Qulbix Raptor ebike + frame kit

[Merlin]

Nice video, I cannot believe you bent a crank arm with that fall it was on dirt rd. So you are telling me you bent the Schlumpf crank from that? OUCH!!! $800 crank OMG.

The sound of your bike is different deeper or is it just the camera.

the Sound is maybe deeper because the Frame is more "Metal" for resonance Sounds?!
the Cam is a normal GoPro cam.

btw of Sound.

is the "Clicking" Sound normal when i switch from Accelerate to eBrake?

Dont look at the shaky video. was not easy to push a button and give throttle. Just hear the "sound".
it happens only once on switching from Accelerate to Brake.

when you brake - it clicks once.....
tapping ebrake again no click sound

same on accelerate....

sounds like there is some play "inside" the motor? but where?!

[youtube]vuVWw4Al8wo[/youtube]

 

[Rix]

its the second crank arm i have bent.

the schlumpf drive has a normal 4 square bottombracket. You can exchange it. but on the right side you have to look that your arm doesnt touch the "schlumpf" because on 1:2,5 Ratio the Drive spins faster as you pedal. The Original ones where a bit "milled" on the right side (dont know the right word for it i think)

the second arm was a 10$ cheap one. so its the same "quality" :lol:
(Original ones come 35$ EACH SIDE!)

now i try a pair of this one:

httpswhen they fail, the last try goes to a truvativ arm:

[img]http://www.sinnec.de/media/image/3322732.jpg

Thats exactly right, if the right crank arm is 25mm or less wide where it mounts to the bottom bracket, you will be okay, if its thicker, lap the surface from the inside until it iss. I can snap a pic of some generic crank arms I was experimenting with it you want to see that.

As far as your motor goes, thats a riddle, doesn't sound like a magnet coming loose, doesn't sound like any foreign debris. It almost sounds like a spoke popping/breaking, be that has been easily ruled out. Let us know when you diagnose the issue.

 

[Mammalian04]

Maybe a part of the nipple came off inside the wheel and it is rolling around?

Is the wheel still true? Maybe a spoke is moving on the hub or at the nipple because of some part of the wheel that's not true.

 

[Offroader]

That's the thing with these bikes, it seems there is something you always have to fix. This is what I tell people who are interested that you better have good mechanical skills because you will always be fixing or tinkering with something on the bike. These bikes are surely not low maintenance.

 

[Mammalian04]

That's the thing with these bikes, it seems there is something you always have to fix. This is what I tell people who are interested that you better have good mechanical skills because you will always be fixing or tinkering with something on the bike. These bikes are surely not low maintenance.

Agh.... Screw it. I am selling everything and just buying the Bomber from Rix's dad....

 

[marcn]

I think the maintenance really comes down to how you ride the bike and how often you ride it. Lately though I have noticed an increase number of threads of things breaking and people crashing.

 

[Rix]

That's the thing with these bikes, it seems there is something you always have to fix. This is what I tell people who are interested that you better have good mechanical skills because you will always be fixing or tinkering with something on the bike. These bikes are surely not low maintenance.

Agh.... Screw it. I am selling everything and just buying the Bomber from Rix's dad....

Damn dude, you may have a fight on your hands. The way my dad talks he will want to be buried with it when the time comes . Like Offroader said there is always something. This is why I like over engineering things from wheel builds to controllers. To cut back on some of the maintanance. But its matter of perspective, if you compare the maintanance of an Ebike to the average KTM SXF250, there is no comparison. Motorcycles require way more than ebikes.

 

[Mammalian04]

That's the thing with these bikes, it seems there is something you always have to fix. This is what I tell people who are interested that you better have good mechanical skills because you will always be fixing or tinkering with something on the bike. These bikes are surely not low maintenance.

Agh.... Screw it. I am selling everything and just buying the Bomber from Rix's dad....

Damn dude, you may have a fight on your hands. The way my dad talks he will want to be buried with it when the time comes . Like Offroader said there is always something. This is why I like over engineering things from wheel builds to controllers. To cut back on some of the maintanance. But its matter of perspective, if you compare the maintanance of an Ebike to the average KTM SXF250, there is no comparison. Motorcycles require way more than ebikes.

Phew... I guess I can step back off the ledge..... and I think I am better off not duking it out with someone over their prized possesion!

 

[Rix]

Phew... I guess I can step back off the ledge..... and I think I am better off not duking it out with someone over their prized possesion!

I'm cracking up!

