magudaman
10 kW
So I have been very busy for the over the last couple weeks finishing up my first visually orientated electric bike. I happened to be lucky enough to acquire a donor frame that already had a motor and wheels around 6 months ago. It still need something to store the batteries, brakes, a controller, ect, but I thought it would be a challenging project to take on.
The first problem was the brakes. There was a disk mount on the motor but no caliber mount for the brake caliber. I was given with the frame a cut up piece of aluminum that was made by US Custom so I did some research and found out that http://www.choppersus.com was the place who manufactured caliber mounts for chopper bikes.
These mounts are bolt less and rely on the rear drop out for its strength which I quickly learned did not work very well. Eventually during testing the aluminum that goes in the dropout sheared and the mount was close to ruined. I ended up drilling a whole through the frame and the mount to add a ton of strength and it has not moved since.
The next item was where to put the electronics and batteries so that chopper could still maintain a nice look yet still have some range. So it took some searching and deciding but I ended up having an aluminum diamond plate box custom built to specification for my mounting location.
I cut up some heavy rubber hose for damping the vibrations
Once I received the box I had to mount it to the frame.
.
Add some latches to hold it all together.
Created a piece of plywood to allow for the bolt heads and give me something to attach everything to.
So once everything was running the chopper was working great. It doesn’t have a lot of torque but gets moving and if pedaling is required (hills) it is very light work. After a couple short tests around my block I wanted to take it a little further so I did a nice little 3.5 mile loop. Upon getting back to my house I did an quick inspection of the bike to insure nothing was falling off ect. I also check the box and all the components. The problem I founds obviously by the burn marks on my hand was the controller in a extremely low air flow environment was not happy, in fact was very hot.
SO a new problem: Controller gets to hot
Do I cut holes in the box for some air flow and compromise looks, cut one hole and install a fan and have that buzzing all the time (also find a way to power it), or option C. I choose option C. This option is to use this giant aluminum box as an extension of my heat sink. I first had to thermally bond some aluminum to the bottom of the controller to attach it to the side of the case in put some heat sink grease and I was set. It now runs cool and you can just feel the back the case to see how hot it is getting.
Well it looks like I am done. I’ll do one more ride just down to the girlfriends house, run my watts up and get some stats. I am pushing the bike up their ultra steep driveway and go to give the motor a little throttle to help me out and I hear a nice ziiiinnnnngggg. Looking back I see the axle rotating in the dropouts. I had earlier shifted the motor forward to straighten the rear wheel to track better but had pushed it into a very loose area of the rear drop out that provided no locking what so ever
Now a new problem: Build a new drop out locking system. On my previous builds I used standard box wrenches to help me out with high torques hub motors so I went back to that root and got to work. A 3/8th IN wrench actually works great on this particular axle with a nice tight fit. I drilled the wrench and the frame and installed bolts. Now I have an overly strong mount that could easily handle 2000 watts.
So I have truly reached the end now and feel the design is strong and should provide quite a bit of longevity to sell. Unfortunately while doing this project I reinforced that I could really care less about traditional aesthetics and usually find more beauty in damn good engineering so it gotta go to make room for my next project that will finally use this motor:
But here are some beauty shots of what I work hard on:
The first problem was the brakes. There was a disk mount on the motor but no caliber mount for the brake caliber. I was given with the frame a cut up piece of aluminum that was made by US Custom so I did some research and found out that http://www.choppersus.com was the place who manufactured caliber mounts for chopper bikes.
These mounts are bolt less and rely on the rear drop out for its strength which I quickly learned did not work very well. Eventually during testing the aluminum that goes in the dropout sheared and the mount was close to ruined. I ended up drilling a whole through the frame and the mount to add a ton of strength and it has not moved since.
The next item was where to put the electronics and batteries so that chopper could still maintain a nice look yet still have some range. So it took some searching and deciding but I ended up having an aluminum diamond plate box custom built to specification for my mounting location.
I cut up some heavy rubber hose for damping the vibrations
Once I received the box I had to mount it to the frame.
Add some latches to hold it all together.
Created a piece of plywood to allow for the bolt heads and give me something to attach everything to.
So once everything was running the chopper was working great. It doesn’t have a lot of torque but gets moving and if pedaling is required (hills) it is very light work. After a couple short tests around my block I wanted to take it a little further so I did a nice little 3.5 mile loop. Upon getting back to my house I did an quick inspection of the bike to insure nothing was falling off ect. I also check the box and all the components. The problem I founds obviously by the burn marks on my hand was the controller in a extremely low air flow environment was not happy, in fact was very hot.
SO a new problem: Controller gets to hot
Do I cut holes in the box for some air flow and compromise looks, cut one hole and install a fan and have that buzzing all the time (also find a way to power it), or option C. I choose option C. This option is to use this giant aluminum box as an extension of my heat sink. I first had to thermally bond some aluminum to the bottom of the controller to attach it to the side of the case in put some heat sink grease and I was set. It now runs cool and you can just feel the back the case to see how hot it is getting.
Well it looks like I am done. I’ll do one more ride just down to the girlfriends house, run my watts up and get some stats. I am pushing the bike up their ultra steep driveway and go to give the motor a little throttle to help me out and I hear a nice ziiiinnnnngggg. Looking back I see the axle rotating in the dropouts. I had earlier shifted the motor forward to straighten the rear wheel to track better but had pushed it into a very loose area of the rear drop out that provided no locking what so ever
Now a new problem: Build a new drop out locking system. On my previous builds I used standard box wrenches to help me out with high torques hub motors so I went back to that root and got to work. A 3/8th IN wrench actually works great on this particular axle with a nice tight fit. I drilled the wrench and the frame and installed bolts. Now I have an overly strong mount that could easily handle 2000 watts.
So I have truly reached the end now and feel the design is strong and should provide quite a bit of longevity to sell. Unfortunately while doing this project I reinforced that I could really care less about traditional aesthetics and usually find more beauty in damn good engineering so it gotta go to make room for my next project that will finally use this motor:
But here are some beauty shots of what I work hard on:
