|
Your new Luna E-Bike: An Introduction |
| Congratulations on your new bike! Luna bikes are built with mid-drive ebike kits that are by design very open. They are easily extendable, programmable and repairable, and have a wide range of aftermarket customizations for every component. Nothing compares with a kit-built ebike, and this is why we build using the same top-notch mid drives we sell on the site. The basics Unpack your new E-Bike by opening the box. Then carefully remove your new E-Bike from the box. Use safe lifting techniques and/or get someone to help you lift it out. Your E-Bike comes almost completely assembled. The handlebars will be turned sideways to fit into the box, so the first thing you will need to do is align the handlebars with the front wheel. Make sure the main electric harness is not looped around the steerer and be sure to fully press-in the connectors if needed. The correct way to do this is to loosen the stem and the top cap. Next align the handlebars and tighten up the top cap screw enough so the bearing rotates freely but with no free play. Then tighten the 2 stem bolts (about 5nm) to secure it. There might also be loose lights or reflectors to be installed, to ensure your new E-Bike is safe to use on the road. You should be able to install those with common hand tools like Allen wrenches, and screwdrivers. If you are unfamiliar with bikes or just want a professional to handle it, bear in mind that many local bike shops are happy to do initial inspection/tuneup of new bikes for you! Before you power up, or ride your new E-Bike, remove your battery and charge it first as described below. For further info on taking care of your battery pack see the battery documentation links. |
||
Additional reading (highly recommended to bookmark these links)
|
||
| Charging your battery for the first time LunaCycle batteries are typically shipped in a partially discharged state, so they need to be fully charged before you use it for the very first time. We recommend to use a surge suppressor with your battery charger. CRITICAL: Never ever attempt to charge a frozen Li-Ion battery that is under 32 deg F (or 0 deg Celcius) Below freezing permanent damage will occur if you try to charge your battery pack. If your pack is frozen bring it inside your house and let it sit for a few hours till the battery is over 50F (10C) And never charge a hot battery, let it cool down to 85F (30C) How do you use the charger? Start by selecting the amperage level (3 amp is ideal for most packs we have) and set the charge percentage knob to 100% (depending on the charger model). Now plug the charger into the AC outlet, then connect the adapter to your battery charging port. Finally, connect the other end of the adapter to the charger. This is to prevent any arcing/sparking from occurring in the charging port area and keeping all that stuff isolated to something easily replaceable, like the yellow XT60 connectors. Next, after the battery has finished charging. The LED2 should be green on the charger indicating it has reach it’s maximum capacity. Now, just let the battery sit for an hour or two before using the bike. It’s important to do this to allow the battery to settle and balance out. Be gentle with the power usage during your first ride, try not to pull maximum power and take it easy. For the best results, we recommend to charge the battery to 100% for the first 4-6 charges to help balance the battery cells inside and always charge the battery directly before you ride. Do not let the battery sit around fully charged more than a few hours or else you will simply reduce the life span of your battery pack (if you always leave it full). It's easy ,fully charge when needed, preferably to 80-90%, store at 40-60% capacity It is also not recommended to charge your bike unattended, such as overnight in your basement/garage while you sleep. We know this is probably the most convenient time for most folks and 99% of the time nothing will happen, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be safe. Lithium Ion fires typically occur most often while the cells are under use or being charged (usually overcharged). It’s better to be safe than sorry when handling and using large battery packs like this so you (or others) don’t end up in a dangerous situation, even if it were very unlikely to happen. For more info on battery use, charging and safe handling please read the battery documentation link written for your battery. |
||
| While your battery is charging Get to know your new E-Bike. Adjust the seat height to fit you. Do this by loosening the quick-release lever on the seat tube clamp. While standing on one of the pedals, lean against something and lift the seat up to you. Secure the seat clamp by flipping the quick-release lever closed. It may take a couple of tries to get the seat adjusted properly and pointing the right direction. Check the suspension sag if you have a suspended bike, Suspensions are factory adjusted and may be set set to hard or too soft for you. If you don’t know how to setup sag on a fork or rear shock we recommend searching on YouTube for videos, if you fonts have a suspension pump you will need one to setup your suspension, they can be bought online and at any bike shop (every Luna bike listing links to the bike specs from the manufacturer for reference if you are looking for info on the parts)
Additionally it is always a good idea to give the bike a good once over, make sure everything is properly tightened and fastened with nothing out of the ordinary. Then, take it for a spin, try out the brakes, and shift through the gears. All bicycles have adjustable derailleurs and adjustable brakes and your new bike might need some fine adjustment to work better. If you are not comfortable doing this when the bike first arrives we recommend taking it to a local bike shop to have it checked over as is common with any bicycle shipped as things like the derailer can go out of tune during shipment. All adjustments can be made with a screwdriver and/or allen wrench. Your new E-Bike should not need any lubrication right away, but, like any bike, will need regular lubrication and maintenance. Once ready to ride, make sure the discharge connector is FULLY plugged into the motor. The batteries have an antispark resistor built into the discharge connector on the battery, the battery needs plugged in past this connector. 
