The Ruff Tracker - MXUS3000w

Sean9002

1 kW
Joined
Jun 16, 2013
Messages
347
Location
Australia
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Finally had a weekend free from family events etc. so I've made a move on my Ruff Cycles Porucho build. Pretty much everything has arrived, Including my MXUS motor courtesy of Samd from Ballarat eBikes.
Frame: Ruff Cycles Porucho - http://www.ruff-cycles.com/ruff-cycles-frame-porucho.html
Motor & Controller: MXUS 3000w - GreenTime 60v - http://ballaratebikes.com/

The frame is awesome. Such a great shape, and not as heavy as thought it would be. Everything Seems nice and true. It arrives in raw steel, and has been sitting in my garage for about 6 months. Its only just starting to show a little oxidization on the frame now. It will clean up very easily when it gets ready for paint. The only gripes I had about the frame was the Head Tube. It was warped and fitting a perfect aluminium headset into it was a nightmare. A simple headset like this should have taken ten minutes to fit. It ended up taking about 2 hours with the Dremel and some callipers getting everything back to within tolerance took some patience.

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The tanks are blow moulded plastic, I picked them up on ebay quite a while ago so im not sure who the seller was. Just searching for Porucho dummy tanks usually yields a few results. Im going to need to cut off the casing on all of my earthX batteries as they are just a wee bit too big. There is still going to be a gap between the tank sides and the frame so I will either need to get some spacers laser cut or some sort of rubber grommet.

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The forks are DNM USD8's, with all the decals stripped off. When my back wheel is built I will be able to adjust the forks to get the ride height nice and low slung. The front wheel is a 24inch Halo SAS. I have had a set of these in 26inch on a dirt jump bike and they were bullet proof. I launched my bike out of a concrete skate bowl (I wasn't on it) landing it heavy on the front wheel....not even a little warped.
The rear is on its way from Classic Cycles in Germany. 64mm wide 24inch and the MXUS will be laced in with a set of spokes from Glow Worm Cycles.

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A mock fit of the 24 inch wheel. There is bugger all clearance between the Lower Chainstay and the ground, so its going to be a pedal scrapper (Not that I will pedal it much). The tyres are 24x3" Whitewalls from Classic Cycles.

Still not entirely sure what the color will be. Something that will play off the gold forks and white walls. Ive been leaning towards deep blues or candy red.

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I saw these at the local car parts shop so I thought Id see how they come up. Here I've sprayed a quick two coats of silver base, and two coats of Metalcast Red. Considering it was a windy humid day and I did no sanding between coats, I think it would come up well under a clear coat.

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Messing around with layers and tones could be interesting. It has a reasonable coverage yet is still slightly transparent, so using chrome and black as a base could give cool results. They also do a metal flake style paint that could be layed down before the transparent top colour.

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Managed to get a Thudbuster from Chain Reaction cycles on sale reduced from $250 to $125. I was keen to have it as I didn't fancy a full rigid rear. A bobber setup will stop the mass of the motor transferring into my lower back on every bump.

As this is a summertime bike, and being as I live in Australia, most people I come across will be wearing thongs (flip flops, jandles, what ever you may call them) or barefoot, I wanted to provide a strong deterant to people riding without shoes. These should suffice :twisted:

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Now all I can think about is if these suckers bite the tarmac and whip around into my leg, it may mean stitches.

Carbon Mount for Cycle Analyst. The carbon is nice, the fugly plastic mount will be replaced with something a bit nicer.
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The bars are 90 degree drag bars with a slight rise.
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Cycle analyst courtesy of Samd
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Took a fist full of carbon fibre spacers to fit the forks. Which I will balance out when I see the ride height with all wheels on.

And of course the star of the show....
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Hi matey,
Do you have a link for the 64mm wide rim?
Also if you find that your tyres are not up to scratch that a 20" motorbike tyre will fit on a 24" mtb rim.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281070680283?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649
Darren
 
Willow said:
...look forward to seeing this come together.

Should come together quick enough! Stay tuned

cheekybloke said:
Hi matey,
Do you have a link for the 64mm wide rim?
Also if you find that your tyres are not up to scratch that a 20" motorbike tyre will fit on a 24" mtb rim.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281070680283?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649
Darren
The rim is on its way from Classic-Cycles.
http://www.classic-cycle.de/en/Read.../Alu-Rim-DH-64-24-inch-64-mm-black-matte.html
I think the tyres will be great for looks and general cruising. If I really want to stretch the legs on this motor, I will need an upgrade!. I have fitted a 16 inch moto tyre to a 20 BMX rim. I didn't realise that there even is 20 inch moto tyres? I'll have to look into that. If I can find them in Australia ill grab a set, it costs a fortune to ship tyres to Australia as other members can attest. Those tyre with some Port-o-Walls would look bad ass!

