----WAYNE'S GIANT DH----video now on page 4

[Sacman]

Looking good! Nice beefy welds to hold all the distributed weight on the various parts of the frame.
Can't wait to see how it rides for you.

[waynebergman]

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First ride today. Pulls nice and super quiet. All that you hear is the wind once you are up to speed. Has exceeded all my expectations so far. Rode up some hills and a nice variety of back county roads and a few trails, but mostly road today. For 25 kilometers I used a little over 12 amp hours so I still had 8 amp hours left in the tank. I was really impressed how well it climbs hills with a little pedal assist. Top speed with pedal assist on the road with my 7 speed was 53 kilometers on the flats and about 50 kilometers on the flat with no pedal assist.Pretty much had it pinned the whole time except for coasting down hills. It was cold out and I did not do any extended hill climbing so I did not notice any heat up at the motor. Hub was cold to the touch. Weighs in at 85lbs so its a good thing I only weigh 135, bike is a bit heavier than I had thought it would be but feels real nice. The front battery mount really feels good, handles like a motorcycle when cruising the trails with the weight. I think if you dont have to rely on just pedal power a little weight can be your friend!

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[Sacman]

So everything stayed on pretty solid when riding over bumps? How did all those mounting locations with beefy welds and multiple straps for your heavy batteries work out? Nothing jiggling loose ... not even a little?

[waynebergman]

Yes SACMAN the batteries stayed in place and no feeling of them wobbling around. So far so good.

[valsislav]

Nice work, Wayne.

[etard]

Well done Wayne!Will there be a video?

All the exercise, twice the scenery

Haha, that's awesome man!

[waynebergman]

Sure Etard, I will try for a video in the next little bit.

[Kiwi]

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=33767&p=518623#p518623

[Sacman]

Good job in getting all the electrical components mounted solid on your bike. I just recently got a DH bike myself and I've been thinking hard about the best places to mount all this heavy electrical stuff (especially the batteries). You gave me some good ideas!!! Low and between the wheels is the best place in order to avoid adversly affecting the dual suspension but there really isn't much room there on our bikes huh?

[waynebergman]

Thought I would chime in with a 150 kilometer update. All is well! Bike has performed pretty much as I had hoped as far as range and top speed. For most of the rolling hills around here and some dirt trials mixed in with the ride I am averaging say 5ah for every 10 kilometers traveled. That is pretty much pinning it with some pedal assist as I like to get some exercise while I am at it. Being a direct drive single speed HUB motor the low end suffers a bit and things seem to be happier in the 20 to 50 kilometer range. This being said I am still glad I went with the HS3540, it is very cool to be able to go 30MPH with a DH bike running knobies. Good thing I am running a 24inch rear wheel to help a bit on the slow speeds for hill climbing in the trails. So range is about 40 kilometers with my 48v 20 ah of Lithum Manganese unless I have big climbs. I tested the other day with about an 800 ft climb on switch back single track and it ran good. Had to pedal on steeper terrain but there would be no way possible to climb this trail with out the electric motor pushing me onward. It was cooler out, so no overheating of the hub it seemed just warm to the touch.

All in all, the electric experience has been awesome and has more than meet my expectations. Big relief really, as I had never ridden an electric bike before and was just going by what I had read on this forum and was hoping it would all work out. I hope to make a short video of the bike riding the local trails here when a friend comes up this way with his camera.

Thanks again for the help along the way from those that have paved the way for those of us just getting into this.

[Sacman]

That's great everything is still running well and it's passed it's "probation period" with no problems. So what's next? You thinking about "prettying it up" by painting the frame and all the welded brackets one color to try to make it look more stealth or less like a project?

[waynebergman]

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Good idea sacman but I am far too lazy to do any painting.

Good news, drop outs from Kiwi just arrived so I can now mount these drop outs on my other polished swing arm and the bike is pretty much done. Thanks Kiwi the set looks awesome, I will mount them up tonight I hope. If the extra wheel clearance from the axle sitting lower in the frame looks like I will be able to try the seat mount option for my second battery I may also give that a try. I am loving the ride with front mount battery but not crazy for the look of it as my pack is so wide. It will be interesting also to compare how it rides with the front mount compared to the seat post mount. The seat post mount is a bit high for sure so I am expecting the battery will stay up front but nice to compare just out of curiosity. Still waiting for some sunshine to make a quick video of the bike zipping through the local trails here and also need to time that with a friend that has a good camera.

