Veloman's ebike builds

With the suspension, peak forces are greatly reduced. I will keep an eye on the frame, but I don't see any realistic failure points in the rack/supports. I just did 3 miles at 25-32mph and some bumpy roads. Also, if you look closely, my saddle is really not *that* far back. How much more different is it than a normal saddle, with tons of seat post extension, and the saddle pushed back as far as it can go? They don't put supports on that setup either.

I got an "A" in mechanics/statics class......... :lol:


I could think about adding a support like one of these. The problem is standover.
Argh why does Paint make my file size huge? Can't load.

But look at my older setup. The forces between the two are probably not greatly different.

I know what I could do to make it safer: Use longer supports, and attach them with two bolts at the frame just above the shock. That will reduce the load on the seat tube weld.

Okay, an even better fix would be this. The new supports would direct a lot more of my weight into the bottom of the frame, taking a large strain off the top of the seat collar area. This would almost make it structurally similar to a normal diamond frame.
 

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Actually the super extended seat posts tend to crack aluminum frames.
Heard of that on so many bike reviews on MTBR. Many different makes and model can potentially suffer this problem.
It is the most common type of frame failure that i have read about.

It is from the extra added back and forth motion. The frames are not designed to deal with that. In this case, you've got a set up that will pull backwards on the vulnerable area way worse than the super tall seat posts.

If i were you, i would not risk it.
 
They've cracked full suspension frames?

Look at my last post again, I update the ending with a new design.
 
veloman said:
They've cracked full suspension frames?

Oh hell yes. tons & tons & tons.

https://www.google.com/webhp?source....r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=655

I believe the head tube is the 2nd most common? that's another area that can't tolerate much of a front-back motion.. these are usually reinforced quite well though.

http://www.bustedcarbon.com/

Any where there is a lot of weight and something supporting something else at an angle... there is definitely a limit!

veloman said:
Look at my last post again, I update the ending with a new design.

That might be better - i'm not sure where you're gonna hook that up though.
 
Here's the fix:

It will definitely prevent a catastrophic failure, but I wouldn't bet all my money on 100% certainty that the frame won't crack. But I am also confident enough that am not worrying about it.
 

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Here's my new battery enclosure / mount for the 52v 9.2ah Cellman a123 pack. This is a front mount, secured to the handlebars with some old cut bar ends. I made the 'rack' out of these galvanized steel ties from Home Depot. The enclosure is some thin steel flashing from the gutter section, that I cut and wrapped around the battery. With this design, I can mount it on any flat bar bike, and slid out the battery when I want to take it with me for easy charging. I will attach a handle to the front, which will also allow me to easily loop a cable through it for security. Cost was about $13 and didn't require any welding.

I'm not completely done yet, I need to add some strap to the front to keep it secure during riding (but it's not easy to slid out as it is). Also want to add an attachment on the back side near the fork crown.

Now I have weight over the front wheel to solve that issue created by my moving my saddle back. :D

I haven't ridden it yet to speak of it's handling, but I've heard front battery mounts handle well.
 

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Well the bike is a tank with all my battery on it. Not that I need to carry 40 mile range. Handling is a bit odd and really, I prefer it without the handlebar battery mount. The battery also seems to get in the way of things like at bike racks and just in general. The worst part is that the battery moves with the bars so that messes up any clean wiring. I don't like the look of the wires hanging out all over. I may be chalking this one up to a lesson learned (but I can use it if I need to).

Today I started bending a steel tie to mount the a123 in the triangle of the silver KHS, like I originally planned. Hopefully I can get it mounted tomorrow. Then I'll need to bolt my torque plates on and then I'll be ready to move stuff over. I have these awesome new-ish Marzocchi Bomber forks on it. Super plush and perform like suspension should. The suspension on the black KHS is seriously tired, and the rear shock has barely any damping so it springs me up a lot.

The black KHS is still a great lightweight frame, if I were to go full lipo and replace the suspension. I'm told it kinda looks like a motorbike with the Y shape.

