Hobbit's Rans Fusion

Hobbit

100 W
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
176
So with the imminent delivery (finally) of the Crystalite group buy I thought it about time to start a first build thread.

I've "procured"a Rans fusion. Some say I retrieved it from the side of the road on hard rubbish day. :shock: Abandoned, I took it under my wing and nursed it back to health... :lol: I'd also like to point out at this point that Matt (recumpence) is a Rans Dealer and an absolute pleasure to deal with, compared to the only Rans dealer in Australia who I would describe as disinterested at best.
2012bikePhotos002-1.jpg


The more I look at this bike , the more I'm leaning towards putting a 24" rim on the back. Hyena's arranged 2 H 4080s (?) one laced into 26"rim, the other unlaced so plenty of scope for field testing but for pure asthetics, the back wheel on it now, just plain looks to big to me.

The handlebars that came with the frame looked wrong too so they have been swapped out for these..


2012bikePhotos003.jpg


plenty of room for cycle analyst, headlights, buttons, switches, bell, general gadgetry...

2012bikePhotos005.jpg


and the frame itself can fit my 6 x 6s1p 8000mAh zippys for 66.6V and 16Ah. Plenty of room in front of the rear wheel, too, for controller, more batts?,lunch,beer,e.t.c. The photo is after 3 mins of playing "see if it fits" so final config. should be more betterer..

It's an alu frame (fail) no suspension (fail) but i'm intending on commuting 35km round trip on road, ashphelt bike tracks so should be fine..we'll see.

Doc's torque arms with DP410 for the dropouts.

don't have a charger yet, 4-5 weeks til motor comes so in no hurry/still thinking that side of it through.

I'm thinking PVC for the battery pod,enclosing the frame, there's a "plastics factory" nearby that I googled upon this morning, they sell 2400 x 1200 ml sheets of pvc,polycarbonate,ptde, all that type of stuff...plumbers pipe to fit snugly around the tubes...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 
Looks a great platform Hobbit.
Disc front & rear are a major+
I searched for one of these used, to no avail.
More comfortable platform than the Miyata I settled on, for "Ghetto" my commuter.
Ive read a few good reviews of the Fusion.
Comfortable pedaling cruiser.
I love the look. Like a squat mountain bike.
Lots of room for batts. as you have shown.

What top speed are you shootin' for?

A few thoughts.

Hobbit said:
...

The more I look at this bike , the more I'm leaning towards putting a 24" rim on the back. Hyena's arranged 2 H 4080s (?) one laced into 26"rim, the other unlaced so plenty of scope for field testing but for pure asthetics, the back wheel on it now, just plain looks to big to me...

It's an alu frame (fail) no suspension (fail) but i'm intending on commuting 35km round trip on road, ashphelt bike tracks so should be fine..we'll see...

Doc's torque arms with DP410 for the dropouts...

don't have a charger yet, 4-5 weeks til motor comes so in no hurry/still thinking that side of it through.

...

To my eye, the headtube angle is very relaxed as is.
I would not reduce rear wheel without corresponding drop on the front.
That said, even I, a small wheel convert, would leave it as is.
I truly Love the appearance of this bike.
I am unaware of the details of Hyenas 4080(remember reading the thread some time ago)
but I think you are going to be happy even in a 26".

The rigid Alu. frame has its + &-. It is light & simple.
Little to go wrong, lil' to maintain.
I highly recommend investing in a quality sprung seat & the biggest widest tires you can fit.
If you keep the speeds under 50kph you will be fine.

Big Up
to Doc' plates. +1

Now the most important.
If you already posses your Lipo. Buy your charger today.
Start cycling/graphing/seasoning those packs.
Dont wait to find out that you have some runt cells or packs.
Start now before you are 30km down the road stranded.

Looks real nice Hobbit cant wait to see it finished.
Keep us posted/pic'd.
:mrgreen:
 
Brentis said:
Looks a great platform Hobbit.
Disc front & rear are a major+
I searched for one of these used, to no avail.
More comfortable platform than the Miyata I settled on, for "Ghetto" my commuter.
Ive read a few good reviews of the Fusion.
Comfortable pedaling cruiser.
I love the look. Like a squat mountain bike.
Lots of room for batts. as you have shown.

