the unofficial Aline/removable dropout owners thread ;-) ...

sn0wchyld

100 kW
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Mar 18, 2011
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I thought I'd follow in the footsteps of the greyborg, stealth and now cromotor threads and make one for the Aline :lol: dont want to feel left out...

it seems allot of ESphearosapiens (well, 3 :roll: ) have gone and got themselves Alines like this...
before.jpg

mostly it seems due to their removable rear dropouts - making it possible to fabricate near indestructible torque plates like this... (well, only tested to 4.5kw so far... but stay tuned... :wink: )

right.jpg


Theres a few other bikes out there that have similar rear dropouts, so bikes like this may gain more popularity with ebike builders as they become more common place in the DH and DJ world... there is also the nice bonus that these bikes allow you to easily modify your bikes wheelbase, allowing easy(er) use of small dia. tires without having your feet scrape the ground by lowering the axle position, or lengthening the wheelbase for better stability at speed.

I'd be surprised if this thread gets much if any attention at all compared to most, after all, we're a small part (aline owners) of a small part (DH/DJ bikes) of the ebike crowd. But atleast there is some sort of 'starting point' for people who consider using bikes with these kinds of dropouts. And though this was my first ebike, so I have nothing to compare it to directly, I can't imagine relying on a offcut of steel ziptied to my axle next to what I have now...
 
dbaker said:
Did the removable dropouts start with the 2009 models?

I think so yep...
 
subscribed! Good idea! There is so much potential with these dropouts, so much possibilities. I think the 2009 models are the only ones with this design, not sure thuogh.
 
Good thread idea!

Snowy, the wavy parts of your dropout plates look perfect, more precise than I remembered - I must have been projecting my own work style, I'd never be able to get them that accurate without CNC.

-JD
 
I dont have an aline but i do own a norco team race DH, it doesnt have removable dropouts but instead i opted for some dr Bass torque plates, and what mine does have is a straight tube on the lower of the triangle which is gonna be perfect for sticking a battery rack to with some exhaust pipe style hanger clips. I got some aluminium from the next door house renovation for free, previously my norco's battery box was a u-pvc door frame pillar insert, great scavenge and repurpoise i thought.

norco team race.jpg

not finished yet but soon to be. got a 72v controller ready just need some batteries.

my first DH ebike build was a scott ransom 30 which has similar removable dropouts to these norco alines, which was on of the massive selling points for me to buy it. I just put a girvin front fork on it but the fox float shock on the fork is locked so i need to sort out a repair with a £10 seal kit. I have no updated pictures of that build yet but this is a norco thread so its only relevance is that it had IDS too (interchangable dropout system) so coined by scott bikes.

Anyway love the work on these norcos can not wait to get mine running.

PS snowChyld I have a similar pic to your avatar of me boarding off glaramara 4 in England. PITA hike up and a rocky route down, was my old burton code 157 (read: old and battered).
 
Nice bike! what is the motor?
 
motor is supposed to be a golden motor 48v. got it from devi-comfort in the netherlands as posted to the uk it was the cheapest option. Came laced in a 28inch rim for like a dutch bike but had heavy guage spokes. Fortunately i found a guy in prestwich north manchester UK, who had a spoke rolling machine and he let me come to his shop, I unlaced it with a leccy screwdriver, used a spoke from my golden magic pie spare (its eyelets and hub motor diameter are the same) and cut the spokes then rerolled them. He then made a jig using his workmate and some angle iron and laced it back into a rim i took off a cheap chinese ebike. Lot of work but cost very little. The guy was called trevor i think, bit of a legend in my opinion. unfortunately he is getting out of the LBS shop owning game to go travelling.

Anyway the motor is 48v but not as powerful as the magic pie i have on the ransom as i tested it using that bike. hoping to mod it with better phase wires and perhaps drill the covers but we shall see. the norco will be lighter though so maybe they will be evely matched.

batteries first though. what do you reckon do HK do january sales?
 
whereswally606 said:
I dont have an aline but i do own a norco team race DH, it doesnt have removable dropouts but instead i opted for some dr Bass torque plates, and what mine does have is a straight tube on the lower of the triangle which is gonna be perfect for sticking a battery rack to with some exhaust pipe style hanger clips. I got some aluminium from the next door house renovation for free, previously my norco's battery box was a u-pvc door frame pillar insert, great scavenge and repurpoise i thought.
......
PS snowChyld I have a similar pic to your avatar of me boarding off glaramara 4 in England. PITA hike up and a rocky route down, was my old burton code 157 (read: old and battered).