Oh, and that wacky seat position - it's freakin awesome, still. Everything is perfect and haven't budged. I've not come close to losing front wheel traction on corners (I'll stand if want to corner hard). I do small wheelies sometimes if I am going hard accelerating up a hill, but they are totally controllable.

Overall, I STILL CAN'T GET OVER HOW MUCH FUN THIS IS. 3300 miles and I'm edging towards perfection. :D

Riding my road bicycle now makes me feel a lot more vulnerable, going slow. I'm actually seriously thinking of just using the ebike as my 'workout time' bike too. I mean, if I just start pedaling hard all the time on it, I'll get crazy range and just haul ass. What's wrong with that? I just have this anxiety problem that is somewhat fed by slow biking on roads and dealing with cars. The ebike really helps a lot with that.

If it weren't for the ebike, I don't think I would use a bike as transportation nearly as much. It's that much of a big deal to me.
 
With a front mount battery, I found it really important to keep the weight as close to the steerer as possible. Even with my light packs, the steering felt a little weird when it was too far forward.

You have a long head stem on that bike plus the mount even pushes the box out further. I am not surprised the handling feels odd. Sounds like you are off the idea now but I think if you changed the box design to be much flater and actually mounted the box of the fork crowns, you would end up with a much better handling bike.
 
Good point. I did a handlebar mount because I would need machining capabilities to make proper mounts to the fork crown. I do have an older dual crown fork that would work for this.

The handling wasn't too bad, it was mostly the need for long power leads and the battery getting in the way of things since its more outside the bike. Putting my 48v 5ah lipo pack up front would be easy though.


In other news, I did a lot of riding yesterday, some moderate hills at near 30mph with hard pedaling. Its wonderful not having traffic trying to pass me dangerously. 1200w on the Mac is pretty capable with a 170lb strong pedaler. If I was on a hardtail it'd transmit more of my effort.
 
Do you know what mod the gears are in these motors ? and how wide the gears are I really like the idea of hostaform ( or are they delrin gears ) as they run pretty quite, there light and cheap.
 
gwhy! said:
Do you know what mod the gears are in these motors ? and how wide the gears are I really like the idea of hostaform ( or are they delrin gears ) as they run pretty quite, there light and cheap.


The only thing I know about the gears in these new Macs are that they are composite and supposedly significantly stronger than the old white nylon ones (which still looked perfect on my older mac). The new gears are slightly louder, which is really only noticeable if you get a tailwind on a quite road going up a hill pulling high power.

Ask Cellman, he'll know I'm sure.
 
You know, i haven't found that my new gray gears are louder than the original white ones.

I also replaced all my original white grease with the mobilgrease ( $$ ) that BMC uses in their motors, after shredding the white ones on 4kW. Maybe that's a factor, maybe it is not :)

Oh and hey, you should really try a dual crown mount, oatnet style. I'd be interested in seeing how it goes for you if you do it. You are almost as picky/particular as i am so to hear from you would be good. I am thinking about doing it with my Genesis V2100, but i am too tied up with my race build.
 
I would, but making the mounts is just not something I can realistically do, at least well. I don't want to half ass it and risk dropping my battery. Of course, I haven't actually put much design thought into it yet either. With the silver KHS, it'd be a shame to not fill that triangle with battery, so I'm focused on finishing that this weekend hopefully.

A front mount battery would be a good excuse to do a fairing too :lol:
 
Did you see what oatnet did? he used motorcycle / car racing accessory clamps. Looks very stable to me. If you can drill a few holes here and there, you can do this :)
 
veloman said:
gwhy! said:
Do you know what mod the gears are in these motors ? and how wide the gears are I really like the idea of hostaform ( or are they delrin gears ) as they run pretty quite, there light and cheap.


The only thing I know about the gears in these new Macs are that they are composite and supposedly significantly stronger than the old white nylon ones (which still looked perfect on my older mac). The new gears are slightly louder, which is really only noticeable if you get a tailwind on a quite road going up a hill pulling high power.

