A-Lines Abound: First ride after some major changes

chill4x4saph said:
really nice bike!!!, love the engineering!!
Thanks!
I think I've found a name for the bike: "The Ambassador". I've had so many people stop and ask about it, and everyone is positive and complimentary. Something happened today that goes to the top of the list.

I was taking the bike on a check ride. With my lower gear reduction, I noticed I needed to change the CAv3 from low power to high power in order to exceed 99 amps max. I also needed to gather data about how hot my Castle HV-160 is getting under aggressive riding. So on my way home from a nice 5-6 mile run, I went to make one last loop on "the big hill" near my house. I blasted down the main road near my place, did a "U" turn, then up the hill on the main road and onto the bigger hill on the residential street around the corner. During this run I got the feeling someone was following me and wanted to say hello (there was a friendly 'tot' to the horn, but whatever - I was testing!

So I got to the top of the big hill and circled around - "Maybe another run... get a good torture test for the motor and controller" I thought. As I looked down the hill, the white car that was following me started up the hill. The driver tooted and waved. I thought about escape routes (onto the sidewalk and down the hill at 35mph) and defense plans (turned the GPS tracker on... checked that yes, I have my motorcycle gloves on, the ones with the titanium knuckle guards). Yes it looked like it would be a friendly encounter, but I'd be a fool not to consider the full range of possibilities.

So the car pulled up to me, and two 25ish year old men jumped out, gushing over the bike. We chatted there awhile, but after a bit one of the men wanted to get back home - "I left the tools in the driveway". They seemed pretty cool - and clearly they were torn between leaving to secure their stuff and carrying on the chat. So I said what the hell - I'll follow you.

It was pretty awesome. These guys live right around the corner from me. Turns out, they were troubleshooting a late '90s F-150 when I zoomed by, and (I'm picturing a Dukes of Hazard style entry into their car) wanted to take a closer look at what the hell just screamed by the main road at 35mph. They actually dropped what they were doing to chase me down and find out more.

I spent awhile there - learned a bit or two about the fuel injection system on an diesel Ford truck, got my hands dirty, turned a couple wrenches, and had a great chat. One of the guys got to ride the bike (a safe risk, since I know where he lives) but actually declined riding it under e-power... he just wanted to pedal it (poor bastard!) Again it was pretty cool. These guys are just like us - the truck is being readied for a life of burning bio diesel, and in the scrap pile out back they had a couple electric motors - a 1KW brushed motor from a dryer and one of those Fisher & Paykel style BLDC washing machine motors. I think once they learn the difference between a hall wire and a phase wire they'll be converting that Ford pickup from bio diesel to LiPo...
 
OK, this is quite awesome. Spinningmagnets wrote up an article about the bike in electricbike.com! Check it out!
http://www.electricbike.com/custom-build-gallery-mattyciiis-a-line/
 
With days getting shorter it's time to work on lighting.

I've had an excellent light source for some time now - two rows of six LED's each packaged with lenses and heat sink. They sat in my basement since like April. Days were getting longer then, so I lacked motivation to complete the project. All I've needed to do was fabricate a bracket and tie into battery power. I got that done today.

DSCF4287.JPG


Sorry, the bike is in the basement and there's a lot of background clutter.

I made brackets on the MakerBot. I hope the bracket is strong enough, but this initial set of brackets actually don't have to last too long. They pivot in the middle, so I can adjust them over my first few rides and get the best angle dialed in. Once I'm satisfied I'll print a new set of brackets that are beefier and don't pivot (so, stronger overall).

DSCF4298.JPG


Each row of lights draws 5.6 watts. Each has its own switch, so I can go "half bright" or "full bright". And each runs off a different half of the battery pack (for fault tolerance... and to draw power evenly from the pack.

How bright are they?
Hard to say. Subjectively, I'm calling them the "retina ruiners". But their brightness is hard to capture in an image. Here's the bike with 1/2 the light on...
DSCF4293.JPG


Here's the light that it throws (No other lights on in the basement)
DSCF4294.JPG


Lastly, these lights are tightly integrated into the battery pack. Since the pack is removable, I can now use my battery pack ss "the world's most overkill flashlight". Great for camping I suppose. With a full charge, it blaze at full brightness for about 65 continuous hours.
:p
 
Animalector said:
so no current regulation? just pack voltage across 12 series LED's or did I not read something further back?

Sorry, I glossed over that :oops:

I'm using one MeanWell LED driver for each six-LED light.

