Hyena's e-bike builds (now with HD video)

I sure like the way your Fighter reacts to the HT40 with 78 volts pushing it along. Very nice to see how well the cam mounts are working for you as well. I bet the ride is nice huh? Looking forward to finishing the small bike, and pushing some juice through your old controller this year, so I can get some seat time in. I will not be able to go in the dirt, but we have plenty of scenic roads to ride. I love those long traffic vids you guys make. They may seem boring, but to me, they are almost as much fun as a ride of my own. I wasn't gonna build a mountain bike style ebike, as I find the handlebars are too narrow for a one armed rider, and the pedals are too close for my right leg which doesn't bend, but your vids have definitely given me the desire to seek out a full suspension chopper build. If I could only get someone to build the frame up...
Brian L.

Hey spoke to my boss so I'm good to talk here.

That red frame is the old school steel one that aus post designed light years ago, the reason you whooped-it, is because they are fully street legal with a limited single digit amp controller at 36V, the problem with going higher power is that your average 'joe' wouldn't be able to ride without licence/training/ considerations.

The products are Australian designed and built, great team at the workshop
http://www.evehicles.com.au/


Some pictures of the new lighter bikes and the trike
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.148117885206334.22188.136815459669910&type=3

Hyena said:

Hey Phil,
I'd say in my case it's because I'm using the bare male throttle pins shoved into the plastic female side on the controller and there's potential for wires to short together if you whack the connector with your knees - which I suspect I may have done. Laziness on my part for not finding a proper plastic housing for the throttle plug but I'd only intended it to be a quick test and never got around to fixing it properly! (was swapping controllers and the pin order was different) If there was no water in the connector on your mates bike it could be just a loose throttle wire (often a pin that has partially backed out of the housing) I've had them where you can plug a throttle into an already powered up bike (or a like above one pin gets pushed out and you reconnect it) and the bike will lurch away at WOT. High powered ebikes taking off without you can be no fun - refer to my previous video "when ebikes attack" :lol:

aaaand here's the vid with the postie.
I've seen them when driving before but never had a look up close at the Australia post ebikes. Small front hub and tiny 6 fet controller - presumably 24 or maybe 36v.
I gave the guy a head start as I knew the race would be over quickly but it actually got off the line quicker than I thought it would. I may have played things down a little when I said my motor was a little more powerful than his...


[youtube]95fIQvELn2s[/youtube]

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t3sla said:

The products are Australian designed and built, great team at the workshop
http://www.evehicles.com.au/

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Yeah, i spoke to these guys about getting some hard to get parts the other day.
They said that they don't deal with 'outside bikes' now that they have the AusPost contract. I can' say that i blame them.
Good on you.

hi hyena love the video of your new bomber never new it was a steel frame just started my new build just got a new ac/dc tig welder and started doing a clone frame of the bomber how heavy is it in steel
good to see you back on the bike having a thrashing

Great thread Jay, can't keep up with you, respect as Ali G says =D

Hyena said:

I do rather like the speed wind but I think when my sea shipment of motors comes in I'll swap it over for the higher torque wind. This is afterall primarily an offroad machine and I want it to have maximum low end torque to lift the front wheel when I want (which at the moment it doesn't do)

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The Hadron kit with torque wind motor 8x8 now in a Norco A-Line worked out brilliantly for lofting the front, and only on the 5Ah half battery still, pending harness to bring both back together.
Within an 8 minute test ride of slow speed bursts with 1.5 slick tyre spinning on grass oval, it still got it up on the throttle with small body adjust.
Going to fit a 2.2 Conti Race King low profile knobbies for some grip and expect it to buck me off on the throttle alone =P
I'll look for some 3" tyres like you have, the front has a 2.5" same as rear but downhill tread looks pointed for steering, not so square for brute driving traction.
The weight is all at the rear on swingarm so it won't handle your speed riding, but I don't mind cheating a bit for easy wheelies with the torque wind tooling around at lower speeds.

Thanks for the info on the postie bikes t3sla, that's interesting. The guys that got that contract must be laughing. I'm sure being the govt they massively overcharged them too! I know our PCs at work have to be bought through specific govt contract suppliers and they're twice the price I can buy them for locally.

