Warren builds a chopper

[RallySTX]

I like the style of the rear dropouts.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

They are surly dropouts, nice and heavy duty.

I went to the welding supply store to get my acetylene tank refilled today. I told the guy there that the tank seemed to get empty very quickly this time, and he was nice enough to give me a refilled tank for free. He always seems interested in my projects, so I'll have to ride the bike down and show it to him when it's running. I'll also have to stop by and give let this guy give it a ride. http://www.3cbikes.com/index.html He make gasser / chopper bike conversions and I'm trying to get him interested in e-power.

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

I added the mounting posts for the chain guide pulleys, finished brazing the BB mounts and capped another tube, then started to re-assemble the bike. I want to ride it before doing any more brazing!



It's getting heavy...

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

Looking good so far though. At least you don't have to worry about huge hills, or carrying it up and down a set of stairs every time you want a ride. I gotta admit I would love to see how it goes.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

We had one more nice day in the 50s F (that would be in the 10s for you metric types), then the temps dropped along with the snow. Now it's really cold in the garage to be building.

I added the chain, derailleur and back brake, then decided that I needed to remove the back wheel again, which is a pain. It would be so much easier if the bike would stand on its own. Time to build the bike stand. Here it's shown with the bike stand legs in the down position. I still need to cut the slots and tap the pivot tube to make it stay in one place.



I need to take off the wheel to add some braze-ons for the derailleur cable. Once that is in place the bike would be rideable, if I really wanted to take it outside in the snow and cold.

Also I'm trying to decide whether to stack the Ping split pack battery, or to have them one behind the other. I have some nice smoked Lexan to use for a battery box. I'll use the heat and bend method to form it.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

That stand looks a lot more useful than the one on my bike. All that one does is hold up the wrong wheel! Putting the batteries, one behind the other, would apear to reduce wind resistance, and lower the center of gravity. Can't wait to see smoked lexan on the bike.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

Thanks for your interest Brian. It helps me to go out into the cold garage to work on the bike.

I worked on the bike stand again today and brazed on some brazons for the derailleur cable. I just need to add some snap clips to hold it in the "up" and "down" position.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

I used to do construction this time of year, so believe me, I know the feeling. I'm only pretending to be interested so I can drive up my post count. In reality, I'm only interested in choppers, but since I'm out of work, all I can do is drool over custom jobs like yours. Looking forward to posting an update on my thread soon. Word is, somebody will be shipping a package my way shortly. I been lookin at buying a FS Schwinn for about $300. Thinking about adding a set of springers to the front, and a fatty to the back. Those red neoprene swingarm bushing of yours are captivating.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

Now that the chain is in place I can build the battery box. This picture show the battery placement and size, along with tentative mounting points. I have some smoked lexan sheets that were removed from equipment, which I will heat and bend to make a battery trough and the lid. The controller, BMS, power switch, charge port, and a DC to DC converter for the lighting will be mounted in the lid. cables will be run inside of the frame tubing as much as possible.



The chrome fenders from choppersus.com arrived today. I'll have to chop them up a bit as I don't need fenders that wrap around that much.

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

I love Lexan. I could bend it in a brake like sheet metal if I had one. I first tried applying manual bending pressure while heating it with little effect. I'm sure the fact that it's January and my garage is unheated did not help. I ended up clamping it in a workmate table vise, applying bending pressure using large clamps, then heating the 24" long bend zone repeatedly with my heat gun. Once I had the technique down it went pretty fast. Yeah, it's bubbly in a couple spots but not too bad.

The battery trough is done, now I need to bend up the lid.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

Nice size battery box, I still can't get over the low rake of them forks. Them supports look kinda skinny, I hope they can hold the battery box steady. The over all apearance is definitely unique and strong, I like it.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

Lexan is tough stuff. To form it you can put it in a sheet metal brake and bend it, or heat it and bend it. I don't have a sheet metal brake, so I'll need to heat it. You have to be careful when heating though because if you get it too hot it will get bubbles.

Here's my Lexan bending rig. My heat gun can't heat the entire bend at once, so I use the vise bench and other clamps to hold it bent while I run the heat gun up and down the bend line. As the part bends, the clamps are tightened.



Eventually the part is clamped flat to the table, with the bend at 90 degrees.



Here's the 48V 20Ah Ping LiFePo4 battery in the bent Lexan box with lid. Now I have to make the ends of the box.



-Warren.

[RallySTX]

Looks good, that gives me ideas about my own box. I'm gonna stick with aluminum though. I would rather cut my fingers, than have melted plastic on my floor.
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

After many pop rivets, here's the battery box. It's about 3.5" x 23" x 9", and feels pretty solid. The controller is mounted to the top of the inside of the box. I still need to figure out where the wires will exit the box. It weighs about 20lbs, so the brackets on the bike will need to be fairly heavy duty.



