E-S Stealth Electric Bike Owners

bigbore said:

Theodore Voltaire said:

What I want is 25ah, or more, for less than a $1000. The way things are going I think I may get my wish, considering I'll probably get one more year out of my stock battery.

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In Italy we say :
You want the barrel full and the wife drunk

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Che Bella Simone. Verisimo!

Sometimes, Italians and Americans have some of the same sayings. Italians say: "Where were you born, the Coliseum?" Americans say: "were you born in barn?" Usually said when doors aren't closed after opening. Always got a kick out of that..... and Carabinieri jokes.

Just a quick shot of the purple sb-178 ))

Gave my buddy a ride on my flux alpha...... he is hooked! I might sell him my alpha, but told him to take his time and ride my bikes to see what he likes best.
Nice to have a riding buddy.

Awwww... I want a riding buddy! :lol:

I am working on converting mine buddy from pedal power but he won't do it! lol..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJDg2g1COyc

Lol... Now that's just sad.

Mammalian04 said:

Awwww... I want a riding buddy! :lol:

I am working on converting mine buddy from pedal power but he won't do it! lol..

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I've been doing the same
He does not believe that you can do exercise even on an e-bike, just choking throttle. It is not true in your opinion?

Mamm - we have to ride one of these days.
...

Just got back from a good ride on the flux alpha in 92 deg F on some rough single track..... got back and motor outside was 170F!!! ouch.
Controller only @ 107F.

Guess I need to apply some cooling mods to the motor..... air holes, or ferro-fluid. Time to do some research.

I have the chinese controller with the 3 way switch for power level. I was running pretty hard in pos 2.

I'll try to run the same trail tonight in pos 1 (low), and check temps.

Also a word of warning...... I have gathered many ebike chargers over my time in this hobby, I did not realize I had paired a dinky small power cable from a sondors to a beefy Stealth charger for my SB 178..... I charged it up and the elec power supply cable (sondors) was too hot to touch..... luck I did not burn it up. I'll probably throw away all the sondors small gage power cables. all FYI for any newbs like me.

None of my friends coworkers believe you get exercise. They just don't understand you say electric bike to them equals cheating but as we stealth owners no you get as much exercise as you want for me i pedal constantly .the more Thrust out of my motor the more pressure I push on my legs heart rate way up.. upon my arrival to work 22 miles one way shirt shorts socks soaking wet with sweat ride by few dozen Lycra bikers every commute tight spandex and a View of someone's rear end no thanks... so if someone thinks you don't exercise they are wrong ask them do you get exercise on a stationary bike? Stealth bomber ultimate high speed spin class with a view!

So true, riding our machines is like riding down hill, we still pedal and expand energy doing it. Maybe not as much as our road and MTB counterparts on a climb, but going fast through the woops, or just pedal assisting, we are getting a work out just the same.

One4T, SB178 is a looker. Everytime I see it, the color is impressively custom.

If your going fast enough, forget pedalling. Hanging on and manoeuvring a bike at high speed is a full body workout. Unfortunately, its kinda one of those things best understood when someones actually done it which is why someone who hasn't done it can never fully appreciate it.

The commute bike has (hopefully temporarily) died due to water getting into where it shouldn't. I still cycled the tank, including its battery, 80km per day for two days. The legs burnt a little more than usual, but the only real difference was speed. It took almost twice as long as normal... same workout...

When I get off the track after a 20 minute session on my sport bike, I am at very high heart rate and completely drenched in sweat. And that is with NO pedaling. Just moving around on the bike. I get plenty of workou on the eBike. Well, not so much to keep me from not wanting to go. I ride for fun, not exercise!

Its part and parcel. I remember the first time the missus came for a ride in a past thrash car. "I can't understand why you come back all sweaty from just a drive".....

RIX - thx man, the thing about a custom paint job is the contract and complexity with light changes. It goes from chick-poofy bubble gum pink, to dark purple/black..... great for tossing around the hood.

Flux Alpha update.... ran the same trails on setting 1 (lowest), and motor stayed cooler, just hot to the touch, and the lower power setting was plenty for the tight single track, and plenty for the little uphill sections IF I had some good PAS. Chain keeps falling off.... so I've got some work to do here. Perhaps there is some downhill chain guide tech I can use on this bike? Other option is single speed and either no PAS down low ir no PAS up high..... perhaps I need to find a slumph for this bike?
Loving the 19" MX rim and trials bike tire, alot of confidence for no flats, and it just GRIPS!!!!!

