project: no-car

so im getting my feet wet, well soaked rather. almost drowning to be exact. ive been following the builds for about 2 years now. doing reaserch, helping my buddy build his ebikes. tear em down, ride them. figuring out what I wanted to do. looking at what works what doesn't. regardless, this is my build thread. I started saving around the holidays of 2013. and have until February first 2014 to finish my project. 60 days. why? because im in the process of moving, and need a reliable vehicle. daily driver/commuter. the bikes name comes from a saying, mopar or no car. im a jeep fanatic and dodge/Chrysler fan. I like the older jeeps, especially Cherokees. and some of the older dodge trucks. well if im not driving a jeep or dodge truck, I have no car. hence, wait for it... project: no-car. by "complete" I mean ride able and able to get me to work and back. maybe some other light commuting. ive had motorcycles and dirtbikes, and fabricated a lot of things in my life, on to another project.

when I started seeing ebikes I had my doubts. I didn't think it was going anywhere, now, id back them. its amazing and inspirational seeing what some of the guys are doing out there. my friend and I have been putting togeather a couple different frames and ideas. this one were throwing together to get me to work and back.

so far I have the specs im going to be running and just today purchased everything I need for the build with exception of batteries. I know what batteries im going with, so that's no problem, I just need to wait a week until I can pick them up. ill go ahead and give an overview as to some of the aspects of the build, and to where its going to go after its first "rollout" .

requirements; I need a go fast machine, I have a need for speed. I need it to be small enough to fit in my apartment, and able to get up a few stairs. it will be ridden year round, so it has to be reliable.

backround; I wouldn't build a machine if it wasn't going to be able to woo me, and I am a definite 1upper. haha. my ebike will be "better" than my friends and virtually more "capable" it is a budget frame for now, but once the acquiring of a welder is had, I will be building a new frame, in due time.

enough, lets get to the specs.

cromotor laced to holmes hobbies 17" rim wit dot rated dual sport tire or the like.
lyen 24 fet freeway speed controller
zippy lipo packs configured to 30s 16ah (for now it will be 30s 8ah, then added to, eventually to make it 16, or 24 ah)
using a mongoose cx24v450 frame for right now, couple months till custom frame build.
eventually mazocchi bomber 888 front forks (budget permitting time of arrival)

those are the basics. ive ordered a lot of other things today, and pending arrival of all the parts needed to complete the build, I will be starting the processes.



hopefully that link works, if not ill figure it out. that is the frame with a 36v battery for scale, and the cromotor bolted up. ill be adding the lists and images of some products I also purchased to the post. thanks for looking! enjoy.

hopefully I will be able to figure out how to attach these pegs I got, going to be removing the kick stand most likely, bike already has one...


got 2 of these 5000 lumen bike lights, gotta be able to see. and they are realitively small so I liked that feature (girlfriend picked red over black or blue) haha


then ofcourse I have to be able to stop, I picked up these 203mm rotors for front and rear and the spacers for the calipers, and a pair of calipers.
these are temp, unless theyu work well enough, but I may go with heavier duty ones.



I ordered the 10gauge silicone wire, the 5.5 mm bullets, a couple resistors for a precharge resistor, and heat shrink to tidy the connections.

I also picked up the icharger 4010 duo, and some dell psu's I have to mod in order to charge the lipos. since I went ahead and ordered one of the most capable chargers, imo, ill never need to get another charger. haha. this will also work for my rc hobby aswell.

careful with connecting a battery to those lights, get the polarity wrong and you will ruin the led driver inside. (so annoyed at myself I have the exact one in the picture.)

whereswally606 said:

careful with connecting a battery to those lights, get the polarity wrong and you will ruin the led driver inside. (so annoyed at myself I have the exact one in the picture.)

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they actually have batteries with the units. I was looking at cell mans, but they can only handle 100v max... im running 111-147... :/ lol. and the connectors on them are screw on, so they are waterproof. goot for rainy commutes!

I got my first delivery today!!! I ordered Saturday evening, and got it today, soo excited!!! its like Christmas all over again. lol.

anyway, got the 24 fet controller and the ca-ls direct plug. as well as my 3 speed switch. seriously excited. and I thought this 24fet was going to be way bigger than it realistically is. nicee!

got even more stuff today!! usps brought my psu's my stand alone balancers and my lights, wich are surprisingly small. I thought they's be bigger, but I don't mind that they're small at all. now I don't have to worry about these huge things sitting up by my handle bars... awesome!!!

im going to vhave to mod the psus to run together... so I get 24v 57a. shouldn't be too difficult, theres a few forums for them.

the chargers for the lights seem to be the wrong size male ends, the lights however fit right into them. and the lights are ran off of 4 18650's. I like them, theres 3 settings lo med hi on them. and a stobe, but I proibably wont use that feature.,..

and I hope all the balancers work. but they should.

just finished modding the psu. had a little trouble isolating the ground, but eventually got it to work. in series they're showing 24 volts. im really happy. and it wasn't difficult to do either. just have to solder on my leads once I get my wire and everything in the mail. tested a balancer, and it worked as expected. happy with that. cant wait to get my lipos ordered. the bike lights are nice and bright too. going to test them outside in a little. really happy with them aswell. really starting to get things together. really excited.

also picked up the plastics for the frame, so I now have a seat and front and rear fender. so that's good. and they aren't in horrible condition either.

got my brakes today along with my dash, fender, horn and bike cover. really happy with all the shipping on the items. not waiting for much else. hopefully be able to get the batteries this weekend for this coming week, if not ill have to wait till the following week oh well. getting closer to the deadline, and a lot to do. cant wait to get going!

fkya!!! just a little size comparison with what I got today in the mail!! 2s 5000 hardcase next to the 4010. I seriously thought this charger was going to be big. im amazed at the size for the power handling capabilities!! going to solder the leads probably tonight and power it up

I also got the cables for the psus and the 10 gauge wire, going to need more lol.

do the pedals still work? NJ police will check that.
i did consider the cx24v450 after i got a ticket on my razor mx450 which lacks pedals.
my mx450 would get loose in the rain at 22 mph. knobby tire and short wheelbase makes for a fun ride!
.
here is mine, based on the hyper motobike sold at walmart,

i wanted a seat as comfortable as my lazy-boy, so i had to build the seat frame/battery box myself.
not fast like yours, just a comfort bike for FL.

Matt Gruber said:

do the pedals still work? NJ police will check that..

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in this build I plan on removing the pedals, running no chain, and replacing suspension with more travel. I will be using xr50 footpegs. I understand the laws, and understand the consiquences of my build. at 200watts it should still be "legal" with no pedals, not positive though. 3 speed switch

got some more goodies in the mail yesterday, haven't checked today yet, but I got my second back up psu, and the foot pegs, and heat shrink.

might have a chance to get out of a ticket since it came with pedals.
just bring them to court with pics, and say
IF IT WILL PLEASE THE COURT, I'LL PUT THE PEDALS BACK ON.
That could do it, with a fair judge.
In fact, if you explain you have pedals and it came with them new,
to a cop, you might not get a ticket in the first place.
As i found out, it is up to your local police. They can demand a registration as a motor vehicle if they want (if it lacks functioning pedals)

Matt Gruber said:

As i found out, it is up to your local police. They can demand a registration as a motor vehicle if they want (if it lacks functioning pedals)

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i don't believe im going to get stopped.

