GCinDC's Giant DH Comp

hey folks,

so i've been commuting everyday since March on my road bike. great exercise, and i'm actually enjoying it. takes a bit longer, and i've got no shower at work which is a bummer.

i get up to 35mph on the long downhill stretch, but hit more lights and have to slow down at spots. here are pretty typical stats for the morning ride:



i'd sent my adaptto controllers back to russia to get fixed, but now they're back!


should i reinstall the max-e? i'm afraid if i do, i'll never ride the road bike again! lol

Why bother asking... You know you're going to do it.

What happened to the controllers and were they fixed under warranty?

Tom

yeah yeah, the exercise, the helathy option, straight and narrow...really enjoying....just get on with it

still pedaling!

no time really, and still fussing w/ trying to fit the brakes.

or was, before this project came along, fyi: GCinDC's Zooma Ty Rod II go kart conversion

I will buy your mini .. miss your old vids and builds

yo broke, you mean my ebike vids? cause i still make two vids a week or so, but they're mainly family ones...

and this just today from the kart thread after upgrading the motor:
[youtube]mOjH1cp_rDs[/youtube]

now with the kart done, and oncoming depression for the end of the build project, i took a peek at the giant dh comp, and noticed it was plugged in, circuit breaker on, but no display. and the display was connected....

...so with a sense of dread, i put a DMM on my (once 92V) battery leads and was appalled to see it at 3.2V... :x



i still can't entirely believe it and hope i'm wrong. i can't remember where the cells were when i last checked... but if i hooked it up at the end of july, and left it connected for a month, could the adaptto drain the pack. pretty sure the bms wasn't on... ugh. just hope i'm wrong.

That happened to me a few times. Just noticed it again tonight where all my cells were 1.8-2.2v. sometimes it takes 3 days and sometimes it takes 2 weeks to drain them down.

Its a huge bummer

reconfigured the older turnigy pack.

got a friendly reminder about how to plug it in:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-.../E-co0W_wi9c/w404-h718-no/20150907_132521.jpg

finally gave up trying to fit a 7 spd freewheel in there, so bought a 22T freewheel which should be good enough to pedal if i lose power:


and because of mxus 3k width, i had to replace the stoker brake with a thinner single piston hayes from the black dh comp (shown here installed w/ fatter siezed stoker beneath it):


then i had to tidy up all the other loose ends to get it running today since i sprained my ankle playing basketball. hit the ER just to confirm it wasn't broken:


been keeping it constantly iced and elevated, but bruising is starting to show:


and just had to attach crutches to be able to get in to work:


only ran at 35A max, just to make sure no probs. but very pleasant ride!

Praying you'll feel better soon. :wink: My wife broke her ankle years ago getting out of bed after waking up one morning just because she stepped on it wrong.

Never a dull moment!

Glad you're back riding electric. Sorry to hear about your kff and ankle!

nice week commuting!

probably going to have to vent the MXUS 3000 tho. hits 350F 3/4 of the way up my long hill after pulling only 35A.

with winter (salt) coming tho, i'm wondering if i should just try to manage the heat with the throttle. and i don't even have regen set up yet.

GCinDC said:

nice week commuting!

probably going to have to vent the MXUS 3000 tho. hits 350F 3/4 of the way up my long hill after pulling only 35A.

with winter (salt) coming tho, i'm wondering if i should just try to manage the heat with the throttle. and i don't even have regen set up yet.

Click to expand...

Keep the motor stock and try to make this motor last for at least a year and a half lol. Baby it up the hill if need be.

GCinDC said:

probably going to have to vent the MXUS 3000 tho. hits 350F 3/4 of the way up my long hill after pulling only 35A.

Click to expand...

I think you may not have your settings dialed in right, something smells fishy there. You were using a H4080 (or similar variant) previously weren't you ? The solid stator alone should give you much better heat management.


Bummer about the ankle!
Did you see my latest vid ? You may sympathise with the ending

Hyena said:

I think you may not have your settings dialed in right, something smells fishy there. You were using a H4080 (or similar variant) previously weren't you ? The solid stator alone should give you much better heat management.

Click to expand...

hmm, good q. i was using adaptto max-e w/ h4080, yes, but had the max-e serviced - not sure if flashed - and now an mxus 3000 4T.

i just checked and have the motor sensor using the kty83 thermister. is that the right one? just checking my email and no specs. bought it on ebay from user 'barent' - is he on ES? "MXUS 3000W V2 45mm Direct Drive Hub Motor Aluminum Stator *** 50 MPH ***"

going to research now...

motor heat has not been a problem anymore. days have been cooler, but maybe i didn't have it set properly.

after a week or so, i jacked the amps up to 75. the power has been sweet but i gotta say, it's taken me a while to get used to! maybe it's riding with a bum ankle, or just being rusty, or having crappy brakes, but i've not been 100% comfortable, and have felt a lot more cautious. i don't want to say 'scared' but i think you get the point. it's just taken a while to adjust my senses to the speed.

i did get new brake pads but couldn't fit them. one of the pistons won't recoil enough, so i'm using the old crappy pads which won't quite grip.

i've been looking at new hydro brake sets, but not yet willing to spend the dough...

and the 22s 10Ah turnigy pack is now down effectively to 5Ah! after much humming and hawing, i finally bought some zippy compacts, 22s worth of 5.8Ah packs for 11.6Ah for $450 shipped.

i could have used the dying pack as an excuse to get back on my road bike and start pedaling again, but... cutting an hour out of the commute by ebiking is nice, and not having to sponge bathe at work. well, you know..

so that's the update on the ebike.

kids are still enjoying the kart. here's another little vid:
[youtube]4GRd2kqSKhc[/youtube]

back to pedaling this week since i had a little set back - a disk screw loosened up on me - first time that's happened that i recall - and cut some wires:


the power cut out at first (with each wheel revolution) and then i got a halls error.

while at work i removed the wheel to inspect.


i taped up two wires with torn insulation and soldered one (temp sensor line) that had been severed, but no dice. still got the halls error.

hauled it home in the van last night, removed wheel to re-inspect and try again but still got halls error.

suspecting something blew in the max-e controller, i swapped it out w/ mini-e and ran autodetect but got halls 1 error.

so now i'm thinking one or two of the halls are actually blown.

