Cowardlyducks - E-BikeE builds

Hi guys,

Since I built this bike, I've been using a backpack strapped over the seat to transport my gear each day. It's never been an ideal solution, but I've managed to put up with it for the most part.
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Recently, after having to repair my seat mesh (again) and having the backpack fall off a number of times during rides, I decided enough was enough and I would come up with a more permanent solution.
My criteria for a replacement was that it had to be very quick/easy to attach/remove (I'm tired of having to stuff around with elastic straps every day), and it had to be the right size/shape to fit comfortably behind the seat on the tail section of the frame.
I college of mine has a Topeak rack mount bag that caught my attention when I saw the bottom of it and noticed the grid pattern of ABS plastic. I realised that it was about the same width as the tail section of the BikeE and a bunch of carefully placed strong (N52 Neodymium) magnets might be enough to hold it to the frame and still make it easy enough to remove.
So I ordered a Topeak MTX Trunk Bag EX, a bunch of N52 magnets (not cheap for the genuine ones!) and some very strong epoxy (Devcon Plastic Steel).
I had to order magnets at about half the size I needed for each slot as there were not any magnets the right size I could find. Once I had them in hand I realised they would fit stacked so went with that configuration, but used more than I had so changed back to the original plan for the last 2 slots. I couldn't manage to get any magnets to stay for one slot as the way I had done it meant they would always propel themselves out while the epoxy was setting.
I'm not too savvy on magnetic fields, so not sure if this is the best configuration for magnetic strength but it seems to be ok.
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It's hard to see, but over the top of the magnets is a piece of thin clear plastic. This was just some left over packaging, and I added it to try and prevent any of the magnets pulling out of the epoxy when the bag is lifted up.
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Next I had to roughen up the tail of the BikeE. This was painful, I have to admit, but there was no way the epoxy was going to bond to a smooth flat surface like the anodised aluminium of the tail.
Some course sand paper made quick work of the finish and I was left with the bare aluminium.
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Then the magnets got added with the Devcon epoxy (I just used generic clear stuff on the bag). I had to be very careful to match the magnetic fields as I went and I used additional coin magnets underneath the frame to hold everything in place as it dried.
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I also added some magnets to my tool bag which sits underneath the tail and this helps hold it in position together with it's strap.
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The magnetic force holding the bag on is not quite as strong as I had hoped, and the bag has a tendency to slide off to the side, so I also added some velcro (hook n loop) in the gap and end of the tail. This does seem to prevent it sliding, however it can still roll off in strong cornering.
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So I need to make use of the spring loaded latch at the front of the bag. I think that if I can make something for it to latch onto that is attached to the frame or seat, I won't see any issues.
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My initial thoughts were to make something out of wood, as it's what I have on hand. Ideally I would 3D print something, but I don't have a 3D printer (yet) and the only other option is to design something and send it off and hope it works out...could end up being costly.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers
 
Hi CD, I would try a short piece of aluminium angle with a hole cut in to accept the clip and fix to the frame with a couple of m5 screws.
 
IanM said:
Hi CD, I would try a short piece of aluminium angle with a hole cut in to accept the clip and fix to the frame with a couple of m5 screws.
Thanks Ian!
I think a similar idea might work. I don't really want to put any holes in the frame for screws as the battery and controller sit right behind that area. I might get lucky and find the area with just some wires, but even then it would make sliding the controller/sub 2S battery in and out a real PITA.
Similar to your suggestion, I had the idea to affix some plastic swivel points/hinges to some thick wire/steel rod bent to shape. Then I can rotate the clip up to the latch when in use and quickly/easily rotate away when removing and pressing the latch down.
An even better idea I just had is to use another seat quick release skewer/slider. Actually I wish I had thought of this originally as I probably could have not used as many magnets on the bag/frame and gotten it to work with these. :lol:
CRW_6091_edit_3d4526ac-9a53-44d3-8364-10ae3ea0fa78_grande.jpg

https://store.bicycleman.com/products/bike-e-seat-sliders-pair

I kind of wish I hadn't found this website as there's heaps of stuff I want to get for my BikeE now. :roll:

Cheers
 
markz said:
Is the stock seat comfortable?
How much did you pay for yours?
Yeah, it's reasonably comfortable. I find I can start to get a bit sore after more than 60km, but I don't do that distance often so it's not a problem.

