The Falcon, My 1st Build

Hello all. With the help from members here, and with countless hours reading and studying this forum, I am pleased to have completed my first electric bike build. My 1st ever e-bike was a Currie E-Zip, which I used for 2 years. But as I get older, I get heavier , and it was time for me to get a more powerful bike. After shopping around, I figured out that for me and my size, 6'-1" 220lbs, I was going to have to build one myself to get it right.

This forum gave me the information and motivation to make this bike, which I have named "The Falcon".

Most of the tech information is in my signature already, so I won't repeat all that. The battery packs are in the hard sided panniers which I had on the E-zip, and the controller is inside the rear trunk.

So, let's get to the photos, eh?


Here she is with the Croozer cargo trailer. With that 5303 I don't even notice the trailer behind the bike.

And yet more photos:






Just some random guy who happened by and offered to model the bike....


What a ham!


End of another day's ride....

Nice!

Heh, a setup that will haul ass at hauling cargo.

Did you do the shrink tubing on the Y/G/B Anderson connectors at the front fork? If so, what gauge tubing?

looks like a very nice ride
well done

Great looking build.Where did you get the hard Side cases (panniers)?

i like it

drewdiller said:

Nice!

Heh, a setup that will haul ass at hauling cargo.

Did you do the shrink tubing on the Y/G/B Anderson connectors at the front fork? If so, what gauge tubing?

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Thanks!! Yep, I did the Andersons, and used 1" Shrink tubing to cover the 3 connectors side by side. Just barely fits.

justadad1957 said:

looks like a very nice ride
well done

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Thanks much!! It does ride well, but at higher speeds, being a hard tail, it's really rough on the ole back. That's why I got a Thudbuster to go on it next week. We'll see if all the hype is worth it. :wink:

Amonk said:

Great looking build.Where did you get the hard Side cases (panniers)?

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Appreciate that! I got the panniers on ebay about a year back. I've looked but can't seem to find out anything about them except they were made about 15 years ago, by a company which seems to still be in business. I emailed them several times about the panniers, but they will not answer. So.....

Nice clean build. Looks like a great setup for cross country trips.

The Journey Guy said:

justadad1957 said:

looks like a very nice ride
well done

Click to expand...

Thanks much!! It does ride well, but at higher speeds, being a hard tail, it's really rough on the ole back. That's why I got a Thudbuster to go on it next week. We'll see if all the hype is worth it. :wink:

Click to expand...

When you get a chance, please give us a performance report on the Thudbuster. How heavy is it?

Thanks!

nice bike, whats the top speed with 5303 @ 48V on 700c?

Well done! That's a really sweet ride and I love all the detail. What do you use the trailer for?

I would love to find those panniers. If you know the name of the company, please post.

Great job on the bike JG.
I got my "Thudbuster" last year, and I am glad I did. I't does not make up for the lack of a rear suspension (of course), but it takes the edge off all those little hits. I think I would buy one again-for the next bike.
Thank you for all the photos. I like to see the super clean wiring. I hope to have my setup that nice.

The Journey Guy said:

Thanks much!! It does ride well, but at higher speeds, being a hard tail, it's really rough on the ole back. That's why I got a Thudbuster to go on it next week. We'll see if all the hype is worth it. :wink:

Click to expand...

The Thudbuster is deceptive. At first, you'll not notice too much since it's so smooth, however, after a while, you realize that all those small and medium bumps that used to hurt your behind are suddenly much less obvious. I love mine. Be sure to use the right size thermoplastics for your riding weight which should include any additional items like a backpack, etc.

Ambrose

I've finally recovered from my operations enough to go bike riding this morning. I took the opportunity to get some new photos of 'The Falcon' in it's Version 2 configuration. I removed the rear hard side panniers, the rear trunk, and the rack that I was using in the original build.

I am now running a rear rack from Currie that the E-zip and I-zips used to use. I got a hold of 4 empty battery cases that those bikes use, and have made them into 24v10ah Headway packs now. One on each side, run in series for a total of 48V10ah. That will give me more than enough range for my Mon - Fri commuting to and from work. I have two extra packs that I can carry in the trailer on weekends when I go out for my long rides.

This Revision 2 has saved me aprox 15lbs at the rear of the bike. Much easier to handle now, and just as much power as when I was running the Ping packs, which weighed twice as much as the Headway packs do.

The Thudbuster has proven to be all it's advertised! Like riding on a cushion, the difference is day and night. For anyone who has a hard tail bike, I would suggest you try one out. I think you'd use one from then on, they are that good!

On to the photos:



Looks less bulky at the back of the bike now. I'm not too happy with the way the wiring is just sort of hanging there. If anyone has any suggestions on how to hide them better, I'd be pleased to hear your ideas.



The new mounting system for the CA and my GPS/Stereo player. They are easier to read and reach to control while riding.






Still a fairly clean build, IMHO.





As I said, the Thudbuster is fantastic! Everyone should have one.



Yep, I sure need to figure out a better way to route/hide the wiring. Suggestions are welcome! :lol:

That looks good. The wiring would have to be trimmed to the same length first which would mean reterminating a lot of connectors. I like the woven nylon covering that is like a Chinese finger trap. You push it together and it opens up and then when you loom everything up you pull it to compress and ziptie it in place. I cheated on my recumbent and coiled my extra wire and added a sheet metal cover on one side and coroplast on the other.

That's a good idea about the finger trap stuff. I wouldn't know where to get any, but you did give me another idea! I have some shrink tubing that is about 2" in diameter. I could cut a piece to length, and then cut it up the side to open it up. Then wrap the stuff around all those wires, zip tie the outside, and then hit it with the heat gun.

Almost the same concept you had. Thanks!!

TJG

Probably any place that sells cable-making supplies would have the woven wrap. Especially places that do custom work for PC mods and car stereos.

Another thing that works well and is cheap is the ribbed pre-split cable housing used in car wiring harnesses. Same places ought to have that, as well as automotive stores; I remember that network cabling stores used to carry it around here, too, years back when I did that sort of work (when it used to be a mysterious thing the average person was afraid of doing themselves and would pay others to do for them).

Heavier duty versions of it in larger sizes and brighter colors are also used for underground fiber-optic bundles; I used to have a few several-foot-long sections of 2"-wide dayglo orange ribbed split housing, but I have no idea where they are now. If I did, they'd already be on CrazyBike2 covering the wiring *and* the bike frame. :lol:

Yep, I like that stuff too. If you look close at the last photo, you'll see that I used some smaller diameter wire loom on the balance plug that comes out of the battery pack.

I just don't have any that is big enough to hide all the wires going to the controller.

TJG

I recently found the stuff here.

http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=244&CFID=2524701

It's called "Split Loom Tubing".

Ambrose

They also had these which I found very interesting!

Cable Pants!

http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=873&CFID=2524701

Ambrose

Sorry, last posting, I promise.

They also have "TechFlex" expandable sleeving.

http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=Mfg&srchMfg=299&CFID=2524701

Ambrose

Thanks for the links, Ambrose. Those cable pants have me stumped tho. Never seen 'em, and can't quite figure out what someone would do with 'em. :?

TJG

Very Clean! And I must say, very beefy tires too, if I didn't know better I would think those were 26" tires! 8)