Trackman417 said:

Keep the motor stock and try to make this motor last for at least a year and a half lol. Baby it up the hill if need be.

Click to expand...

i'm thinking you may have a point. would be nice if i could make this motor last that long!

now i'm stumped.

i unscrewed the motor side halls connector and tested each hall using the ebike tester, and they all worked.

no hall or phase wire shorts on motor wiring.

if something blew in the controller, then why would i get identical Halls Error 1 with a factory reset mini-e?

I didn't check for a short against the motor. I've got the second strommer motor all together so if that runs, i can rule out the controllers.

By the way, on the health monitor, the halls read: 101. i've never noticed, but if you spin the wheel while looking at that, do the digits cycle?

ah, ebikes...

Any news on the bike?

Also, what do you where in terms of pants on the commute in to work on the bike? I have been thinking about commuting to my internship in the 40(or so) degree mornings, but the thinner material of dress pants doesn't make the ideal scenario for a commute in at 35mph. As soon as the humidity dropped, and the mornings got colder, the bike hasn't moved since about the beginning of September!

yo, T. first, to your question, i hate being cold, or wet, so i gear up in winter ebiking.

we're not there yet, but in the coldest cold, i do fine w/ silk long underwear, work pants and waterproof pants, normal socks with wool socks on top and waterproof boots.

on top, Tshirt, shirt, wool sweater, water resistant winter jacket.

on tippy top, balaclava, ski goggles and FF helmet.

too much information? haha

ebike is going strong. some notes:

- brand new 20s2p zippy compact lipo pack. should have gone 22s but was sleep walking when i bought it.
- proper headlight, wired up to controller power leads with a cute switch and a sweet little bell

- brand new magura MT4 front & rear hydro brakes - my old ones were seized and so crappy, i actually rear-ended a car when they wouldn't stop in time. the car didn't notice or care, and i was filming but didn't post it cause it's embarassing. lol

as for halls, it took me far too long too diagnose the problem. when testing the hall, the alligator clips on the suspect hall wire was actually in contact w/ a working hall. at long last, i yanked the motor and found the bad hall - it must have shorted w/ phase wire, so understandable.


i had to take apart the motor a couple more times after that tho, with the same hall problems, first because of a lousy soldering job, and then again because the hall slipped out of its slot:


i've grown fond of the motor tho. super easy to disassemble. might have to buy another as a backup.

my bike still has so many problems it's stupid:
- front fork has like no oil. it's all leaked out when upside down
- rear linkage creaks from bolt i used to replace stripped threads
- rear wheel was laced up poorly in a out of round, out of true MC wheel, and it irritates me.

other than that it's perfect.

i'm 90% done fixing up the second stromer too. i got it wired up with a miniE, but that's another story.

pretty soon, i'll have a white dh comp on my hands, if thud does his duty this weekend and ships the mofo.
another reason for a mxus...

damn, just saw news from paris. that's a damn shame, just sad, sad, sad.

Hi Greg,
it would be nice to see you rolling.
Did you consider cooling motor with Ferrofluid - new invention from beloved Justin:
http://www.ebikes.ca/news/statorade-experiment/
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1106508#p1106508

BLACK TERMAL WIPERS

thanks, i've been following the thread, and FF is interesting, tho i still have scars from my tests with oil. i know it's a different animal, but i wonder about maintenance issues w/ the FF in there, and venting seems the easiest and most effective way to cool the motor - it's just the damn salt enemy...

i've decided to take a stab at replacing the seals on the manitou dorado CF forks that came with the blue bike. they were leaking like crazy.

this pinkbike 'rebuild' tutorial gave me some courage: http://www.pinkbike.com/u/mikelevy/blog/tech-tuesday-manitou-dorado.html
it's from 2011, so how different could the 04 fork be? lol..

the first step of cleaning my bench seemed like the hardest but i finally managed it.


after loosening the top nut, i was a bit surpised that there was NO oil in to pour out. and whatever there was was congealed and goopy:


and i was a bit surprised to see two separate springs with no way to really access the 13mil nut, or if there is a nut up there?:


off pinkbike, i found a pic of a similar fork but don't see the same cartridge/springs:


also, the nut on the bottom with the blue dial (in bottom right of this pic) unthreads partway, but then never comes out, no matter how many times i turn it:


hold on, i just found a guide, and p5 seems to have clues. i'll have to give it another go later..

wrong manual. such a friggin pain. made a tiny bit of progress, but it's still on the bench.


can't figure out how to bleed the oil.

the blue dial has a tiny set srew but can't get it off, and not sure it's meant to come off.

I have the same fork but it works perfect. Here is what I found.....

http://spoke-n-word-cycles.com/TechnicalDocuments/Manitou/Manitou%202003/Manitou%202003%20Dorado%20Service%20Manual.pdf

http://www.manitoumtb.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/2004-Dorado-Owners-Manual.pdf

http://trueofilesgb.tk/2003-manitou-dorado-manual/

Good luck!

Tom