Fatbike - Norco Bigfoot !

[Ypedal]

Have put a few hundred kms on it since the last round of epoxy and nuts/bolts, so far so good, friends and family have tried it, survived some bunny hops and the BMX track a few times.

The big tires make you feel like a kid riding an over sized bicycle for the first time... i love it !! 8)

I've covered the packs with rubber sheet, installed an even bigger gel seat, some black bear fat pedals.. a proper kick stand.. fun bike !

 

[Drunkskunk]

Awesome to hear. Nothing rides like a fatty!
Got vids yet?

 

[Ypedal]

Working on the 8Fun BBSxx drive video now, and the fatbike is next ! 8)

 

[Ypedal]

Now that i have some more time on my hands i have decided to dedicate the Fatbike as a Winter Rig !

Starting with a capacity test of the battery ( 36v 16ah Lipo ) before and after the cool weather use, i plan to bring the bike inside to warm up for charging but it's going to be hard Canadian Winter lipo testing at it's best.

 

[Ypedal]

cut up a slice of Krazy Carpet and zip tied it to the rear rack/frame to act as a slush guard..

 

[Ypedal]

Ran out of black krazy carpet so i had to use red for now, doubled up twisted together metal coat hangers, a hole punch and some zip ties later...



Looks terrible, but fairly solid... was free to make, so that's a bonus.

 

[Ypedal]

Drained the pack to BMS's lvc .. then topped it off with the Cycle Satiator.. man i love that charger... no fan noise, tells you pack voltage and capacity in.. it's everything an ebiker could dream of.

Stuffed 15ah into to the 16ah pack and still taking 1.5 amps, i pulled the plug, it's all good.. she's in good shape.

 

[Ypedal]

Got busy with the shipping tape, multiple layers criss crossed, ran the wires between 2 layers to prevent water from creeping in as much as possible...

 

[Ypedal]

Went out for a 30 km ride

Amazing bike this is, if you are going to ride a bike in winter, this is the one to have !!! I finally have a use for the low/med/high speed option on this display, Low is perfect for snow covered trails pedaling along at 10 kph it just floats over everything... you can steer without washing out, brakes work perfectly with the big grabby tires.. it's frickin awesome !!!!!!!

Got home covered in slush grit and mud..

 

[Ypedal]

Used a water can to wash the bike off, worked really well, bounced it hard a few times to drop the excess water and rolled it in to dry off.

I only crashed one time, i was going too fast going up hill standing on the pedals and broke thru a big crusty water hole, if i had been going slower, i'm sure i could have rolled thru.. broke a zip tie on the front fender but not critical, it held on until i got home.

Was dressed with rain pants, shoe covers, sweater, rain coat, neck tube, toque, dipped gloves for liners inside goretex gloves, kept me dry thru this 2+ hour ride in falling snow/rain.. outer layer was soaked but my tshirt and sweat pants were dry... pretty amazing !

Glasses suck... they really REALLY SUCK... covered in water and snow and fogged up as well, i had to shake my head side to side once in a while to try and clear some up.. if i was a candidate ( and i'm not ) for laser surgery, i'd be there in an instant.

 

[Ypedal]

Well, i've been riding the Bigfoot all winter long, at least once a week and sometimes more.. last week i had it out on a semi-warm day riding thru deep slush and mud and used 9ah from the pack.. got home with power and all was well..

Today, nice blue skies, get dressed and headed out for a rip, powered up and hit the throttle.... *crickets ....

Damit... it was going so well .....

I had to cut the freewheel collar off with an angle grinder to use my custom cover removal tool ( made for front motors.. ) and found the nylon net that holds the windings together fried.. lots of black coils.. bad smells and little bits of solder everywhere..



So the stock 6 fet controller has the shunt beefed up for 30 amps ( from stock 15 ) and it survived without any issues....

The gears look fine..


If it's just the hall sensors that are shot i can run a sensorless controller, but i fear this motor is likely toast... have to try and figure out how to test it.

 

[Ypedal]

So, one of the hall sensors is dead...

So now i have to decide on what to do....... pull the core from a new motor and drop it into the old shell/rim ?... or lace up a rear hub ?

or.. put this back together and install a sensorless controller with CA display.... hmm... gonna sleep on it and see if anyone has a better idea by morning. 8)

 

[Hyena]

I typically avoid swapping halls these days unless it's an expensive motor. On a cheap motor that's already looking toasty I'd be just doing a core swap. Likewise if your rim and lacing is otherwise OK there's no need to reinvent it (boom, see what I did there ? )

 

[beast775]

Im intrigued the motor lasted all winter at 30A,would have thought the controller would go first,bike looks cushy.

 

[Ypedal]

Well, after much thought, i decided to test the motor with a sensorless controller and it works !!!.. so instead of bastardizing a new motor, may as well finish this one off proper !

And i agree totally with Hyena on the hall swap on cheap motors, no way.. too much work and no need since current generation sensorless controllers have improved and work perfectly ok for this power level.

All i had on hand for sensorless is a Grinfineon 40 amp !! ... wired it up all dirty and added a torque arm, went for a quick shakedown run.. so far so good !

I have a pair of Vee Speedster tires to install but since we still have 4ft of snow on the ground ( heavy condensed , slow melting shit.. ) i'm going to keep the winter tires for now, they work pretty good in mud !