (Walmart, Target, Lowes, Fry's grocery) and busy sidewalks at ASU and in downtown Scottsdale and Tempe. The motor never got hot, at most ten degrees above ambient. It never ran out of power, able to accelerate up the steepest hill until it reached it's top speed. The gearbox was a bit noisey, not really loud, but you could hear it coming. After 20 miles the noise was almost gone, it just took a bit to wear in. I've overheard dozens of comments that it "doesn't make any noise", from random people I've passed on the bike paths. Using the 20 amp hour battery from Hallomotor it easily runs 30 miles, and 40 if you can afford the chance of running out of power. I expect it would go over 60 miles on a charge by holding the speed to about 12 miles per hour. My big issue is avoiding burn outs, even at ten miles per hour it will spin the front tire if I'm not gentle with the throttle. A new and better front tire would solve that issue but I'll wait until this one is completely wore out.





I'm 6' tall, the seat was too low and I needed a place to mount the battery. Compare the pictures and you'll see that I removed the seat adjuster and raised the seat by mounting it on 3" x 1" rectangular tubing. The metal supply house cut it for me, I just cleaned up the cut ends, drilled bolt holes and painted the tubes black. The seat is very solid. I bolted the battery mounting bracket to the frame under the seat. There is a key which locks the battery into the mounting bracket. Then I located a handlebar stem for a 1" steer tube to clamp onto the handcycle steer tube. Picked out handlebars that fit my needs. The stem is the hard part, it's not the common size steer tube. Cut about nine inches off the steer tube and ground off a couple hardware mounts. Installed the E-Rad motor system from Lectric Cycles. That's about it. With all the parts, and since I know how to do it now, this would only take a few hours to convert. $1,000.00  Handcycle $1,000.00  Motor kit    $400.00  Battery    $200.00  Misc stuff About $2,600.00 The Sun seat cushion is similar to sitting on a brick. I already had the Jay gell cushion. Original Hallomotor Bafang