Thanks Brentis, yeah, the discs on there currently are the cheapest I could get, just to get it "peddlable" but I'm going to upgrade to 8" hydraulics...soonish, probably after the motor is here.

I think the guys at Rans were shooting for a half way point between full recumbent and upright bike.It actually takes a fair bit more effort than a conventional geometry frame to peddle around town but put a throttle on it and YIPPEE!

Brentis said:
What top speed are you shootin' for?

Right now I'm going up hills at about 5 kph so anything faster than that is a bonus :lol:
I've peddled it down a very steep hill and the gps read 73kph and the faster this thing goes, the more stable it gets, but as for top speed, I don't know. Hee hee, it's a little bit like being a virgin and trying to select your man's "size" :lol: it's good to know this motor is pretty beasty ( see Hyena vids ), so I can dial it up or down and find my comfort zone.

Brentis said:
A few thoughts.

Hobbit said:
...

The more I look at this bike , the more I'm leaning towards putting a 24" rim on the back. Hyena's arranged 2 H 4080s (?) one laced into 26"rim, the other unlaced so plenty of scope for field testing but for pure asthetics, the back wheel on it now, just plain looks to big to me...

It's an alu frame (fail) no suspension (fail) but i'm intending on commuting 35km round trip on road, ashphelt bike tracks so should be fine..we'll see...

Doc's torque arms with DP410 for the dropouts...

don't have a charger yet, 4-5 weeks til motor comes so in no hurry/still thinking that side of it through.

...

Brentis said:
To my eye, the headtube angle is very relaxed as is.
I would not reduce rear wheel without corresponding drop on the front.
That said, even I, a small wheel convert, would leave it as is.
I truly Love the appearance of this bike.
I am unaware of the details of Hyenas 4080(remember reading the thread some time ago)
but I think you are going to be happy even in a 26".

The rigid Alu. frame has its + &-. It is light & simple.
Little to go wrong, lil' to maintain.
I highly recommend investing in a quality sprung seat & the biggest widest tires you can fit.
If you keep the speeds under 50kph you will be fine.

Big Up
to Doc' plates. +1

Now the most important.
If you already posses your Lipo. Buy your charger today.
Start cycling/graphing/seasoning those packs.
Dont wait to find out that you have some runt cells or packs.
Start now before you are 30km down the road stranded.

Looks real nice Hobbit cant wait to see it finished.
Keep us posted/pic'd.
:mrgreen:

Ha, I pulled the trigger on an Icharger yesterday 8) after discovering Tench's Big Hit build thread. That guy has some serious friggin' skills.
 
quick update:

have now received 5404 motor + H4080 motor ( playing eenie meanie mynee mow on which one goes in...)
crystalyte 75v 50a controller
Cycle analyst
I'm balance charging and discharging my lipo individually between 4.18 and 3.5V. each charge discharge cycle takes around 3 hrs x 7 batts (one spare :wink: ) x 10 cycles = it'll take freakin' weeks supervising between my day job and family time but I'm not in too much of a hurry, I guess.
Glue is drying on torque arms but I'm a little bit scared my actual dropouts aren't strong enough for the challenge and may actually tear right off the bike. :roll: pics forthcoming.
Icecube is currently designing the best harness money can buy for me.
A mate of mine owns a boat repair factory and is happy to weld me up an aluminium box for inside the triangle. It's going to be tight but some guys like it like that. 8)
So I'm still a while off a test ride but moving closer...
Now if I can just get these images to stop losing 25% of the right hand side. :evil:
 