KalSteve said:
Looks like its going to be a very cool cruiser build. Where did you get the forks from?
I picked them up for $399 from http://www.cyclingdeal.com.au/buy/dnm-usd-8-mountain-downhill-bike-air-fork-1-1-8-20/USD-8
The price on these forks tend to dance around a bit. Ive seen them for as low as $399 but as high as $600. So be patient and they will hit the number your looking for. They are ok to deal with, I have had a few things come from them.

cwah said:
great work!

where did you get the handlebar riser?
To be honest mate im not sure. I just searched for 'carbon bicycle computer mount'. Theres lots of different varieties out there. The carbon tube is nice but the bracketry is not so much. Its sturdy but needs a small amount of loc-tite to really make it bite.
 
My Ruff cycles crank set has arrived, They have the best packaging!

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Quality seems pretty high, basic materials, but robust.
A quick attempt to fit them has shown another spot that's not quite true. The bracket seems to be warped, I'd suppose that from all of the welding being on one side of the bracket....uneven heating and cooling. I will give it a light grind and polish then I should be grand to go! These pedals better be short enough :shock:
Please let today be the day my fat ass rear wheel arrives!!!
 
...I have a couple of these frames too - and using the same DNM forks.

this drawing demonstrates what happens when using such long forks... tyres I'm using are 18inch moto type - with the front wheel having a slightly smaller rolling radius than the rear. I've even set the forks 30mm up past the tree clamp to shorten them... but as you can see - it cocks (...ha ha, cocks) the front end up, and looks a little goofy. Pedal clearance should not be a problem - but you don't want to go into a corner with the inside pedal down.

The frame was designed to be using short legged forks - so the top tube remains horizontal. I'm doing some frame mods to make this a little more pleasing to the eye...

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Willow said:
...I have a couple of these frames too - and using the same DNM forks.

this drawing demonstrates what happens when using such long forks... tyres I'm using are 18inch moto type - with the front wheel having a slightly smaller rolling radius than the rear. I've even set the forks 30mm up past the tree clamp to shorten them... but as you can see - it cocks (...ha ha, cocks) the front end up, and looks a little goofy. Pedal clearance should not be a problem - but you don't want to go into a corner with the inside pedal down.

The frame was designed to be using short legged forks - so the top tube remains horizontal. I'm doing some frame mods to make this a little more pleasing to the eye...


Cheers for the heads-up Willow! Do you have a larger resolution copy of the CAD drawing? It would be invaluable to me!!
Yeh I have noticed a bit of rake going on. I have adjusted the lower clamps to get some level ride height. Still waiting on my rear rim (3 weeks now) so I cant get the final ride height set. I have a low profile 26inch setup in the back which has a nearly Identical OD to the white walls. Ive fitted the 140mm cranks from Ruff Cycles and they have loads of room. Feels odd pedalling such a short crank.....but there wont be much of that nonsense going on.

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140mm Crankset from Ruff Cycles - Gusset Bear Trap pedals

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Thudbuster ST with 70.5mm cut away from seat post.

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Cant wait to paint! You can see the angle of the backbone is leaning back. Need to squeeze another 2cm out of the front forks.
 
another option to get the geometry right (get the top tube level) would be to raise the rear tyre with a bolt on torque plate adaptor that lowers the axle a couple inches.
that would give more clearence too, without going to larger dia rear tyre, and..... ..also be a torque plate 8)

looking good though!
 
ridethelightning said:
another option to get the geometry right (get the top tube level) would be to raise the rear tyre with a bolt on torque plate adaptor that lowers the axle a couple inches.
that would give more clearence too, without going to larger dia rear tyre, and..... ..also be a torque plate 8)

looking good though!

Yep awesome idea mate. I do need torque plates of some description, so I could snare an inch or so there. Ill see what I can knock up. time for a bit of Cardboard aided design. In the picture you uploaded, what is the thickness of each individual plate you've sandwiched together? and do you have an epoxy between them?
 
