RC Greyborg build thread

[Philistine]

ComradeGerry I have stolen your idea with the rivnuts and it has worked a treat. The rivnut gun I got looks like it has a much thinner head than yours, and has worked no problem. Mine looks exactly like a poprivet gun, just with a different mandrel. So the mandrel/head is as thick as/no thicker than the rivnut itself. Hence it worked great. Looks just like a poprivet gun, just cost five times as much....

That was my last hurdle, when I get the time for a day in the garage I will have it going I'd say, will post up photos when I do...

[Stevil_Knevil]

Wow, could not figure out why you split the frame - until the whole belt-drive-is-not-splitable reality set in.



That's some committed/hardcore sh!t, my friend

[Philistine]

Here is my efforts with the rivnuts, was a cracking idea BTW, thanks a lot for it, works perfectly.

rivnut.jpg (76.81 KiB) Viewed 1223 times

Here is where my bike is up to. I hope it isn't rude to post into your thread with my bike, but I thought it might be interesting to see where someone else is up to. I almost feel like I am wearing shoes in a mosque by posting a hub photo into the non-hub motor section. I await a scathing comment from Aussie Jester - and I deserve it, if I walked into a mosque with shoes I would await the abuse - or worse I guess.

It is a terrible photo I had to take in the garage where it stands, as it is too cold to take it outside for a photo tonight. The alumunium boxes are two boxes of 10S4P lipo (20S 20AH total). 24 Fet Lyen Controller, and a (*whispers under breath* 9C 8x8 - that I upgraded the phase wires on). Large screen cycle analyst, and the Halogen that plugs into the CA for power. To be done are tidy up the wiring, put in brake cables, attach cranks and chain, and plastic canopy and it is done.

[comradegerry]

Good progress, looks like she is moving along nicely, look forward to the reports when you take her for a test drive. I am off to the LBS to get the bottom bracket installed tomorrow as I do not have the special tool. I have to get some bushings for the shock to fit over the 8mm bolts and also need a lock nut for the rear disc that also seems like a project for a specialist, that will be my evening tomorrow. It's amazing I do not seem to have any spare time at the moment and my girlfriend is feeling neglected.... better get this finished quick before she leaves!!

[recumpence]

Oh, no! I (wait for it)......... HUB MOTOR! String the guy up. Beat him with his own club! I cannot believe someone would be so daring as to post pictures of one of these abominations on this thread!

It is good to see Greyborg frames being built up. It has been a long time in coming.

Matt

[AussieJester]

Oh, no! I (wait for it)......... HUB MOTOR! String the guy up. Beat him with his own club! I cannot believe someone would be so daring as to post pictures of one of these abominations on this thread!

It is good to see Greyborg frames being built up. It has been a long time in coming.

Matt

+1 !!! ...can a moderator please delete this frock immediately! Reason for deletion:- it's infecting the non hub section of the forum

KiM

p.s couldn't you find a bigger controller? :-p

[Philistine]

it's infecting the non hub section of the forum

I know, I know, it is sick and unnatural isn't it? That is why God punished us Hubmotor riders with.....*trails off hanging head in shame*

Re the 24 Fet, I have found that is the only controller that can run decent current on the x5303.... oh, hang on, I've done it again, basically I have started talking about Easter with the Ayottola during Ramadan....

Sorry ComdradeGerry, I will get off your thread and take my filthy disgusting hubusexuality with me. Please continue, and do accept my apologies everyone. Maybe I can get trained not to like hubmotors any more, maybe then my father would start talking to me again....

[Doctorbass]

bla bla bla.... anti hub motor... they make me laugh!

Dont worrie... you'll ove your 5303 with a 24 fets controller!

I love it with a 18 fets... so i can easy imagine how it will be with a 24 fets!

20s with 26" wheel will be really similar to my Giant setup with 24s and 24" wheel ... except.. your controller WILL NOT BLOW like mine did dozens of times!!


Btw.. Recumpence, my etrike with a 5304 and 9kW seem to have similar acceleration performances than your 20kW twin RC astro motor 0-60kmh in 3.5sec .. btw.. my top speed is now 79km/h.

Doc

[comradegerry]

Small progress over weekend, installed the Thomson seatpost and Tiogra Spider seat, seat is surprisingly comfortable once you get used to it, even though it does not look it. Tube needed a bit of filing internally for smooth fit just where the cut out for the compression is.