 

[Merlin]

Installed new Crank arms.
dont know if they last longer but they fit better as the Original ones. All is so nice in Place. *happy* sometimes we DIY Builder trying stuff no one tried before we have luck

Bike is on my Table now....will proof every screw from Motor Sideplates over disc and the 8 Screws to Hold the Threads.
Allready found a losen spoke...but is was still in place. We will see what happen.
installing everything again i will "Pressfit" the Clamping as good as i can.

i have no Problem with Maintanance because i come from Motorcross. I wouldnt feel comfortable when i dont have looked by time about everything.
also to open all screws from the handlebar and fork after "that little crash" to bring maybe tightly wound parts back in place.

but i can tell you what i hate....

to change a tire i have to dismount fenders. on the back i have to flatten the tire to come to the one screw that is inside the swingarm. hold the tire with 2 big zipties in place
and its a pita to assemble it back. also bringt the 4 caliper disc in place that it dont scrub after hard braking.

with fenders installed, i cant flip the bike for easy tire change. and it is not possible anymore to hold the "lightweight" 60kg bike with one hand and grab the tire with the other hand
did i say something about the chaintensioner that must be disassamble too?
and try to bring the tire in place/dropout without flipping the bike (this time i will open the chain )

iam in hurry now so forgive me not double reading my englisch ;P
i have to fix my bad bike

 

[Offroader]

It still amazes me what these high end electric bikes can do. You basically have dirt bike like performance that drives completely silent and smooth on the street. You can drive the toughest off-road trails and then use the bike like a motorcycle on the street that is completely silent and smooth.

With 2.7KW of batteries you really have a lot of range, so much that you can drive miles to where you want to off-road and have enough power to off-road until you're tired and then drive miles back home.

Once I get the Max-E controller, my bike will be able to do at least 50MPH, possibly 55-60MPH which will allow me to keep up with cars anywhere in the city. This pretty much makes it as good as owning a motorcycle in the city as they don't really go faster than 50MPH unless they are on the highway. 40MPH is good for most city driving but there are those streets where cars like to speed and do 50MPH and it sucks being passed and forcing traffic around you.

So basically you have the best of both worlds, dirt bike performance and motorcycle performance. That is completely silent.

With the MAX-E controller, I can easily place a small power supply under the motorcycle seat that will allow me to charge at over 1000watts anywhere an electric plug is.

This is as good as it gets, unless of course you want to pedal and keep the bike lightweight which you will lose out on the range. I guess for the people who want to pedal then you would want some kind of pedal assist that works well enough where the bike feels like a 10lbs bike.

I couldn't be happier with my bike, I set out to build the perfect E-bike and have pretty much accomplished that. My old cross-country full suspension bike couldn't take any hard off-road trails, couldn't hold the amount of battery capacity I wanted and contain the batteries safely and securely. Plus that bicycle seat sucked, especially driving off-road, even with it fully lowered.

The only thing that needs perfecting after I get the MAX-E, is the annoying motor overheating issues. I think we are close to solving this with water cooled motors, and possibly oil cooling will work also. I have to constantly stop to let the motor cool off while off-roading the bike. It also gets annoying have to constantly monitor the temps.

A big reason for having such a good ebike is because Qulbix really made the perfect frame to fit my needs and offered it with a motorcycle seat. He really knew that making a high end ebike required it to be like a motorcycle and designed it accordingly. Rix also recommending the prowheel rims and shinko 241 tires which eliminated all the issues I had with bicycle tires.

 

[ecruz]

Love is in the air!

 

[Mammalian04]

...Once I get the Max-E controller, my bike will be able to do at least 50MPH, possibly 55-60MPH which will allow me to keep up with cars anywhere in the city. This pretty much makes it as good as owning a motorcycle in the city as they don't really go faster than 50MPH unless they are on the highway. 40MPH is good for most city driving but there are those streets where cars like to speed and do 50MPH and it sucks being passed and forcing traffic around you.

High speed steering stability would be my first concern with running that speed on a regular basis. Any consideration for a high speed steering damper to prevent tank slappers (er... battery slappers)?

 

[Chalo]

40MPH is good for most city driving but there are those streets where cars like to speed and do 50MPH and it sucks being passed and forcing traffic around you.

You're not forcing them to do anything; they behave like uncivil jackasses entirely of their own volition. It's an expression of the same sociopathic tendencies that motivate people to drive cars to begin with.

If you can go within 5mph of the speed limit, then position yourself in the (rightmost) lane such that they can't even try to squeeze by. That's what I did when I rode a motorcycle. My thinking was, "have your speeding ticket if you like, but I'm not helping you."

I want to see a blanket 20mph speed limit on surface streets inside city limits. We already let car drivers have it their way, and they ruined everything. Time to try another way.

 

[Mammalian04]

Marcn, was the bike too heavy to ride like a normal bicycle? (Though, I know you had your motor installed, which I don’t plan to have on the bike)

For us, it was only downhill. I would not want to ride it with no power anywhere, even if it was flat. The frame is just too heavy bundled with the wheels. Even if you went with bicycle rims and a smaller hub, that's still about 20kg.