I do run some LED's straight off LiPo batteries with no current regulation, they seem to work just fine. Two 2.2v red colored LEDs in series work just great off one LiPo cell - a 5 Amp Hour cell can last a couple months of normal riding between charges. Cheap LEDs plus cheap pouch cell - why not.
 
adam333 said:
Nice light setup Matt,

You should consider keeping a tilt adjustment though, as other cyclist and pedestrian might not like the intensity of your LEDs and they will let you know ( I got several complains and I only have 2 x 1000 lumens )

At least, test it outside with your wife at night =)

Good point Adam-
The 3D printed parts are pretty tough. And if they don't withstand shocks from the road, I can always print up a thicker set, and/or bring the light in closer to the pelican case (smaller moment arm on the forces). I have lots of room for improvement should I need it.
If I have time to improve what I have, I should use hex head cap screws and capture the bolt heads in the printed bracket... then use butterfly nuts on the other sides - so I can hand loosen/tighten the setup while on the street. Or maybe use quick release bolts on both sides. Either one would work well if I find I need to pivot the lights higher and lower a lot.
 
Had my first long (& bumpy) ride with the new lights. Barely made it 3 miles before I noticed the bolts had loosened, and the light was pivoting freely on the mounts. Instead of stopping and at least hand-tightening the bolts right away, I kept riding. I was meeting a bunch of bikers and figured "It'll last till I arrive at the meet up, where I'll have helping hands & tools". Of course, about 100 yards from my destination one of the 5mm bolts backed completely off and bounced into a storm drain. I was able to stabilize the situation by hand-tighteining the other bolt, and putting the weight of the light in a velcro sling.

Back to the drawing board to make a bracket that uses 2 bolts each side - one as a pivot axle, the other in a slot to clamp the pieces together with a bit of a moment arm (bolt in a slot type arrangement)
 
Had my first long (& bumpy) ride with the new lights. Barely made it 3 miles before I noticed the bolts had loosened, and the light was pivoting freely on the mounts. Instead of stopping and at least hand-tightening the bolts right away, I kept riding. I was meeting a bunch of bikers and figured "It'll last till I arrive at the meet up, where I'll have helping hands & tools". Of course, about 100 yards from my destination one of the 5mm bolts backed completely off and bounced into a storm drain. I was able to stabilize the situation by hand-tighteining the other bolt, and putting the weight of the light in a velcro sling.

Back to the drawing board to make a bracket that uses 2 bolts each side - one as a pivot axle, the other in a slot to clamp the pieces together with a bit of a moment arm (bolt in a slot type arrangement)
 
MattyCiii said:
Had my first long (& bumpy) ride with the new lights. Barely made it 3 miles before I noticed the bolts had loosened, and the light was pivoting freely on the mounts. Instead of stopping and at least hand-tightening the bolts right away, I kept riding. I was meeting a bunch of bikers and figured "It'll last till I arrive at the meet up, where I'll have helping hands & tools". Of course, about 100 yards from my destination one of the 5mm bolts backed completely off and bounced into a storm drain. I was able to stabilize the situation by hand-tighteining the other bolt, and putting the weight of the light in a velcro sling.

Back to the drawing board to make a bracket that uses 2 bolts each side - one as a pivot axle, the other in a slot to clamp the pieces together with a bit of a moment arm (bolt in a slot type arrangement)


An idea somewhat on your current topic. How about mounting a shifter cable to the light that runs to your bars so that as you adjust your light as needed. Not sure of your bar config but something like a 6-9 spd shifter to give you various angles. Then you'll have something low and nice on the peds eyes and can easily blind the douche with his brights on :twisted:

Hell, you could even use some type of a servo so just need space for the switch.
 
newb said:
An idea somewhat on your current topic. How about mounting a shifter cable to the light that runs to your bars so that as you adjust your light as needed. Not sure of your bar config but something like a 6-9 spd shifter to give you various angles. Then you'll have something low and nice on the peds eyes and can easily blind the douche with his brights on :twisted:

Hell, you could even use some type of a servo so just need space for the switch.

That's pretty brilliant actually.
I don't "switch modes" often - this bike is used on road, commuting mostly. So I don't need a 'quick change'. Maybe a lever type device actually on the battery pack... the pack has to stay removable, that's a great benefit.
 
MattyCiii said:
That's pretty brilliant actually.
I don't "switch modes" often - this bike is used on road, commuting mostly. So I don't need a 'quick change'. Maybe a lever type device actually on the battery pack... the pack has to stay removable, that's a great benefit.

Thanks, I look forward to seeing your design.
 
This bike turns heads. People love it. But I don't ride it much - a fact that I want to change.

I built the bike to be bullet proof. Something that would eat up the famous Boston potholes without even trying. So.. downhill frame, motorcycle wheels... the thing is totally overbuilt.

