It's been awhile but just wanted to post up that I found B-52 #273 at a yard sale in SF two weeks ago. I was told by the sister of the original owner that he (Steven), really loved that bike but had passed away unfortunately while at an amusement park. I promised I would honor her brothers memory and return the bike to running condition.
This being the third B-52 I've purchased used, I knew it was probably worse than it appeared and boy was I right. I have become a bit of a Stealth parts hoarder so I promised myself that this was a good way of getting rid of (or consolidating) all my spare parts I have accumulated over the years.
I know the Suron stuff is all the rage right now with wheelie kids, but I still prefer the silence, performance the ability to ghost pedal that I get with a Bomber. Not to mention, actual plated Stealth Bombers are some of the rarest mass produced ebikes in existence.
-The battery was actually so swollen it took multiple grown men to get it removed from the frame and when placed on the charger it immediately caused a "thermal event" in the driveway so into the dunk tank the pack went, for a week. I happened to have 100 Molicel P45B 21700 (from a group buy) and an ANT BMS laying around so I built a 21s X 5P pack.
-The controller was some kind of knock off Sabvaton that never actually worked, so I ripped it out (along with the cycle analyst) threw on an (OG Pre Covid) Nucular 12f controller. What a powerful little controller that's not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes. I had to do 5 years of Firmware updates on the controller and the screen all via Micro USB
-Even just pedaling the bike felt really out of balance as was crazy amounts of rear axle play due to bad bearings and both inter tubes had Fix a Flat, which is messy stuff. Replaced bearings with spare SK 6005 and 6004 bearings that I had laying around. Also changed the stater with a spare I had as one hall sensor wasn't registering at all and the other two where showing 0-2v (should be 5vdc), when a magnet was passed over them. Also found an intermittent short on one of the phase wires where somebody had done a shoddy repair. Halls will be here in a week but I wanted to ride so in went the spare stator in a Moto wheel and extend soldiered on the appropriate XT150 and crimped on connections to match the Nucular 12f.
-Swapped in a set of 3" riser bars / changed the grips and put new brake pads on front and back.
-The Rock Shocks are pretty much blown out and need to be replaced, my other B-52 has a set of $1500 Fox 40 air shocks on it but I just cant bring myself to spend more on a pair of shocks than have in the entire bike. Maybe I'll ask for them for Christmas?
After nights of "tuning rides" where sometimes I had to push or peddle home, I decided to throw a full charge on the new battery and crank up the phase amps and the Flux weakening to stretch her legs a bit. Knowing these are older and not super efficient Crystalyte hubs I wanted to see how much heat I'd be generating (in the motor, battery and controller) over a few miles of consistent 70-100% throttle and regen. I was able to hit 62 mph on the GPS, tucked and the motor was pretty warm to the touch the controller was far cooler than the Sabvaton on my other Bomber that is 2-3x the size of the 12f.
not sure. But by all reports Royal visits now are much less "Stuffy" than they used to be.
