Reid's Stealth Cruiser: Float your eBOAT? Ideas, anyone? p22

[Reid Welch]

You are very confident....(I'm not sure I would have done this) Nice work!!!

Yes you could have done this. You can do it, or use some of these techniques with your next ebike build. It's not the doing that's hard,
but only the conceptualizing that takes time. I've done my conceptualizing, setting the bike aside and sleeping on ideas
for days or weeks at a time, wondering how best to keep it simple.

What's lacking and must lack: great speed potential, because it's rear wheel brake only, and a hard tail bike with no suspension other than its soft tires and Thudbuster seat.
It lacks "complex looks" appeal, which can be a plus for a lot of people.
It looks like a nothing bike, nearly, which -is- the goal here.
It must be rugged, reliable and unbreakable and weatherproof-supreme: leave it out in the rain, etc,
and just use the thing, and no wear-out of the usual parts because there are no $!@( hi-tek, unservicable cartridge bearings;
just grease fittings and hundred year old cup and cone bearings and brake, all of which cost mere pennies to replace
if ever I can even wear them out (which is unlikely because they are all greasable at will).
And the hub motor: it -does- have two cartridge bearings, but they won't ever fail because they run in contained oil,
as does the motor internals, themselves; oil that can be changed at intervals, not that that should be needed,
but it can be done in a few minutes, without much mess or effort: two screws, drain, refill with a few ounces of ATF oil.

Proofing the Cycle Analyst against moisture entry will be the biggest challenge. Things with wire entry points are a challenge to truly seal, particularly against pressurized water (as when/if the CA is put several feet under water);
its mode switch must be capped with a rubber button-cover of some sort.

Concepts are my strong point; luck of the bloodlines. I get free thinking from my g'dad I never knew:
the first portable window air conditioner.
I get my big mouth and confidence and conviction of ideas from my g'mother's first cousin,
Drew Pearson: telling the nation about the end of the line for Hitler and of the start of a new era.
Note that he talks a great deal; I do too!

[Reid Welch]

About ready to lace-tie the pack into the basket...

I had second thoughts: the sides are that milky-clear. Why not lightly paint the whole thing black with Krylon Fusion
(It will stick fine to that rubbery sealant). Meanwhile, what have we in the Cycle Analyst?


Waterproofing must be done at some point. For now I must solder the two leads of Justin's 12 LED headlight
to the CA's 36V input power (the headlight has an inbuilt voltage converter and regulator to drop the volts down to the LED's needs).


All I had on hand ten minutes ago is gloss Fusion. Note how the top looks lumpy and brush-marked.
I could've gotten the top a lot smoother had I water-brushed the wet caulking, easing it down flat.

But the top does not matter: I'm going to cover just the top and the two ends with black cloth glued
on with Polyseamseal adhesive clear caulk (PVC glue is what it really is) and then tie across the top of the pack.
See, the black sides of the pack will pretty much visually disappear behind the diamond mesh sides of the basket.
That's the plan anyway. The paint is dry enough in thirty minutes, but I have to go work on the roof now.
More pictures later...possibly of me, splattered on the pavement twenty feet below the roof leak
___________

PS, afterword: I'm alive!
Clickable bloggy pictures
The same PVC rubbery caulking as was used on the battery pack.

My life-helper, Ernie, ready to catch me if I fell....uh....wait...I've got a 500K life insurance policy hanging over his head
I am worth lots, dead, and nothing, alive. So that's why he's smiling, I think.

I never before noticed how nice that courtyard brickwork was done; that fantail pattern.
Ernie built this house 35 years ago. One craftsman laid all that brick in mortar, on a six inch poured slab,
twenty two thousand bricks, three months, working five days a week. They don't do this sort of work anymore,
which is OK by us because we don't have any money anymore. Sometimes people outlive their moolah.
At least the house looks nice. Appearances deceive.

________________

OK, now back to the battery pack: will put some black cloth over the top and down part of the sides of the pack,

PPS: Done! Clickable boring pictures. Thick black woolen billiard cloth. The thick "glue" (Polyseamseal Clear Caulk)
does not soak through. Then into the low temperature oven, then fold and glue the short sides later (the BMS does not get covered).






and then into the g-d basket for the last time, and tie it in and wire it in and never stop posting to this silly thread

[Reid Welch]

Now to the Cycle Anylyst: I want it to be fully dunkable. The side switch needs to be replaced with one amenable to a neat sealing job.