The first thing I'm changing is the battery box. I'm getting rid of the Pelican case and the aluminum box it's attached to, and placing an 18650 cell based battery into the frame triangle. It'll be a smallish battery - 12s5p - but I can either double it up later (making it twice as wide) or figure a way to add a booster pack for longer rides.

DSCF4208.JPG


There's a lot of high up, far-forward weight with the battery box out there, and when I brake hard I can feel the rear wheel coming off the ground. This I do not like. The new battery in the triangle will be lower and totally central.

The second change - and where I want advice - is in the wheels. They are heavy. The front wheel is 15lbs and the rear is 40lbs if I recall correctly (the rear has the NuVinci N360 CVT rear hub which is heavy...). I'll bet there are entire e-bikes that weigh less than this...

DSCF4179.JPG


Of course I'd love to keep what I can - such as hubs. I'm using 36 hole hubs front & rear. I'd like to use pretty bullet proof wheels, only bicycle stuff this time to be (much) lighter. I was looking at 26" as the size, but seems all I can find are 32 hole rims... this is when I figures "why not ask the 'Sphere what to do?"

So folks... any thoughts?
 
Hey Man! Good to see you post. :D

I would suggest a downhill rim for the rear wheel in a 24 inch size. Look at the Motoped. It uses a 24 inch rear rim that is around 2.25 or 2.5 inches wide and is very light weight. I am looking to build the same type of wheel for the rear of my Raptor.

Matt
 
Thanks for the tip Matt! I was focusing on 26" wheels, never gave 24" a thought.

At quick glance, I was able to find 36 hole rims that come in anodized green - to keep the look the bike already has!
I'll have to do some more looking to see if I can find any info about durability, quality, and weight.
http://www.forgecustomcycles.com/ch...nodized-double-wall/category_pathway-280.html

I'd put 24" X 2.5" Maxxis Hookworms on for tires... The motorcycle tires I have on the bike now are a little over 3" and have only a couple mm of clearance on the rear triangle...
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/2PAK-MAXXIS-...069198?hash=item43d8adabce:g:NgUAAOSwiCRUf-pR
 
Time for some work on this bike.

See all that junk up front?

DSCF4208.JPG


Way up front is a pelican case that contains the batteries. It's mounted to an aluminum box that holds a hidden GPS for theft recovery (Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone!), a battery just for the GPS, and the motor controller. Also, not shown: I sometimes attach my backpack to the front of the pelican case via a "Klick Fix" attachment http://www.klickfix.com/index.php?lang=en. There's actually a Klick Fix mount on the seat post in the above picture, but there is so much suspension travel the backpack gets rear wheel strikes when I hit big bumps, so I have since removed that mount.

The consequence of all that weight and junk out front: the steering feels like a motorcycle and the rear wheel does come off the ground in hard-stopping situations. I do not want this bike to do that. I'm too unskilled to do a decent "stoppie" and I'm too old to recover from an end crash.

So, three things:
1. I've commissioned an 18650 Tesla battery pack from Okashira to fit into the triangle. There's not a lot of room there, but I'll be able to fit 12s6p for about 19 amp hours @50 volts. This is plenty of power/range for me on this bike, but I'll definitely wire in some leads for a booster pack - location TBD.
2. The GPS and motor controller will go into the triangle too. So I'll lose both the boxes up front.
3. At this point, the back pack can mount directly to the front handlebars without making the steering too sluggish - I know this because I do this with my other bikes.

The only challenge for now is to make a battery box for new battery. I'm thinking of hand-building a fiberglass enclosure...
 
OK I'm doing some work on this bike.

I stopped riding it much when I had a car cut me off and I braked hard. The rear wheel came off the ground some, and that scared me. I'm too old to do an endo, especially in traffic on such a heavy bike.

In addition to some front suspension tuning (stiffen the Lefty shock), I'm moving the high-forward weight. Shown below circled in blue is a Pelican case full of batteries and (circled in orange) is an aluminum enclosure that (1) acts as a mount for the Pelican case (it's tough to mount stuff directly to a Lefty) and (2) holds a hidden GPS tracker, CA shunt and Castle HV-160 controller.

GCIk7m9S_iYMOt6AwJx2VEB8snlUjyZj7laeKrilC2qyWkYiIwF_Sk4aUfm33WGVmHHJ8ZRbPKYwBw=w586-h440


So where's this stuff going to go?

Battery: I don't really ride too far. So that Pelican case is usually only half full. 16AH of 50V battery. I have the LiPos to make that 32AH if I want before I set out on a ride, but again I rarely need that much.

I decided to replace the RC LiPo with reclaimed/reused Tesla 18650 cells (see this thread: https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=67661). I purchased a 50V 18AH pack that will fit in the triangle of the bike. I'm making a battery box out of ABS plastic - more on that in a future post.