ROG130 said:

how heavy is it in steel

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It's cromo, so technically should be a tad lighter than mild steel.
I never actually got around to weighing it when it was stripped but with the rear shock fitted, to pick it up it felt around the same weight as another down hill frame I have here, only it had triple clamp forks fitted too. So I'd say about 2-3kg heavier than an oldschool DH frame.

deepfraught said:

The Hadron kit with torque wind motor 8x8 now in a Norco A-Line worked out brilliantly for lofting the front,

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Cool, and having the battery mounted at the back would certainly help with that, although the 5ah lipo pack would be marginal extra weight compared to these silly people running lifepo4
My rear suspension seems to squat a bit when I nail it which I think is not helping with the front wheel coming up, but it's still too early to draw conclusions from brief test (thrash!) rides. I really need to get my wiring and CA sorted so I can see just how much current I'm actually running. Hopefully it's less than 100 amps and I can expect some nice gains by upping it but I suspect it's actually pulling big numbers and it's all the speed winding. My icharger blew up recently and I haven't sent it back yet to be replaced (got it from the US) Anyone in Sydney out my way got one I can borrow for 30 seconds to calibrate my shunt ?

In other news, I bought one of these 5v 5.5a little power supplies on ebay and it arrived last night. It looks bigger in this photo than it is, but that's the lid of a 350w meanwell PSU. These are about 1/3rd the size.



I was planning to use 6 of these as an isolated individual 6S balance charger (to charge my 3 banks of packs in parallel through the balance taps).It only allowed a small voltage drop to 4.8v with the 1k pot it came with but after fiddling I found increasing the resistance to 2.8k gave output 4.18v which is perfect (a 2k resistor put in series with the existing 1k pot gives a good adjustment range of 4.15-2.25v)
Unfortunately after doing this and hooking it up to a lipo pack I was disappointed to see it was putting out less than 1 amp. crap
Considering the physical size of the components in the PSU compared to a little phone charger (which also can put out up to 1a) it's a bit annoying. Oh well, back to the drawing board. There is another style on ebay with a lesser current rating, I don't know whether to take another chance on one of those or just scrap the idea...

Unless I missed part of your post, remember that you need 1 or 2 volts extra to charge batteries. That might help with the amps. If you're trying to match charge batteries to the charger's output, amps will be on the low side, because the potential is low.
Brian L.

Hyena said:

Thanks for the info on the postie bikes t3sla, that's interesting. The guys that got that contract must be laughing. I'm sure being the govt they massively overcharged them too! I know our PCs at work have to be bought through specific govt contract suppliers and they're twice the price I can buy them for locally.

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That's so as everyone recieves their appropriate "kick-back".

The more "contracts" that you "fix" the easier be your retirement... In order to tender a government contract, you need to know about it...

I don't think my lipos will like being charged to 5-6v/cell
That is the challenge though when trying to charge single cells in this way, which I hadn't planned on. As you say if I up the voltage the current does rise, and if I put it back to the rated 5v it does indeed output 5a. What I might need is a circuit that allows it to charge at 5v (ie with 1k resistance and then when it reaches a desired voltage (say 4.15v/cell) it switches in an additional 2k resistor that drops the voltage back to 4.18-4.20 (or what ever) and then trickle charges the rest of the way.

On that note it seems there are forces of evil at work. When I tested last night in pieces on my bench the PSU was only putting out <1 amp but when I just went to measure something else with it all back together it's now doing a more respectable 3 amps. Curious...
I guess I will buy another 5 of these now to make my stand alone truely isolated 6s balance charger I just need to work out a simple way to switch the voltage as above. Maybe a cell log with the output set to NC wired across the additional 2k resistor to short it out until the desired voltage is reached. Actually that'd only work for each PSU, and I don't want to have to use 6 cell logs. Maybe a simple voltage comparator circuit ? With a fet that switches in the additional resistor ? I just don't know enough about the circuit design. hmm, I must stop thinking out aloud

Oh, and my motorbike switch unit arrived today. I see why it was relatively expensive now, it's quite nice Solid alloy construction, switches have a nice tactile feel to them and in black it looks good on the bars. I'll probably do away with the standard 3 speed switch now and use the headlight switch for the 3 speed modes. It moves forward and back in a sliding motion which is kinda cool for the purpose. And the momentary button shown with my thumb on it will be ideal for activating regen. Not sure what I'll use the other on-off button for yet - maybe to enable/disable throttle off regen ?