Earphone bud coated with that very nice-handling silicone glue, Perfect Glue #1.
A spacer (a rubber grommet probably) may be needed to space out the new, longer N.O. switch.
Wire in the 12LED headlight from Justin's firm to the V+ and G pads on the Analyst board, seal,
done. Should be good for five or ten feet underwater (not that I'd go that deep), only due to the plastic window of the C.A.
'cos it's not a submarine pressure hull

[Reid Welch]

Notes: a second application of Perfect Glue will be applied in a couple of hours (it will bond to previous coats)
I may need to install a loose rubber grommet =under= the switch flange, to space the switch body out, away from the board; not a problem if that's necessary: once the clamping nut is lightly tightened: no water at all can enter this one weak point of the C. A.

[Zoot Katz]

. . . Notes: a second application of Perfect Glue will be applied in a couple of hours (it will bond to previous coats)
. . .

That confirms it. You're a solvents junkie!
No wonder you're nuts, but we love you. uhhh, Not that we love your nuts but do admire your balls, so to speak.
Go for it big guy.

[Reid Welch]

. . . Notes: a second application of Perfect Glue will be applied in a couple of hours (it will bond to previous coats)
. . .

That confirms it. You're a solvents junkie!
No wonder you're nuts, but we love you. uhhh, Not that we love your nuts but do admire your balls, so to speak.
Go for it big guy.

Thanks. It really is much ado about nearly nothing. It will be fun to try to break the bike,
bend rims, etc. I suspicion that the 10PSI front Big Hank will go a long way toward protecting the spokes and the eZee from shock.
We'll see pretty soon. Hoping for a monsoon rain soon for a first swim of the bike around and past stalled cars.
It won't go fast but it should go far. I wonder if the plain thumb throttle will give trouble if submerged or soaked?

I don't like the look of the intial lacing. Think I'll probably just tie straight across, many times, each tie knotted and taut..
The battery is a bit lumpy and uneven as made. The thick cloth smooths it out to a great extent, purely cosmetic.

And yet: I can always, always, get right into the pack if service is needed. All of the coating and cloth an tape will come right off.

Boring stuff but maybe some of the ideas will be amenable to other kinds of ebike builds.

Little brain, small balls Reid.

[vanilla ice]

I wonder if the plain thumb throttle will give trouble if submerged or soaked?

I think it will give trouble.

[Reid Welch]

I wonder if the plain thumb throttle will give trouble if submerged or soaked?

I think it will give trouble.

Then it will be made to work.

"Nothing worthwhile ever works right, the very first time, just to please you;
you've got to MAKE the damned thing work!"
Thomas Edison

[vanilla ice]

"Word to your mother." -Vanilla Ice

[Reid Welch]

Please rate the video? Just click on the image, log into yt, and please give this video five stars for the kids;
after all, I'm one of them too

Yes, 'tis my favorite little video today, mostly, entirely because of the children:
kids are perfectly open to new concepts, ideas.

"Those tires are a little..."

a little what? Phat for a bike? (I'll never know what he was thinking of saying),
but he'll never forget the bike, and I'll never forget the inherent honesty of childhood.

PS: that bump is a notoriously nasty ficus tree root just under the asphalt covering.
No unsuspended bike or rider can pass over that root at any speed at all.
Here I sit on the Thudbuster, digicam in my free, left hand, and steer the tiller with my right hand,
and the bump is a bump, but it's not a ride killer or camera-catapult.

[Reid Welch]

Boy, it's tight in there. The new, normally open, push button mode-switch needs an ugly spacer grommet to allow for the board to fit as per original. It looks clunky, but so it goes. (not seen here in these pictures, not yet)

Some people collect grommets like other people collect pancakes or roadkill








the hole in the back plate: entry for the lead to the 12LED flood.
QUESTION, just to be sure: I connect its red and black to the red and black pads,
the far left and far right, seen in the final picture, righto?

I can check with a multimeter for presence for the battery voltage, full, that should be there when I've turned the system on.

For the moment: silicone glue and PVC glues are drying.

