GNG second trials build

Denisesewa

100 W
Joined
Dec 19, 2007
Messages
291
Location
Canon City CO.
Due to boredom more than anything else I ordered another GNG kit and put a Cannondale super V frame into a roller with a Lefty fork. Let the butchery begin !

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First thing to do is cut off the seat pedestal.

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Then start building the fiberglass seat/tank/fender and battery tray, the idea this time is to make easy access to the electronics, the first bike requires some dissasembly to get to the battery and electronics, this one will have the entire fender assembly come off with just a couple fasteners.

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So thats as far as I've got in two days
 
John in CR said:
Great idea. I've got a pair of SuperV's, so you'll have a copycat following you quite soon. :mrgreen:
Cool, it'll be nice to share ideas, Super "V" for voltage !! :D
 
:shock: Haha I love it when people free their mind! I have ridden a super V since 2000. I love this build! By the way I snapped my swing arm like that in half, I really liked the elevated stays, but it broke at the bonded joint. I didn't get hurt, but it was a long walk, and the bike had to be carried, wouldn't roll. It was covered under warranty at the time. http://forums.mtbr.com/cannondale/post-your-uber-v-197623.html tells how to make a super V a six inch travel bike, you might like a little extra travel! Out of curiosity how thick is the tubing? Could you post more pics ? Thanks :lol:
 
wildharemtbkr said:
:shock: Haha I love it when people free their mind! I have ridden a super V since 2000. I love this build! By the way I snapped my swing arm like that in half, I really liked the elevated stays, but it broke at the bonded joint. I didn't get hurt, but it was a long walk, and the bike had to be carried, wouldn't roll. It was covered under warranty at the time. http://forums.mtbr.com/cannondale/post-your-uber-v-197623.html tells how to make a super V a six inch travel bike, you might like a little extra travel! Out of curiosity how thick is the tubing? Could you post more pics ? Thanks :lol:
Not sure what you want for pics exactly? I can take some in the morning. I am aware of the swingarm issue but have not been able to locate an appropriate Jekyl swingarm for the conversion so have been thinking of welding a box section under the joint. the tubing is .053 thick or 1.34 mm. I dont really like the geo of the super V but then again I am used to my maverick ML7, and the Jackflash I built the other GNG trials bike from, Kinda hope I'll like it better under power.
 
The head tube angle is a bit on the steep side, but not anymore than the jackflash, what do you not like about it? I'm not sure how it is with the lefty, but with a 6 inch fork it slackens out quite a bit. Close to the maverick geometry. Mine is really tall though, more like riding on instead of in, but my bb came out really high, I think I should have drilled my shock mount a little further forward. I want an XL front, I might just be copying yours with my large frame! I'll be watching this one closely.

A pic of the cut, and maybe the end of the cutoff piece.

I'm 190 and love jumping, I rode off about a 3 foot drop to flat when it broke, if your lighter, and/or easier on it, it may never be an issue. If it does break you can always try to weld it. The swing arm shock mount is in the same place as the Jekyll swing arm.
 
For the SuperV I ride I made a new swingarm to get some slack in the head tube angle. It was used for DH'g and their was a repaired crack in the shock mount on the main tube, so I remedied that by stuffing the main tube with fiberglass, and then forced epoxy into the cloth using pressure. No I have a solid core main tube, and a new shock mount made of leaf spring steel, so that baby is bomb proof. My 250lbs with a 40lb hubmotor and another 20lb of batteries in the swingarm is nothing for the bike itself. Now it's time to dump most of that weight and put only 25lb of 20-30kw mid drive as close to the pivot as possible using Denisewa's approach and put batteries in that new structure. It will still be a 100lb ebike but handle worlds better....at least that's the first idea that comes to mind.