Looking super nice there Jay

Looking forward to more videos from you too!! trust you are feeling a lot better too, been following your build with keen interest with my limited time, do you know I always wanted 3 kids, now I have got 2 I want 1 !! :lol:

Boss controls man!
Brian L.

knoxie said:

been following your build with keen interest with my limited time, do you know I always wanted 3 kids, now I have got 2 I want 1 !! :lol:

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haha I know how you feel. When I had 1 it wasn't so bad, I could chuck him in the car and still get stuff done to a fair extent but now I have 2 it's the end of the world and it's just too hard to do most things if I have to take them out. I can't get anything done at all, it seems they're always both getting into mischief at opposite ends of the house or yard at the same time and can't manage to get them both to have a nap at the same time to give me a few minutes break!
That said, I did manage to palm them off onto my mum yesterday so so did a solid 4 hrs of work on the fighter. I don't know how time got away on me but I started after breakfast and by the time I finished up doing all the wiring it was suddenly 2pm. It's all sorted though now, all internal wiring is cut to length and tidied up with a neat plug and play harness made up from the combi-switch direct to the controller plugs.
I've run all 3 sets of 8ga power cables out to external EC5 plugs for bulk parallel charging with the main controller lead wired to the inside of the 1st negative and last positive wire - so the power is completely isolated until I insert a series discharge plug. This will stay in most of the time when bulk charging at full pack voltage but can be disconnected to charge in parallel 6S groups (which is how I've always charged my lipo and balance has always been great) I just need to put a neat box or some sort of surrounding around the EC5s because at the moment it looks a little untidy.
I took it for a spin in the bush afterwards - it's first proper offroad ride. It went very well but is a little rattley over the rough stuff. I suspect this is largely the battery and it just needs some better padding. There's nothing to stop the whole lot shifting fowards towards the head tube at the moment so I'll have to address that.
Video up later when I finish editing it.
Edit: cancel that, just got home to find the ssd in my main pc has shit itself so i'll now be spending the night reinstalling that instead

Here's the almost final configuration with the bulk of the wiring done. This is as neat as I could get it but it doesn't really matter because it's all hidden away behind the covers anyway. Now that I look at this pic again, no wonder I could hear things banging around in there as I landed little jumps :lol:

New vid is uploading - probably be about 2 hours but here's the link
I'll do another one shortly showing off more of the bike once it's all finished.

[youtube]ibWA7cWU2Ek[/youtube]

Hyena said:

New vid is uploading - probably be about 2 hours but here's the link

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you like to torture Deec, dontcha?

incredible variety of angles on the last vid, Hy. how many were there? about six? what are using to mount? the seat tube clamp or the suction jobbie with all that gorgeous flat powder coat to grip to??

Ahh brilliant job on the fighter mate, what a nice machine that you have got there, so pleased something has gone right for you! brilliant and Kind of an Apt name for your bike don't you think?? yes +1 on the kids though, I had to repair the controller on my bike as I sliced the hall wire in half, had to take it off the bike and split the can (always takes a while on old school xlyte controllers) however kids were out of the way, it's amazing what you can get done when against the clock.

Yes I would get some padding for those batts, I use thin rubber pads (we used them here in the works to protect the crane paintwork) they work great at padding the packs, OK it adds a little weight but the cushioning it gives them is superb.

I am at work but will check the video out on my Internet Ready TV..Just love being able to click 1 button and watch youtube full screen in HD on my TV, gopro footage always looks amazing on the big screen.

Good luck with your recovery buddy and great job on the bike..me so jealous!!

Sweet! Love the motorcycle swithgear!

Hyena, great vid mate. Love the air time, as I know first hand how hard it can be to get decent air time on the Fighter.

How are you finding the HI40?

Is it heating up at a similar rate to the HS3548?

My Fighter actually came with a HS3550 sticker on the motor, but I imagine it's similar to the HS3548.

How's the extra weight in the rear? (Even though it's only a few kgs)

Cheers

knoxie said:

Ahh brilliant job on the fighter mate, what a nice machine that you have got there, so pleased something has gone right for you!

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Thanks mate, I spent many months layed up planning my next big build and collecting parts. I was going to make my own frame and even bought the welder to get started but then didn't know how much time I'd have to actually do it so figured I'd bite the bullet and just get the fighter because it was a proven entity and I could just get straight on and ride. Well, almost, it's taken me well over a month in my limited spare time to actually build it up how I want it. I'm going to ring the feds and thell them my wide is harbouring 2 terrorists in my house :lol:

GCinDC said:

what are using to mount? the seat tube clamp or the suction jobbie with all that gorgeous flat powder coat to grip to??