[Kiwi]

did your old disk caliper holes not line up with the adapter holes?

[waynebergman]

Everything lined up good as far as adapters to the swing arm. Just extra meet to shave off the frame drop outs to fit into the adapters. I will install the swing arm and motor on the bike today I hope and see how it all lines up to the rest of the frame. I had a little miss hap with the rear rim so had to lace up a new rim to the HS3540. Its quite the trick to lace up these wheels with the thicker spokes to a large diam hub flange.

[waynebergman]

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All put back together now. I am not seeing enough space for the battery behind the seat post so I will forget that for now.

Running a bit of a weird combination of tires right now with the knobby up front but seems to ride nice.

[GCinDC]

looking great! psyched for you. g

[Kiwi]

Hows your chain line. Can you get in to low gear?

[waynebergman]

Kiwi I figure the chain line will be fine when I switch over to the bigger front ring. I have a 36 tooth up front right now and want a 42 at least. I will shop for a front ring as close to 7 1/2" diam as this will tuck inside the size of my bash guard. Once I have a larger front ring on, I figure I will only need to reach for 6th gear instead of 7th. I only need to pedal for top speeds of 30mph so 6th gear will be fine giving me a chain line that will keep the chain from draging on the top side of the drive side chain stay. Reaching outbound for the 7th gear being and 11 tooth and the 36 up front it is dragging a bit on the chain stay now but all will be well when the new ring arrives. Also I dont need the lower gearing as before with electric power ............first gear working as pedal assist is going to just fine with a 42 up front.

[waynebergman]

I have now used an old leather travel bag from my vstar cruiser to enclose the front battery. The battery is still got the same mounts so I have just cut a few slits into the bag to fit it around the battery and this way I have a bit of room to pack along a cell phone and maybe a few other things as well.

I am happy with the dirt tire back on the bike. Just to update the kiwi drop outs, they are awesome! I have now centered the wheel in swing arm by dishing to the non drive side by using new spokes that are 5mm shorter on the non drive side so the wheel is now centered and things are very solid.

This bike is now officially done. I would like to one day build a light weight, quiet with good torque mid drive Mac 10t with some a123 batteries from cellman. I will enjoy the good weather that should be on its way soon and put some miles on this Giant bike over the Spring and Summer.

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[Kiwi]

Nice work. Looks great! Love the bag. Enjoy.

[waynebergman]

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Looks like I have got a new friend, his name is BOB. The BOB trailers come in rigid and suspension models. Was a bit of a battle to get them to fit onto these 1/2" by 20 axles we have in these motors. The solution was to weld on some of the parts from the BOB nuts supplied to my axle nuts which seem to being doing the trick for now.

These trailers track real nice behind the bike and wont tip over like a two wheelers unless the whole bike falls over somehow. Might be a nice way to store a bunch of batteries. For now it will be for running errands and hulling stuff around.

[crusoe]

Where do you park and lock up when you run errands? You're almost as long as a car now

[waynebergman]

I am on outskirts of a small town. In town I would just lean it up against a building or what ever. The trailers main mission is for trail building. I figure I can carry a chain saw and a few sandwiches back there. Picking up a few groceries here and there would be a bonus and our little town of Madeira Park there is no parking problems that is for sure. And the lock up is a non issue as well in this neck of the woods. Its ice to be out in a country small town but on the down side there is no Starbucks which I miss dearly!

[crusoe]

Trail building, now there is a great application I never thought of! I have one of these http://www.argocat.com/6x6Frontier.jpg which is great for hauling everything around on my farm, but for building trails on city green space, this trailer would be perfect!

[waynebergman]

I have now installed a Mac 10t geared hub motor shown in this photo for better performance climbing hills and slow trail riding. The bike is set up so I can swap out the wheels pretty quickly and go with the Direct Drive HS3540 for road rides with a top speed of a little over 30 MPH or swap out to the little geared Mac 10t which has a top speed of a little over 20 mph but way better at climbing hills in the trails. Day one on the Mac 10t but so far I am very impressed with its smooth low end power and its free wheeling abilities.