Hobbit said:
quick update:

have now received 5404 motor + H4080 motor ( playing eenie meanie mynee mow on which one goes in...)
crystalyte 75v 50a controller
Cycle analyst
I'm balance charging and discharging my lipo individually between 4.18 and 3.5V. each charge discharge cycle takes around 3 hrs x 7 batts (one spare :wink: ) x 10 cycles = it'll take freakin' weeks supervising between my day job and family time but I'm not in too much of a hurry, I guess.
Glue is drying on torque arms but I'm a little bit scared my actual dropouts aren't strong enough for the challenge and may actually tear right off the bike. :roll: pics forthcoming.
Icecube is currently designing the best harness money can buy for me.
A mate of mine owns a boat repair factory and is happy to weld me up an aluminium box for inside the triangle. It's going to be tight but some guys like it like that. 8)
So I'm still a while off a test ride but moving closer...
Now if I can just get these images to stop losing 25% of the right hand side. :evil:
Good to see yours is coming along Hob Master, ever with all the usual character building probs.
Similar boat to you. 5404 & 4060 instead and 7250 controller.
Full time gig, 3 kids and ever more difficult the missus, NNNoooooooooo, you can't bring that in the house #@*#!!! :?
Same with the balancing, How you been doing it :?: Mines 3kW charging on 20AH pouches and moving around a 10W resistor,(BLOODY QUICKLY) burning my fingers, though the supercap has been a better option till i finish the balancer from hell :evil:
Question did you have any paperwork with your controller, connection diagram manual. I got my crstalyte 7250 2nd hand and got no papers, trying to find proper info on them is frockin painful, like hours trolling (older def)
Either that or pointers in the right from any gurus would be muy apreciada.
 
Yeah, I'm balance charging at 8 amps or 1 c and then discharging at the I charger 80 watt limit for discharge = 3.2 amps each battery individually between 4.18 and 3.6, keeping notes on cell level at "empty" most of 'em are within 0.03 of a volt done about 4 cycles each now, one is consistly out by 0.1 with one cell discharging lower so this batt. Is my first onto the "later experiment" pile. Our man Icecube is working on my harness as we speak and I'm getting the cut pieces for my Alu. Battery box next week. I'm going to glue it with dp420. So I'm still a couple of weeks off rolling yet.

No instructions so to speak but a big sticker on the side describing which plug is for what, so when I'm near my controller next on Sunday I'll pm you a picture of that, if that'll help.
 
Hobbit said:
Yeah, I'm balance charging at 8 amps or 1 c and then discharging at the I charger 80 watt limit for discharge = 3.2 amps each battery individually between 4.18 and 3.6, keeping notes on cell level at "empty" most of 'em are within 0.03 of a volt done about 4 cycles each now, one is consistly out by 0.1 with one cell discharging lower so this batt. Is my first onto the "later experiment" pile. Our man Icecube is working on my harness as we speak and I'm getting the cut pieces for my Alu. Battery box next week. I'm going to glue it with dp420. So I'm still a couple of weeks off rolling yet.

No instructions so to speak but a big sticker on the side describing which plug is for what, so when I'm near my controller next on Sunday I'll pm you a picture of that, if that'll help.

0.03 diffential nice, that 0.1, you using a celllog :?:,
Noticed my celllog sucking on first cell, looked it up, this channel draws operating juice, hence lower voltage. Understandable between totally full and full would be around that value, my lifepo20 drops from around 3.55 to close to 3.45, though pack has settled down more with odd heavy 3kW load to 3.35 and the diffential alarm is'nt going off, lovely they're happy, fed them and smacked their asses and put em to bed, do'nt have to nanny them at moment.

That would be good thanks bud as this one don't have that sticker and i've got to change the hall connector, it's a flat style like the power connections.
 
Any updates as to which motor your going to mount on your bike yet? :mrgreen:
You must have a tough life: having to choose between the 5404 and the 4060....... Wish my life was that that tough :wink:
 
It's a 4080 MUHAHAHAHA. The plan "this week" is 4080 for starters then pull it off when my 24' spokes arrive 5404 goes in briefly while I lace up the 4080 in a 24' with a 3' Nirve fatass. I'll measure top speeds and acceleration and stuff for comparison...Another week or two...
 