Ask Cellman, he'll know I'm sure.

Thanks.
 
I've been thinking, with this ergo saddle (noseless), I am wondering if I still need 3-4" of rear suspension. The main reason I needed suspension in the first place was because the saddle was hitting me in delicate areas. Now I float freely :D I will say that rear suspension is still nice on bumpy roads, I can sit over most anything. But lately I've been pedaling harder and more often since I want to get a little workout in due to lack of riding the road bike which is due to feeling vulnerable at slow speeds. With the Proflex, <15wh/mile and 25mph cruising could be a possibility.

I am finishing up my newest KHS silver full suspension. It looks great and rides great. But it's a heavy frame and still soaks up a bit of my pedaling effort. I am thinking about trying the red Proflex softtail again. It's about 5lbs lighter and more efficient with pedaling effort. The downside is that the frame is a little small for me. I'd probably do the same saddle-on-the-rear-rack design so I'm not so upright and bunched up.

I've been riding the silver bike now. Some stats from tonight's ride: 17.3wh/mile which was a mix of full out WOT for a couple milesat 30-35mph, some 20-25mph cruising, and a bunch of low speed, all with light pedal assist or none. It seems really easy to get great efficiency on the 8 turn compared to the 6 turn, which I rode at lunch time. I got that one up to 40mph on a road with no shoulder/bike lane. Sat right alongside traffic nicely. It was perfect.

But I don't ride those roads very often and MUCH MUCH rather have the torque of the 8 turn, which is quite noticeably better 0-20mph. Of course, all I need to do is add my 3s lipo booster for some low 40mph riding on the 8 turn.

I'm really liking the cellman a123 52v 9.2ah battery. I did 13.6 miles and ended right at 50% DOD at 4.6ah used. Normally that sort of distance would bring me to near empty on my lipo booster on my old setup. So I have a legit 20 mile range before I reach 80% DOD as long as I am not pushing it above 25mph too much and pedal a bit.

But damn, I need to get that low/far back saddle position.

Earlier today with the 6 turn I tested the bike in a 'drag race' against a 48v Pedego Interceptor. The 6 turn on 1200watts beat it fairly well. Both bikes are a dog off the line with no pedal input though - ouch :eek: But think about how a relatively low power limited motor that has a no load of 47mph - ain't gonna jump off the line well. The 8 turn would be a fair comparison as it's top speed is about the same as the direct drive Interceptor. But also, I think the Interceptor is limited to around 1000w, not sure though.
 

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Here's the mostly complete silver KHS, with cellman a123 52v 9.2ah battery. This bike rides extremely smooth. The Marzocchi Bomber fork is actually too soft for a 60lb ebike, but it's okay due to my seat modification putting my weight further back. The rear suspension is VERY active, moving on small bumps. The damnping seems to be blown, as it is a bit springy but not an issue on all but the worst bumpy roads.
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Just as I was finishing this build yesterday I came across this old beater Specialized first generation full suspension with short rear travel (cost $50 at local Frankenbike swap meet!). As you can see it is a steel mainframe and a huge open triangle for un-compromised battery space. The big deal about this frame is that it is LIGHTWEIGHT! Who would guess that an old steel FS would be under 30lbs? Well it's a solid 5lbs less than this silver KHS that I am riding now. 5lbs is a lot IMO. That's like going from a123 lifepo4 to lipo on a 500wh battery. Of course, with 1200watts on the Mac, I can barely notice the extra weight, but it does add up, and makes picking the bike up stairs that much harder. Handling is what is affected the most. I hate upgrading to a heavier bike. The only reason I'm considering this bike now is because this ergo seat completely eliminates the issue of being hit in the balls over every bump. I don't quite *need* 4" of rear travel (though it is very cushy), I could live with 2" and have much more efficient pedaling and lower weight. This also means that I don't care about the rear hub weight affecting ride quality as much as I did before. This Ultimate Ergo saddle has been a huge benefit to me. I was about to be forced to a recumbent, but now I don't have to. Sooo, I may be trying out a high power 9c rear hub in the future for fast 100 degree summer riding without worry of abusing the Mac. We'll see.

