Melbourne trail ride - SUN 11th Nov

[Hyena]

Wow, good timing, glad I didn't get the blame for that one
How many is on it ? I only got 2000km out of the one on my fighter. I with a heap of power on tap the old freewheel gets a work out!
Just landed, thanks for turning on the nice weather. I'll stay tuned for the other 3 seasons :lol:

 

[full-throttle]

With 10 riders on today's ride, the numbers were down a little from yesterday's but the quality made up for the lack of quantity
Total of 4 Stealth bikes, including the Chuck Norris special edition Bomber, a magic pie "drift" trike and even a mountain board! Plus the special guest hyena.

 

[Animalector]

pfft.. who needs a 10kw stealth bomber when you can have.......

...

...

The Trike!!!

[youtube]vYPXOPLOWfo[/youtube]
Andy

 

[t3sla]

ehhhh how scary can it be. 8)

Gotta give it some individuality, wireless relays are in the mail for lights, maybe a decal or two or some art work on the board.....

 

[Kepler]

Thanks to everyone that turned up. I think it was a pretty good turnout on the back of such a large group ride the day before.

Perfect day for ebiking although I did get a little sunburnt

Although the Mullum Mullum creek trail isnt very long, I think it makes up for it in some excellent scenery. We managed to have a few off-road detours with a few challenging sections (well for me anyway ) which were a heap of fun and broke up the ride a bit. Full-throttle made it look all too easy of course. Revbecca managed to get that trike up quite a few of the dirt tracks with the front wheel spinning wildly but still getting there in the end.

Finished up back at the Coach and Horses for a bit of carpark testing of all the bikes. I think the trike an the Bomber got the biggest thashing. Judging by the 1400 Whrs used in only 30km of riding, I thing the Bomber speant plently of time with the throttle pegged

A few of us stayed on for a a few drinks and a bite to eat at the pub which was the perfect way to finish off an excellent ride.

A special thanks to our interstate guest Hyena for making it to the ride and also to samd and t3sla for getting him to and from the airport.

Jay and I finished the day with a Topgear type race back from the Pub to my place to drop off the bikes against t3sla in his car. Leaving at around the same time and us mainly on bike paths over the 10km distance managed to just beat t3sla back. Not sure if t3sla actually knew we were racing but we are taking it anyway.

Thanks again to all that turned up on the day and I look forward to the next Melbourne ride.

 

[Hyena]

+ 1 on everything kepler said. Great ride and mix of scenery and terrain and despite the short length it was really enjoyable. I wish I had more trails like that around my way, I could noted several spots on the ride I could put cameras for cool videos
Big thanks to Sam and T3sla for the airport transfers kepler for the use of his wheels and electrons and everyone else for the good company.

More later when im in front of a computer

 

[Samd]

Thanks Kepler for organizing, wish I had hung around for a feed - traffic thru town was crap.

I have the bug for bush riding now. I can't afford a stealth, but there's enough bits in the shed for a dual drive+duct tape special coming up. How much torque can those Aldi dual-sus frames take anyway? Better get my health insurance paid up.

Thanks again Kepler - it was good to have more of an offroad slant introduced - I wouldn't have tried it otherwise!

Still can't believe where revbecca managed to get that FWD trike!

 

[RevBecca]

Haha, you guys are so generous to my trike! It's pretty cool I admit, although I've yet to get used to its challenging handling, and it was less than ideal for off-roading (which you guys made look SO FUN by the way!) I ran over my own foot twice, haha!
Was a great chance to try the Stealths, and I'm really impressed by all the experimenting that goes on with you guys - make us seem really simple, so lucky that's what we're going for (making it simple for more people to get rev-ving
Really stoked to have been introduced to such a great bunch of talented, knowledgeable and enthusiastic e-bike fans - thanks Sam!

You are all welcome to attend our EV Group Christmas party this Sunday, there will be a few bikes there I think, and loads of guys who are into electric cars and bikes, a few doing their own car conversions.. Might be interesting for some of you. Let me know if you'd like to come.. I'll track down the details.

Looking forward to next time already, will bring a few mates too

 

[Hyena]

I have the bug for bush riding now.

LOL, that's what you city folk call bush riding, a largely concrete path through the bush ?

How much torque can those Aldi dual-sus frames take anyway?

For the sort of riding we did they'd be fine with 2-3kw, probably even more. With good torque arms of course.
Where cheap bikes come unstuck (sometimes quite literally) is over the rough stuff and at speed.