Controller: The old aluminum enclosure I used was really heavy duty - and heavy. Of course it was, it had to support a 10lb battery cantilevered off its front. The new enclosure is tiny by comparison and is made of plastic. I'm going to mount it to the back of the seat post just above the seat tube.

Here's the enclosure with Castle HV-160, capacitor pack, wiring and CA shunt inside. The two thin red wires you see are now connected with a 470ohm resistor and properly heat-shrinked as a pre-charge circuit. The whole thing is tight, but it closes without having to force the lid on.

AOS7LdpbA51bNq0ekv-t8w-CFVCUbd8sCi_XAgOT0wxO6wmyhBBO81P5fut4ELws3Wkl6-NWbeb0bw=w330-h440


Here's what it looks like closed. On the right side you see 6 Andersons arranged as a pair and a 4-pack. The pair is the pre-charge circuit and will be running over 16GA wires. The 4-pack will be 12GA, two wires each for (+) and two for (-). Could/should I have used two 10GA wires? Sure, but I feel having 4 connectors is more secure. Hopefully these wires are sufficient for the demands I put on the bike.

On the left you see the 6-pin CAv3 wire enter the box (top wire) and the 3 wires that power the motor coming out below it. So how did I get that 6-pin connector through that tiny hole you ask? I cut the 6-pin connector of, inserted the site through the grommet, and crimped on new pins/installed a new connector. So yeah, this box is now permanently tethered to the bike unless I cut the 6-pin connector off again.

nxIvVq-AHbPKtJgLJOwcgsGWtiIlSEOhNse7jnfq7ov0AwnWVouks_swqyV7MftsMI-yp4dTg22EYw=w330-h440


The last bit of work I'm doing while I have so much else apart is I'm rebuilding the front wheel. I want to go from 2-cross lacing to 3-cross. So I took the front wheel apart, cleaned and inspected everything. The Canondale Lefty hub has different size flanges. I was able to repurpose half the spokes - the spokes that were the "longer" set in a 2-cross pattern are now the "shorter" set with a 3-cross. All the spokes were in excellent shape. I picked up "moped" size 13GA spoke nipples from JRH, which is nice. Previously I was using bicycle spoke nipples with stainless washers.

In the pics below you can see some slight deformation of the Lefty hub spoke flange where the spokes were previously. What should I make of this? I don't thing I had my wheel over tensioned...

0QjH5AWCU2mQGq42LNUdTggwc5D61fKk5DYl8exJm48a_pQzfhLzetkvGAfXu0Oz9H__ifu4BGfbGg=w330-h440


ot7sXdLLEo4b-kZJAzdLc3u7MUO0sVYAOsoXtMbHPWDySRmi-hKGd2AE1WiMWycfs1PBIVVbw7_rZQ=w330-h440
 
So like a fool I had my new spoke nipples sent to my old address. The good news is my cousin now lives in my old home, avoiding a whole "return to sender" mess. Having e-commerce sites store your address is convenient, but is a problem if you don't double check...

My original wheel build I used the largest 13ga spoke nipples I could find, but they were still too small for the holes in the motorcycle rim. So I used stainless steel washers to make up the difference:

nNWld02K0xxDv4JtjSZxhCBFTHfndFSGJx0RfGA3SMpNtBJFyZfIvlWJQQmwIGnOKCrE0V6oooH7Fw=w586-h440


And it worked great, except even after the spokes were tensioned (dishing the washers), the spoke heads protruded a bit too much into the rim, making it difficult to mount or remove the tire (since the tire could not sit totally into the center of the rim).

cDRHWcDlmKxsgJhwQPvNVAo2XcqqTV8NWFadhD9Lg7EedH4fQt0WMRfaoCcDmckSJ69BptunFEecow=w586-h440


The new spoke nipples (shown below) have a 13ga thread but an extra large head - they're moped nipples and should be large enough to fit into the rim holes without the need for the washers. I won't know 100% for sure till I get back home tomorrow night, but the nipples are specs'd at 9.5mm head (http://holmeshobbies.com/13g-moped-nipple-silver.html) while the rim holes are about 8.75mm, so they should work great.

fJIeDL6HgZU16cZSEKYtbtEmoyVf8kI8z3159NP8e7QRLQO8PEguqpHKIm9WsJh2Tb0BgyQ0X7JLdA=w330-h440
 
adam333 said:
hmm... that's only 0.37 mm contact area though.

Thanks for pointing that out Adam. The 10mm washers obviously gave me more contact area. I'll have to proceed carefully...
 
Back
Top