For more info see this link |
||
| Note for Wolf battery users Many Luna bikes are being built with Wolf these days due to being compact and highly rugged. These packs use a magnetic mount system for typical use but also have reinforcement rails along the side which can be used to run zipties to the frame, or even something lockable like an Ottolock or Hiplock Z Lok. For more info see the Wolf battery documentation. If using offroad, on rough terrain, or taking the bike on jumps, we recommend reinforcing to the frame with the rails. Additionally, if the Wolf has not or cannot be mounted flush to the magnets for any reason, we would highly recommend to use the reinforcement rails as a backup. See pic below for an example using zipties. Generally speaking these very powerful magnets are all you need as long as the pack is fully mounted, but this is partly going to be up to how the bike is being used. |
||
| Properly shifting your ebike Avoid bogging and over-heating your new E-Bike motor by keeping the motor rpms higher. In other words if you are going uphill you should have it in a low gear (low gear is for low speed, high gear is for high speed) If this is not done you may damage the motor, so take care you have it in the proper gear. |
||
| Using the display
The display varies depending on the model and options but is typically either the DPC-18 or 750C. Click the links for in-depth documentation on each. Most prebuilt Luna bikes use 52V batteries for highest performance, and as with all 52V battery users the first thing you should do with the display is put the display into Voltage mode so the charge percentage can be tracked, since the gauge was built for 48V so it is not accurate for the higher power we build with. See this chart for how voltage relates to charge. (Note: this is an estimate, voltage readings may vary slightly) |
| General Maintenance |
| Battery maintenance If the bike has a Shark Pack or some other plastic hardcase pack installed on it, then part of your responsibility of owning it is to regularly check and maintenance it. This involves cleaning and adjusting the underside terminals that connect to the cradle on a regular basis which is very important for ensuring that the connection between your motor & battery is solid and rigid. Failure to do this may lead to a spotty connection, which can cause arcing/sparking, and eventually melting the plastic around it. Please try to avoid having this occur by making sure the connections are consistently checked and cleaned on a regular basis. If this is a Luna-made battery like the Fusion pack then we recommend using the method of removal shown on the listing, see here for documentation on it. We would recommend you use anything to reinforce it periodically as rigidity is good for handling and maintaining solid connection. Zip-ties and Velcro straps are typically perfect for this type of application. The pack may have strong magnets on the bottom to help hold it in place but extra reinforcement is never a bad idea, especially if you’re riding on uneven terrain. If the bike has zip ties for reinforcement and you need to regularly remove the battery then we would recommend switching to reusable zip ties instead, or finding an alternative option. Another part of regular maintenance is checking the rear derailleur and keeping it tuned up. This is important for all bikes but is especially more important for E-bikes because you are putting a lot more power through a drivetrain that was only designed for human legs. |
|
| Derailleur maintenance When using an ebike with a mid drive it is important that the derailleur is properly adjusted, more important than on a regular bike since you are putting much more power through the drivetrain than usual. Adjusting this component can take as little as 10 minutes and is very straightforward once you understand the basics (you can get any bike shop to do this if you prefer but it is fairly simple if you would like to maintain it)
|
|
Frequently Asked Questions |
How do I plug it in to charge? The connections don’t match up! All of our bikes should come equipped with some kind of custom adapter that should allow everything to be complete Plug-N-Play experience. Check the shipping box fully to make sure nothing went unnoticed. If you’re entirely sure there is no way to plug in your charger to the battery. Email support@lunacycle.com and we’ll be happy to fix that for you. |
How do I ride this thing? Is there any proper procedure? Yes, there is a proper way to ride these bikes. This is a mid-drive system that utilizes your gears to achieve maximum efficiency. The trick is you have to choose your gear before tackling the hill. You don’t really want to be shifting while going up a hill and hitting the throttle at the same time, or "lugging" the motor in the wrong gear. These bikes are still just normal bikes outside of having motors installed on them. The rear derailleurs, chains, cassettes and freehubs were all designed with human power in mind, and while it works fine with normal ebike use overly stressing the system through incorrect riding will wear out parts faster than usual. Climbing a big hill while in full throttle in the high gear for longer than 10 seconds will blow just about any electric bike motor including the famously durable BBSHD. So don’t do that. Even trying to do this with PAS is still sketchy. If you