Tom's BEAST

[Green Machine]

You can have phil woods custom make an even wider bb.

The only problem is phil woods bbs are a little pricey (close t0 200 shipped) but the best bb's in the bike business.

Contact them and give it a try.

Alternatively you can go with the square taper 100mm bb that cycles usa sells and custom make your own axle. See what cycles usa sells, they may have a wider bb as well.

[lostrack]

I've ordered a 148mm bb which is designed for the frame - it will give me 5mm more space. Also some cranks that have a 34mm offset. So instead of 170 clearance I should have 182...ish!

Matt - are you good to pop down some point this weekend (Sunday maybe?) to help me fit this new BB? Do you have the tools for an ISIS fit?

T

Also ordered some freewheel cranks and a white industries front freewheel for a little experiment I want to try...

[Idontwanttopedal]

Yeah I been down got tool in car so I don't forget it. Might come down on the bike

[lostrack]

A productive weekend - got the batteries tidied up, sorted out some cabling (thanks Idontwanttopedal) and got the beast stirred up for a summer of riding!

Now the evenings are longer I can take it out after work -

BobC's new 68T and keeper plate is working wonders, the chain didn't come off at all during the whole session, the first time that's ever happened!

I only had enough time to half charge the pack to 45V but the extra speed is great - I'd say about 36-37mph, so you don't have to be WOT all the time. That being said, the real fun is going to be in the woods, not on the open road.

Lots of stops and starts generally - trying to get the bike to wheelie, I seem to be quite gentle on it. The motor got to 100F and the controller was cool. Cycle Analyst said I was drawing max 5KW power, so there's still alot of room to play with there - I could hear Matt's slipper clutch kicking in, so I can tighten that up for more acceleration / power draw / wheelies

Ordering some parts soon - rear spring can't handle the weight!

I'll be making some more videos soon...stay tuned

[recumpence]

Give the clutch nut 1/16th of a turn and hold on! Wait till you feel that thing pull at 9kw. You will be wheelying whenever you feel like it.

Matt

[bobc]

Excellent - glad it's working! Great cycling weather in the northwest UK today: did you put anything on utube?

[lostrack]

let me have a look on the go pro

[knoxie]

Looking forward to seeing some more videos as you have already proven you can ride!! yes the weather at the moment is a bonus

[lostrack]

On the side, I think the weight at the moment is 32-35kg. I have this luggage weight thing which only just picks it up. You have to hook it on the frame - almost exactly at the mid-point where the motor is. So, I've got good weight distribution too.

Ordered a bigger 450lb shock today so it won't bottom out when fatties ride it! (no names... )

[lostrack]

Hi everyone,

Some wierd shit is going on with my packs. I have plugged each pack individually into the balancer just to check why I was getting inaccurate cell counts

2 of the 5s packs are showing 4 cells only
The 6s pack is showing no cells - even though we soldered the black balance lead on correctly this weekend.

When I plug all the cells in through methods boards, it shows 11 cells total. It should be 12s3p, all packs 5s and one 3s2p.

What should I do?


I don't want to balance the packs as the ones it can't see will be left higher and may be overcharged(!)

Thanks again

Tom

[knoxie]

Are you using balance wire extensions from the packs or are you plugging straight in to the balancer? what are you checking them with? sounds a bit strange

[Idontwanttopedal]

Had go on this bike need spend some money now thanks Tom. My bike just feels so slow and weak.

If you need hand on any thing let me know I really think you need to rewire your hole pack

[lostrack]

dash-small.jpg (128.97 KiB) Viewed 393 times

Whoops...

Beef =

beef-small.jpg (193.67 KiB) Viewed 393 times

A few more pictures and a new video on page 1.

Enjoy:)

Definitely glad I went to the trouble of full sus on this build. Riding across a field at 30mph, even grass turf is enough to almost shake you off the bike, and this is with some of the best DH suspension available.

No chain skip issues (yes!) and it's the first time EVER I've not done the walk of shame to get home:)

I was very cautious of other people on the field and in the singletrack. Hope you can tell from my riding.