Are you guys running a MX rim noticing a sig difference in rear wheel flex? Either my spokes are loose on my new sb...... or there is a sig difference in rear wheel stiffness between a stock sb and a cl motor with big spokes and a 19" mx rim. Do you need to tighten spokes on the stock sb often? like every 200 miles? I just went through mine and some were on the loose side.

thx all.

one4torque said:

Are you guys running a MX rim noticing a sig difference in rear wheel flex? Either my spokes are loose on my new sb...... or there is a sig difference in rear wheel stiffness between a stock sb and a cl motor with big spokes and a 19" mx rim. Do you need to tighten spokes on the stock sb often? like every 200 miles? I just went through mine and some were on the loose side.

thx all.

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I never had a problem with any spokes loosening.

one4torque said:

Are you guys running a MX rim noticing a sig difference in rear wheel flex? Either my spokes are loose on my new sb...... or there is a sig difference in rear wheel stiffness between a stock sb and a cl motor with big spokes and a 19" mx rim. Do you need to tighten spokes on the stock sb often? like every 200 miles? I just went through mine and some were on the loose side.

thx all.

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Initially on any wheel, moto or MTB, truing after the first couple of rides is a good idea. Eventually the spokes take a set and then its just checking occasionally.

Allrighty peeps… This is the giant WTF mutha rebuild of the Dinosaur…I have learned a boat load from this forum and this is compiling a lot of info that already exists…
I wanted to list every mod I have done but also describe why and what the result is so here goes..
The reason I started the rebuild in the first place is I noticed cracks in the frame


the cracks are the same on both sides. I tore the entire bike apart and had the frame gusseted and welded up.

Upon further investigation I found:
The side panels were coming apart and were cracked so I had them welded and rebuilt.
Some of the Riv nuts were spinning so I had them welded in place.

The battery cable at the Anderson connector was frayed and came apartsee the pic…. So i rebuilt them and put in new anderson connectors..


The bearings on the motor lost all of their grease and looked cooked.


The sheathing on the phase wires, mostly the green one was falling apart


Inside the engine the solder flung all over the shop


One small edge of the stator arms was opening (you can see solder all over the place here as well)


There was a factory temp sensor installed in the engine but the wire was doubled back inside the cable run and not connected to anything.
I must have gone past 120c a few times at least...

Upgrades and fixes:
Suspension:
FRONT….The stock front suspension is atrocious on the bomber. The front forks were harsh and the adjusters did next to nothing. so I replaced them with marzocchi 888 CR's. The 888’s were sprung too soft so I upgraded them with the HD marzocchi spring.
The 888’s clamps are u shaped and raise the front end of the bike making the bomber more chopper like.


The front end pushed all over creation..To fix this and get more weight over the front I did 2 things, I raised the forks in the triples as far as possible and I also replace the triples with Rissie racing flat triple clamps. as you can see in the pic

So my new lower triples were great but they hit the frame…

I also glued rubber bumpers on to the existing rubber bumpers so the clamp would not hit.. While a good thought they came apart fairly quickly so I modded the rissie racing triples so they would not hit the frame by filing down the corners. Thankfully that worked and did not affect the strength of the triples.



REAR… The dnm shock has a 700lbs spring in it …must be rated for someone who weighs around 250 lbs. I weigh 165 and it was total kidney failure inducing pain! So out went the stock spring and in went a Cannon Racecraft 550lbs…while were at it lets send the shock to AS racing for a 3 stage stack revalve.. They tore apart the shock and said the following “ it’s a damn good copy of an elka and has nice big ports” during the revalve they found that there was not enough fluid in it, and the nitrogen levels were retardedly low… go figure it’s a cheap ass...10 points for copying but 0 for execution! After these mods to the suspension it was night and day…..Plush factor much better!! I may still go lighter on the spring weight still.

The bike handles great now for something with a giant “dinasour” boat anchor of a motor in the back of it…

I covered the rear spring with lizard skins neoprene sleeve. i used 2 velcored together so I could easily take them off for cleaning.

