E-Bike XB-502 conversion project

Just spent $900 on winter tires for my GTI. Getting wheels and brakes for this is on hold until mid next month and another paycheck. I already have the tires for it. I accidentally bought them a year ago thinking they were the right size for the blue scooter. Fortunately this moped uses that size tire so not a waste of money after all.
 
nice!! Used Schwalbe Spykers on my front wheels on my trike, barely got any wear so this year they will go back in. I only had them on the trike for a couple of months before I went back the Trykers

G.
 
gman1971 said:
nice!! Used Schwalbe Spykers on my front wheels on my trike, barely got any wear so this year they will go back in. I only had them on the trike for a couple of months before I went back the Trykers

G.

Your wheels are probably fairly easy to do tire change outs. Ever try putting a moped tire on? It's a royal pain even with the right tools. It's highly likely that you will be cursing the day you were born before you get the tire on. Tubeless is easier if you can go that route. If you want to curse the birth of all your living and dead relatives too, just pinch the tube while putting a tire on and then find out after its all closed up that the tube is damaged. Now you get to fight the tire back off, replace the tube and risk splitting another one while putting the tire back on. The deep groove in the center of the rim is supposed to make getting the tire bead over the edge of the rim easier. That doesn't mean it's actually easy, just a smidge further away from impossible. Of course going tubeless has it's issues too. It's not overly difficult to damage the bead while putting the tire on then the tire doesn't seal to the rim. This is where having some of that latex bead seal stuff is UBER handy!
 
I've pulled off the factory mechanical brakes. I'm currently in the process of replacing them with hydraulics. I want to reuse the front wheel if possible. It has a drum brake right now, but I plan to adapt it to a disk brake. I've ordered a rotor that will be here in a few days. I want to mount the rotor to the shell of the hub that was the drum brake. Hopefully that will work! I'll also take the innards of the drum brake out and just keep the cover or make a new cover out of a piece of aluminum that is a perfect fit over the hole.

The effect is the front tire will be skinnier than the back tire and of course the wheels won't match. I may think it sucks and wait until I can afford 2 new wheels that match. right now I'm just trying to get it on the road with wheels I already have.
 
I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do to mount a brake rotor to the factory front wheel. I ended up bolting it to the other side of the wheel and blocking up the drum opening with a custom fit block of wood. The wood is really tight inside the brake drum. I had to hammer it in place.

Front%20wheel%20mods%201.jpg


Front%20wheel%20mods%202.jpg
 
Loves a bit of wood does this guy sausage jockey he was in a previous life haha :).
Seal the wood with silver paint or pva etc that sweal up with water it will split that drum easy.
You got some meaty discs on there you got some serious mileage before they wear out.
It's looking smart fella every little bit helps make it your own.
 
Thanks!

The wood will get sealed in place so water can't get behind it. Thin super glue all over the exposed wood will soak in and seal it up nicely. I can't get that plug back out without destroying it or drilling holes in it for screws. It's pretty much permanent!

Well that takes care of my front wheel brake issues. Now that there's a rotor on the front wheel, I can see how the front caliper will fit on the moped. until I got to this point, I was still wondering how to pull that off. Now it's pretty obvious and I can use existing bolt holes too. I'll need to make a custom bracket out of 1/4" thick 6061, but that's very doable. The front wheel brake mounting was the thing I was 100% unsure about. The back wheel mounts to square frame tubes so that one will be very straight forward to mount.

Now I just need hydraulic brakes, lines and a rear wheel. The wheels won't match which kind of sucks. I have the brake levers already, just need the calipers and hose. After Thanksgiving, I'll be hunting up a rear wheel and brakes. This thing is very close to done! In between time, I'll be working on a new floor since the factory one is completely useless with the expanded battery bay and other mods I did in this area. I want it to "look" mostly original, while hiding lots of power.
 
Brake components arrived today. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend? Since I still need a back wheel, I doubt I will try to mount the rear brake yet. The brake lines aren't in the picture, but there's $180 worth of parts laying here. I have this exact same set up on my blue scooter and it has worked very reliably.