can’t completely assist the motor enough to keep it efficient, it will simply absorb all of that load into the internals and controller, as well as being terrible for your range. Electricity has to go somewhere and if it can not produce usable work via spinning freely/quickly then it ends up as waste heat, this is how it ends up cooking the internals. Generally you want to pick a low gear if going uphill and a high gear if on flats or downhill. A good way to think about it is to test the bike without any power input. Shift through all the gears and get a sense of how much torque is needed to push forward. If it feels like it’s too much for your leg, it’s probably too much for the motor so shift as efficiently as possible. Another great benefit of this is that you get better range when you are shifting optimally. If nothing else you should be able to look down at the chainring and see if it is freely spinning quickly in whatever it is you are doing, if it is not, then it is not in the right gear and you should downshift both for the drivetrain as well as for efficiency. |
Is my battery charging correctly? I can’t really tell. What is supposed to happen? After you have read over the beginning section of charging your battery for your first time. You should see the charger immediately engage with an audible noise, like the fan turning on, or a high pitched whine. If you’re experiencing an issue where the fan isn’t turning on, or you don’t hear anything, or the charger is turning on/off repeatedly. Please contact support@lunacycle.com |
My charger says 54.4v on the label. I ordered a 48v charger. Was I sent the wrong charger? Absolutely not. There should be nothing to worry about. 48v batteries are only labeled as “48v” because that is the “nominal” rating of the battery. Sorta like the middle ground between fully charged and completely dead. A fully charged 48v battery ends at about 54.4v, which is exactly what the charger is calibrated to stop charging at which is why it’s labeled that way. For reference, a fully charged 52v battery measures about 58.8v. |
What are all these blank diagnostics info on my DPC18 display? If using dpc18 there are some parts of the display not usable, stuff relating to battery readouts that would require a special plug directly into the battery on the pack. |
My display just shows 80% or 100% capacity on the bar and doesn’t ever change. What’s going on? Is it broken? Well, no, If the bike was installed with a 52v battery and a BBSxx Mid-Drive then we would recommend adjusting the battery readout on the display settings to show a “voltage readout” and to simply ignore the percentage bar on the top right corner. The percentage bar is actually very inaccurate and was mainly designed by Bafang with 48v batteries in mind. It also won’t tell you anything important, like how close you are to approaching the auto-shutoff mode or how much “voltage sag” you’re pulling from the battery. Without knowing your voltage sag, you could be dangerously close to hitting the auto-shutoff mode (43v) and not even know it. If you want an alternative accurate amp hour/voltage readout, we would recommend a Watt-Meter or a Batt-Mann. |
What is voltage sag? Voltage sag is what happens when a battery is being used and actively drained of it’s capacity and will vary depending on the type of the battery, size of battery and condition of battery and how much power the motor is trying to pull from the battery. For example. If you have a 52v Shark Pack with a voltage of, say...51v while in a resting position and you hit the throttle to accelerate, you would see the voltage “sag” or “drop” to about 47-48v until you let go of the throttle again, where it will raise back up to slightly less than before. If you are using a high power controller such as Ludicrous this will pull more current and the sag will be greater than it would otherwise be. If you are not downshifting on hills this will also pull more current than it would otherwise and would also cause greater sag. So let’s say if you’re near 46v or 47v of capacity, well that means you’re pretty much dangerously close to hitting the auto-shut off mode because if voltage sags by about 3v - 4v while climbing a hill, you’ll just randomly cut-out with no explanation or warning. Once you hit about 47v, you should consider yourself low on battery and start “limping” home using minimal power with as much assist as possible to save yourself any juice for an emergency, or to keep the batteries condition at peak performance since discharging them near the cut-off also reduces the their total lifespan quicker. See this link for a more detailed description of sag. |
| 2500w BBSHD Ludicrous Controller. What is this? Does it increase my speed? If you have the normal BBSHD controller, just ignore this question and the next one after it. However, some of our bikes have the option for a 2500 watt “Ludicrous” modified BBSHD controller. This controller is considered a third party modification that we have created and should only be used by enthusiasts and experts only. By putting 2500watts through the motor, you are nearly pushing the limitations of what it was designed to be capable of. The Ludicrous 2500 watt controller will not increase your top speed at all but it will give you nearly twice the acceleration and twice the torque for climbing hills. This is a great option if you want something that “kicks” harder when you hit the throttle from a dead stop. Generally speaking, your battery should be capable of outputting at least “50 amps continuous” if you are planning to use this controller upgrade recklessly. Otherwise smaller packs like the 52v Shark Packs will only be able to sustain 50 amps for short bursts of 5-8 seconds and will greatly reduce its charge lifespan when compared to just normal use. |
