Crystalyte mid drive motorcycle.

APL

100 kW
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Messages
1,113
Thought I'd show the E bike/motorcycle here. Not quite as powerful as most of the bikes seen here, but interesting
just the same.

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Started out as an E bike experiment, but the pedal part didn't pan out. The '48' is in reference to the wheelbase, which
is about as short as it can be. Most of the other builds are 52" or more.

It's a mid drive which gives it tons of torque, the motor will take 3000 watts for short bursts, and I designed the battery
'hold' down low, for a low center of gravity. Originally it was to be powered by the old Dewalt A123 battery packs,
but they wouldn't charge right because of their age,.. which is just as well, because I didn't use a BMS in them,
and I probably could have melted everything down with some 400 amps of power! :oops:

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These days, a friend owns it, and he's running it on six Milwaukee 9ah packs, (60v), it goes around 40+ mph,
(haven't wound it all the way out yet), and around 25 miles on a one hour charge if he takes it easy. He's running a
Shimano internal gear rear hub in it, and reports it to have even more torque than before.

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A good design though, and perhaps others can use it, or evolve it into something better.



More on this and some other builds here; https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=95745

Thanks for looking! :eek:
 
Nice clean build. How's that suspended seat using a rear shock working out for you? I love the better handling of a hardtail and have long wanted to try a suspended seat using a method like you used.
 
excellent build! Looks like a really fun bike to cruise around on, and I bet its a head turner with that old quiet crystalyte motor! What top speed is it geared for?

I see you say 40mph plus that is great! I want to do a brushless hub mid mount just because it looks cool
 
Thanks John in CR, and skeetab5780. The seat suspension works amazingly well, I couldn't be happier with the
way it turned out. Smooth and quiet. The shock is an ancient type, and only uses about 20-30lbs of air to get
the desired results. I'm not sure how some of the newer shocks would preform.
At any rate it also gives you damping options. But the built in dampening of the shock, without using the adjuster,
seems to be enough by itself.

The system depends on the pivot point, or bracket. It needs to be beefy, and have a lot of side area, to keep
things in line. I suppose the length of the arm would make a difference too. I could be wrong about that.
However, the placement of the shock pivot point under the seat would defiantly make a difference.

skeetab5780, one of the nice features on this bike is the ability to do easy motor changes. At one time I was
thinking that even two hub motors could be placed in there! Or even crazier, three or four motors mounted
sideways, and have them run a shaft drive! :shock:
 
I went for raw simplicity on the swing arm of this bike, and just machined a solid piece of square stock.
Screw stops could be threaded into the front for high/low adjustment, instead of a frame stop.

 
Very nice APL. What did the frame cost you to build?
Do you have the specs on it? I have something similar in mind.
 
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