Spot Honey Badger e-bike Build

[c-cap]

Just finished a Spot Honey Badger e-bike build
Spot Honey Badger CroMoly frame
Surly Krampus Fork
Stan's 29er ZTR Arch EX tubeless rims
Continental TravelCONTACT tubeless tires
TRP HY/RD Brakes
NuVinci N360
Bafang BBS02 48v 750w
Gates CDX carbon drive belt
Needed to machine an adaptor and a 6mm BB spacer to install the BBS02 and get the belt lined up.
First weekend 40+ miles - love the ride, wheel size, and BBS02 Mid-drive

[HilbertSpace]

Wow, very nice!

How did you get the chain(belt)-line to match up? I have the same bike, and incorrectly thought that I could swap out the rear hub for a Shimano Alfine 11 speed internal one, but the front is at 55 mm, and the back at 43 mm chainline. I believe the Nuvinci has a chainline closer to 43 than 55 mm.

Looking for another frame that can fit the Gates CDX belt and an Alfine 11 hub, and coming up empty...

EDIT:

Looked up NuVinci chainline = 49 mm, which matches up with the 6 mm spacer you needed to make for the BB. Unfortunately the Alfine is much further than that, and adjusting the BB won't help as the Gates chainring will hit the chainstay.

[kd8cgo]

Wow. I really love this! Dare I ask how much something like this sets you back, all in? These components don't look exactly cheap!

[Ryank]

Great build! Super clean and sleek. I bet that is a pretty quiet rig? Can you please show more photos of that adapter plate you machined?

Great work.

Ryan

[layzbones]

Love this build - super clean. I remember in my belt drive that the power transfer thru the belt felt so solid, more than a chain. Do you feel that same response with the motor on there?

What was the reason for the krampus fork (mid fat, between a fat bike and regular mtn bike width for those who have seen it)? Do you plan on going with fatter tires at some point? My original plan was to do a krampus or ECR build but the cost got a bit too high...

I miss my belt drive

[Spanglo]

Superb cable management. Very, very nice build.

[voodoosand]

Nice! Can you post more explanation (or photos) of your cable routing? I am impressed how clean you got it, I can't even follow the cables running to/from your display... they seem to enter the steerer tube on the bottom?

[c-cap]

I'll attempt to answer the questions:
1. Total cost was $3,200 for all the parts and help, most were acquired via ebay and amazon, it took some time to find the best deals. I got the BBS02 directly from a China supplier - Conhismotor, w/ 12 Ah Panasonic cell upgrade the cost was $1,027 with shipping. My goal was to build a premium (all the best components) e-bike for under $3K. I almost made it, would have made it but I got lazy and paid $200 to have the wheels laced. I also spent more on the brakes and brake cables, two sets of Jagwire Mountain Elite cable sets, than I originally planned, but they look awesome. I was inspired by the Grace MXII and the Felt NINEe but didn't want to pay + $4K , also I wanted a CroMoly frame and 29ers for gravel grinding. 1/3 of my 12mi commute is gravel / trail riding.
2. It's really quiet and the belt drive transfers the power wonderfully, best setup for an e-bike, IMO.
3. The chain line was a bit tricky. I needed to make a spacer to offset the front sprocket so it was as close to the mid drive housing as possible. The mid drive hit the chain stay before it made contact with the BB, this is where I needed the 6mm spacer, I also needed to slightly increase the dent in the chain stay for additional clearance ~3mm, and I took 3mm out of the right side drop out thus moving the rear wheel 3mm to the right. This all added up and I got the belt to line up correctly.
4. Picked the Krampus forks because I like the look, fits bigger tires if I want, for light trails & gravel grinding didn't want a suspension, they accept a standard 100mm hub, and they are 4130 CroMoly like the frame.
5. Cables - ran everything through the bars and stuffed all the extra cable inside the fork head tube and inside the stem. It was a pain but I got all the cables crammed into these spaces. I'll post some detail photos.
Parts came from all over the country / world: mid drive / battery - China, brakes - Korea, brake cables -Taiwan, tires - Europe, the rest from all over the US. Half the fun is hunting for parts on the web. Its not possible to save a lot by buying individual parts but if you shop around you can end up with exactly what you want for a bit less than buying a complete bike and customizing it. I believe there might still be a few SS Honey Badgers out there on sale for $1,799. seeing how it's built that's a good price for this bike.
All-n-all a pretty fun and easy build, I really like the Spot HB short wheel base w/ the 29ers, haven't weighed yet but it doesn't feel heavy being ridden and handles really well for an e-bike. Now that I'm done with the Honey Badger I want to make another, I wish Bosch sold there mid-drive as a DIY kit.