Hobbit said:
It's a 4080 MUHAHAHAHA.
Ohh... sorry :oops:
Enjoy the build! Hopefully illia at ebikessf will be selling these soon. Talked to hime a month or two ago and he said that he is expecting a shipment of these motors. CANT WAIT! :mrgreen:
 
so here's my holey dropout when it was freshly sanded back ready for DrBass torque arms. It's 7005 aluminium but with the swiss cheese effect (why do they do that? :evil: ) I'm kinda nervous...we'll see.
2012bikePhotos007.jpg


On a plus side, my new hydraulic brakes have hoses that are long enough. I held my breath holding them up to my retardedly elongated frame. A couple of spare inches...which is always a good thing :wink:

My mate cutting the aluminium for me had a nasty barefoot waterskiing fall so there's a little delay on that but that just means I'll be duct taping a temporary rig to get 'er rolling. The last few bits and pieces like 8' caliper spacers and my battery harness should be arriving in the mail any day now *tick, tick, tick*
 
Looking good.
Did you get your zippy's local hobby king, how much they worth.
Looking at some for the 4060 build.

With the drop outs can your mate fill those holes with weld make them stronger, looking at mine similar issue but was thinking of torque plate covering the holes and bolt thru so no welds.
 
Yeah, hobbyking website, Australian warehouse.. Hover over price ended up like $89 or so and delivered about 3 days after ordering.

I've thought about strengthening them for a little while and the improvements my mate and I are capable of would be minimal. I'm led to believe welding would weaken things unless reheated in just the right way to regain strength. I might glue a plate on but that kinda feels like something I'll forget about when it works for the first commute or two and then really wish I'd done if it does let go.....
 
Hobbit said:
Yeah, hobbyking website, Australian warehouse.. Hover over price ended up like $89 or so and delivered about 3 days after ordering.

I've thought about strengthening them for a little while and the improvements my mate and I are capable of would be minimal. I'm led to believe welding would weaken things unless reheated in just the right way to regain strength. I might glue a plate on but that kinda feels like something I'll forget about when it works for the first commute or two and then really wish I'd done if it does let go.....

$89 sounds good for a kilo of good stuff, they wanted like an extra $150 plus when i hit the button for customs charges
and aus post to, like Adelaide :? , will have to get on the horn to them about that customs charge BS.

Good luck with that torque arm, got to speak to the neighbour who's been a welder for about 20 years, hoping he'll do the torque mods, trade for some solar kit, ask him what he thinks about weld fill too, get a second opinion.
Aye do'nt want the likes of this event occurring
imagesCABQQS5A.jpg
 
Managed to get the final price for 6 x 8000mAh for $576.37 delivered, thanks, mucho better, they did'nt have any balancing leads so i'll just go to a local franchise and pick em up or frig it with computer cable, IDC fits cell log great.

What kind of run time you think you might get with flightmax, flogging a 4080 or 4060, 20-30 mins :?: :? .
 
Yeah, there ya go, much better when it's already in Australia.

As for longevity,it's all math, to go flat out at 80 kmh for 20-30 mins is only really possible on a circular empty racetrack. It's very much like cars; fang the crap out of it and your volts x amps go way up and empty out the "tank" of all those delicious electrons pretty quick smart. Although, rather counter intuitively, top speed is max. efficiency so traveling the most km's per charge, on paper, is best done as fast as possible, but that increases the likelihood of the red and blue lights in the rear view mirror, scratching their heads, wondering which infringement the guy on the 80km bicycle gets. It's a very exciting dilemma.

Managed my first spin up today, just plugged it in and up and down the throttle, the CA said 101kph at max. :shock: time for setup function and such and my mate is getting the Alu. for the box tomorrow. Today was a massive incentive boost/refocus. I've been wanting this thing since August. Having it finally spinning away, albeit upside down in my garage, was fist clenching, teeth gritting, "YEEAAAH!" it was that Dr Frankenstein moment,plucking up the courage to hook up these kilo's of high discharge lipo and then the absolute first twist of the throttle and WHIRRRRRRRRRR..."it's alive.....IT'S ALIVE.....MUHAHAHAHA."........priceless.

Time for a YouTube account....
 
Hobbit said:
Yeah, there ya go, much better when it's already in Australia.

As for longevity,it's all math, to go flat out at 80 kmh for 20-30 mins is only really possible on a circular empty racetrack. It's very much like cars; fang the crap out of it and your volts x amps go way up and empty out the "tank" of all those delicious electrons pretty quick smart. Although, rather counter intuitively, top speed is max. efficiency so traveling the most km's per charge, on paper, is best done as fast as possible, but that increases the likelihood of the red and blue lights in the rear view mirror, scratching their heads, wondering which infringement the guy on the 80km bicycle gets. It's a very exciting dilemma.