So, next month I'll be again working on a new build with this ugly bike (great to not attract thieves). I might leave the yellow chain-stays for improved visibility on the road. I am getting older and leaning closer to that than pure looks...haha. I will look into replacing the rear shock with something with more travel and damping, as well as swapping out this frozen fork, upgrading all the components and brakes.

So many changes! All in the pursuit of economical/fun/perfection!

More pics of the torque plates I made for the current ride, and some controller mounting technique:
 

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Here's my latest ebike build. Finally finished the Trek roadie with q100 front motor. Total bike weight is 32lbs with 36v 5ah lipo. 580watts peak, 15amp.

I need a new controller for these high speed wind geared motors. This cheap controller doesn't like it when I get up in speed. The q100 is the 328rpm version, so it's no load is 31mph in this 700x28 wheel.

I can't stand these traditional saddles. I still use a normal saddle on my road pedal bike, but I wear bike shorts when on that.

I got 9wh/mile playing around not trying to be efficient. This could be a good winter ebike for when I want to pedal more to stay warm. It doesn't feel much slower at all than normal, holds speed like a road bike should.

But the ride is rough for sure. That's probably what will keep it sitting.
 

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Here's what the silver KHS looks like nowadays. I got a laid back bmx seatpost which let me use the funky saddle and have a normal position. Not as aero, but I don't ride too fast all that often, and the stops are what really affect efficiency for me. It cut a few pounds off the bike and looks a lot more normal. I also got an old CA from Methods which is a direct plug in to the controller, and added an on/off switch right near my hand. So now I am safe with a "kill switch" and no more plug key to keep track of. I love it. It just feels so much more professional to flick a toggle switch and then the CA lights up and bam! ready to ride! I cleaned up the wire area a bit. Right now I'm looking to better secure the battery. But other than that I am extremely happy with the bike now.
Oh, I do need to replace a cell in the battery, which is cutting about 25% range off my pack right now. It's due to a slightly crushed cell that I don't know how it happened. Luckily I rarely need full range so I can live with it for now. I was thinking of trying 1500w instead of 1300, but it's so hot that I want to wait for it to cool off, to avoid risk to the controller which can get pretty hot when it's 100 out. I also wired up the CA to work as a current throttle, but it lags so much that it made the bike slower in some ways so I'm back to the normal speed throttle. Still kind of neat, and probably good for a high power set up.

Some more update on my ebike world:
After doing about 25 miles this week on the electric tandem with my gf, I am starting to think about doing a longtail build. Just have her sit on the back, no pedaling to synchronize, shorter more manageable wheelbase. and big cushy platform for her to sit on. I would want this longtail to have big power. The worst thing about the tandem is that our 0-8mph is awful due to stabilizing and my fear of going WOT with front hub motor, which is still only at 1400watts (I should add a 2nd torque arm). On the longtail, she could easily rest her feet on the ground and I could seamlessly take off, pedaling however I like. I'm not sure about what motor setup I'd use, but I'd like to not have to purchase anymore battery. My cellman 50v 9ah pack is good for 30amps continuous, peak up to 80, but the connectors are only 30amp Anderson PP. Not sure what would happen if I pull 60amps for 10 seconds up a hill. That would be near 3kw, and enough power to get us up to speed well. I could series in my lipo for 72v nominal, 9ah. So theoretically the 3-4kw range should be realistic. Now, should I go dual motor? I could run my 6 turn mac on the rear, and the 9c on the front. Would need 2 controllers and throttles, but I'd only use the mac on starts and hills. Obviously the 6 turn is not a great choice for lower speed, but it's the only unused rear motor I have lying around.
Or I could separate both drives and run lower amps.
9c front - 50v 9ah a123 + 3s 10ah lipo controller set to 22amps (1500w)

6 turn mac rear - 10s 5ah controller set to 45amps (1600w)

So that's all my lipo and my main a123 pack. I'd get about 5 minutes of full power from the rear mac booster, should be enough to match the front drive. Acceleration from 5 to 25mph (estimated top speed) should be quite good. Range should be 20 miles if we cruise around 20mph as we do now, and get 21-23wh/mile.

