.

[D-Man]

Ok. It was a fun project. Don't think there's much else to do to it now. Got more room in the trunk for more batteries. Obviously probably won't be runnning lightweight batterys if I have to run lead ballast up front. Although; maybe there would be a way by mixing somehow.......Anyway, I got about 30 miles on the fork. So far so good.

 

[D-Man]

Here's my new water bottle holder. This time a"real" water bottle is being used. Those bike shop water bottles taste like chemicals anyway. Also, a special cnc'd and lightened battery shelf that increases the range by 25%. Got some nice BMX pedals too. The ultimate in foot comfort. Nice and wide.

 

[D-Man]

.

 

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

hey, congrats on your imminent breaking of the 3000 mile mark, ya know I'm pullin for ya!
Safe's been reduced to posting 100 mile updates in the extreme battery range club.
It's become like a nervous twitch with him since I dealt him a crippling body blow by being the first to 5000 & denying him the bragging rights (big deal).
If you can top him at his own game using SLA then there goes the last refuge he's retreated to of most miles @ least cost; that outta shut him up for about five minutes.
And you did it without needing 86 lbs. of lead with both of us on hubbies, oh the humiliation.
So get out there & ride your bike like you stole it.

 

[D-Man]

Thanks Toorbough. Lots of talk going on now in this forum. Pretty much impossible to keep up with everything.
I'm using an old watch with an altimeter on it to record my climb. I use to use it in my r/c gliders to see how high they went. I even had it in an small airplane once and it was actually accurate when compared to one inside the plane. It will remember highs and has a climb feature where you can zero it and then do your climb with stopwatch. People probably just use gps now but I think they still sell the watches. People like gadgets. Also, my fork seems to be holding up to the climbing. So far so good.

 

[D-Man]

I think I only need to get to 3201 miles to take down Safe. One of his sla batteries went bad at that point. My battery pack cost was $95 at the time. Now it would cost at least $160. I'm not going to try to bandaid the pack once a battery goes bad. The batteries are small and it will be the end of the road for that pack.

Just did 8 miles round trip with pedalling help on the hills.(steep parts) Now charging....

..... Now done with the hills. Vacation over. Now to disassemble and reassemble bike again.

 

[D-Man]

.

 

[D-Man]

Ok, this 9ah battery with 800 miles on it is not keeping up with my older sla's as much as I want. Checking discharge after a 7 mile run with a spotlight it seems lower then the others. It is smaller but I think it has a small problem. Can't really expect too much from it. It was only $22. But, I noticed it likes to drop faster in voltage even at rest then the others. Its like at 12.8 and the others are like 13. So that tells me right there somethings not right. So I'm charging the crap out of it at 15.5 volts(equalization charge). Its sizzling nicely. It was charged normally first. It was down to .1 amp at 14.4 volt. Then I cranked it up to 15.5v it went to .5amps. Now 3 hours later. Its at like .30amps. It likes it. I did this before on a brand new car battery that had a low water level on only one cell. Rather then add water, I charged it at 16 volts and 5 hours later I checked the level and it came right up to where the others were. It was boiling violently. It worked though.

 

[D-Man]

9 hours worth of charging to get to this. Now to see if it works.......

 

[D-Man]

Went 13 miles with some pedalling. Outside temp= 57F. Checked with spotlight. Old batteries pretty much out of juice. But newer 9ah battery still probably had 10 minutes left.

Spotlight discharge readings:
6v12ah ----- 5.0 volts
old 12v12ah ---- 11.15 volts
old 12v12ah ---- 11.27 volts
new 12v9ah----- 11.53 volts

 

[D-Man]

Yikes! Charge time was only 2 hours. Charger puts out 1.75 amps. (measured) That means my old batteries only have 3.25ah left in them at almost 4000 miles. Mmmm, I carrying 27lbs of batteries for that. Now it is 57F ouside temp so see if it gets any better in the spring.