128mm bottom bracket from Tarty Bikes and shock from Ebay should get bushings today at LBS and installed, also getting 20mm spacer for steerer and extra fork tube cut down to size whilst I am there.

Shock has 600lb titanium spring installed, 400lb titanium spring next to it is just incase that it is too stiff for comfort.

Batteries in earlier photos are Lifebatt, forum member Armin hooked me up with batteries and BMS. Very happy with how they shipped and overall quality of product so far. They will be getting a thorough testing once I am up and running.

[recumpence]

Gerry,

Looks really, really great! I love the seat.


So, how much do you have invested in the bike at this point?

Matt

[comradegerry]

Hi Matt

Investments are something one intends to see a return on, ebikes definately do not fit that description.

By the time I am finished and happy with it, I could have probably bought a second hand Optibike in good condition for similar money....

The fun in putting it together and the skills and lessons learnt along the way is well worth the money spent, in one sense it is just like paying for a little further education. I still have lots more to learn about eletrickery and things......

The fact that my frame #10, is one of such a small run of bikes makes it all the more special, not quite unique but definately it affords membership to a small exclusive club of ebike lunatics

[recumpence]

I totally agree.

I have no problem over investing (if I can use that word) in my projects because of the knowledge gained. I have a hard time just buying something I do not need to put together, though.

But, then again, I know some people have no ability to build things and must buy them turn-key. That is cool. They have other gifts and leanings. For me, however, the build is half the fun.

Matt

[comradegerry]

Managed to drop the bike frame at the LBS yesterday, whilst I do not speak Italian and he did not speak any English he understood that I needed bushings for the shock and he pointed and nodded to the lathe sat covered in aluminium shavings in the corner of the room. Frame gets picked up tonight hopefully one small step closer to being a rolling chassis.

I also mangaed to buy a Shimano lockring from him to install the 203mm rotor on the rear wheel, all I need now is the new Gates Carbon Drive cog. I found out from Gates that the new 11 speed uses a new cog that they made that overcomes clearence issues with the previous Alfine model cog. That would explain why I spent nearly 2 hours trying to get a square peg in a round hole, unsucessfully, new one ordered

The IceToolz website has some useful bike mechanic specialist tools for affordable prices (Chinese) for those that enjoy bike tinkering and want to own there own specialist tools without breaking the bank, worldwide distribution network too.

http://www.icetoolz.com/icetoolz/news.php?id=9

[comradegerry]

Installed the rear shock, which is a little larger than the ideal length, I bought it originally with the idea to build a carbon fiber frame for 9" rear travel. This got shelved when the much more realistic Greyborg came along.

Problems started with not having the bushings for the shock, these took 2 weeks for the LBS to get. Then I install it to find the holes on the frame are slightly out of allignment, this puts the shock on the piss..... I filed the holes to correct this but it is less than ideal to elongate the holes which are load bearing. To correct this I will try to file the holes round at 9mm, drill them, then drill them at 10mm, drill the bushings and step up to 10mm bolts.

The fancy Ti bolts I bought are also slightly slack fitting for the bushings, I always wrongly assumed that an 8mm bolt would have a 8mm shaft diameter, this is not always the case. The bushing were also really tight to install so they do not turn in the shock, this makes the bolts the pivot point which does not seem right to be wearing the part that carries the load?

[comradegerry]

Bit more progress albeit slower than ideal...

Rear light secured to frame, I ran the cable through the frame to the inside of the canopy, I just could not think of any other way to avoid having the cable visible. Chopped the seat tube down so that it did not cut the light cable in the tube.

Finished installing the Rivnuts for the canopy which is a huge relief. A huge "Thank you" to Jim at Make Ends Meet, Memfast. After I broke the M4 Mandrel, he sent me 4 free replacements, which was just as well as I now have 2 spares! The following lessons have been learnt the hard way and shared to help those that follow. Do not spare the grease when installing Rivnuts. When tightening them up and they start to sing, stop tightening them, take out the tool, add some more grease and then do that last turn. Keep the tool dead straight when tightening things up, the mandrel will snap easily due to side loading. Resist the temptation for that last tweak, it is always the one that gets a ping. The bigest advice though would be to save a whole lot of ball ache and just get the aluminium Rivnuts and not the stainless ones, the conopy weighs next to nothing and has heaps of fixings.

http://www.memfast.co.uk/

Dry fitted the motor and will tinkering with that next, try to secure it, I think I ordered the wrong size frame mounts!