Managed my first spin up today, just plugged it in and up and down the throttle, the CA said 101kph at max. :shock: time for setup function and such and my mate is getting the Alu. for the box tomorrow. Today was a massive incentive boost/refocus. I've been wanting this thing since August. Having it finally spinning away, albeit upside down in my garage, was fist clenching, teeth gritting, "YEEAAAH!" it was that Dr Frankenstein moment,plucking up the courage to hook up these kilo's of high discharge lipo and then the absolute first twist of the throttle and WHIRRRRRRRRRR..."it's alive.....IT'S ALIVE.....MUHAHAHAHA."........priceless.

Time for a YouTube account....

Whats the top of the curve 2.5 killawasps. Thats slower than the speed of suck
http://www.myspace.com/music/player?song=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myspace.com%2Fwammo%2Fmusic%2Fsongs%2Fnot-fast-enough-41371964.

MUHAHAHAHAAHH, extra AHH for the lack of magic smoke, though i do love the smell off shellac in the shed.
Good onya Hob's.
Hey what gear you got plugged in to controller, CA + throttle+ :?:, anything else needed for the basic initial kick in the ass.

Looking forward to vids
 
megacycle said:
Hey what gear you got plugged in to controller, CA + throttle+ :?:, anything else needed for the basic initial kick in the ass.

yep, that's it, CA + throttle and I've got a three speed switch but I think that's optional.

I was dyin' to get this thing rollin' so went the (temporary) duct tape rout. Took 'er for a little lap of the neighbourhood and I'm not sure if the tears I had were from the wind or from sheer joy. There are two big hills between me and the rest of the world, like roller coaster hills that I've gotta walk up when I'm peddle only (vids one day soon...). This thing powered (nice pun) up them both like a champ!

2012bikevideos001.jpg


2012bikevideos004.jpg


So right now it's a bit like C-3PO before he had his skin on, a total bird's nest of wires and lipo. Currently weighs in at 34kg.
I ended up with a 1200 x 2400 sheet of 1.2mm aluminium, my buddy who was making my box got kinda busy (shyed away when he realized I was serious) so I've looked at plans for a pan brake (sheet metal folding device) to make up a box for the triangle. I've got all the bits from the hardware for about $80 so should be a nice addition to the toolroom.

And next some lighting with a view to "melting them out of my way" :wink:

I mean its really a fairly standard hub build. The Rans frame (from Matt-recumpence) is a little radical from a bicycle point of view but everything else is a dime a dozen round here. Hyena's crystalyte hub kit, doc's torque arms, Icecube's Uberharness, Hookworm 2.5's, 8inch hydraulic discs, 52T big front ring with a 16t threaded free wheel on the motor. I've tried to make the best educated choices I could and I'm real happy with what I've ended up with for build one. A bit more work to go, of course, but I'm wondering if a bike is EVER truly finished or maybe just abandoned...seems when that happens they end up with a for sale sign on 'em :wink:
 
Feel for you Hobb's :cry: on the momentous occassion, meanwhile my pig resides in the shed like 40kg off alloys.
Did have an idea for my batt box though, want it under slung like the stealth.
So i by-passed the boily (welder) across the street (still waiting for the custom torque arms) sniffing to much of the fumes and forget their obligations :? so built my own out of dry wall edgeing and 0.95 galv sheet.
View attachment 1
SANY0191 (768x1024).jpg
The box has building adhesive in the joins and then pot rivetted.
So snug had to squash the pot rivetts flat on the inside, so not to dig in to batts, then double sided foam over all the inside, nice, crap these batts are heavy .
Theryll be edging down the front as well to protect and reinforce made from 1.6mm steel and the batts will compressed by foam and dry wall edging inside top which make the top section have a double skin ideal to bolt to the under carriage.

Thoughts with yours, looks like the batts are little wider than frame shame, if they are ,can you buy a lenght of square tube alum' like 10x15mm, $15 Bunning maybe, fix it around the outer of the frame to give you a flat to fix to and leave the batts in pos' with some stiff foam and cut and fix the aluminium sheet to the 10x15mm :?:
It means you will be drilling the bike frame, if thats not sacrilige, could be good.