Not shown: a tiny vent hole was put into the back plate, to be covered with a bit of adhesive tape,
in case slight condensation ever gets into the CA: open the hole and let the unit dry out in the sun.
The case back will be lightly silicone-glued shut for a water seal.

Then we test the lamp and C. A. by long submersion in a bucket of water, to ensure that it's all watertight enough.
Then re-clamp it all to the bars and look for a water sprinkler. Or rainstorm. Or pool.

[Reid Welch]

Justin's amazing little 12 LED lamp powered by the Cycle Analyst: I opted for no switch: always on,
whenever the bike is powered.

Am going for a ride! Now!








Some minor neatening of the handlebar wires and some black zip ties and a bit of this and that,
and it's finished, ready for hard duty road trials. CURBS. I want to fly (within limits)

[Brainersan]

I must compliment you on your aesthetics - really nice. Today, I received my eZee kit and I have taken a short shake down cruise already. Incredible how it turns up so many things that are slightly out of whack but now as an aggregate they scream "adjust and fix me." Mainly though there's way too many cables every where. So now a new challenge. I thought perhaps of welding an open tube underneath the top tube (from seat to steerer) and just run them through there but now I am thinking of perhaps something more cruiser like, perhaps with an internal three speed hub. I can see that I'll only be using tall gears anyway. I digress. I do want to thank you for the videos. As I unpacked the box and said, "eye-yi-yi!" it was comforting to know that I could get some hand holding. So aesthetics tomorrow and getting to know the Cycle Analyst better. Thanks for all the great content.

[Reid Welch]

I must compliment you on your aesthetics - really nice. Today, I received my eZee kit and I have taken a short shake down cruise already. Incredible how it turns up so many things that are slightly out of whack but now as an aggregate they scream "adjust and fix me." Mainly though there's way too many cables every where. So now a new challenge. I thought perhaps of welding an open tube underneath the top tube (from seat to steerer) and just run them through there but now I am thinking of perhaps something more cruiser like, perhaps with an internal three speed hub. I can see that I'll only be using tall gears anyway. I digress. I do want to thank you for the videos. As I unpacked the box and said, "eye-yi-yi!" it was comforting to know that I could get some hand holding. So aesthetics tomorrow and getting to know the Cycle Analyst better. Thanks for all the great content.

It's a wonderful kit. Perfect for a first-time ebike builder like me.
Thank you for the kind words.

BTW, folks, most of my videos are super boring, but not the next video, I promise.

Here's where I'm at: have racked 104 miles.
The fantastic CA has been programmed to limit the current draw of the 36/20 Ping pack to a mere 13A.
This still gives me 20mph unassisted.

With the 52t chainring and 16t rear cog, I can pedal assist at any speed, even above 20mph; 23mph being about the
fastest comfortable spinning speed.

Handling: everything about this modified hardtail cruiser bike goes against the books:
The weight distribution: it's 210lbs with me on it, and most of that weight is on the rear tire.
The front tire, that fat Bontrager slick, see page one of this thread, runs great at just 10PSI.

NO front brake, not wanted here...keeping it very simple. Drive with caution and anticipate traffic. No hills here either.
To stop: lean back, back pedal and yell, "Whoa, Nellie!" (Mathurin understands).
This rear-lean-back of the rider lessens the tendency to skid the rear;
which, if the rear tire does skid, only fishtails the bike in an entertaining manner;
skid not dangerous, no front wheel lockup possible. I drive it like I used to drive my Model T: same brakes, rear only,
LOOK ahead and watch out for soccer moms.

The Thud Buster plus that soft front tire (and the rear is only at 20PSI), make this bike ride like it were full suspension.
I stay on the seat and fly off sidewalk curbings at 20mph, no problem, no discomfort, no major shock to the bike.

I can run on and off the road with equal aplomb. Nearby is a sunken park, a former rock quarry. It is grassy, has trees,
tree roots and some loose gravel in places, steep slopes, a flat bottom.

I just returned from a ten mile jaunt. I finished the ride by bombing through, around, all over that park.
Tree roots mean nothing to the bike. The steep slopes, as much as a one in four grade, are handled fine with pedal assist.

Exiting the park, climbing the south slope, atop the slope, bordering the park, is a concrete walkway: about 5 inches proud of of the dirt.
PULL up on the handlbars and over that bump and stay on the seat, going about 7mph, I'd reckon: no problem.