WHAT A NON REMOVABLE DROPOUT BIKE!?! GETOUTA'ERE!!! hehe nah your 100% right mate, the norko frame is a class A pita to mount batteries on. I've since found a few other bikes with similar dropouts but strait frames, wish I'd found them first... still, mines starting to come allong nicely now, using pvc too!

yea, that pic is from trebblecone just out of wanaka in NZ, riding my old libtech TRS. the line of black in the bottom right is actually a que of people trying to hike the same cliff, witch became incredibly popular after we had 2ft of snow in about 3 days!!
 
yeah not every one is mad keen on boarding enough to take it on a hike up an English hill, I had to get it done though cause there was enough snow ie waist deep, which apart from in Scotland i have never seen in the UK, needless to say there was no queue of folk to do the jumps i was attempting. Lots of rocks hiding below which was not good. Also went over a frozen tarn which translates (small hidden lake). Good job a snowboard spread the load a bit. Still can say i board'd in my country as well as most of europe now.
italy, switzerland, france, austria, scotland, england, a bit like pokemon you gotta catch them all.

NZ will someday be on the list along with Aus and N.America and I quite fancy Chile though i cant really speak any spanish. oh and apparently you can ski in Morocco, Japan and Iran. though not sure that im gonna manage that for a while yet.

gonna miss out this chrimbo due to lack of funds cause im a Masters student on a very small stipend but better than having to pay for it myself.

Anyway totally off topic now so ill stop posting about times in the powder.
 
Funny thing-
After reading build threads from Sn0wchyld, Fractal and especially Oatnet, I went and bought me an A-Line. The virtuous cycle, it's a platform a minority of ESers own, until enough of the leaders of this community like the above point out the unique beneficial attributes of theirs (e.g. the upgradeable dropouts!). So I went and bought one. With the specific intent of upgrading the dropouts with Magudaman's delicious CNC's stock.

But there's lots more to do to get this bike on the road. I've got most of the parts I need, but looking for advice from A-Line owners on a front fork. What are good, high quality options?
1) Are there reasons for or against trying to fit this bike with a Cannondale Lefty? I know said fork has strengths and weaknesses, but for some reason I really like it. I'm just afraid it won't work with the stock 1.5" head tube.
2) Outside the Lefty, what's a good front fork? The front won't be motorized. I plan to put a 16" x 2.5" Pirelli moped tire on one of Recumpense's 47mm rims around a standard hub. So my only constraint is my 36 spoke holes.

Hopefully this threadjacking isn't too rude now that Magudaman has one dedicated to ALine drpoout replacements... http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35654&p=518345&hilit=aline#p518345, maybe with OP's permission this can morph into a generalized "A-Line Support Group" thread?
 
I am also on the A-line Train.

There are adapters for different headtube sizes; probably Problems Solvers or Cane Creek is your best bet.

Oh an I'm saying it here first; I'm calling mine the E-Line. No one else can take that. I claim it. If you take it, I'll report you under SOPA :shock:
 
i got a rock shoxx boxxer race for 500$ i think its the best value for the money on a dual crown fork. it looks really solid. 500 for a dual crown fork is pretty good. i personnaly dont like the cannondales fork, dosent look strong enough for a hi power bike. get a boxxer race, you wont regret it.
 
pinkbike.com if you are in the americas is the best second hand bike gear site imho. You won't see a good shock for less then 500$ is my other opinion. Boxxer or Fox 40 imho.
 
Another wise A...line in the ranks.
file.php

The short history here:
http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=30592&p=524809#p524809
 
Well I must have been bitten hard by the e-bike bug, because I went ahead and bought both. First, a Rockshox domain RC dual crown fork from ES member Beavinator,
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/vi...=Never+used+Rockshox+dual+crown+forks#p527642 and concurrently a Lefty from Project321 inc. Shizzle I hope one stands out over the other because I only have one rim to lace and one tire to mount.

I guess when the rest of the parts come in (the lefty & spokes), some drive components, etc) it will be time to start my own A-Line build thread. For now I just drool over that sweet frame sitting there, a skeleton of its future self...
 
MattyCiii said:
Well I must have been bitten hard by the e-bike bug, because I went ahead and bought both. First, a Rockshox domain RC dual crown fork from ES member Beavinator,
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/vi...=Never+used+Rockshox+dual+crown+forks#p527642 and concurrently a Lefty from Project321 inc. Shizzle I hope one stands out over the other because I only have one rime to lace and one tire to mount.

