Well I stripped the big bike and redid it completely yesterday. I made it 24v with no controller. I tested it last night and it was questionable. Today I rode it to the mall for my walk. It did perfectly. It even did well coming home up a major hill. I pedaled a lot but I'm not sure how much I really needed to pedal.

Funny how I have gone so far to come back to the same basic design as before. I do use the rhino drive but it is just a little more complicated that the first bikes I built. Well I'm in better condition now, so I don't mind the pedaling.