[voodoosand]

c-cap let's see those photos!
I really like what you did, and would love to see detailed photos of the wiring!

[c-cap]

more pics

[c-cap]

500 + miles and working great!
Needed to make a few adjustments at ~ 250 miles. Super quiet and rugged. Added a bell because people on the trails don't hear me coming.
Reprogrammed the controller to 6 levels of PAS.
A single charge easily covers my 26 mi round trip commute...

[ferret]

Is the white display mount a custom part or off the shelf?

Avner.

[c-cap]

Custom part, easy to make. I should make some more and sell them!

[c-cap]

Someone asked about the gear ratio
Chain ring is 55 rear sprocket is 28 ratio is 1.964 to 1

[Alpinist]

Hi C-cap,

First of all, big applause for the beautiful build - well done!

I am building my second e-bike and attempting a Nuvinci>Gates>Bafang drive system. Most everything is from my previous build except the gates drive, so I know if all else fails I will go back to the chain driven system I had before. My new frame is a Soma Wolverine btw (135mm rear).

The other big difference from your build is that I have a BBSHD rather than the 02. The BBSHD has a different crank-arm bolt pattern and a much larger clutch housing. I have a spiffy Luna Eclipse front chainring (2 pc) that has great offset (towards the CenterLine) and might be a good start if I can machine an intermediary piece to mate the gates 60T/130bcd/5-bolt sprocket to the rest of the assembly.

I would really appreciate any advice you are willing to give on the front sprocket assembly (adapter, custom intermediary piece and gates OEM sprocket). I have been studying your pics and your gates sprocket looks much different than mine. Did you machine the sprocket as well - removing the bolt arms? It appears (in the photo) that it is simply a ring with the sprocket teeth and no bolt arms. Or did you somehow machine a custom sprocket, ala Gates tooth pattern?

Here are my current obstacles to overcome (problems):
1. OEM gates ring does not fit around the BBSHD clutch housing, I have to cut off the 130 BCD bolt arms and mate the sprocket to a custom machined disk (intermediary between the adapter, in this case my Luna Eclipse and the Gates 60T).
2. I would like to use the offset inward to achieve the beltline needed, instead of trying to bring the nuvinci outboard of CL. Also, the wolverine is about 7mm smaller in rear dropout span, so inward just shy of having the chainring hit the chainstay, seems to be best
3. Next, prototype in Solidworks before machining on my CNC at work (btw my CNC is only 2-1/2d)

Any advice, g-code or *.step files you are willing to share would be greatly appreciated! I would really like to pull this off for my new commuter build.

Thank you!

[spinningmagnets]

Well-done c-cap...would you be interested in allowing me to use these pics in an article for electricbike.com? If yes, I would of course, credit you (by whatever name you prefer for me to use)

Here's a recent example of my work: http://www.electricbike.com/mid-drive-kit-igh/

[2old]

Missed this the first time around; beautiful work.

[1KW]

hows it still running?

[kammo]

Trying to build a similar set up can anyone tell what type of chain ring this is? Is it custom or ready available?

[Santa'sLittleHelper]

Very nice build! I'm in the process of building a Soma B-Side V.2 Gates Belt Drive BBS02 with a Strumey-Archer 3spd Cassette hub (CS-RK3) and was wondering if you can tell me if a 46T or 50T can clear the BBS02 gear reduction hump when mounted to a Bafang star adaptor to 104/130 chain ring when alignment to the rear is NOT a consideration?

Hopefully the CS-RK3 cassette width will allow enough outward adjustment for the rear CDX cog to align without modifications. Thx.


Sweet belt drive frame break and wide cog adjustment.