Brake%20Components.jpg
 
The front brake is on and connected up. I still need to bleed the brake, but it's all in place and lines up perfectly. I need to get a longer 8mm bolt for the back bolt hole so that I can put a couple of nuts on either of the bracket for adjusting the caliper in and out to get it lined up straight, I also need to add a few washers or a spacer to keep the axle end of the bracket out from the wheel so it all stays lined up. The right side axle spacer fits inside the brake bracket.

The factory bracket that came with the caliper was not the right size and didn't match up with any of the existing bolts. I had to make a new bracket that would use the axle bolt and the bolt for the forks. The wheel is on a lever of sorts that ends in a shock. I didn't have to modify the existing suspension or drill anything since I use all pre-existing mount points.

Front%20brake%204.jpg


Front%20brake%203.jpg


Front%20brake%202.jpg


Front%20brake%201.jpg
 
Both front and rear brakes are bled out. The front brake works pretty good, but it drags slightly on one side. I need to shim it a tiny bit to get things centered exactly. I think a single thickness of aluminum can will do the trick. I used the same material for shims on the blue scooter to get the brakes zeroed in and it has worked reliably for a couple of years now.

The back wheel has been ordered. I'll have it soon. This is the last big purchase for completing the moped. I'm a bit anal about things matching and I may buy a front wheel once I see how good or bad the front and back wheels match. I have some minor modding of body panels to do and I need to make a new floor panel. The back wheel needs an adapter for it's 3 bolt hole pattern to mount KART sprockets to. I may already have one from the blue scooter. The rear brake needs a bracket made for it similar to what I did for the front wheel, but that's waiting on the wheel to arrive so that it's an exact fit.

One detail I may or may not do is to pull all the IRF4115's from the PV 18 fet controller and replace them with AOT290's or possibly with IXFP180N10T2. Both are better mosfets than the 4115. The results from mosfet testing I'm going to do will decide what happens here. I am currently running a 12 fet PV controller at 4kw on AOT290's and I would never do that with IRF4110's. The IXFP180N10T2 specs are similar to the AOT290. They also cost a dollar more per mosfet. My hope is they are more consistent than the AOT290. In testing the AOT290, I've had varying test results. They are not all made the same or with similar specs when tested. Easily 70% of the mosfets I have, test well outside the typical specs or even beyond the worst specs.
 
I've been busy! The moped is coming back together. It took a couple of hours just to get all the plastic body panels back together and fitted around the new break levers.

It took lots of trimming and snipping to get the pieces right, but I've pretty much gotten everything to fit together. This is 3 or 4 mock-ups worth of snipping and cutting.

cardboard%20deck%20mock-up%201.jpg


The front was fairly easy to do, but still, it was 2 tries before I had a good fit.

cardboard%20deck%20mock-up%202.jpg


cardboard%20deck%20mock-up%204.jpg


The back part was a lot more complex and required 3 attempts to get the curves right.

cardboard%20deck%20mock-up%203.jpg


The side pieces haven't been on the moped in close to a year and they required a few tweaks to get them to go back on the moped. All the body parts are screwed back together again that I'm going to put on the moped. I'll make a plywood deck from the cardboard mock-up next. That gap under the deck will get filled in too. The top of the battery box is flat and doesn't follow the contour of the side panels. Also the battery packs are flush with the top of the battery box so making the deck curve isn't an option.

cardboard%20deck%20mock-up%205.jpg
 
I'd like to get all those stupid decals off the scooter, but they are under the clear coat.

I'm also looking into 21700 cells. I'll have 40 of them here in a couple of weeks. I'd like to dispose of LIPO packs forever, but so far, I've been too lazy to weld up an 18650 pack. The 21700 with it's increased capacity will probably get me over the inconvenience hump of 18650's and having to weld up so many cells. I've purchased 40 Samsung INR21700-48G. They have limited (2C) discharge. At 5000mah each and 6 in parallel that's still 60 amps. I'll very likely weld more like 8 or 10 in parallel if I go with this cell long term. There's other cells with less capacity and more discharge that may be a better choice. I'm testing these cells out, but that doesn't mean they are what I will actually use.
 