Haha, you guys are so generous to my trike! ... I ran over my own foot twice

Oh good, I don't feel bad that I did the same now!
It was a day of novelty test rides though, between that and t3slas skate board. I've never felt so unsafe and about to do serious injury at any second on something electric powered before!

Kepler I meant to say before, but it's interested despite the obvious difference in power levels between the bomber and your bafang powered fighter the fighter still scoots along might quick. On the way back I was taking it a bit easy on the bomber (after breaking it earlier ) and being on a borrowed bike but alot of the time I had to pin it to catch up with you. You were obviously more familiar and confident on the tracks but that alone pretty much made up for the huge power difference which is quite impressive.

Thanks again to everyone and especially t3sla who not only drove me back to my hotel after the meet but also gave me a ride down to stealth and back again today. We got carried away chatting there and with some creative driving by t3sla I *just* managed to get back for my flight, pulling up at the airport 2 minutes before my flight boarded (lucky I only had carry on bags and just had to go through the scanners then run to my gate!)

 

[t3sla]

Hahaha I was wonder if you made it

Figured I'd get a message ''I missed the flight.....err still up for riding a postie bike?" :lol:

John is cool, dude deserves all the success in the world with stealth

 

[Kepler]

Thanks again to everyone and especially t3sla who not only drove me back to my hotel after the meet but also gave me a ride down to stealth and back again today. We got carried away chatting there and with some creative driving by t3sla I *just* managed to get back for my flight, pulling up at the airport 2 minutes before my flight boarded (lucky I only had carry on bags and just had to go through the scanners then run to my gate!)

Sounds like you really maximised your time down here. Hope you had some time to do some work too.

Kepler I meant to say before, but it's interested despite the obvious difference in power levels between the bomber and your bafang powered fighter the fighter still scoots along might quick. On the way back I was taking it a bit easy on the bomber (after breaking it earlier ) and being on a borrowed bike but alot of the time I had to pin it to catch up with you. You were obviously more familiar and confident on the tracks but that alone pretty much made up for the huge power difference which is quite impressive.

As much as I love the all out grunt of the Bomber, I really am pleased with the Bafang powered Fighter. There really isnt much it wont do. 8)
Another point worth mentioning is that the Bomber sucked up nearly 1400Whrs in comparison to Fighter's 550Whrs for that ride . Sure, the Bomber was given plenty of WOT so its not surprising it ended up being quite thirsty. However, the Fighter was hardy nursed along and both bikes did exactly the same distance.

 

[Samd]

I was really taken by that fighter Kepler. I didnt think geared would handle that power. I assume theres a trick to it. Metal gears?

 

[Kepler]

No tricks Sam. Stock composite gears. Never stripped a set yet. Ben Moore was telling me he has spares but has never sold any.

The main thing is to keep the power at reasonable levels. I am now running around 1600W now but did have it as high as 2400W. At that level, it only took one careless thrashing to kill the motor.

 

[Samd]

Wow. Thats cool. I am wondering what I could dump into my Ezee now. With a new gearset being only 40 bucks i think its time to do some R&D.

Thx Kepler.

 

[t3sla]

oh I didn't notice you were just using a bafang.

Intrigued to see the motor in question, do you have pictures internal/external?

 

[Hyena]

And that was only the windings you toasted right ? The clutch and gears still survived at that level ? If you wanted to go down the usual air cooling mods on the winding side they could probably even take a bit more.
I rode one of Ben's bikes last time I was down in Melbourne at it was running at 60 amp peaks from memory. Understandably it went well and I think even at that level the gears didnt let go. Although I dont think he ran that much power for long. The smaller bafangs are well documented to peanut butter their gears but these bigger BPMs seems to do well for themselves.

I've been eyeing off those motors for ages so was glad to finally get to ride one in the configuration I'd run without shelling out myself just to test it. (likewise with full throttles GNG drive) The initial torque of the BPM is quite impressive but then seems to taper off. But I think this may be all perception as I'm used to larger high powered DD motors that have a notable mid range power band. I know everyone says the torque curve of electric motors is flat but that's not been my experience.

If only they could run regen. I'm not sure that's something I could do without on a commuter...

 

[winkinatcha]

Hey Hyena (sorry to thread jack)

You mentioned last post you reckoned you couldn't do without regen on a commutor... is that cos of the extra range... hence less batteries weight, or a braking thing, or?