Well I'm a dope. :oops:

I decided to split open the hard case on one of my batteries today. I had believed all along that they were 18ah batteries. The manufacturer specs them out like this:
-----------------------
Voltage: 12 V
EqAh: 18
Pulse Crank Amps (PCA): 340A
Cold Crank Amps (CCA): 230A
Recommended Charge Amps: 1-8 A
Max Charge Amps: 30A

-----------------------
http://earthxmotorsports.com/shop/etx18c/

When I purchased them, I hadn't noticed the "Eq" before "Ah".
I was pretty shattered to see the actual size of the battery, and then read the side markings. "12v 6Ah".

So I now have a 6ah 60v battery or Some very nice 12v batteries for my headlight. F@#K!
At least I now know that I can fit well over 100v in there......all be it at 6ah. Again, F@#K!
 
Sean9002 said:
ridethelightning said:
another option to get the geometry right (get the top tube level) would be to raise the rear tyre with a bolt on torque plate adaptor that lowers the axle a couple inches.
that would give more clearence too, without going to larger dia rear tyre, and..... ..also be a torque plate 8)

looking good though!

Yep awesome idea mate. I do need torque plates of some description, so I could snare an inch or so there. Ill see what I can knock up. time for a bit of Cardboard aided design. In the picture you uploaded, what is the thickness of each individual plate you've sandwiched together? and do you have an epoxy between them?

each plate is 3mm thick,laser-cut stainless.
total of 7 plates for 21mm thick clamping torque vice!
maybe a little heavy handed but even at over 10kw i can just forget about any axle strife.
no epoxy, just a bead of tig here an there, but this warps things...i could have actually just stuck with all nuts and bolts.
 
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I've always wanted a Brooks saddle, now ive got one. :D Its a beautiful bit of kit!
[youtube]GV2Y2kIUkIs[/youtube]

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If your looking for some serious comfort, I highly recommend bolting your brooks (or any other for that matter) saddle to a thudbuster......so many level of 'squish-adjustability'

Shes going to be a comfy ride on longer journeys.
 
danjpendleton said:
Love the build

Cheers Dan. I really dig your tracker style bike. Especially that headlight! :mrgreen:

I have a couple of spoke sets for Radial, one cross and two cross. I really wanted to see this bike with a radial lace at some point just for the aesthetics. So here it is just loosely spoked

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Awesome rims. Just went to buy a few online, and team germany all sold out til March!

Looks rad mate.
 
Samd said:
Awesome rims. Just went to buy a few online, and team germany all sold out til March!

Looks rad mate.

It took 4 weeks for the last rim to arrive! but well worth the wait!
 
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A big happy new year to all the sphere crew. I hope you all had a safe and happy time over the holidays (and that you got some time off work 8) )

I was lucky enough to have 3 full weeks off before I start a new position. Most of the time has been spent with family and working around the house. Theres been a good chunk of garage time too.
My birthday is the day after Christmas, and this year I decided I was going to do it in true 'me' style : Big birthday breakfast courtesy of my folks, Cleaned my garage, re-organised my workshop, drank beer and watched the boxing day test! (for anyone who's not into cricket....its a 5 day game of cricket)

So a big thankyou to my best mates Todd and Matty who worked there ass off to get my garage clean.
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Next task was something to prevent a hernia while rolling that big girl around the workshop. I repurposed my old wind-trainer into a stand a while ago, but it still took the same if not more effort to get her moved.

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The powder coating on it was fine to go straight over. Its not going to be seen in detail. Pulled thedcals and scuffed it up followed by a good de-wax/grease

I here by nominate my self for worst spray booth of 2015. Worked a treat!

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Black Base coat with Silver micro flake

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3 coats of candy red - top coat still wet. The blotchy application looks like its caused by the top coat, but its due to a lack of flake coverage in those spots. I was using an airbrush that needed more oomph.
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It really looked great after a few coats of clear. The sunlight hits the flake well and will be far better on my next application.
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Hard to get an accurate photo of the colours indoors, but here it is. Each wheel is rated to 150KG (5 and 12/6ths of an elephant....or however Americans measure things :lol: )

New rotors. 203mm

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I wanted to add a reasonable range to the bike since ive felt how comfortable it is.
So I started expanding the tank space. Ive added 4 cm to either side. Started with a large dense foam board.
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As nice as it would be to fill all that space with LIPO, it was very uncomfortable sitting so bow legged.
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Split The foam in twain
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[youtube]ZXRb6nPcx10[/youtube]

And that's where im at. Need to practice my fiber glassing a bit and then onwards!
 
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