equals zero

Chibi chibi chibi…

I’ve seen that four 100mm hub motors in a pair of roller skates can definitely keep a person going and act as a cruise assist, but can they be made powerful enough to drive a go-kart too? In stand-on vehicles, the kick you perform to start yourself off balancing actually imparts a significant amount of kinetic energy – thus, the motors don’t have to work as hard, but this is clearly not available in a sit-down vehicle. Chibikart was a build to both test this hypothesis and to have a go-kart which fit in the front half of tinykart (Let’s face it -  that’s the actual design motivation here). The 100mm hub motors were modified slightly to yield more potential power. This build was also a chance to use up some possible “production hardware” for the 100mm motors that I had made as an experiment into Internet-sourcing machined parts.

The conclusion: Not bad all, actually. Chibikart doesn’t quite have the kick of an indirect-drive electric kart with a more powerful hobby class motor, but it can get up to a pretty brisk pace – and of course, there is almost no drivetrain loss, and it’s 4 wheel drive!

Here’s Chibikart’s build thread.

Specifications