SEAT:
Cant stand the stock seat and for me I dig the serfas RX seat.. gel filled with separation in the middle for my business.. much more comfy but when going down hill I felt like I was going to endo… I looked a buch of dropper posts but nothing worked for the range I wanted. Everything was too long. So I found a manual dropper (tube with in a tube) Titec el norte for all of 15 bucks. That rocks! Must do for off-roading I now have a huge range of height. I can drop my seat to the frame and raise it over 5 inches to get beyond comfortable pedaling height. Try that with a stock post!!! There is a boat load more range than what is in the pics.

FRONT WHEEL:
Basically stock besides a hd moto tube in it. 15psi constantly no flats ever. One of these days I have to change that front tire….
The front fender is a Topeak DeFender XC1


REAR WHEEL:
Rear wheel:
Holms hobbies rim 19x 1.6 with 11/12 127mm l spokes If I were to redo it I would go 125mm,(see pic) all of the spokes stuck through the wheel and had to be ground down.


standard moto tube and a vww rubber vrm021 tire.. 15psi. Never any flats and lasts for ever and ever and ever and ever...



then I tried a Whites Industries freewheel and while very pretty I decided I didn't want my bike to sound like a 1982 Huffy BMX bike so that went by the wayside..The thing makes a really loud clicking noise.


So I wound up rebuilding the stock one… cleaned out all of the bearings and regreased everything. So nice now!

CONTROLS:
Oury grips nice and comfy! I moded them by cutting them down to use the lockers because I like having something metal at the end of the handlebars incase I hit something.

I also got a brass incredibell Duet. really loud and pretty small if you are looking for that sorta thing.

BRAKES:
Shimano BRM 820 brakes.. HOLY CRAP!!! Blows away the maguras. I had MT4’s and storm rotors that in about 2 years I wore through the rotors, replaced 3-4 sets of pads and bled about 10,000 times… set up several times….did the “special magura rebleed” I hate the idea of modding a brake system to make it work properly.. The maguras have designed in lever travel that has no effect on braking and suc eggs…. Saints baby!! The braking ability just adds to the confidence level on the bike. And the best part… even when I trimmed the front and rear line to fit the bike I NEVER had to bleed them!

I also put a spacer between the motor and the rotor. Initally I used washers but this was much more stable.

MOTOR:
The dinosaur as its been called….replaced the stock wire w 10 gauge silicone wire, did the heat shrink trick to get it to fit through the channel in the axle.


By passed the little board inside the motor because the thicker gauge wires wouldn’t fit. Cleaned out all of the solder mess, removed the stock temp gauge and installed a grin tech one. Touched up all of the motor varnish and also fixed where the stator ends were separating.
The bearings have been replaced w sealed bearings. One of the bearings was loose inside the cover so I had to dimple the cover. The new bearings were all frozen so they were easier to fit in. anywhere where I could put high temp sealant I did, around the bearings, on the covers, and covering the wires and the temp sensor inside the motor including the channel in the axle.


Where the covers have the small holes in them they have been drilled out and threaded for 5mm bolts. Bolts were added and the threading was covered in high temp silicone.An additional 5mm hole was added close to the axle for breathing. I wanted to set up the motor for oilcooling. Went w ferro fluid… more on this later..

When I took the motor apart I dimpled the side cover and the center to make it easy to line up


I also chucked in new seals on both sides

ELECTRICAL:
Replaced all connectors coming from the motor. Ran a separate temp gauge set of wires so I wanted to get one connector to connect all of the halls and the temp wires…


The new connectors have waterproof gaskets in them and are twist lock.


Had to also make a second connector inside the frame which had to be modded to fit in the slot in the back of the frame (it was too wide) so I could disconnect just the CAV or just the controller.


Heat shrunk everything everwhere…
New Anderson connectors for the battery.


Everything was either heat shrink connected or silicone taped or both
The new connector for the halls and the temp sensor is attached w Velcro to the vboxx.
Temp sensor was soldered to CAV 3 ( the red and black lines indicate where the wires were soldered.


case was drilled to fit the wires and hotglue holds the wires in place so no tension is on the solder connection.
3m 2 sided HD tape was used to attached the CAV3 on to the frame.
Here is a pic of the wiring harness