I took the bike for a ride for the first time tonight, up and down the street. It will take a while to get used to because of the long handlebars and the turning radius is huge because of handlebar interference, but it's coooool!

-Warren.

[Chalo]

I took the bike for a ride for the first time tonight, up and down the street. It will take a while to get used to because of the long handlebars and the turning radius is huge because of handlebar interference, but it's coooool!

Why don't you tilt the bars up until they clear the frame? It looks like they're almost there as it is.

Chalo

[RallySTX]

That box is too cool, I like the switch on top, I hope it's stout enough for the pack. Glad the first ride impression is a positive one. Yeah the turning radious will be large, as the wheelbase is long, but that's a small price for a custom bike likethet. NICE WORK.
Brian L.

[veloman]

Lexan eh..... I may have to give that a try one of these days. Battery enclosures are a big project for me.

[www.recumbents.com]

Parallel Evolution



http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiteanderl ... otostream/

[RallySTX]

Beautiful shot Warren. Thank you for sharing that. I copied it to PB and downsized it to 640/480 so the whole thing shows up. If you object, I will remove it.



Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

I finished making the battery box clamps. The battery box is held on by tube clamps in the front and back, and is stabilized by a bolt on the back side of the box that slides into the frame. It's very solid.
I moved the controller out of the battery box and cut a couple inches out of the height of the box. The controller is now mounted to the bottom of the box to fill in some of the space provided by the curvy frame.



This shot shows the mounting brackets.



I still have a lot of work to do to lengthen/shorten the wires, and route them in the frame, but I was able to put it together enough to take it for it's maiden e-powered voyage around the block. It was marvelous. The the bike feels great at speed and temps were amazing for February. I think we sent all the cold and snow to Europe.

I'm starting to think about color. Probably black.

-Warren.

[RallySTX]

Outstanding work, two bikes, from the ground up, in roughly six months! Anybody would be proud to own either one. Glad to hear that you got it out, and that it works well. I would rather have the snow here though. Gonna be a dry summer coming up without it there in the spring. I just hope that dark battery box don't cause your cells to get warm in the summer sun. That's why I would also chrome the frame, versus dark color, but having said that, I'm partial to black, dark blue, or dark green myself. You could always add a couple PC case fans, if cooling became an issue. Keep rollin!
Brian L.

[www.recumbents.com]

The bike in the "Parallel Evolution" picture is not mine, it just looks like it could be. I spent an entire day out in the garage making the brackets for the battery box. One new bike in 6 months is about all my wife can put up with.

In the early 1980s my "project" was my 1970 Camaro hotrod, which was flat black and had "EXPERIMENTAL UNIT" in red block letters on the rear spoiler. Painting this the same way seems right.

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

Received the following email from Choppers US. I bought my fenders from them.

Choppers US big sale - 30% off most items.

Please be advised that some Cycles U.S. and Choppers U.S. branded items including our super fat rims, custom super fat wheels, hubs and super fat frames are NOT included in the sale.

The sale will run until our current supply of those inventory items are gone, but with a 30% discount, we assume it might only last a few days. So act now before it's too late.

To get the 30% off sale prices on the select items you will need to enter the phrase 30percent (no spaces) in the box labeled "Webstore Coupon/Code" when checking out. The website has been programmed to only allow discounts on the select items as described above. Thank you!

www.cyclesus.com

[www.recumbents.com]

Next step is to run the wires and cables though the frame. I think I am done brazing on the sections that the wires will run though. I will drill holes, heat up the area around the hole, and then use a steel rod inserted in the hole to deform the opening to allow the wires to easily exit the holes parallel to the frame. Also I located a long 12 strand cable to allow me to extend the throttle, CA and headlight wires through the frame from the handlebars to the battery. Should be very clean.

-Warren.

[www.recumbents.com]

After spacing out the main idler a bit, the chain no longer rubs on the battery box. This is a good thing. I decided to remove the lower idler and just put on a chain tube. Also that idler bolt is a bit beefy for holding on a chain tube, so I'll remove it and attach the chain tube to the chain stay.
That's the throttle cable hanging there...



Most of my spare time this weekend was spent drilling holes in the frame and plumbing the wiring, brake, and derailleur cable through the top tube. It looks clean. I found a nice monitor extension cable with 12 conductors to get the throttle, Cycle Analyst, and headlight power wiring back to the battery box.

In this picture you can see the wires going into the frame by the headset, some out of focus wires, and that black box up on top of the handlebars is the Cycle Analyst.



The throttle is wired up and tested, but it's COLD in the garage and my fingers get numb doing the wire splicing. This week I'll finish up the CA wiring and get the connections all cleaned up.

-Warren.