| I have the 2500w Ludicrous controller but I only see 1250 watts on the display? What’s going on? Generally speaking, the BBSHD unit wasn’t designed in any way with the intention of us “modding” it beyond it’s capabilities. For this reason, things like the LCD display might not show the correct statistics with this controller modification, thus giving it the appearance of having stock settings. This is why we only recommend it to enthusiasts and experts because it can be easy to underestimate how much power you’re pulling, thinking you’re only doing 1250 watts when you’re actually pulling the maximum 2500 watts instead. For an accurate representation of actual wattage being used with Ludicrous (as well as an accurate battery gauge) you can wire up the Batt-man display into the system. Note, for something like a 52v/48v Shark Pack, pulling 2500 watts for longer than 5-8 seconds could cause severe connection issues and eventually even premature shut-off due to the battery not being able to sustain the power the motor is demanding from it. This is not an issue with Luna Fusion packs. |
| Mods and upgrades |
| Waterproofing While they are water resistant, the bikes are not 100% waterproof. They are partially water resistant in certain areas like the motor itself but don't go riding it in the ocean, or ride through any tidal pools where it can be submerged even for a brief moment. Stay especially away from salt water (including road salt used during wintry conditions) and don’t store the bike outside unless you live in very dry, non-humid conditions. If you happen to do a lot of biking around water then please consider the additional waterproofing guide linked below. Waterproofing involves understanding where all exposed parts are and prefilling them with proper grease/tape/seal them off. You should be able to ride through the rain and puddles without any problems. However, dress prepared because you will get soaked! Waterproofing for Luna BBSHD and BBS02 ebikes |
||
| For programming bikes with Bafang mid drives, how to configure program settings If you want to adjust power, pas levels and various other tweaks and fine tuning you can use the Program cable. There are many guides available but here are the basics. |
||
| Additional grease Depending on how much you use it and how hard you are on the drive, you may want to grease it internally with something better than its stock grease. A good recommendation would be Mobilgrease28. We have videos on how to do this in this link. The drive system is easily disassembled and we have all of the replacement parts, the grease can be added directly to the existing grease, and the grease is readily available online |
||
| What does different chainrings allow you to do? Different chainrings allow you to optimize for either torque or top speed. The smaller the chainring, the more torque, while the larger the chainring, the more top speed. You are trading one for the other by gearing it differently. |
||
| I want to buy a new chainring. How do I change to a different chainring? If you're interested in swapping out a different chainring with your new bike, You'll definitely want to consider taking a look at our offset information guide for them. Each chainring has a different amount of offset that can cover a wide standard of bikes but also may not be perfect for every situation. Chainring Offset Information guide. However, rather than jumping straight to swapping it out immediately. It's usually best to stick with the default chainring that was installed with your bike until you feel like you have a good understanding of what kind of offset you’re going to need to prevent the chain from bending and putting stress on the sprockets teeth. Usually most local bike shops should be happy to assist you with this if you ask them about it. |
||
| What is chainring offset? Offset is the distance that the chainring bends around the motor to keep the chainline straight. Chainline will vary somewhat depending on frame but generally more offset is better for the best chainline. Generally 42T is the minimum size you can achieve before the motor blocks you from offsetting any further.
Some chainrings are best used with spacers, like the Luna Eclipse chainring, which has the largest offset and the most flexibility in adjustment. If you find that you definitely want a particular chainring with less offset than the original and your chainline is not great, you can modify certain cassettes to make it work but this is a bit more advanced and would require replacing the original cassette. |
||
| What Luna forks work on which Luna bikes? Luna Fork Fitment guide How to actually go about installing a fork |
| Do Nots |
| DO NOT DRILL INTO THE BATTERY PACK DO NOT PUNCTURE THE BATTERY PACK DO NOT SHORT OUT THE BATTERY DO NOT CHARGE A FROZEN BATTERY DO NOT CHARGE YOUR BATTERY IF IT'S OVER 113F (45C) DO NOT SHORT OUT THE BATTERY CHARGE PORT AGAINST ANYTHING METAL SUCH AS RINGS OR TOOLS |