I received my 1k 5w resistors for precharger today in the mail along with my 5.5mm bullets. and ordered my batteries today. waiting on shipping info for them and then ill schedule my build accordingly. can still set up the roller, and get ideas off the dimensions for the batteries either way. so thays good. ordered 6x 6s 8000mah zippy lipos 30c. I ordered 6 incase 1 came with a dead cell. that way I wouldn't be out of deadline. hopefully I wont hit any bumps along this road. sofar its going smooth. im going to have to upgrade the bullets sooner then later. bought them in bulk, and had some issues w/ quality so far. they will do for now, but in the next couple weeks, I believe I will buy higher quality materials. get what you pay for. even though some of this build has been budgeted out, it is not unrealistic, or far fetched I believe. in due time, it will all have been upgraded, and most, if not all the products purchased will make it to the next build (the custom frame, or next bike). possibly tomorrow, I plan on ripping into the frame, and really checking dimensions, and fixing any glitches, as well as getting all the parts organized, and ready for assembly. making sure all the connectors are proper, maybe seeing after the dropouts to see if they need beefing up. possibly stretching the frame more to fit the rotor and brake assembly on the rear. also with fabricating a rear brake lever.
I didn't mention this , but I plan on having a rear moto styled foot lever for braking , so it will be more comfortable for me to control and ride, since im more naturally used to the foot brake over the hand operated one. also going to be making some cable routing gussets and odds and ends for the wires to see how they will be run, as well as finding appropriate hardware for the seat and fenders. going to get some serous r&d work in tomorrow!

a lot to do in a little time. good thing there's not only 8 hours in a day. :wink:

so, its been a little bit. I went to my buddies house and tore down the bike, from his set up, with a lyen 18 fet, 72v limn, and my cromotor. and I brought the cromotor and wheel to my friends house for him to true it and re tighten all the spokes before I take it for a rollout. im really excited, hope he finishes it soon, I need to get the correct size spacers for the axle, so I can use the disk brake, and I need to space out the swing arm. im now sourcing out another 17" tire for the front. for temp, im going to run what I can get my hands on fastest, maybe shoot down to my buddies motorcycle shop, and see what he has laying around. run it on the stock front for a little bit, till I get the front rim all set up. I also took the bike, seat fenders and all home, so I can start assembling the bike, since I have off tomorrow, and will have a lot of free time. they've processed my bvatteries, and rechecked the order, should be shipped out tomorrow or the next day. that's all im really waiting on.

got the charger powered up. real sweet. have to do the fan mod, since it sounds like im blowing leaves outside, but in my apartment. lol.

well while typing this, I did the fan mod. wow what a difference! can actually talk now haha.

going to see about mounting my ca up and head lights. disk brake, maybe braze on a mount for the rear and build a foot brake lever. but well see, may do that this weekend after getting my motor back, and widening the frame. that's all for now.

batteries shipped today. AWESOME! picked up some copper collars to make the parallel leads. got the bike back togeather after pulling it apart. I was able to get the new disk on and front caliper, dashboard and ca, both headlights, seat fenders and controller, after getting some hardware. I picked up some shaft collars to space the motor for the disc brake. hopefully they work out. picked up 5 of them, incase of any trial and error. don't know if the controllers going to stay where it is, may build a bump out bracket. to push it out an inch or so. didn't get to stretching the swing arm yet. also got word that my rim is trued, so that's a relief, may go out later and grab it. will take pictures after I get the rear wheel on.

started the wiring harness' going to finish them once the batteries arrive. just to make sure of the connectors. should be here in 3 days. its pretty much some finishing touches. i made a c washer out of a shaft collar i picked up at a hardware supply store. hopefully it works. going to have to possibly braze some material in it to fill in the voids, but well see. then ill start working on a mount for the batteries and all should be good. going to cycle them a few times, and check them. a couple other small finishing touches... hopefully finish up this week.

haha.. do you have one of icemans PSU's?

subbed. Looking forward to seeing this.

angelo212 said:

subbed. Looking forward to seeing this.

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How do you subscribe? I just keep it on my list of articles, doesn't notify me of new comments.

you are now subsribed, once you post in it. sorry i havent updated recently, ive been busy building it. i made it though!!!! matched my deadline of rollout!!! soo happy and this little bike is a beast! 100lbs. and 5000watts so far!! more pics and updates to come!!!