First Build - Crystalite 5404 LiPo High Speed Commuter

Aerankas

1 mW
Joined
Mar 14, 2011
Messages
12
Hi all,

Long time lurker, rare poster, first time new thread starter. You may all know the user Andje, who is a friend IRL who is guiding me through this build. He got to make all the mistakes so I could learn from them :)

This is a placeholder for now and I will be coming back to add pics and details as the build progresses. Nothing to see for now, but I hope to be saving a large amount of gas on my work commute by part way through this summer!

Currently lacing my first wheel, I'll be back with a few pictures of that and the parts I have already acquired later today.

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Will update this section with picture albums.

Album 1: http://imgur.com/a/zYaKM (2013-07-05)
Album 2: http://imgur.com/a/WPICI (2013-07-07)
Album 3: http://imgur.com/a/lQTWv (2013-07-11)



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-Mike
 
Hi!
 
Pictures!

Imgur album: http://imgur.com/a/zYaKM

A few pics of me lacing my first rim. The holes in the motor were a little large for the spokes that I got, so I went and found some small brass washers to keep them in place. At first, they were still too big and the spokes continued to pull through the holes. Not to be deterred, I started flattening them between 2 hammers, and that shrunk the hole enough that I could actually get the spokes to stay in place. Now that it's together it feels solid.

Some random frame and fork pics. Going to get the proper parts to get the 2 working together tonight so I can have a standing bike. Also some pics of the hollow rear frame, with holes to run brake cables. Not sure how useful they will be yet, or if I will run any wiring through them.

And a mockup of the stance done by placing it on wheels temporarily. Andje noticed that it's a very long stance, and I like it a lot. Looks stable.

Should have a rolling bike by the end of the weekend!
 
we are going to work like hell on this

im openly interested to see if the brass washers hold up :p if not we will have to take a trip to an actual fastener depot :p... I'm guessing they will be ok if we set the wheel up properly trued and tensioned. Depending on the end result we may have to step it up to ebike.ca spokes anyway if these 14 gauge break.
 
Good luck with your build.
The 5404 is not a fast motor, it will do a tad above 80 Kmh with 24s Lipo.
I have it on my V 10 and it is a silent beast, a very good climber that is very long to overheat.
 
that's about what we are aiming for MH. HAHAHA when did 80km/h+ on a bike become not "high speed" :p
I think it will do closer to 90 with a 2.5+inch rear tire and top charge. I expect it to settle down to around 80-90 after it's cells are off the 4.2v and down to 4v. It's kv is almost the same as the 5304 which was previously run on this controller with those sorts of results.
 
Yeah this is my intro bike so 80Kph sounds just about perfect. Fast enough to run on most streets in a lane, not fast enough to be out of control.

Once I get a taste I might start pushing for more :)
 
Andje said:
that's about what we are aiming for MH. HAHAHA when did 80km/h+ on a bike become not "high speed" :p....

About the time I hit 166kph using a similar weight hubmotor. 8) That's hauling 120kg+ me on my SuperV, so imagine how fast you guys would go. 80kph is plenty fast though, and if used off road probably too steeply geared unless you're an expert like the Rhino.

John
 
O don't worry. I have my eye on your 6 phase jon... I would argue that for a commuting bike this is still in the higher speed echelon then calling it medium or slow speed :p
 
Andje said:
O don't worry. I have my eye on your 6 phase jon... I would argue that for a commuting bike this is still in the higher speed echelon then calling it medium or slow speed :p

I'd argue that commuting need a bike that is capable of faster than traffic speeds, but for anything on a normal bike frame 80 would be too fast for me. My first ebike did 50kph and that was as fast as I'd want to go in a normal upright pedal bike position. You have to remember that I'm like Humpty-Dumpty up high on a short wheelbase, so braking on any downhill grade is more scary for me than anything I do on my lengthened lowered SuperV. BRUM's video shows how much nicer things are with a light load. I have to get over to Italy to ride those nice smooth roads.
 
Yep, I find my V 10 a bit slow for the streets so I ride it in the mountain mostly. The 5404 is slower than the 5304, but it has much better torque. My Demo 8 does a tad short of 110 Kmh and I find it just perfect for city commuting. I had built my Session 10 for 90 Kmh and it was really too slow for that bike's potential, so I am reconfiguring with a target top speed in the 110 Kmh.

The standards are raised every year. Now 80 Kmh is slow for an Ebike, who would have believed that only a few years ago. :D
 
More pictures! I'm updating the OP with the albums, but I figure I'll give a little update on the activity in regular posts (since I forgot to reserve one... I guess I could steal Andje's :D)

Album: http://imgur.com/a/WPICI

So we did a lot of work this weekend. And when I say we, I mean Andje did more than half the soldering by far, I couldn't keep up :lol: . We basically started trying to pull together the rest of the bits we needed to get a rolling bike, and it was a lot harder than expected. No one has a 26" rim with 20mm axle anywhere in town, I will have to pick a shop and have them order something in. I also couldn't find a front brake that I wanted, or was right for the project, so I'm currently looking online for something that will work. There are some more bits I should get but aren't crucial at the moment, like a freewheel and chain for one.

We did however get the fork mounted properly and the handlebars on, and then were able to get the battery box mounting sorted out. I will need to grind down the clamps on the box a little bit to get some extra steering radius eventually. Managed to get a pedal assembly too, so I have something to stand on now. That stuff was all done on Friday.

Saturday we just went at it. Most of the work was electrical. We had a super hot day, but the grape vines on the porch made it bearable, and spreading out the work outside was convenient I would say. We got a hyperion hooked up to my car to top up the batteries and see how they were doing after a month or 2 sitting in the garage. Mostly good, a few cells relatively lower, but everything charged up nice. While that was underway (and once I figured out the controls on the hyperion...) we started working on the parallel balance taps. I think I did one while Andje did 3, if that :oops:

Once we had enough batteries charged, we got going on the pack itself. The plan being an external connection that can take it from one big chunk, to 2 smaller chunks to balance charge. I basically had no part in the battery wiring :) I was calling around town looking for the rest of the pieces and it was magically done, and very pretty. I did end up doing most of the balance tap to DB connector soldering once I had a tutorial. Very small and finicky but I think I did well, minus the numerous times I forgot to put heat shrink on first.

I was able to get U-bolts and the last 2 bolts for the battery box, so on Sunday while I searched again for parts, Andje finished the battery pack and got it squared away in the pelican case. The controller is in place, mostly for reference, as well as most of the handlebar bits, and the seat post (once I went back and got the right size, who knew there were so many sizes?!) It looks more and more like a bike!

With maybe another hour or 2 of work we could have gotten the motor spinning, but without the final pieces, and seeing as we did a lot of work over the weekend, we decided to leave it as is for now. The key thing was the lack of brake, as much as I wanted to get it rolling, without a brake it really wasn't a good idea. Though... we did sit on it and roll around as fast as my feet could get it going :D
 
what battery box are you using? Also how are you mounting it?

Thanks, it will help me dearly.
 
Pelican 1300 mounted using weight clamps to the triple crown forks. Its a copy of a method another member came up with. It's almost certainly the best easiest solution for 24s lipo because you can just squeeze 24s3p into it.
 
Yeah and it's a tight squeeze haha. I'll grab a few more pictures of the box and mounting soon.

Here's another album, nothing too exciting just getting the last bits together. Planning to have this project running this weekend!

http://imgur.com/a/lQTWv
 
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