To do:
considering running gears, not so sure it needs it anymore.
Throttle is the weak point. So twitchy. Going to run a cycle analyst current throttle, see if that helps.
Wire up Methods LVC boards to throttle.

Temp gauges on controller & motor. Can't get the controller to heat up at all, and this is with constant abuse.
Motor gets to "temp gauge 40'C" but feels much more like 60-70C to my hands. Must attach it properly.

Any tips on getting a probe inside an Astro?

[knoxie]

Super nice job on the bike video is rocking too, damn that thing is fast, looking forward to some more video at higher resolution maybe? you got all weekend although the weather aint looking that special is it

[recumpence]

Tom,

I got your PM.

It is easy to mount a temp probe inside the motor. Merely remove the rear cover and glue it to the windings.

170 degrees F is the safe limit for these motors.

Matt

[lostrack]

This is just awesome. Finally 5 months of hard work and dedication are paying me back. I've had a whole 2 days of riding - I've found out more about the bike in this last period than I ever have during the build process.

I've ridden everywhere - skate park, woods, jump spots, MX trails...

My initial thoughts:

Throttle : Most people who've ridden it agree that the throttle is too hard to control and end up wheelieing or almost flipping it. They're not used to the way it goes (speed throttle is like setting a cruise control, which uses 100% power to get to that speed). A current throttle will make a huge difference.
Also - tiny body movements (standing etc.) make throttle changes. Thumb throttle would be ideal.

Power : The power is awesome. I spent alot of time riding backwards, UP downhill courses at 20-30 mph! It's bizarre.
I can also get up 30% hills at almost full speed, starting ON the hill from standstill. I was worried about exploding the controller (low revs, high current) but it is taking it like a champ. Hardest thing is to get body weight positioning to fight wheelies under power!

Everyone loves the bike. It looks so gangster. Even strangers were interested, and rude boys were shouting "man that is SICK!" Big grin

Big problem with continued usage is the heat. I have to take 5 min breaks after a continued run as the motor gets to 45deg C / 110deg F (on the CASING, not the windings). I'm running it very hard.
Matt's DaVinci shell is taking alot of the heat, it's almost as hot as the motor. Brilliant design.

I hit a few jumps on it, it's a scary bike to handle as it's heavy. I wouldn't want to wrap it round a tree, even as a 'light' eBike it's still alot of weight.
Managed to do a downhill run and bottom out the suspension on the batt. box.

Raced a 50CC scooter - I have more power but need to work on my starts, it's really hard to get going immediately. Have ~70KPH top speed, it'll wheelie all the way there.

Controller is still on minimum throttle and very sensitive limiting, minimum motor startup power, and low timing advance (less power, less heat). Plenty of room for performance tweaks.

I have all the parts to run it through gears, but it's running so well at the moment I think I'll just enjoy the fun of riding.

Riding on the road is really boring.

Go Pro in 1080p cuts off half the picture. 720p much better.

Lots of videos - I'll upload some more soon.

I am trying to give back to the community in terms of fun videos and useful information - I've learnt so much from here so hoping any of this helps.

[coldfusion594]

Good to hear how well your bike turned out!!
do you think that if your bike was a hard tail you would not have any problems with the chains?

where at in the US are you?(not trying to be a creep) I agree this place is FUBAR

Karl

[knoxie]

Great to hear that you are having so much fun on the bike, the comment on the video was not about the 720p mode it was the bit rate? for some reason it was only in 360 p mode which isnt the best quality? video itself is rad though, looks so fast so yeah get some more video up there as soon as you can

[lostrack]

in HD for knoxie:)

[knoxie]

hey nice thats what im talking about...more please

[Idontwanttopedal]

Lol my hand are so wobbly lol looks like I'm on a boat

[lostrack]

Lol my hand are so wobbly lol looks like I'm on a boat

haha!! That's the youtube image stabiliser. Looks dodgy doesn't it!

[Idontwanttopedal]

Lol how all my vids look

[lostrack]

HD re-upload.

[Idontwanttopedal]

Did you get the stack on vid lol