This is my new back wheel and hub. I have this exact wheel in the 10" size or 3.00x10 tire on my blue scooter. They are decently well machined and balanced. The factory bearings are inexpensive steel bearings, but are a standard size that is readily available. I should have 4 of them in ceramics already. They should arrive just in time for Christmas!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-PC-2-75-x-12-Aluminium-Rim-For-Honda-Monkey-Z50-Z50R-Z50J-Skyteam-z50-Wheel/152429195869?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Monkey-Bike-CNC-Alloy-Rear-Wheel-Rim-Hub-For-Honda-Z50-Z50J-Skyteam-Disc-Brake/251939309228?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I swapped out the craptastic factory throttle for a new one and of course it doesn't work. It's probably a bad linear hall. LOL...another craptastic throttle.

I have these Chinese LED lights in as headlights right now. I'm not overly impressed with how bright they are. Better than the 48 volt light bulbs that used to be in the sockets, but still not impressive. Since I've never gone anywhere in the dark on this thing...who knows...they might be fine. I bought these lights because they go into the existing light bulb connectors which seal into the plastic reflective housing.

Head%20light_zps5evipikf.jpg


I've been messing with LED's recently and bought some XHP70.2's and XP-L2's in the brightest BINs of each. The XHP70.2 produces a good bit of heat, but it is sooooo bright too! I have some aluminum Chinese bike lights coming. I think I might swap out the above LED lights for some legitimate CREE goodness inside those bike lights and mount them in place of the factory light sockets. I'll need to add a larger heat sink to them since they will be mostly enclosed.

I thought this was weird and I think I'll change how it's done currently. There's 2 light switches on the moped. The right one has 3 positions...off, tail light only and headlights. The left switch is hi and low beams for the head lights. There's no front or side facing running lights in the first switch position. The moped has 2 sets of directional lights on the front as seen below. The 2 large lights close together are the head lights. The other 4 are directional lights. I think I'll leave the lower down set as directional lights and change the handlebar lights into low beams. On the left switch the XHP70.2's will turn on as the high beams. I'll also add some strip or COB LEDs on the front and sides as running lights that turn on with the right switch in it's first position. There's several reflective areas in the various lenses that would work well for this.

Blue%20Moped%203_zpshs1l4vp8.jpg


I have a Castle Creations 15 amp BEC coming. It's effectively a programmable BUCK converter. It will work well on 12 volts in and can be adjusted down to whatever voltage I want to run the XHP70.2's at if I choose to go with 2 of them in a 6 volt configuration.
 
Work work done...
The back wheel will be here probably Wednesday or so. I've moved the head light LED's to the handlebar light covers last night. I also added a few LED strips to a few places to improve visibility. I need to do some minor rewiring and then that;s all good to go. I ordered a couple of aluminum shells to put XHP70.2 LEDs in that will go inside the existing enclosed headlight positions.

I also got the deck going. It's not a perfect fit, but a little weather stripping will fill the small gaps. The deck is currently supported on the ends, but not in the middle. I will add support directly on top of the battery box walls and of course a filler to match up to the curve of the mopeds existing side cowlings. The floor will seal to the battery box walls since that's the important thing, but the floor also will seal to the rest of the plastic body parts. The deck is made of 2 glued together 1/4" thick plywood pieces for better stiffness. All the brown spots are where I used brads to secure the 2 sheets together and then filled the holes with super glue and wood dust. It will all get painted black so none of it will be visible. I have 4 threaded holes in the frame that will hold the deck down. I need to add threaded spacers or all thread since the holes are about 1" lower than the deck height. The original floor mat went partly up the front section of the front section. I cut off the front tabs and stuck them down with double sided tape.

New%20deck%201.jpg


New%20deck%202.jpg


New%20deck%203.jpg
 
The back wheel arrived today so I had to get this thing put together. I'm missing the final bolts that hold the hub to the wheel, but these ones work for now, but are too short. They make it half way into the threads. The tire has no tube which is perfect.

Back%20wheel%201.jpg


Back%20wheel%202.jpg


Back%20wheel%203.jpg


Back%20wheel%204.jpg
 
I tried to put the wheel on the back forks last night and the wheel well is too far towards the back of the forks. LOL...gotta move it so the axle is in the drop-outs. My angle was perfect for the curvature of the tire, I just guessed wrong about the fender position. To fix this, I will need to unbolt the motor bracket since the fender attaches to it. I need to modify the motor bracket a little to account for the tire. With the smaller 10" wheels and tires, there was plenty of room....about 2". I didn't think about how the larger wheel was 2" larger and would totally need that extra gap plus a little. Oh well...easily fixable and adjusted for.
 