Regular curbings, 6 and more inches tall: I lean back, yank the bars and jump onto the curb or walkway,
not going 20mph, no, but punishingly fast: yet I stay seated on the long throw Thud Buster's padded seat.

So far, so very good. Nothing breaks. Nothing strained. No need even to use the full 20A steady-state-rated delivery of the low-C-rate Ping;
higher currents would only waste current on start-ups, since I do not much baby the throttle at start up;
I just floor it.

Cruising WOT costs about 9.5A; about 400W. This varies of course with headwind, tailwind, and the slightest grades.
Note that the 400W nominal includes motor and planet gear losses.
Pedal assisting at any speed lets the Cycle Analyst show you exactly, instantly, what muscle power you are inputting,
saving your battery.
The C.A. is truly a marvelous, versatile product.

In retrospect I wish now I'd gotten the Ping 48V pack for a bit more WOT-clear road speed,
but really: wind resistance above 20mph makes ebiking this way a waste of current,
and 20mph is a safe, "bike-like" speed: nobody gives this bike a second look.

I need to make an action video for a change: a wild ride around the park would be exciting;
it's just too bad that videos tend to make slopes and hills look flat, and tree roots, etc, less like they are in life.

The eZee is going to live a long time on this bike. Maybe in a year or two I'll upgrade to a higher voltage,
but for now: it's safer and saner to keep this basic bike truly bike-like, especially since its front wheel
=cannot have a brake=; the 10PSI Big Hank up there would not like the braking strains; it would wrinkle its sidewalls
and maybe pinch/chafe flat in time.

So, as it is: it is a unique cruiser...a cruiser, not a muscle bike, but a cruiser that will gladly bomb on and off road
along with the best of any hard or soft tail bikes. Only the rider's skill and strength (I have neither at this time) are its limits.

It could do this; I'm sure of it; I climbed a slope that steep thirty minutes ago. And to jump the logs? A good rider
could do it. And with a singlespeed cruiser: mine! I need to find a local bike athlete someday who will put this geezer bike
through torture tests and try to break it, and fail to break it because...I have confidence in its build, on the land and the sea and the air.
Really: because Dom is going underwater eventually, and THAT video will be something to see.
______________

my video list of boring videos for bike and ebike beginners

____________________
_________________________________

edit: to remove unaccountable profane-phrase that created itself when I copied and pasted a long url.
i have NO idea how that happened. I don't use bad words, you uckers.
(thanks to the moderator who fixed the problem).
R.

[K__4]

BTW, folks, most of my videos are super boring, but not the next video, I promise.

Well done, Reid.
Everything seems perfect now.
Will we see the fontain ride? I'm curious about it.
I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Splish splash,
Georg

[Reid Welch]

BTW, folks, most of my videos are super boring, but not the next video, I promise.

Well done, Reid.
Everything seems perfect now.
Will we see the fountain ride? I'm curious about it.
I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Splish splash,
Georg

Spish Splash, Georg.
That stunt should be coming up fairly soon or I'll be a wet blanket!

[Reid Welch]

130 miles on the new bike so far. It is making friends wherever I stop and chat.
People all have to be shown that it is a pedal bike PLUS "free power" on demand;
no complicated multispeed gearing is needed here at all. It'd be a different story if we had hills here.
It scoots across intersections from a standing start, keeping right up with traffic
or with the fastest, fittest Lycras.

"I want one!" says the young security guard at the local bank.

I am not going to be driving my car for the little local errands anymore.

The range of the bike with its Ping 36/20 appears to be about 35 miles unassisted;
so my normal depth of discharge is quite low, as most trips are under 10 miles.

This is a pleasure and errand bike. I don't work so it's not a commuter, and there are no hills,
though I can maintain 20mph up a 4% grade (a bridge) if I pedal assist.

My only regret now is that I wish I'd gotten the 48/20 Ping...maybe next year.

It sure is fun to bomb around the sunken park at high speeds, bump, bump, bang!
And nothing breaks! And I'm out of shape and fifty five years old next month.
If I were thirty again...high speed and an e-bmx for me!

At thirty, this same house, and even then: rear wheel brakes only:

[Reid Welch]

74F, 4AM, sea level, no breeze,

no traffic, no stops of any sort. Flatland.