I bought the bike in original form off a mate for $100AUD. That's pretty cheap though and if I were after another one I would be prepared to pay up to $400 I think.

Cheers
 
So the parts to make my bag hook arrived.
I managed to bend most of the QR skewer into the right shape using a hammer and clamp, but made a mistake on the last section. Bending it back straight and then back into shape again proved too much for it to handle and the skewer metal fatigued and snapped.
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I've got another one on order, and next time I will use a blow torch to heat it as I hammer it. Hopefully that will prevent it snapping again. Anyone got any other suggestions?

Cheers
 
Over the last week my solar panel started playing up and the charging display was not showing anything.
Over the weekend I investigated and narrowed it down to the panel itself. So I removed the panel and in the process managed to put a large crack in it:
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So I've ordered a replacement solar panel...this time a 30W panel which is only slightly larger. The old one was 18W, so nearly twice the power for only about 15% size increase is pretty good IMO.
I tested the old panel and while it does still work it is only able to put out about 0.3A shorted which is 2/3 down on it's original capability. I hate seeing things go to waste, so I decided to recycle it into a LED light for my kids fort.
I used an old 14.4V NiCad drill battery and a momentary switch. Since the panel is now only capable of 2.5W output at best, it should not matter that it's technically overcharging the battery.
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I'm forever telling my kids not to play with the light switches in the house...now they have one they can press as many times as they like.
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The other wires are not part of the light setup...this is an activity board with all sorts of wires, connections and other things for the kids to play with.

Cheers
 
Well after two more failures at bending QR skewers into shape, I finally got it to work using the last one I had left. :D
It turns out I wasn't adding enough heat when bending last time around.
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This time I heated the crap out of it...which also caused part of the mount to crack off. :( But I don't think it will prevent it from working anyway and it seems strong enough as is.
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A few quick tests and it seems to work exactly as intended. The bag cannot come off once the latch is hooked on, I can very easily slide the bag into position without having to push down the latch and it's very easy to push down the latch to take the bag off.

I'm very glad I persisted through 3 failures first or I wouldn't have gotten it to work.

Cheers
 
So today I finally took the new 30W solar panel for a spin today. This panel is about 30% larger, but offers 60% more power. :D

I mounted it last week, but due to non-stop rain since then I haven't had a chance to test it till today. I didn't notice any increased drag riding and if anything it's come down slightly, as today I used about 15Wh/Km which is slightly under my average.
In order to mount it I had to shift the panel up higher than my last one as it would have interfered with my pedalling otherwise. This meant I had to position it out much further so it doesn't interfere with my brake levers. A really long bolt and a bunch of spacers solved that problem but the unsecured top part of the panel then started to vibrate and move about lots. Since my light is attached to the very top of the panel, this was very annoying as it would throw the beam all over the place, not to mention it would be very puzzling to oncoming traffic. I solved it by pulling the top part of the panel where the light mounts tight with some string to a bolt on the top of the stem which also gives the very top a slight curve back as this is a flexible panel.
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Ideally it would be mounted more horizontal to catch more sun, but even in this position it works surprisingly well.

The biggest change I immediately noticed compared to my last (18W) panel is the ability this panel has to charge the battery even when no direct sunlight is on it. My 18W panel would only charge the battery if it had direct sunlight with minimal or no shading. This panel is able to continue to charge at 0.5-1.5W even when facing away from the sun or in shade.
Testing in direct sun I managed a 17W charge rate which is more than double the highest charge rate I ever saw from the 18W panel of 7W. After leaving it out all day to charge in my usual parking spot at work where it gets direct sunlight for about 6-7 hours at this time of year, I got 60Wh of charge. :shock: :D
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This is just under double the previous panels best daily charge amount. :)
If I could be bothered repositioning the panel throughout the day to catch the most sun, I'm sure it could even manage 100Wh on a cloudless summers day. At that rate, I would be able to fully charge the battery from completely empty in about 7 days and get about 6.5km range per day. Even at 60Wh, it's giving me about 4km range per day and would fully charge the battery from empty in about 12 days.