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Neither actually! My latest vid is just using the standard gopro handlebar mount but the previous one is one I made with a large hard drive magnets stuck to a rotating base. Ironically it sticks to almost anywhere on the frame except the side covers as they're aluminium, but as you say the suction mount would stick OK to that. Now that I have a decent bike to feature in more of a 3rd person view I'll have to drag out and rework my swiveling gyro mount - the return of the Hyena Industries Spew Cam (tm) :lol:

Cowardlyduck said:

Hyena, great vid mate. Love the air time, as I know first hand how hard it can be to get decent air time on the Fighter.

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Yeah it certainly doesn't lift as easily as my other bike, the front end is noticably heavier with the triple clamp forks and heavier duty wheelset but if you give it a wrist full of throttle and the terrain allows it, physics takes over :wink:

How are you finding the HI40?
Is it heating up at a similar rate to the HS3548?

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Pretty good, I love the midrange pull and I think I'll actually keep using this motor now rather than switching to the higher torque version as planned. I love the HT but it just lacks a little top end. It's sort of like a diesel in that respect, it takes off and is pulling well then suddenly runs out of revs. The higher speed wind is definately beneficial for evading these mutts that always seem to want a piece of me!
It does get rather toasty though - it was a warm day and I was giving it a fair hiding up hills (alot of that footage was riding back up steep downhill sections) plus had no chain on so it was the motor doing 100% of the work. The side covers got to 65oC which was too hot to touch for more than a second, but my planned air cooling will sort that. I still don't have a CA hooked up so god knows how much current I was putting through it. Quite alot I suspect

My Fighter actually came with a HS3550 sticker on the motor, but I imagine it's similar to the HS3548.

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Yeah they'd be the same wind.

How's the extra weight in the rear? (Even though it's only a few kgs)

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The motor is only around 1kg heavier so it's not the end of the world. I haven't actually ridden one of the new fighters in standard configuration so I can't comment - I've only ridden a bomber and it's certainly much lighter and more nimble than that.

So cool, motorin backwoods in the sun. I like the rubber liner idea as well. I'm holdin out for a FS echopper.
Brian L.

My dad came to visit on the weekend, riding around on his ebike. While it recharged I suggested he take a few of mine out for a test ride
Here's a vid of him on my 5kw blue hardtail at first and then swapping over to my fighter in the 2nd half. He's about 10kg lighter than me so found it a bit more of a challenge to keep the front wheel down :lol:
Unfortunately the camera wasn't rolling when it got away on him when setting off, going completely from under him and plowing up in the middle of the road. Only cosmetic damage luckily but it took a good chunk out of the back of the seat, which I've been meaning to replace anyway.
When we went to race the front came up on him so he backed off, then I backed off because I thought he wans't going to hit it, then he took off and had a good head start before I hit it. So it's by no means a fair race but I reckon this vid gives a better feeling of what the acceleration is like on these bikes
The 9C running 5kw is definately snappier off the line but the more powerful H40 on the fighter running aorund 7kw (currently) quickly reels it back in with its strong midrange and higher top end.

[youtube]ewv-GmB_3jQ[/youtube]
(still an hour away on the upload and processing if you're reading this as soon as I post it)

As you can see from the vid there's a big blur on my gopro lens. Sadly it's not on the outer case, my 1 year old managed to climb up on the cabinet where I leave it, pulling it down onto the tiled floor and putting a big chip in the lens :x It's not ruined You can't get replacements from gopro but I'm going to try and fit another type of camera lens to it which uses the same thread side. Hopefully it still fits inside the case

fab vid good to see you and your dad on the bikes just lost my dad from the big c so him and me will never get the chance but this vid said it all thanks for posting it now i will have to get bikes my dad and me where working on finished and go for a run and have some fun

meow.

great vid. brought a smile to my face.

Hyena said:

Unfortunately the camera wasn't rolling when it got away on him when setting off, going completely from under him and plowing up in the middle of the road.

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thank god it wasn't as bad as what happened to methods dad. :lol:

As you can see from the vid there's a big blur on my gopro lens.

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bummer about the lens! is it the case lens, or the camera proper? if the latter, i got this response after chipping mine:

GoPro Support said:

Hi Greg,

The lens of the camera itself can not be replaced as it is fixed into the camera.

