Does anybody know of a list of miscellaneous parts I might need such as fuses, shrink tube, etc to put everything together?
This is off the top of my head -- hopefully others will fill-in stuff I miss.
- A fuse that's rated 5 amps higher than the controller plus a fuse holder. I use a 40 amp automotive fuse from Radioshack.com plus one of their enclosed fuse holders.
- A hall-effect throttle if you didn't order it with your controller
- A spoke wrench for tightening and building/truing the wheel once you get it (and a double-wall, flat-on-bottom wheel if you didn't order it with the motor). Might pick up an extra set of spokes while you're at it. If you ride on a loose spoke, it will break pretty quick.
- electrical tape and/or shrink. Especially good for enclosing the ends of wires that are inside an exterior layer of protective cable. If left open, water likes to travel down through the insides of the thick cables and into the motor and controller. A squirt of silicon glue is good there too.
- something to secure the controller to the frame unless you plan to put it in a bag (which isn't great because of cooling problems in a bag). I use two ~4" hose clamps.
- silicon glue for sealing the inlet on the motor where the wiring enters, the ends of the anderson connectors where the wire enters, the seams of the controller, the wiring outlets of the controller, around the on/off switch of the controller (especially if you're planning to ride in the rain), and the seams on the throttle if you plan to ride in the rain (water in the throttle is a major cause of throttle shorts, especially with the LED-meter type throttles, causing a dangerous wide-open-throttle situation).
- Even in the 'off' position the controller will suck some power. So consider disconnecting the Andersons when the bike is not in use for a bit, or wire a switch rated for at least 20 amps inline with a main battery power wire.
- Epoxy for securing accessories such as wobbly mirrors.
- Mirrors
- Lights front and rear for safety and nighttime riding.
- A bag or a box to stick the batteries in. Something to secure the bag or box to the frame, or the back rack.
- A back rack for carrying stuff. Maybe a front basket too. If the bike has rear suspension, then a rack that attaches only to the seatpost, else a stronger rack that also attaches to the rear triangle near the motor axle.
- A metal grinder or metal grinder attachment for a drill if you need to grind the axle a little in order for the axle to fit in the dropouts. Many axles are about 1mm wider on their flat sides than the dropouts. If the instructions say to grind the dropouts to make it fit, disregard those instructions and grind the axle instead -- weakening the dropouts in any way is very bad.
- A big wrench for tightening the bolts on the axle. Might need spacers of some sort (washers or ground-down nuts perhaps) to keep the axle snug and clamped on both sides of each of the two dropouts.
- chain lubricant
- plastic zip ties to secure the wires to the frame.
- tools to remove, cut, and reposition the handle bar grip for throttle installation. There's a tiny hex bolt on the crystalyte throttles that secures the throttle to the handlebars. The allen wrench didn't come with any of my kit items, which I also bought separately.
- wire cutters, strippers, and crimpers. The Andersons can be crimped with standard crimpers just fine. With standard crimpers, crimp multiple times at 90-degree angles until the wire-securing part of the contact is tight around the wire and squared-off (else the contact won't fit in the housing). With thin, limp wires, a small screwdriver, allen wrench or something like that can be used to push the contact into the housing.
- Depending on where you bought your motor and controller, the connectors for the five hall-effect wires going from the controller and to the motor may not match. In such case, replace the connectors with five sets of Andersons, or some other kind of connector. The tiny wires may be a little tricky to deal with. Strip a few inches and fold the wire over on itself multiple times before clamping the anderson contact on it. Or also use a short length of some other wire for fattening-up the tiny hall-effect wires.
- A freewheel for the motor that's not too wide. A 5304 without disk brakes fits in the width of a standard 135mm mountain bike dropout just right with a three-speed freewheel. A five speed freewheel will require a fair bit of wheel dishing that may be better done by a bike shop. More than five speeds should be avoided for this reason. Even a three speed still needs about an inch of dish in order to be centered in the rear triangle. Ypedal says the dish is not absolutely necessary. So blame him if you don't dish the wheel and something goes wrong because of it.
Got this growing fear I'll wait 4-6 weeks for the big stuff and then can't put it together for some 5 cent part I can't find here in Kimchi land.
:lol: Yah, with all the different bikes out there, the process can be more involved than the instructions suggest. Fortunately, there's all kinds of ways to make it work with common parts. So it's important to approach problems with the proper attitude
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Lastly the dumb question:
Suppose I get this thing running at 35 mph and decide to help with peddling. If I'm in the wrong bike gear will it tear my feet off? :lol: Or some other nasty event?
The only dumb questions are the ones you know the answers to already -- the "duh!" questions
The freewheel prevents the pedals from spinning when you aren't pedaling, so your feet won't get ripped off. You probably won't be able to pedal-assist at speeds above 25mph without a special crankset gear or gear cluster. Depending on the freewheel you choose compared to the one on the bike now, however fast can you ride downhill and still pedal-with-effect is how fast you can pedal-assist the motor. You can always act like you're pedaling in order not to draw unwanted attention and make people think you're the bionic man going uphill.
The easy way to go with gears is to use the Cyclone.