36V/20Ah PING battery.
ATF-oil filled motor (to lube the planet/ring gear contact)
THIS TECHNIQUE OF OIL IS AN EXPERIMENT, not a recommendation for others.

It is an eZee front hub motor kit, bought, like the Ping, at full retail direct from the vendor.


The pair of featured articles got their first near-realistic workouts late last night when all sane people sleep and dream....







Steel hard tail, 150lb-me, 60lb bike, Thud Buster, eZee front, Bontrager Big Hanks, a mere 10PSI in in the nearly unloaded front;
20 PSI in the rear; these are "giant" cross-section tires relatively speaking, and need very little pressure...
like auto tires lightly loaded would need only low pressure. Big load trucks run 90PSI for a reason: to bear the load v. cross section.
Low, very low rolling resistance tires. Wind resistance: massive for the tires above 20 and for leaned-back, fully upright-me.

Absolutely non-aero stance; I was looking at the stars.

[Reid Welch]

"I was looking at the stars but I was thinking about you"
(a song title I just made up)

I am a parodist, and a great big nut.
I like to cut pretension into little cubes of stale cheese to serve with toothpicks.
Off topic, not really; same home, same mechanic, 25 years later; this is silly humour.

Like it or not...
Have fun!

[The Stig]

haha good pictures

[Reid Welch]

haha good pictures

Thank you, Stig.

[Reid Welch]

A popular type, made with differences of minor importance by many factories, is the four-horse power single cylinder shown here. The motor is hung as low in the frame as possible, to bring the center of gravity low; the seat, well provided with springs, is also placed so low that the rider's feet can touch the ground: the gasoline and lubricating oil tanks are carried below the top bar and are shaped to fit the frame; the wheels are 28 inches diameter, steel rims and fitted with detachable tires; a coaster brake is used in the rear wheel and usually some form of spring fork is used to lessen vibration.

There is no front brake at all. This is a machine design-centered for about 20mph.

Source

So there, Doubting Thomases! Mud roads, hills, little traffic, brass balls, a moped more than a modern motorcycle.
Front brakes then were considered incredibly complicated to make well, and hellishly dangerous. Try one on mud or dirt and see.

I emphasize again, that virtually all vehicles of any nature were rear-wheel braked only. It was not that engineers were stupid, but that two things were in their choice of favor: convention and design. It is MUCH more challenging to make a front wheel brake, because the front wheel steers...this is especially true with four wheeled, front-steering vehicles. At long, long last, in 1924, the auto industry was forced by example and PR, to design and fit four wheel brakes. The Model T, alive through 1927, did not follow suit.

Brakes then were mechanical linkages in almost all installations, and required constant equalization adjustment, testing, maintenance.
Yet, they stopped so much faster, that all wise motorists in the mid-twenties carried warning plates, often one in front, printed in mirror image, "FOUR WHEEL BRAKES", and always, a rear warning placard put into the triangle of the rear, spare tire: FOUR WHEEL BRAKES. This warned Fordists and others to keep a safe following distance, or else!

Bikes are better by far with front wheel brakes. They still travel at 15 to 20 mph, and unless competing with modern traffic, in traffic,
a rear wheel brake-only may suffice; it certainly did for fifty or one hundred years, on many, nearly all bikes. Spoon brakes on front were exceptions, inadequate, but reasonably safe.

Nothing like a front wheel lockup on wet or muddy pavement to put a man off his bike's super-duper brakes, fast. Blow a tire, bang ur hd, or worst: the crsh (personally experienced) of an un-seasonsed, Varsity-riding child, on a slimy, wet sidewalk at a mere three miles per hour. It was my first ride on the birthday present. Not before, not since, had I hever crashed a coaster brake bike due to bad braking technique.
We had coaster brakes, used them instinctively, and never strayed from within their limits. Shift backwards, young man!
Sheldon Brown, et all, were and are wrong on this modern mental aberration of "front brakes required!" Horsefeathers!
Unless you do long downhills at high speeds and lack featherbeds at the bottoms. Tie a pillow to your head, fred!