If the scratch on the lens of the camera is shallow enough, a camera, jewelry, or eyeglass repair shop may be able to buff out the scratch for you.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Many Thanks,

GoPro Support

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That said, if anyone can do, you can. Just take photos along the way.

Dueling bikes is sweet! I'm just getting there myself. Now I can show my guests to proper hospitality (but hopefully not the 'hospital' part of that)

ROG130 said:

fab vid good to see you and your dad on the bikes just lost my dad from the big c so him and me will never get the chance but this vid said it all thanks for posting it now i will have to get bikes my dad and me where working on finished and go for a run and have some fun

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Sorry to hear that I lost my dad back in 2003 to the big C I got in to ebikes shortly after and in fact it was a kind of damn it all you could die tomorrow attitude that made me buy my first ebike kit and I loved it, the hobby and all the people involved was such a great distraction from what had been a very sad time, ebikes and the fun that was opening up for me on them really got me through I tell you! its a great hobby.. My dad would have so loved the ebikes I ride now, he used to tool around on all sorts of motorbikes in the fifties and sixties, I have all these great pictures of him looking like James Dean

Thanks for a great video Jay, your old fella looks in good shape too, everyone should make time to ride with their old man and what a great excuse to build another bike, whipping acceleration from the fighter buddy and I hardly noticed the chip in the lens, why Gopro dont give you a rubber lens cover in the kit I have no idea, it would cost nothing, I use a 20mm rubber button cover to cover mine as I have just started using it for my commutes after my buddy almost got killed the other day on his bike.

Keep the videos coming

thanks knoxie yes e-biking is the best and the best thing is finding endless-sphere.com and all the e-bikers here like jay have there problems but keep us all smiling with there vids and jays are the best :wink:

ROG130 said:

fab vid good to see you and your dad on the bikes just lost my dad from the big c so him and me will never get the chance

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Sorry to hear that mate. I nearly lost my dad about 18 months ago to a heart attack but some major bypass surgery has given him some extra years now. I build his bike for him just prior to it (little FWD 350w 9C running about 1.5kw on a cheap $100 kmart bike) and he said it was a great rehab tool post surgery to get out again and do a bit of exercise without the fear of overdoing it or getting caught out. If I knew how much he was going to ride and enjoy it I would have made him something better to start but that leaves and upgrade path I suppose

GCinDC said:

thank god it wasn't as bad as what happened to methods dad. :lol:

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Yeah luckily he wasn't on it at the time. I think it was the usual trap for young players of bumping the throttle as you throw your leg over. He held on for a bit but it it was too strong and went for a fly on its own :lol: His arm was grazed and bleeding so something must have clipped him on the way through but he didn't actually hit the deck so that was good.

bummer about the lens! is it the case lens, or the camera proper?

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Nope, the actual convex camera lens itself unfortunately. I read online the lens is loctited on pretty good but if you heat it up and use alot of persuasion they can be removed, then they're fairly standard thread to replace. I'm willing to bet a large sum of money the replacement lens I've bought will sit a little too far out from the camera body to fit the waterproof case but if I can salvage the camera at all I'll be happy. I guess it's not too bad as is for ebike videos where alot is road and you don't notice the detail anyway but it's more noticable if you pan around or have other detail you're trying to look at. Maybe I shouldn't risk killing it all together... :|
Good excuse to buy a hero 2 though :wink:

Dueling bikes is sweet! I'm just getting there myself. Now I can show my guests to proper hospitality (but hopefully not the 'hospital' part of that)

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Heh yeah I normally have a 3 speed switch on mine but it broke when my bike fell over the other day (I leaned it on a glass window at a shop not realising it was actually a really long sliding glass door!) That helps tame it alot of people start out in 30% mode.

knoxie said:

My dad would have so loved the ebikes I ride now, he used to tool around on all sorts of motorbikes in the fifties and sixties, I have all these great pictures of him looking like James Dean

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Yeah my dad has pics from the late 60s early 70s when he used to ride bikes too - a triumph 650 I think which he says had the power:weight ratio of a jumbo jet :lol:
Re: his hair Greg, it's the same haircut he's had since he was 18! (which was probably fashionable for bikies in the 60s.... :lol: )
Each time my dad rides my latest new and improved ebike he comes back super impressed but then does the parent thing and says it's too fast and powerful and I'm going to end up killing myself on it. Bah, worms have gotta eat too