John
 
That is an nice build. I have some spare Montessa Fibre 'body shells' kicking around..you have given me an idea :)
 
Here are a few pics of the cut, the smaller support tubes I had intended to bend back a bit and attach to the battery tray but the welds are very brittle and they broke off the frame mounts with almost no pressure applied, I squared up the main tube cut which gives some extra surface area to help support the battery tray and made some brackets which bolt to the shock mount, I will install a nutsert in the frame at the cut for an extra mount point, its pretty rigid with just this but will probably add two support tubes from the original small tube weld points to the back of the tray.
The lefty fork is very short which creates a steep head angle, I'll ride it this way before I swap forks, it may be ok for trials but its not ideal for fast trails, I like it just for the cool / something different factor , we'll see.
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I like the lefty, but I think the super V needs a longer fork, how long is the lefty? My manitou Sherman measures 20" axle to crown in 130mm mode and almost 21" in 150mm mode.
Thanks for the pics I just wanted to know how thick the frame tubing was.
How far forward are the holes in the shock mount for the new seat? My new shock hole is 3/4 an inch forward of the old one, then the rest is cut off. If I was to do it again I'd go 7/8", that would give a slacker head tube angle and a lower bb height. My shock is an inch longer (7.5 to 6.5) then factory with .5" more travel, 2" instead of 1.5"
 

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wildharemtbkr said:
I like the lefty, but I think the super V needs a longer fork, how long is the lefty? My manitou Sherman measures 20" axle to crown in 130mm mode and almost 21" in 150mm mode.
Thanks for the pics I just wanted to know how thick the frame tubing was.
How far forward are the holes in the shock mount for the new seat? My new shock hole is 3/4 an inch forward of the old one, then the rest is cut off. If I was to do it again I'd go 7/8", that would give a slacker head tube angle and a lower bb height. My shock is an inch longer (7.5 to 6.5) then factory with .5" more travel, 2" instead of 1.5"
You could just use the shock mount bolt for the seat support, the lefty is 18 inches from axle to crown, like I said, really short, I may switch to a 24" rear wheel like I did with the Jack flash build if I can find one, that would help with head angle.
 
Today I finalized the position of the bodywork , got things trimmed up and mounted, Color scheme still eludes me, I'm thinking dark greyish silver for the bodywork with some carbon fiber accents, I just dont know :| , hoping batteries will arrive tommorow so I can figure out the electronics arraingment. motor wont get here till next week.
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Is trials riding a variety of types. I've seen videos of people hopping them from one log or rock to another, crawling along mostly and all about control, which I though was trials. Then about a mile up from my house there are pathways on the side of a mountain....stuff so steep that I wouldn't even try them on foot, since I don't really see anything to grab with a hand as it would me more like climbing. There's a group of guys riding them with those motos with impossibly low saddles, which I thought were trials bikes. If the trials riding you're talking about with your ESuperV is the latter, doesn't it need a different geometry and longer wheelbase?

Regardless of what kind of riding it's intended, it sure is coming along nicely.

John
 
John in CR said:
Is trials riding a variety of types. I've seen videos of people hopping them from one log or rock to another, crawling along mostly and all about control, which I though was trials. Then about a mile up from my house there are pathways on the side of a mountain....stuff so steep that I wouldn't even try them on foot, since I don't really see anything to grab with a hand as it would me more like climbing. There's a group of guys riding them with those motos with impossibly low saddles, which I thought were trials bikes. If the trials riding you're talking about with your ESuperV is the latter, doesn't it need a different geometry and longer wheelbase?

Regardless of what kind of riding it's intended, it sure is coming along nicely.

John
Yep, trials is basicaly low speed obstacle course riding, the low seat area is to allow the bike to rise over an obstacle without hitting you in the ass and pitching you over the bars, steering is quick and responsive and wheelbase is short.
 