Agh... ok, maybe not a great idea. Maybe the LIPO batteries I have will work...

Crap again... A few of my Lipo packs are bad. Maybe if I can find someone with some skill, they can rebuild the cells into something different and chunk the bad ones. For now, back to square one.

Here is an alternative plan. Both bikes are running Cromotors.

Using Zippy Flight Max 4s2p LiFePo4 - 14.4v Max, 13.2v Nominal - 8400mah capacity

Setup 1 (16 packs): For our upcoming trip to Yellowstone (probably all sub 20mph speeds but hilly)
Bike A: 8 packs in 4series 2parallel = 16s4p / 52.8v nominal / 16.8ah capacity
Bike B: 8 packs in 4series 2parallel = 16s4p / 52.8v nominal / 16.8ah capacity

Setup 2 (16 packs): Move most packs to my "Bike B" but keep a couple so the wife can ride up to the local park or short trail rides with me
Bike A: 4 packs in 4series 1parallel = 16s2p / 52.8v nominal / 8.4ah capacity (too weak for Cromotor?)
Bike B: 12 packs in 6series 2parallel = 24s4p / 79.2v nominal / 16.8ah capacity

Setup 3 (15 packs): Move all packs to wife's "Bike A" when my new 18650 pack is finished for my "Bike B"
Bike A: 15 packs in 5series 3parallel = 20s3p / 52.8v nominal / 8.4ah capacity
Bike B: New 18650 pack of 25r

Since I am using the Adaptto BMS, I have to keep all packs 4s to prevent crazy BMS wiring. I am not quite sure how they will be wired up yet but I "THINK" this will all work. Since I REALLY suck at soldering, I could probably get Icecube to make me up some good harnesses.

What do you guys think? Am I missing anything? Better packs out there to do this with?

Thanks for the input!

 

[Offroader]

...Once I get the Max-E controller, my bike will be able to do at least 50MPH, possibly 55-60MPH which will allow me to keep up with cars anywhere in the city. This pretty much makes it as good as owning a motorcycle in the city as they don't really go faster than 50MPH unless they are on the highway. 40MPH is good for most city driving but there are those streets where cars like to speed and do 50MPH and it sucks being passed and forcing traffic around you.

High speed steering stability would be my first concern with running that speed on a regular basis. Any consideration for a high speed steering damper to prevent tank slappers (er... battery slappers)?

I don't really understand what you mean by high speed steering stability? 50MPH is not that fast and the bike should be perfectly stable. The downhill suspension will have no problem and the raptor frame is built like a motorcycle and has a longer wheelbase compared to a regular bike.

I don't think you can really compare a lightweight ebike, which is very lightweight in the front compared to a motorcycle. I don't think tank slappers could even happen as the bike is too light. I could be wrong though.

Mammalian, I wouldn't expect you to do these high speeds for very long, don't expect to take your raptor out and do 60MPH all day. These are just short spurts when you need the speed.

 

[Mammalian04]

...Once I get the Max-E controller, my bike will be able to do at least 50MPH, possibly 55-60MPH which will allow me to keep up with cars anywhere in the city. This pretty much makes it as good as owning a motorcycle in the city as they don't really go faster than 50MPH unless they are on the highway. 40MPH is good for most city driving but there are those streets where cars like to speed and do 50MPH and it sucks being passed and forcing traffic around you.

High speed steering stability would be my first concern with running that speed on a regular basis. Any consideration for a high speed steering damper to prevent tank slappers (er... battery slappers)?

I don't really understand what you mean by high speed steering stability? 50MPH is not that fast and the bike should be perfectly stable. The downhill suspension will have no problem and the raptor frame is built like a motorcycle and has a longer wheelbase compared to a regular bike.

I don't think you can really compare a lightweight ebike, which is very lightweight in the front compared to a motorcycle. I don't think tank slappers could even happen as the bike is too light. I could be wrong though.

Mammalian, I wouldn't expect you to do these high speeds for very long, don't expect to take your raptor out and do 60MPH all day. These are just short spurts when you need the speed.

Tankslappers usually start when the front wheel gets light (e.g. going over a rise, hitting the gas hard) and the wheel is turned just slightly (through input of the handlebars or road surface weirdness. Then oscillations side to side get progressively worse and eventually go so far as to smack each side of the tank (or your thighs) with the handlebars. This can happen on big and little bikes. All of it happens really fast. I am sure there are plenty of youtube videos showing it.

All that being said, I don't have any idea if the Raptor would be more or less susceptible to this. Just thought I'd put the question out there in case this thought has crossed anyone's "standing at the urinal and wondering" engineering analysis.

EDIT: If high speed stability can be achieved, I don't see why this can't be something we ride a those speeds as battery and motor tech gets better. Registering would be a the tricky thing too.