LBS also managed to strip the threads of the new bottom bracket during instalation by cross threading it, had to send of to TartyBikes in the UK for a new Aluminium cup, also bought the instalation tool from them. If someone is going to stuff installing it up next time, it might as well be me

[Stevil_Knevil]

Top shelf bits there, Comrade. Much respekt!!

Try loosening all the swing arm fasteners before fitting the shock. There is a bit of useful flex needed for getting all the threads started that way. Worked for me

[recumpence]

Gerry,

I just noticed, something, if you are driving the right side of the wheel with the reduction in that location, you will need to rotate the stage two idler wheel around the unit so the idler is on the slack side of the chain. Right now, the idler is on the tension side of the chain.

Matt

[comradegerry]

Hi Matt

Good eye, I will be sure to swap it around. This was just a dry fit to see if I could get the canopy on over the motor and reduction, I seem to be about an inch out.... I can see the freewheel drive being outside of the canopy and offsetting things to get her up and running. I am also looking at widening the canopy by 10mm each side to accomodate the batteries, either that or get a little bit ghetto, abandon the cell lego blocks and break out the duct tape. I am still conflicted as to which is the better option. one will work for sure, the other will be a prettier engineered solution... New rear cog for the wheel has been shipped, 97 euro with shipping and taxes, Gates certainly know how to make money and stop the wide spread adoption of belt drives in there tracks, the pricing makes no sense! Should have a rolling non powered bike in about 10days time.

Other issue is lack of space for the second 10ah 48v pack in the frame, might have to drop to 36v just to fit 20ah unless I have a bright

Thanks Matt for all the assistance so far, cool parts, R & D, hard work and your comitment to the forum, I am indebted.

Gerard

[liveforphysics]

Whoa! Just saw this build for the first time! Beautiful bike! I'm excitedly awaiting to see more progress!

-Luke

[Cicada]

Amazing project mate!

[comradegerry]

Progress was halted due to work being the priority, weekend off saw some progress but not all forwards...

Made a little titanium torque plate for the rear axle, bolted it to the frame with 2 x 5mm bolts tapped into the frame, that was the progress part.

I stuck the Carbon Drive belt on to see how things line up, it pretty much will need to run parralell to the outside face of the freewheel. I had want originally to have a belt from the motor to the cranks but the second belt is too wide so I am going to do it with chain. The chain will have to run outside of the belt drive just for allignment, I had wanted to have it on the inside to avoid the jeans getting shreaded but it does not seem possible. The other problem I ran into is the 60 tooth Gates cog I have is too big and I have already got the largest belt they do, so I now need a smaller front cog. I also need to buy a front chain ring for the motor drive and an adapter to mate them together. New small suspension unit is in the post with some disc brake adapters so next week should see some more movement forwards.

[recumpence]

You can also look at Contitech Syncrochain to see if they make a belt in the length you need.

Matt

[comradegerry]

New Rear Shock.jpg

MantiouSwinger 4 way coil over 200 x 57

(135.96 KiB) Downloaded 223 times

New 46 and 39 tooth front Gate cogs ordered and the next belt size down just so I have a few sizing options, should be a week or so for delivery. This baby should be a bicycle next week, ready for motorising, finally.

Ordered a new Surly 36T 104BCD chain ring and bashguard for the chain/motor drive side of things too. Bashguard to hopefully save shreading my leg off whilst motoring....

New rear shock arrived, Manitou Swinger 200mm X 57mm, two coils 500lb and a 350lb from Ebay about $100. I think the 190mm length is probably the ideal shock but I am willing to see how it works at 200mm for the extra bit of travel. My other Fox shock was way too long and threw the geometry out.

Also adapters for the brakes arrived.

[recumpence]

I am excited about this build. I cannot wait to see it running.

What are your impression of the forks (I know you have not ridden them yet)?

Matt

[comradegerry]

Hi Matt

The forks seem really well made and good quality, I am itching to take them for a test drive..

Need to order new bushings for the shock as it came with a 40 and a 20, I need 2 x 30mm bushings, I think.

Do you have any of those cool freewheel adapters that you had machined still for sale? A 104 BCD, 4 hole will save me a whole heap of time with a hacksaw and drill press, especially as I do not have a great choice of material to work from...... It will get there eventually Matt Just needs more time and mo' money!!!