I've been a bit slack with this build but have made some progress, electronics are mounted and I finaly got the magura throttle to work well, the motor required a bit of frame clearancing to fit properly due to the huge down tube and the setback bottom bracket but it worked out fine and the bodywork is mounted with just 3 fasteners for easy access, one big bummer is that I had a nice piece of carbon/kevlar in yellow and black weave which I intended to do the bodywork with and left it out when we went for an afternoon of duck hunting, I guess the dog was pissed that we didnt take her hunting this time so she attempted to eat the kevlar, it is now a useless lump of wadded up material. at least we had duck for dinner.( kinda had thoughts of having dog for dinner !)
Still need to make a chain guide, do the primary chain conversion, finish the bodywork and a bunch of other details, Getting there.
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Very cool build. I love bicycles that are inspired by motorcycles. I want a bike that's somewhere in between a modern motard and a classic board track racer. I like the big wheeled, stripped down mechanical look of the board trackers and the street motocrosser feel of the motards. I'll keep watching this thread for new developments now that I've found it.
 
LightningRods said:
Very cool build. I love bicycles that are inspired by motorcycles. I want a bike that's somewhere in between a modern motard and a classic board track racer. I like the big wheeled, stripped down mechanical look of the board trackers and the street motocrosser feel of the motards. I'll keep watching this thread for new developments now that I've found it.
Ditto!
Has GNG changed anything on the primary drive?
Lookin' good!
 
denisesewa, thanks for posting this! The next time you decide to tackle a fiberglass project, please take lots of pics, and if possible...perhaps each shot in front of a plain background? A tutorial of sorts, just like the awesome 10mm shaft-thinning you posted. A pic is worth a thousand words.

You seem to be the type of person who has investigated a variety of methods, and you ended up using the easiest way to employ fiberglass. I would trust your judgement over a random youtube on fiberglass, and I have liked every project you have posted. Keep up the good work!
 
spinningmagnets said:
denisesewa, thanks for posting this! The next time you decide to tackle a fiberglass project, please take lots of pics, and if possible...perhaps each shot in front of a plain background? A tutorial of sorts, just like the awesome 10mm shaft-thinning you posted. A pic is worth a thousand words.

You seem to be the type of person who has investigated a variety of methods, and you ended up using the easiest way to employ fiberglass. I would trust your judgement over a random youtube on fiberglass, and I have liked every project you have posted. Keep up the good work!

I dont really have anything in the works as far as fiberglass is concerned, the easiest way to create a one-off fiberglass part is to shape it from styrofoam ( which means you must use epoxy resin), then layup several layers of cloth, I find laying out the cloth on plastic sheet and wetting it out with resin using a sqeegie the easiest, this allows you to see that you have fully wet the cloth, then just drape it over the styro mold and sqeegie it into shape working out all air bubbles and getting any excess resin off ( you will be able to feel the weave of the cloth rather than having a shiny surface), you can layup as many layers as you want all at once, for a really rigid part use fibeglass matt between layers of cloth, the cloth allows you to sqeegie the resin thru without distorting the matt, after the resin has setup enough to not be sticky use a razor blade to trim the excess cloth from the mold.
Once cured simply pour gasoline , laquere thinner or acetone on the styrofoam and watch the stryo dissapear, ( disspose of the residue properly), you are left with a part just bigger than the mold by the thickness of the cloth, all thats left to do is final trim the edges , sand and paint or put on a layer of decorative cloth such as carbon fiber, or in the case of this bike I used Texalium and then clearcoat. here is a pic prior to the final sanding , clearcoat and graphics ( which I havnt done yet, still looks pretty good though).
You can also use a hard material for the mold and use mold release like PVA ( polyvinylalcohol ) but you then must have a shape that wont trap the part on the mold which is why styrofoam is easier.
It really is just a matter of getting the materials and making a simple mold to do a test on, you will learn as you go, the above methods turns out a part without using paint brushes and more important, without having to sand the fiberglass itself therefore avoiding the dreaded seven year itch :evil:
I'll try to do a step by step at some point.

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That looks incredible! Is it strong enough to sit on or no?
 
Whiplash said:
That looks incredible! Is it strong enough to sit on or no?
Yep, plenty strong enough.
 
Interesting, I have always thought you could build a frame out of fiberglass, it is pretty strong stuff, what do you think? It works for boats! You should do it!
 
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