The other bonus is that I'd have one serious cargo hauler. mmmmm...... And what's more fun / gets more attention than riding a tandem - putting your gf on your cargo bike. Of course, ultimately I'd have to do a ridiculous power build that would have her hanging on for dear life. :twisted:

Update: the tandem may stay. I dropped her saddle a bit, put cruiser bars on for her, put bigger riser bars on for me, cleaned up the controller mount, and after seeing no stress marks on the fork dropouts or torque arm, decided to just got WOT from a dead stop instead of babying. Turns out the motor pulls us up to speed very nicely, so our starts are quick and non-awkward. I think I'd like a bit more top speed and hill climbing, so I'll prob put on the 3s lipo booster. I'm really pretty happy with the tandem though, it's been so cheap and works great. So much better than having to tell her where I'm turning all the time, and 20mph is a better for getting places than 12mph. She says I took some corners too fast, so I may have to ease up a bit. That CST Cyclops is just great for cornering though! Still might play with adding the old Mac on the rear....

Tandem update: I ran 59v 5ah lipo tonight, peaked at 1700watts. It's considerably more fun now with the extra speed and power, should be around 25mph on the flat, though I don't have a speedometer on the tandem. I checked the dropouts and everything looks okay, torque arm still not showing pressure. But the axle is definitely twisting hard against it. I think a 2nd torque on the right is in order. It'd be great to do a clamping one, but space is really limited. I don't know what 9c isn't using a 14mm axle, that would resist spinning so much better...

Update: the 8 turn mac got some WOT the other night. I was on my way to meet some friends for 2 for 1 burgers, thought I was late so I pegged it in an aero tuck on a fast road. 34-35mph on all the flat portions and every time I looked down I saw 800-850watts. No wind, and truly a flat road. This reminds me of last year when I could get 30mph on 600watt limited in my crazy aero tuck. 24wh/mile is pretty awesome at 35mph on a mtn bike! There's nothing I like more than a near linear progression of power:speed.

I bought a 'nuclear orange' Novara Verita rain jacket for when it gets cool. Spent $95 on it, but figured being visible, dry and warm is a good investment. I like the fairly close fit, not loose. Now I have something to look forward to for Fall. I'm still curious about doing a front wind fairing. Perhaps cut a bit of power off at high speeds. Thinking of taking off the front basket and doing a rear mount for groceries. When I do use the basket, I love it, but it doesn't help the looks of the bike and I don't use it all that often. Putting stuff in it on the front sure doesn't help aero drag too. Maybe a small storage behind the fairing is just the ticket.

I've got a rear 9c 2807 or 06 from JRH coming soon, need to fix the wires but should be fun to play with.
 

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I finally got to replacing the bad cell my a123 pack. It was HELL getting it out, at least until I figured I should just grab it with needle nose pliers and rip it out. At first I tried to slowly pick the glue out but it didn't help. I then soldered a 12ga wire jumper to the negative lead since I couldn't get to the area that is suppose to be tab welded, and easily soldered the positive lead to the copper plate on the other end. Having a tabbed cell made this easier.

Battery is all wrapped up and finished charging, and seems balanced as is it's not going back on. I can't wait to have full range finally! Hello 20+ miles!

Later this week I plan to test out regen braking, as I am now riding a 9c rear motor from JRH. I'm really excited to try regen as I hate stopping, but force myself to 'be considerate' of the law, even when no one is around. I stop a lot during my riding, all urban type riding.

I tried to cool the controller in the below pic, drilled out a hole, the rubber stopper is in case of rain or dirty conditions. It may help by a few degrees, but I'd say it's not worth it. The controller does run cooler on the 9c though. The Macs are hard on controllers.