Bearings in the new wheel are replaced and i recorded it.

1 Removing bearings from a wheel: https://youtu.be/R83LZLUq7QI
2 Bearing placement tips: https://youtu.be/WXtD3ntKS0M
3 Installing bearings in a wheel: https://youtu.be/4Dh6-4_dge0
 
I might be riding my moped this weekend!

Things still needing more work...
1. Fix my throttle...bad hall?
2. Take off the motor so I can move the fender forward about 1"
3. Set the wheel spacing so the back wheel is centered
4. Mount a sprocket to the back wheel and set the chain line
5. Install a 219 chain and tension as needed
6. Finish up a few details on the deck so it seals and secures, paint and add grip tape
6. Go for a test ride
 
The back wheel is finished. I was waiting for longer bolts for the hub and for mounting the sprocket. So that all got finished last night. I'll be hunting through my collection of axle spacers for a set that center the wheel or just cutting them to the right length.

I have a little electrical work to get my hydraulic brakes wired in...just discovered that.
 
The back wheel is mounted and spaced dead center in the forks. The wheel well moved very easily. I cut off the extra length of the motor bracket and tapped a hole in it for the bottom of the wheel well. I need to get some axle chain tensioners and get the chain line dead on. I'm pretty sure I have enough 219 chain.This wheel looks properly boss on the back of the moped!

back%20wheel%20-%20mounted%201.jpg


In this picture you can see that the hub adapter does not bolt flat to the ring sprocket. I've done this on all my EV's to some extent. The sprocket was too close to the shock and that would potentially create chain rub issues on the coil spring. Also, the motor sprocket is in towards the center of the wheel more so I needed to move the wheel sprocket inwards for better line-up. This isn't the final layout, but close-ish. I'll probably need to add a washer or 2 or go with something slimmer than a nut...depending on which way the sprocket needs to move to get lined up with the motor. 219 doesn't tolerate much off-line sprocket placement without quickly wearing out sprockets or derailing the chain. Set it up dead straight and it works quietly and lasts a long time. This is a 66 tooth KART ring sprocket mounted to a LightningRods KART adapter. I had him make me a couple of these some time back for mounting to this specific type of hub. If anyone wants one, I bet you can ask him to make you one.

back%20wheel%20-%20mounted%202.jpg
 
A little work done...

The chain tensioners arrived yesterday so they went on. The back wheel placement wasn't as good as I wanted so I made new axle spacers and got it much closer to truly centered in the back forks. This change also made getting the wheel between the forks much easier since the spacers are an exact fit now. I started working on a rear brake bracket as well, but that's pretty rough at the moment. It's just roughed out of 1/4" 6061 at the moment.
 
The back brake is done. I made a new bracket for the caliper. It mounts similar to the front brake in that it is secured to the axle and bolted to the frame. If I have to take the back wheel off, I will have to unbolt the brake as well. The second bolt into the frame also aligns the brake caliper so that it does not drag.

Rear%20brake%202.jpg


Rear%20brake%203.jpg


Rear%20brake%204.jpg
 
A bit of work done...

The chain line is coming along nicely. I spent a few hours tweaking the sprocket positions to them just right and dead straight. When using 219, you want the chain to track exactly straight or else it wears the sides of the sprocket teeth or the chain derails. I mocked up a block to take a pulley I've had for a while. I can pull back the axle blocks to pull tight the chain but the chain just grazes the swing arm just below the motor. I have to use the pulley to raise the chain away from the frame. The tensioner block and pulley is the only option. I intend for the block to slide forward or backward so that chain tension is adjustable. Space on either side of the chain is fairly tight (1/4"), but it all fits together.

Chain%20setup%201.jpg


Chain%20setup%202.jpg


Chain%20setup%203.jpg


Chain%20setup%204.jpg
 
I've been messing with LEDs for the last few days. Otherwise I'd have the tensioner block done already. I always have 5 or 6 projects going at the same time.
 
Back
Top