I'm having a lot of fun, Greg. Thanks for your early encouragement. A lot has happened in a year and a half. My wallet is lighter too. I need to ride these things a whole lot to recover the savings in gas...
There is something about riding a bike you "made" that adds a lot to the experience.
What is the cost of an ebike addiction?
Less than golfing, flying, yachting, hot rodding cars, and a few dozen other hobbies.
What is the value of the ebike grin?
Priceless.. :wink:
Stevil made an observation on Sunday when looking at his versus my Greyborg rear wheels. They both have the same tire, the 17 by 3" Gazelle moped. His Xlyte HT3525 disappears behind this fat tire. The beefy Cromotor is visible on both sides of this tire. I won't need a spacer on the freewheel to make the chain clear the tire
But I will still need a small spacer to make sure the freewheel and chain clear the motor.
I tested the 3" tire in the Swagman bike rack. No problem fitting into the tire hoops. Hopefully the weight won't be a problem either.
On to the current issues:
I'm working on ordering a rear shock from Yasusu. As suggested by Hal - the Model BNCP401, 170mm long, 30mm bushings both ends, 8mm bolts, 90kg rider weight. Stevil has a shorter 160mm long rear shock, but his cranks are also shorter at 160mm. My cranks are 172.5mm so I want a slightly longer shock. I'm guessing that this won't be the last shock I buy, but I need something soon to start with. The order is not quite in place, we're exchanging some email to set it up. Should be on order very soon.
I'm also ordering spacers to move the dual front discs out away from the spoke-caliper interference. Hopefully 2.5mm will be enough. The other option is to go to larger discs, these are 160mm. The problem with going to larger disks is finding the mirror image caliper adapters. With duals I hope 160mm is enough disk area (at least for my riding style, Luke would melt them in seconds). It is sort of like a single 320mm disc. The problem is the caliper width is enough to touch the spokes now. It is hard to judge but 2.5mm may well be enough to clear it. Ebikes.ca have a 2.5mm spacer that I'll try first.
The next big step on the frame is to fit the crankset and swingarms. This ATS Schlumpf requires bevelling of the bottom bracket tube with a special tool that Ilia of ebikessf.com has, and it looks to me like this needs to be done before the swingarms are installed. Then the swingarms must go on before the crankset is installed with the special tools. So I need to be prepared to install the swingarm in the midst of the Schlumpf install, or rent the tools.
Some folks sand off the paint and make the swingarms slide on. Others press the swingarms on without removing the paint and get a tighter fit. Seems like a tighter fit here is good. So I'm planning to do that. Perhaps remove a bit of finish at the outer edge to help things start straight, but not all of it, and it will be very tight. To push the swingarms on properly I'm planning to make a tool. I have some two inch diameter aluminum bar stock that is just about the right size for this tool. I'll chuck in the lathe and turn a diameter to fit in the bottom bracket and make a shoulder that will push on the inner race of the bearing so there will be no force on the bearing balls etc. I ordered a threaded rod so I'll center bore a hole through a pair of these turned bar sections and make a custom Greyborg swingarm installation tool. Then we can seat the swingarms on efficiently and straight when it is time.
At least that's my current plan. Any comments would be welcomed!