Clown Bike Climbs Mountains in CR - UPGRADE w/pics & video

[ElectroSurf3r]

The culture change isn't such a shock. If you can speak basic spanish, then you would have no problem.

I agree that the ride was quite dangerous. I DON'T want to encourage riding like this with so many people in the road!!! Don't try this at home, kids.

I'll be using new routes, very early in the morning, for future videos (which will have more speed ).

[Harold in CR]

I didn't know more than 10 words in Spanish, when I moved here. It's been a challenge for an old bastard. I have found different parts of the country use different words in the same conversation. That part confuses me. When they get too smartass with me, I just speak english. THAT gets their attention.

Biggest problem I have is telephone. I have severe Tinnitus, and, so many people just run the words together, talking real fast, or, they mumble. More and more, I ask my wife what someone is saying, and, she can't tell me, exactly. THIS, after she does speak French, Italian, Castillian Spanish, San Jose-CR dialect Spanish, and reads and understands English as well as anyone. She just refuses to speak it.

I picked up what Spanish I know, in bits and pieces. There is NO Spanish speaking classes for me to attend, way out here, in the jungle.

Anyone can always live in the GRINGO sections, if they choose

[mistercrash]

So learning Spanish before going will help but you still have to ''relearn'' what you did because of the dialects. So this would be 7 languages for me, French, English, Spanish, CR Spanish, Sarcasm, Profanity and Boozaneese.

How's the meat down there? I read that good quality meat is not something that can be found in CR. I read that the diet consists mostly of fruits, vegetables and fish with some chicken. That is mostly what we eat right now up here in Canada so this wouldn't be a problem. I think I'm hijaking this thread sorry.

Looking forward to the vids with higher speeds

[ElectroSurf3r]

I learned more Spanish in 3 days here than in 3 months of classes. But Harold is right, sometimes they speak way too fast and mumbled, or use local slang. Of course, this is true all over the world. Heck, someone from the UK could speak fast English with slang, and I wouldn't understand.
What bothers me the most with Spanish in CR, is that they don't slow down and annunciate, when I obviously don't understand their rambling. I tell them, in Spanish, that I don't understand, and please slow down with easy words. That usually does the trick, although they will sometimes give attitude, and go too slow and loud as if I was deaf or retarded. That's when I should follow Harold's lead, and go with English.

We eat good meat all the time here. Pork, beef, sausage, chicken, fish. All can be found with good quality in the local supermarket. Some meats here are better than I have had anywhere else ("chuletas"- smoked pork chops).
The diet of the locals is somewhat strange, though. They eat rice and beans for breakfast, chicken and rice for dinner, and they love to put salt on unripe mangos.
The fruit selection here is probably bigger than most of the world, due to the local climate. Bananas are around 8 cents a piece.

[Harold in CR]

As long as the OP is joining in the food section, . I get Salchicon-Picante', hot sausage, from the local pulperia, small general grocery store. Slice it longways, fry it in Soya oil, and burn the Tortilla on both sides. Slather on the Mustard, and, some fried onions, I can eat that several times a week.

Yes, Pork, chicken, LEAN beef, grass fed, Mutton, Fresh fish, fresh Shrimp, usually markets are full of Veggies, and fruits. We grow a lot of stuff, mostly as volunteer plantings. Dig the roots, put the cutoff branches or chunks of root back in the hole. Add a little fertilizer from the chicken coop, and water it in. We have several fruit varieties.

There is NEVER a reason to go hungry. Mostly a person can just graze on the fruit and plants that grow along the roadway, as long as you don't live IN the city.

I just brought in the last of the most recently ripe Bananas, about 60, from the stalk hanging in my shop. Right now, there are 4 more stalks of bananas ripening on the trees, as I write this.

My favorite is Pineapple. Out here, I can buy from the farmer for 50cents, each. Last time I was in Florida, they were $5.00 each.

[mistercrash]

Thanks for answering you two, I appreciate it. Now I'll stop hounding you with my questions and let this thread get back on track.

[liveforphysics]

I would say, the "culture-shock" of being in Costa Rica for me was being floored by how kind and loving and happy everyone is everywhere you look, the amazing beauty everywhere you look, and the amazing abundance of delicious fresh foods. After a week, I had no problem communicating with anyone. I wouldn't say I was ready for deep philosophical conversations, but I was very comfortable being able to communicate on the level I wished to communicate.

It's like living in the Garden of Eden.

[ElectroSurf3r]

I agree 100% with Luke on that. ^

So I finally got around to upgrading Clown Bike:
- I started with tightening up the front hydro brake, which now stops like a champ. Along with the drum brake, Im no longer worried at all... and I will be adding regen braking this afternoon.
- Next, I replaced the stock 11G phase wires with 8G, but only down to the axle... I was too lazy to open the motor and stuff wires through the axle. The stator gets decent airflow anyhow.
- Then, I added another 12p of more fresh konions on top of the existing pack. Again, this was the easiest way to increase capacity and current capability. I had thought about LiPo addition or A123 replacement, but settled on more konions, because they were already in 20s strings, and I found a way to fit them. Clown has a new, more interesting look And 24p20s!
- Lastly, I installed the stock Leo 36fet controller with 4110s, and calibrated the CA accordingly.