 

[Offroader]

[youtube]0141WK6dsnQ[/youtube]

Merlin, at 5:09 you are turning when you crashed. You mentioned that you were going straight.

If you were going straight it would be very hard to crash.

 

[Merlin]

steering means turning? so yes, then i was turning.
i do it all the time when the backwheel wants to pas me on the right side....i turn "right" :wink:

 

[Rix]

Offroader, what happended in Merlin's video was he was traveling straight on the throttle when his rear wheel washed and started to slide to the right in the grass, Merlin countered steered to correct the rear wheel's slide but it wasn't enough and down he went. I have done this on dirt bikes so many times over the years in the snow and wet slick terrain that I cant even began to put a number on it. BTW, nice write up and feed back on your Raptor build.

 

[Rix]

40MPH is good for most city driving but there are those streets where cars like to speed and do 50MPH and it sucks being passed and forcing traffic around you.

I want to see a blanket 20mph speed limit on surface streets inside city limits. We already let car drivers have it their way, and they ruined everything. Time to try another way.

Chalo, excellent persuasive comment. I can see your point of view. Here in Nevada, most of the down town city center speed limits are all restricted to 25MPH through out the state. Even state routes that travel through city center. Some small areas even restrict to 15MPH. Even the roads to the north and south of the Vegas strip are 25mph.

 

[Offroader]

Offroader, what happended in Merlin's video was he was traveling straight on the throttle when his rear wheel washed and started to slide to the right in the grass, Merlin countered steered to correct the rear wheel's slide but it wasn't enough and down he went. I have done this on dirt bikes so many times over the years in the snow and wet slick terrain that I cant even began to put a number on it. BTW, nice write up and feed back on your Raptor build.

Why is this happening? My tire never slides to where I have to correct it with the front wheel. I drive over grass all the time and even wood chip covered paths. I even full throttle it on sharp turns over grass.

Is this because I'm using the shinko 241 which basically doesn't slip? I can't see it being that I'm only using 4300 watts of power, especially since I'm running a 17" tire, I have a good amount of acceleration.

I got a good scare yesterday. I was coming up a small hill and gave full throttle and the bike wheelied so high I thought I was positive I was going to fall back and lose the bike. I was moving with a pretty good speed also. I yelled a good WHOA.

 

[Rix]

Why is this happening? My tire never slides to where I have to correct it with the front wheel. I drive over grass all the time and even wood chip covered paths. I even full throttle it on full turns over grass.

Is this because I'm using the shinko 241 which basically doesn't slip? I can't see it being that I'm only using 4300 watts of power, especially since I'm running a 17" tire, I have a good amount of acceleration.

Thats exactly what I think happened, the shinko hooks up traction wise where as the MTB tire wheel can't stay hooked up under power on grass and dirt. Either way, Merlin's ass end started passing him and he countered steered, but it wasn't enough.

Hey Merlin, If I am wrong, tell me, but I think I got a good read on this from your handle bar view perspective.

Rick

Edit [quoteI was coming up a small hill and gave full throttle and the bike wheelied so high I thought I was positive I was going to fall back and lose the bike. I was moving with a pretty good speed also. I yelled a good WHOA.][/quote]

This is a good sign, it means you have enough power.

 

[Offroader]

Like I have been saying, Merlin is crazy using bicycle tires. I even consider the shinko 19x2.75 a safety hazard compared to the 17x3.00" tire, and the 19x2.75 are worlds better than any bicycle tire you will find.

I went though this with my cross country ebike and I was always worried about losing traction. I once hit a branch on the ground in a park and that caused me to loose control as the rear tire slid on the branch and I smashed my bike into a tree. I broke my fork and rim. I wasn't using knobby tires but I don't think the knobby bicycle tires are enough for the power of the cromotor.

Merlin, my advice is if you can't find someone to lace the motorcycle rim you should do it yourself. It is not that hard and a skill you should really learn how to do.

 

[Merlin]

Yep thats it rix,
I wish i had offroaders Wonder weapon :-D
Serious.... As rix wrote... It is normal... Every Drift looks like that.... Alot of years on Motocross (Not only for fun... Training Hard on weekdays.... Racing on weekends.... I wasnt the fastest ever... But i trained so Hard my condition that i won alot at the end of races because the faster ones where finished ;p)
Thats why iam kidding now about a wonder weapon that doesnt slide on full throttle...
My 450crf lost all the time the grip.... But Hey... Thats Motocross... You learn to handle it and maybe Thats the fun Part....
Whats now new to me?

I think abit of price is the fox40 or better say downhill fork....
You cant "oversteer" quick as you want if your bwckwheel slides... The fork hits the frame...

I will Not tell someone iam the king offroad... iam 10 years behind my Best times
But i hope there are some knowings inside my old ass that can handle next time such a Situation better :-D