One motors journey... from kids 24 to Mongoose to Mundo

This has really turned in to a great deal on this motor after so many trouble free miles..View attachment 8

That one folded in the middle.. so onto this one.View attachment 9

That one cracked at the seat post strut... so onto this one...

It was the rare rainy couple of weeks in California in that one... and then finally the lithium upgrade. I tried to kill those lead batteries for years and pushing a thousand cycles.... and yes, all three were top heavy and unwieldy to move around. But for being pavement burners to use every day for a 24 miles round trip commute to a city on a long deserted (mostly) bike path with the ability to ride at 20 to 35 no hands most of the way, all three were great. I would just lean them against the wall at stores, and people were afraid to move them much less steal them, and the low nighttime fire worries and low total cost made them carefree mules.

But now I moved to a new city, and am so close to work it isn't even worth not just riding my pedal bike. so the e-bike was sitting around more... so I started thinking, maybe run a little more power thru it now that I'm not counting on it to run every day, but it likes to wheelie a little too much already at the current power levels. Then I was in the middle of fixing up a Yuba Mundo that I got in pieces from a wrecked electric conversion, and hmmm...View attachment 5

I've swapped it enough now that all the wires and cables are routed outside the triangles, so the pile of pieces would actually still run if you hooked a battery up, all the parts are still connected! the Battery rail sits there with out any fasteners, so it was pull the seatpost, lift the rack off, unbolt the wheel and cut some zip ties,, slide the fork out, and then in it all goes. The rack still goes back on for passengers and a little stealthing... a very little...lol

Sarcastic coment removed. Apologies for jumping the gun.

its a work in progress... like the bike

No worries.. I'm pretty snark resistant and good natured

That was about two hours of day off finally, beer fueled energy.... its mostly ready to roll except for swapping the cups for the fork, and a little wire lengthening.

Almost ready with the crank swapped over. And here it is with the wheelie bars just starting to hit....did I mention that getting working wheelie bars was the inspiration? :wink:

Back from the first test ride....That was fun.

So much overkill for just going to get coffee...It sure feels glued to the road compared to the last one.

First actual chores...kinda nice not carrying everything in a backpack

Off to the fireworks with a 12 pack on ice and a pizza..

One thing didn't change much, you seem to like the battery on the top tube even you have enough room in the triangle.
Do you peddle as well, it seems the peddles almost hitting the ground.

With the lead batteries there wasn't room, and only had the lithium battery a month, and it was easier for testing to just stick with my existing rack. It's so light compared to the old batteries that I barely notice it up there anyway. If I stick with this one it might make the move into the frame.
Re the pedaling, except for hard corning there's still plenty of clearance... now it's more about racing cars away from lights, so that's pretty straight lines anyway.
Edit.. one thing I really miss about the old batteries, they were tall enough to lay my chest on for long aero tuck sessions. I'd go miles likes that, dropping my hands down to the fork crown for a little steering now and then. Now that it's stop and go in the city, no more open miles of no hands, high speed runs.

This thing is turning out to be so much fun to ride... midway thru a sunset cruise

Do you like the "pedal forward" geometry of this? The smaller bikes that you had this on also had that and so you are probably used to it. Any wheelies so far? If not, just put the load of ice farther back on the rack and try harder!

They look more pedal forward than they are because of the droopy back end...but with the seat all the way forward they're about back to normal position. But in general I don't like foot forward style...I'm normally a hard charging road biker...So I like being on the pedals not behind them. I was actually on the verge of getting a layback seatpost and turning it around on the last one to get more forward.
Re. Wheelies.. its going to take an iceberg back there! It's crazy how what used to feel like barely controllable power (the last two were upside down a couple of times) now feels mellow. I'm going just as fast, but less scary. Which means it's time for more motor! Going to frame mount motor or cromotor type is in the near future.

I have a bike that is 24" front and 20" rear and have used a reverse layback seatpost (steel BMX style) for many years and if you get the distances right it works out pretty well. You might want to try a higher power hub in a 24" wheel in the back...I don't recall if you ever reported on the brand or the power of the "journeyman motor" yet?

I prob did in some other thread... It's off of a broken down extreme 600b scooter, originally 48v/600w. Now it's running on 20s (79-84v is my normal SOC)/ 3800ish watts. I've looked at a few in bigger diameters, but the hill climb and torque of the small diameter is so good. Maybe with frame mount motor I might up the wheel size. With the generic ebay controller I'm using, the 20 mph to 38 mph (top speed) power band is excellent

Even though I liked the color combo on the previous version better I would love to try a ride on your Mundo.

Thanks for introducing me to Endless-sphere

No prob.. is your SB the Santa Barbara SB? If so...come hop a ride!