With the bike light, i'm looking at someut like this http://www.pcbuyit.co.uk/brightstar-levin-professional-bike-light-degree-5200ma-1300-lumens-waterproof-p-382.html for some serious luminescent, nocturnal activities.
 
Know what you mean this is never ending and how many 0000's, don't wanna count, scary, mine needs to be called the WIP or NESS, short for work in progress or never ending story.
How you going with the medics, were they the good ones methods has sussed out or the crap ones, i've got 6 coming from HK so won't cross the fingers, cos they might get burnt :? :lol:
 
Hey megacycle, the battery medic I got wasn't very accurate for checking my cells out on the road, might be OK for bleed balancing though, butr I cant really comment, never done that. I bought a celllog8 and it's totally accurate.

The torch I went with is off of dealextreme.... a Fandyfire uv-s5 for $58 then there's the 4 x 18650 cells on top so a little pricier but I'll probably be commuting through a piece of national park twice a week at 4.30 in the morning so I think a small but intense sun for a headlight is a good idea.
 
So last night I took 'er for a spin in the city. I was going to "Vivid light show/festival/blah", I thought "Yeah, middle of winter, last week of the thing, there'll be no-one around nice and quiet 'lil burr around to see the art..." turns out 250,000 pedestrians had the same idea. On my bike, I couldn't get within a km of the action without being met by a wall of
shoulder-to-shoulder. :roll: So to plan B, I mixed it up with the traffic, through Circular quay and the domain and out through the cross and back and finally out to Lady Macquarie's Chair (awesome racetrack potential in that area). That might not mean much to people not familiar with Sydney so to crunch the numbers...

I changed my CA Amp limit setting from 50A up to 60A and my flat out max speed last night was a steady 68.3 kph.(rematch Hyena??) with a peak of 63 amps. My Icecube harness has a 50 amp fuse in it so I'm feeling like I'm starting to push it. might need some upgrades.

With my backpack booster pack plugged in too, I've got 24Ah at my disposal. Last night's "average city driving" saw me use 5.1Ah in 14.7km so this roughly equates to a 70 km range to DOD.

I keep getting weepy with happiness at the potential of this new toy....I had a dream that my bike was wearing a dress and we were running towards each other in slow motion in an open field on a warm spring day. :lol:
 
That's unreal, what kind of projectors they using, see you on the treadley at 5 mins in.

Thats good going, so expecting 70 clicks from that pack cruisin.
You going to thrash her soon :evil: :?:
Had a run with the gangster :?: taxi driver happy to see the light works ok :p .

Meanwhile wasting a long weekend and finishing my batt box for those 6x1kg bricks, in between rides with the youngest, barbies and mates.
Need to get my own build thread happening soon.
SANY0192 (1024x768).jpg
Box is so big it restricts some turning and end is about 40mm below chain rings, but hey pedals would hit and a tighter turning radius would'nt help any.
How you going with the harness by the way, though ice stopped doing them, so i went lateral and built this instead, it could blow :twisted: or 100 amp throughput.
SANY0194 (768x1024).jpg
Hard to see and explain, but there's 4mm2 solar 105 deg cable through each connection at top to give 8mm2 parallelled cable.
When i get suitable small box for it ,it will work, with a screw bolt hole in the box in position at the top and bottom of this switcher.
With 1 bolt screwed in place at the top, it will switch 3 batts in series for run, bolt bottom end it squeezes the 2x2 connections together with another 2 fixed in the box (+&-) from the pack ends 3 batts are in parallel for charging.Want led across each run switch, so shows run mode and 1 for charge mode, so should show up a prob :?
Only one odd bolt to be used for obvious reasons :shock: :oops: .
 
Hey megacycle, looking good matee, on my way to work so ive got like 30 secs to reply right now. I'm pretty sure icecube is still doing harnesses, i think he was looking at expanding into selling power supplies but discovered ebayers doing it below his cost for crappy ones, by the sound of it, but, if you were considering a harness by him, then definatly worth a Private Message to him, these harness's make it soooo simple to do everything! Which is just what this nooby needs...
 
Back
Top