Next on the to do list is to better secure the rear Toppeak bag. I had it come off the other day when hitting a huge bump that launched it off the hook. It's also sliding sidway's sometimes, so I'm hoping to solve both problems with some more magnets on the corners right at the very back of the tail.

Cheers
 
Dam! It looks like the image hosting site (postimages.org) I previously used has deleted all the images so almost all the previous pages on this thread are now devoid of images. If anyone reading through my previous posts would really like an image let me know and I will try and dig it up to repost. I'm not going to go back through and fix up all the previous pages images though.
I'm going to try https://imgbb.com for a while and see how that goes.

On the way home from work the other day I had to stop and take a few photo's of the sunset with the bike as it was pretty impressive.




Cheers
 
Been a while since I updated this thread.

The bikes still going well with no major issues apart from my solar panel stopping working. I've got a 40W panel now that I just need to make mounts for first.
And I have the perfect tool for the job in my new 3D printer. :D I got an Flsun i3 clone and after a bit of stuffing around with different heat breaks and a lot of fine tuning got it working well enough to produce some fairly decent prints.

First on the list was a new mount for my LED light bar. This was previously zip tied in a horrible fashion so it's nice to finally have an easily adjustable option.
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Next is to try and get the mounts for my new panel made up.

Cheers
 
If anyone is interested in printing this mount for themselves, I have uploaded it here:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3029655
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I am also making another mount so I can have 2 LED light bars running together. One is a spot beam, the other is flood. Combined they should provide a decent amount of nice light.
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In this version I relocated the mount about 10mm further out from the steerer tube as I keep kicking it with my feet when turning and pedalling.
Mounting it higher would also solve this problem, but I'm limited by the length of my solar panel in that regard.

I'm also still working on the solar mounts, but it's hard without first taking the old panel completely off which I don't wanna do when the temperature is dipping to -7C some mornings around Canberra. The panel creates some really nice air deflection around me so I don't freeze solid, so until it warms up a bit I think the new panel mounting is on hold.

Cheers
 
I finally got around to mounting my new 40W panel! I also wired up and mounted dual 9W LED bar lights, one spot, one flood.

All in all it turned out pretty good, so I'll let the photo's do the talking:
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I am also very close to finalising my rear tool bag, but I'm not quite happy with it yet as it wants to open itself and makes a lot of noise over large bumps as the plastic flexes and all the contents jiggles around. And I've also nearly got the bag holding clips sorted also....had the bag come off a few times as I re-printed them too loose...it's a fine balance between having it grip tight enough, but not so tight that it's a battle to remove the bag every day. The final version of these parts won't really look much different than they do now though so they are is also:
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Next on the 3D printing list is a cover for my charging port tucked just under the front of the rear fork mounts. At present it's all just zip tied in there quite loosely and not sitting very well. I also want to make up a parallel port to JST connector thingy so I can more easily check balance etc without having to fish out and plug in each jst individually.

Cheers
 
It's over a year since I last changed a tyre on this bike and I've put over 4000km on it since then so now well overdue for new tyres.
I'm sticking with the same Maxxis M-Tread 20 x 2.1 tyres in the rear and Schwalbe Big Apple 16 x 2.0 in the front. I've not had any issues with traction or punctures with these tyres and if they can last 4000km+ between changes I'm happy with that.
Check out the difference between the wear on the old vs new:
Rear:
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Front:


I've also been having better results from my 40W solar panel now that it's summer here in Australia. On a good sunny day I've managed to get over 65Wh of charge! At my more economical consumption of 13Wh per km, that's 5km of range. :) Not too shabby! That's also without repositioning the panel through the day...just fixed in the one position in the middle of a business park surrounded by buildings. I'm sure I could get over 100Wh in an open area with proper repositioning through the day.
If the pack was fully empty (which it never is) that would mean I could fully charge the bike in about 7 days with good weather. Not something you would want to rely on, but not too bad either. :)

Cheers
 
Latest 3D printed part is this box to contain my charging wires and connectors. I made a balancing harness out of an old parallel port connector and the main charge connector is an XLR type.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3250744

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Fitting it was a little tricky, and required a bit of heat to soften the print so it could slot into place. It should stay without any extra help, but a zip tie around it or through some slots would guarantee it never comes loose.

For those with a keen eye you and those who are interested may notice a clue to my up-coming new youtube channel. :)

Cheers
 
Been a while since I updated this thread, but that's mainly because the bikes been performing well and I've been busy on other projects.
Took the bike up a local mountain on the way home today. I've only taken this bike up it once before a long time ago and I vaguely recall telling myself never to do it again...now I remember why. It was insanely steep causing the front wheel to lift repeatedly when going uphill and forcing me to push for part of it due to the motor bogging down to a stall.
I also encountered some Kangaroo's while up there. :)
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Did I mention it was steep!
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It's winter here now, with temps getting down below 0C and I've been noticing considerable sag on the battery more so than in previous years. It's now got over 250 cycles on it, and starting to show a little age, but still capable of over 15AH (guessing) under ideal conditions which is about 90% of the original capacity of 17.5AH. This is still quite acceptable to me, and realistically with my current commute I only ever use about 6-7AH anyway.
That being said, I don't like the sag, and had the idea recently to use a heated electric blanked on a timer to warm the bike up in the morning for an hour or so before I leave.
So I bought one of these pet warming mats and I will hang it over the frame or stick it under the bike and see how I go:
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The other part to it is the temp sensor I've added to the handle bars. I still need to install the sensor inside the frame, but you can see it in a 3D printed housing in some the photo's above.

This bike now has well over 20000km on it since I converted it to electric...who knows how many it had prior to that. With the way I ride the thing I'm very impressed in the stregth of the frame and design. Here's to hoping for another 20000km to come. :)

Cheers
 
Awesome build, dude!!
You know, if you want to eliminate the twitchiness of a bike like this.. wider handlebars helps. I found that from switching from the narrow things supplied with my cannondale recumbent to BMX handlebars made my bike gazillions of times easier to steer at lower speed.
 
neptronix said:
Awesome build, dude!!
You know, if you want to eliminate the twitchiness of a bike like this.. wider handlebars helps. I found that from switching from the narrow things supplied with my cannondale recumbent to BMX handlebars made my bike gazillions of times easier to steer at lower speed.
Thanks!
And thanks for the suggestion. I kind of already do this. The stock bars on this bike are a one piece unit...at least the bars and main long stem are...the point that they connect to the steerer means a standard fork can be used, but the bars are quite unique...at least I've never seen any others like it. There is no stem to speak of... the bars just mount directly to the steerer and rise straight up in one piece from there.

That being said, I have managed to "extend" the width of the bars a few inches by using ergon grips with clamp on ends. By using a little duck tape on the bars to make an extra tight fit and clamping down the inner grip clamp tight, I've been able to position the grips out from the bar ends by around 1" each. :)
I've been riding it like this for years now and it works well for the most part. It can be a bit of a struggle to change the grips, but still possible. It also allows the grips to be adjusted on the fly as they do move when pushed really hard and they've never shifted unintentionally while riding.

Another option would be some kind of bar extension insert, but in the brief bit of looking I recall doing several years back I couldn't find anything like that.
That being said, I like the with of the bars as they are now. I'm used to them, and with the solar panel width deflecting the wind flow off the hand I don't get frozen hands even on the coldest (-7C) mornings we sometimes get around here.

Cheers
 
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