I haven't had a chance to play with regen yet but have a couple of regen capable controllers now... so I'd be rapt to get your input.
Cheers

joe

 

[Hyena]

extra range is trivial, for me it's all about slowing down and saving brake pads. At high speed with alot of traffic and intersections I'm on the brakes alot and it chews through pads. For cars that will disregard and/or directly try to kill you you're still hard on the conventional brakes but for general slowing down in an urban environment it's great for shaving off speed. On my commuter I just have rear regen and front 8" hydros. It does dump alot of extra heat into the motor though, I've tripped the thermostat in my fighter a few times after giving a some stick and then regenning down a hill to find it cuts out at the bottom. It's also hard on your dropouts / axle nuts so I usually recommend to most people not to use it unless they've got a strong build and motor.

When I was testing the very first magic pie with internal controller and temp sensor it ran fine for general riding but as soon as I regenned down a hill for 30 seconds it overheated

 

[Samd]

Hey Kepler and hyena does the fighter have a schlumpf? Perhaps not necessary with a geared unit? Just gear high and the hub does takeoff...

 

[Kepler]

Yes it does, well a copy anyway. Its a must have on a Fighter because the biggest chain ring you can fit is 42 tooth from memory. The Schlumpf gives you a 1.65 overdrive which is like having a 62 tooth chain ring on the bike.

 

[Hyena]

I can't sing high enough praise for schulmpf/ats drives. Even if you don't use the 2 speeds (I only select low mode if my battery is flat) the ratio they give you (as Kepler said) is brilliant. And combined with a derailer (as Kepler has done on his fighter) is brilliant. I'd love to put one on my other commuter bike, if only they were a little cheaper. On a cheapish build they're kind of hard to justify but on a decent set up worth a few grand they're well worth it. I wonder how many kw they could handle in a mid drive set up...

 

[Kepler]

A bit of video footage from the ride.


[youtube]vywSrJVWgjs[/youtube]

 

[Samd]

Trike burnout at 6.18. We must have looked odd to the passers-by! :lol:

 

[RevBecca]

Hyena said:
"When I was testing the very first magic pie with internal controller and temp sensor it ran fine for general riding but as soon as I regenned down a hill for 30 seconds it overheated"..
Thankfully now they have better self-cooling systems, and you can program how long the regen feeds power back for when applied.. So if using it for quick stops rather than recharging, just set it for short (maybe 3 second) bursts, and you wont have to worry about the controller at all.
Also, the controllers are much easier to change now, and we get replacements under warranty no probs

Any more rides planned soon? We've recently built a Magic Pie 3 running 48v through the rear wheel of a new Giant Boulder, would love to test it out with you guys!
(I gotta get a new camera so I can post some images here!)

Also, just to share some good news - our motors (being run by 2 of our customers) won both their sections at the RACV Energy Breakthrough last weekend, the pure Electric Open section by a magic pie 3, and the pedal-electric section with our 250w mini-motor Zoom Kit.. We are stoked they both help up fine for the 24hour race, another competitor went through 5 (yes 5!!!) Postie Bike motors!
You can check out these awesome electric velomobiles here - http://www.rev-electricbikekits.com.au/about/winners.htm

 

[winkinatcha]

Nice Work Rev Cycles

I'd be rapt with another group ride... have built a wicked awesome adult sized kick scooter which I'd love to show off... powered by a 20" bafang style geared "front wheel" running as the the rear wheel (no chains on a kick-scooter)... not a burn out machine as i am running it at 48v 10 amps, with top speed around 30km/h, range approx 50 km... so much fun... Did a night ride from Mordialloc to the city and back to south Yarra with a mate last thursday... and prolly put about 300 km on the thing since I built it... tempted to double the power but the current range is super cool.

Just as an aside.. re wired the phase and halls for a magicpie2 last week... an "interesting" job, but happy with the result... not too sure if RevCycles are set up or do that kinda work, but if not... am now happy to include re-wiring/beefing up internal Halls n Phases on these motors should anyone need that job done.

Hey Bec, also now have a MagicPie2 stator... you got a spare wheel wiring about that I can play with? Maybe swap with one of my 26" brand new Cohnis style kits and give you a feel of what a wider stator motor can do on the lower (24v) power... After working on the MagicPie2 and seeing the thinness of the stator, I now understand why you find these thinner stator magicpies not so good on the lower voltages...

Cheers n Beers

Joe