Vorpal Sword Reid

[Reid Welch]

I'm healed. If you recall from another thread (search " header 20 mph), my bike pole vaulted.
The eZee remained in the lawyer-lipped steel fork, but wound its wires, breaking at least one hall sensor wire.

I =could= salvage the fork: it appears nearly perfect, not bent; just spread lips.

Good old Coral Way Bike Shop They were closed today: USA's Labor day,
but the co-owner happened to be in the shop doing little things. The door was locked. I wave the fork at him.

"No problem! That's from one of our Miami "Sunkruiser" bikes, right? Call me tomorrow late and I'll confirm that the local distributor will send us a new fork, identical, by the end of Wednesday.
No deposit needed.

The fork is super-heavy, old tech, "hi ten" mild steel. It's stiffer than hell, yet,
I'm going to make it stiffer yet. This is my Model T technique for wiggly tie rods:
I'm going to fill that fork with semi-hard epoxy, through its water-drain (RUST MAKER) holes,
and have a composite fork that I could soak in the Bay for a week with no rust, no trouble fifty years from now.

This is to be a bike to outlast me by decades.
A fork need not be flexible. A TIRE needs to be flexible; that's your shock absorber.
And tell me, front suspension enthusiasts who load their flimsy telescoping forks with ten or twenty pounds of hub motor,
is such a fork up to the task, long term? Will it ever wear, grow a bit wobbly?
My bike, I just betcha, Mister, can and will coast down the long, 4% grade Rickenbacker bridge at forty or more mph (just coasting because it's a 20 mph bike, and be as rock-stable as any motorcycle.

We shall see. I'm gonna paint the fork Rustoleum yellow with a brush (or maybe a can), bake it at 150F in the oven, two coats, and fit it to the motor axle, to the bike, and ride, sally, ride. And fear nothing but
a color clash until I brush paint the rest of the silver steel-painted frame.

This to-do is also going to spend a night at the bottom of my neighbor's swimming pool, and then be run,
proving its components are all short-proof. And none of the bearings, from hub to headstock, will suffer the least from water, nor will the tubing take on water to rust it from the inside out.

A good bike should be as weather-lasting as the finest cars, salted roads or not.
Our roads are not salted, at least.

Old Yeller with Plans,
Reid (or Rid of, if he takes another header)

[northernmike]

This might work out better for you, sir!





If you're only going to run 10psi in your tires, why not use tires designed for it?

I respectfully maintain, however, that filling a flexible, elastic, steel tube fork with hard, brittle, heavy epoxy resin is a compromise at best!

[Reid Welch]

This might work out better for you, sir!





If you're only going to run 10psi in your tires, why not use tires designed for it?

I respectfully maintain, however, that filling a flexible, elastic, steel tube fork with hard, brittle, heavy epoxy resin is a compromise at best!

Harumph!

First: Only my mother calls me sir. Everyone else calls me "idiot fool".

Second: the Surly features knobby, noisy tires not needed for clean dry or wet pavement on which I run.
The Bontrager giant slicks are the coolest looking feature of this bike. People squeeze them. Do they squeeze your knobs, meant in the nice way?

Third: The Surly is super and its price reflects its build quality. Is is aluminum?
I want no aluminum frame. I want no wear-able parts.

Fourth: it has gears that I absolutely don't need, no fenders, which I do need for riding in the rain,
and...ride a dirt bike in the mud and have fun replacing alloy chainrings, chains, "sealed" bearings, etc.
My simple bike will never need a new ball bearing set, but if it did: fifty cents and a half hour and a pair of wrenches or wenches, if they are mechanical lesbians.

I go over double concrete curbs and stay =on the saddle=.

The ten PSI is perfect for this tire, which more usually is run at 25PSI or so;
in fact, if I installed a front brake, higher air pressure would be mandatory to prevent sidewall wrinkling on heavy braking.

The weight is not on the front of the bike. It is in "perfect" rear-biased balance;
it is positively stable, precise steering, and quiet and just about bullet proof.

Fourth: I expect a drive by shooting some day. This is Miami. When that happens,
erase what I said at the end of the prior paragraph?

Thank you for differing with my ways and modest means.
Discourse and disagreement lead to the best of friendships.

----
You play Little John. I'll be Robin Hood. I look good in tights on Friday nights out on the town. Green.


double click on the player and choose "HQ" if at all possible. Technicolor truth.