I guess when the rest of the parts come in (the lefty & spokes), some drive components, etc) it will be time to start my own A-Line build thread. For now I just drool over that sweet frame sitting there, a skeleton of its future self...

i know what you mean! i look at mine everyday too! when the snow melts, this bike is going to hit the streets where it belongs! any news from magudaman with those dropout mods? he has not posted about it on his thread in a while? he must be pretty busy?
 
fractal said:
any news from magudaman with those dropout mods? he has not posted about it on his thread in a while? he must be pretty busy?

No word, I'm sure he's busy. I have not sent "any update" PMs and tried not to bump the main replacement dropout thread (http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35654) as I'd hate to be a pain in the arse. I have a lot of other parts for that bike in flight to track already, so there's some cause for me to take the dropouts upgrade on a slow track. That said, if they were ready/available today, I'd buy without delay.

As a pretty risk adverse guy, I'd prefer to spend the dollars and have the dropouts sooner rather than later just to have them in hand; I'd hate to build a whole bike only to be stuck with the original downhill style dropouts (hard to use with a NuVinci). On the other hand, I do have a "Plan B", which involves some plate steel and a scrool saw.
 
MattyCiii said:
fractal said:
any news from magudaman with those dropout mods? he has not posted about it on his thread in a while? he must be pretty busy?

No word, I'm sure he's busy. I have not sent "any update" PMs and tried not to bump the main replacement dropout thread (http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35654) as I'd hate to be a pain in the arse. I have a lot of other parts for that bike in flight to track already, so there's some cause for me to take the dropouts upgrade on a slow track. That said, if they were ready/available today, I'd buy without delay.

As a pretty risk adverse guy, I'd prefer to spend the dollars and have the dropouts sooner rather than later just to have them in hand; I'd hate to build a whole bike only to be stuck with the original downhill style dropouts (hard to use with a NuVinci). On the other hand, I do have a "Plan B", which involves some plate steel and a scrool saw.


If you have to, you can make a set with nothing more than a drill press and an angle grinder, though they'll be a fair bit heavier if you use steel. On the other hand, they'll never break. ever. :twisted: Took me a couple of days working on and off, but that was my first time working with metals since a brief period back in high school, about 10 years ago now!!! You could knock up a set in a day if you knew what you were doing.
 
Daaamn those replacement dropouts are loooooooooong!
But with that bike's got-up-n-go, the length will keep the wheelies in check...
 
That's great (except the rack ;)
Reminds me of this awesomeness
http://youtu.be/VYpOFimB7ZA
[youtube]VYpOFimB7ZA[/youtube]
After seeing people momentum brake drift tandem bicycles, I wondered what would be possible with wet grass, e-power, and a very long swingarm =D
Also makes me think can I make my A-Line an Xtracycle, to get luggage and wet grass long tail sliding ability =D
PS: apparently a sequel vid to the one above:
http://www.rideicon.com/videos.jsp
 
Great vid, thanks!

-JD
 
No build thread; GCDC visited with his camera. What took the most time was the pinch bolt conversion of Doc Bass's torque arm/drop outs. They are damn hard; broke three taps and 2 drill bits. Had to finish drilling last hole with carbide end mill!

Cutting the aluminum bar stock was easy. I used a drill press to get holes correct and a carbide router bit in a hand held wood router to make the multi level curved cuts for the swing arm connections and the drop out and brake caliper reliefs. Just need confidence and a very firm grip and take it slow so the router does not walk away.

Drop outs are loooong because it is easier to cut them shorter than to lengthen ones that are too short. I have not yet resolved the shock spring issue; more leverage means a stronger spring is required. I got a stonger spring and need to try it out. Rack was used to get it running; not a pretty solution. I also need to put together a 24s3p battery pack; lots of voltage droop on the 24s2p 2 year old HK pack used in the demo. A 24/36 fet controller woul also help.
 
dbaker said:
Cutting the aluminum bar stock was easy. I used a drill press to get holes correct and a carbide router bit in a hand held wood router to make the multi level curved cuts for the swing arm connections and the drop out and brake caliper reliefs. Just need confidence and a very firm grip and take it slow so the router does not walk away.

Drop outs are loooong because it is easier to cut them shorter than to lengthen ones that are too short.

I really liked your approach of using a long dropouts that you can shorten for tuning, it didn't occur to me but makes great sense. Longer is better from a keeping-the-nose-down standpoint. Since the dropouts are effectively a lever, I was concerned that if I made mine too long, leverage could overload the 3 mounting bolts or the rear triangle itself. In that respect, you are definitely our canary in a coal mine :D and I appreciate your proving it out for us.

-JD
 
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