The result is HOLY COW
I came back from the first test ride with the biggest shit-eating-grin on my face. I had pulled 2 power wheelies at the red lights in front of everyone waiting for the bus (rather smooth ones in fact), even with leaning forward in preparation. I have since learned to barely ease into the twitchy throttle, because with the short swingarm, it will wheelie from a dead stop with only quarter throttle or so.

Today I took it for the first true test ride. I cruised down the highway for 5 miles or so, then came back to town, and went up the waterfall route from the video. I stopped periodically to check temperatures of the controller, motor, and phase wires.
I am pleased to say with this 27km test, that the controller was always cool to the touch. The motor and phases were pretty warm at the very top of the waterfall climb, but I could keep my fingers on the spoke flange, side covers, and phases wires forever. So, not hot enough to make me worry.

And what everyone is waiting for... the numbers!
Top speed measured by GPS on the highway, 58.4 mph. I did not bomb down the mountain like in the video, for safety's sake, or that top speed would have been much higher. Also, there were a lot of cars and motos on the highway this morning, so I couldn't achieve a true top speed. My pack was also sagging to 75v on the highway, so with a LiPo extender (anti-sag) pack, I am confident Clown would break 60mph on flat ground in full tuck. Keep in mind this motor is in a 18.75" OD wheel.
Max Battery Current on the ride: 134A. This controller is a beast.
Min Voltage was 70V, so a very conservative Max Power of 9.38kW. It was likely somewhere around 10kW.
Average climb speed up the waterfall hill was 35mph, but that's only because I was riding much more conservatively. The next video will do better than that. Clown OWNED the 30% grade at speed, like it was nothing.

I attached the GPS Altitude Profile from the test run here.
Video and pics coming very soon, possibly tomorrow.

[ElectroSurf3r]

Oh, and excluding the stops, the 27.3km test ride took 29 minutes. That includes traffic, red lights, leisurely downhill riding, and a couple bits of very conservative riding in front of the transit police entering and exiting the highway (since I was wearing a baseball cap as my helmet)

[Harold in CR]

Nice report, Jay. I'm patiently waiting for one of those 2 speed motors and modded controller, when your Dad gets them in.

[ElectroSurf3r]

So I finally made another video early this morning. I will be uploading it to youtube tonight, and linking it here early tomorrow.
I took the same route as the first video, for comparison. But this time, I only took video of the climb. I made sure to get the CA data at the top of the climb on video.
Here is some hard data from the ride:

3.08 miles to the CA checkpoint.
155.9 Wh/mi
132.5 Max Battery Amps
34.1 mph Average Speed, 49.9 mph Max Speed on climb.
62 mph Max Speed downhill (not in video).

GPS Altitude at the bottom: 952m
GPS Altitude at the top: 1327m
So, a climb of 375m.
GPS distance to the top: 5.4km
375m / 5400m = .06944 = 6.94% Average Grade.
My last video showed an average grade of 12%, due to an error on my part. I was looking at the average grade over the last 2 km, and mistakenly posted that as the average grade of the whole climb. Correct average grade for the entire climb is 6.94%.

155.9 W*hr/mi x 34.1 mi/hr = 5316.2 W Average Power.
That is what I believe to be a truly CONTINUOUS power draw, which I could definitely push higher (with a shunt mod) since the motor doesn't get hot. In my opinion, a claim of "continuous" means that the motor would be able to handle that power constantly until the battery runs dead... which I think this route is a fair test of.
132.5A max x 68V min = 9010 W Maximum Power.
The Vmin was certainly towards the top of the climb, and I think the actual Max Power draw was somewhere around 76V at the start (Clown is 82v hot), so let's call it a Max Power of around 10kW on the ride.
Keep in mind that these motors are rated for 1200w (etched on the side cover), and that the motor was BARELY warm at the top of this climb. Centrifugal ventillation rocks!
Next video gets a LiPo extender (anti-sag) pack for greater power and top speed.

On another note, Super V is almost complete. We finished the ventilation and the phase wire upgrades last week. Our best ventilation job yet, and 8GA phases all the way to the windings. We also created a mount for the 36fet steveo controller today. Tomorrow we'll install the killer swingarm covers I made, strap the LiPo's in, wire it up, and she's ready to fly once again.
Expect a SuperV vs. Clown video soon! With Dad's 260lb load on SuperV, and my 175lb load on Clown, it should be reasonably competitive.

Here are some pictures from the Clown upgrade process:

[dnmun]

way cool kid. whatta lotta controller! nice work.

[ElectroSurf3r]

[sflorlando]

For gods sake...they make duct tape in black color!

Seriously love it man. So jealous. I need one of these motors!


Ken

[ElectroSurf3r]

Thanks guys!
Oh and they only have classic grey duct tape in CR, Ken. Now that I'm stateside, I've seen the colored, patterned, and even college logo duct tape!

Here is another Clown video, after installing regen braking. 58.3 A of regen, 129.5 A max, 53mph top speed.
This is a new route, which includes a 25% Grade section, followed by a long 14% stretch. It's pretty curvy, and ends with a nice view across San Jose to the mountains.

[sflorlando]

That is sick!

Love the sound of that motor.

[ElectroSurf3r]

Recorded on May 10.

[atcspaul]

great video! your roads look a lot nicer then here in st. croix usvi. great fun