I bought a pair of used Hayes hydraulic disc brakes for $45 last week. I plan to put on the front in the coming weeks. Hopefully I can get a cheap disc front wheel at Frankenbike (swap meet).

The 9c seems to hold the same minimum speed up moderate hills as the Mac, but the acceleration is definitely not as good below 20mph. It's not awful, but yeah, I'm only running 1200watts on a 2806 winding with a big 26" tire. I'll be raising the amps and/or voltage with lipo as soon as I am confident in the battery. Temperatures look to be a reasonable low 90s now.

Next project is to fix up that old Stumpjumper and put the Mac with lipo on it. That should be a ~46lb build, as opposed to this 65lb daily rider.

______________________
Update:
- Regen: works great, I barely touch my hand brakes, and if I do it's when I am below 10mph since the regen is quite weak at that speed. It still works down to 5mph where it does nothing at all below that. I mounted a momentary switch next to my throttle to enable regen. At first I had the throttle regen enabled, but it was horrible not being able to coast. In the future I think I will use an ebrake lever instead of the momentary button, as it will be easier to apply the rear brake if/when needed. The regen is strong enough to stop me quite quickly, faster than I normally stop, so I often have to 'pump' it. It will even bring me down to 10mph while on a moderate downhill. I've seen about 460watts peak regen so far. Typical regen is 4-8%. It definitely heats the motor up more, but I think with a 1500watt limit, I'm still not near the danger zone on the 9c, even when it's 100 degrees outside. Torque plates are doing great, no sign of wear or slipping.

120% throttle setting: works good enough on the 9c. It does act a little funny near the end of the throttle if you aren't WOT, sort of surges at times. But having this speed setting is VERY valuable, especially if you don't want to add voltage booster or get a bigger battery. It takes me from 28-29mph top speed to 33-34mph which can help a lot on a fast road in traffic. I didn't find it exceptionally less efficient than 100% setting. With that said, now that I am using a newer EB312 with 4110 fets I am going play around with adding some lipo for some high powered riding. Around 70volts nominal. 40mph club for sure.
 

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4 LED strips, hooked up to 3s 18650s, should have a run time of 2.5hours. Awesome look and visibility I think. They don't replace my headlight, just side and back lighting.
 

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Brighter the better :) what LED's are you using? Thanks

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Just some cheap ones off ebay, they were about 15/pair. Mine are semi-flexible and about 10" long.


I did 43 miles today, put on the spandex and pumped tires to 55psi. 14.5wh/mile with cruising at 22-25mph and some light pedaling. Bought some panniers of craigslist for $5.

In other news, I finally did something stupid with lipo. I was going to use my 3s boosters in parallel, then decided to put them in series. Of course I didn't remove the parallel balance wires and vaporized them. Looks like there's still at least an inch of balance wire left sticking out, so not a huge repair.

Lipo experts - are my packs at any risk now? The balance wires seem to act as a fuse, so i think they burned up before any damage could occur to the cells.
 
I put the 8T Mac on the red Proflex and made a mount for my a123 battery. Total bike weight of about 57lbs.

Hot damn did I forget the awesome torque of the Mac! The acceleration off the line with 1350watts peak is amazing! It's such a good example of instant torque with electric motors. The DD simply doesn't have that instant burst that knocks you back. It does coast noticeably better too. It's definitely the hub you want if you plan to pedal a lot and have lots of starts/hills. For cruising, nothing wrong with the DD except you simply don't feel your pedal effort doing as much. I feel like I can climb anything on this Mac. The proflex is about a 29lb bike stock. I'm tempted to find a steel road frame and build it on that, to cut 10lbs off - that would feel amazing. I can totally launch off the line up to speed faster than traffic with the Mac. So much fun. Ebike grin - hell yeah. :D
 
Picked this up last night. Any thoughts on how I should electrify it? Mid-drive would be easy, but it's going to be my long distance efficiency/speed machine, so maybe a DD hub.
 

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