 

[D-Man]

Charge time now down to 1.75 hours from previous post.

Well, today I broke a rear spoke and it pulled through the flange hole. My freehubs been slipping on the starts every once in awhile. I was thinking of buying a new rear wheel but there is no selection. I found one cheap wheel by "Dimension" which looks real cheap at 34 dollars. Everyone else is sky high plus my bike only has 7 speed cassette. Guess I'll have to rebuild the wheel. Got to buy tools to take it apart too.

Edit: charge time back up to 2 hours 10 minutes. Ah, warmer weather 6/09

 

[dontsendbubbamail]

As long as the hole in the hub is still good and the rim is not badly warped you should be able to just replace the spoke. The cassette assembly can be replaced. It comes off with an 8 mm allen wrench. It can be very tight. You might have to put the allen wrench in a vice and twist the wheel to break it loose. The threads are right hand.

Bubba

 

[D-Man]

The rim did warp some. A new freehub body for the 7speed is only like $16 bucks. You sure its a 8mm? I thought it was a 10mm? I got to take the wheel off. They only sell spokes in packs of 50 online. Maybe I should replace all of them. What are the odds one will break again? Maybe they only last like 5000 miles. :?

 

[johnrobholmes]

Measure the spokes you need and have danscompetition.com cut them for you. Great prices for top quality sapim spokes. Might as well relace the wheel with em.

 

[knightmb]

My new and improved E-bike conversion

Awesome job!

I do have to warn you about one thing. The way the topeak rack and bag are angled down away from the locking bar in the front, just the right bump will knock it lose, and it will slide off the back. I've already had that happen to me when I was converting an e-bike for a friend. What I did was angle the rack to either be level or a slight tilt forward so that gravity keeps the bag "forward" instead of trying to "pull it off".

Other than using the specialized frame, it looks almost like mine, except I used the marin frame.

 

[D-Man]

Thanks Knightmb. It actually doesn't look like that anymore. It changed again on page 4.

I'll check the bike shop and see if they will sell me one spoke.

 

[D-Man]

Yes! Got 1 spoke from Sport Chalet for .50 cents. Then park tool FR5 at 5.95. Then 10mm allen wrench set for $3.98 at Lowes. Didn't want to spend $20 on a chain whip. Here's how you save $20 bucks: Basically you put the bike in low gear like you're going to climb the steepest hill. Place bike on jackstands. Lower wheel to ground. Then hold pedal and turn wrench to remove cassette lock ring. Easy. Still need to get a new freehub body.

 

[D-Man]

I do have to warn you about one thing. The way the topeak rack and bag are angled down away from the locking bar in the front, just the right bump will knock it lose, and it will slide off the back. I've already had that happen to me when I was converting an e-bike for a friend. What I did was angle the rack to either be level or a slight tilt forward so that gravity keeps the bag "forward" instead of trying to "pull it off".

Thanks for the concern. Yes, the little plastic clip in front of the bag could break. I made a anti-slide plate for the back:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=41&hilit=testing+408+brushless&start=15

 

[D-Man]

Ok, back up and running now. Got the new freewheel on and it doesn't wobble anymore or slip. Regreased my bearings. There was actually a small amount of grease still on the bearings after 4300 miles. So I'd imagine a person could regrease at probably 5000 mile intervals or greater if it was greased well enough initially. This would be for the road and no rain. These are just regular loose ball bearings and no dust seals. The wheel trued out nicely.

 

[etard]

Nice to see you up and running D. That hardtail looks nice and plush with all the springs back there. Will it be at one of the next OC rides? 8)

 

[D-Man]

Whats an OC ride? My batteries are shot right now. They still work, but we need new ones soon. Another 12v sla is on its way out.

 

[Mathurin]

Looks like a horse stopping atmo

 

[D-Man]

Charge time now down to 1.75 hours from previous post.

Well, today I broke a rear spoke and it pulled through the flange hole....................Guess I'll have to rebuild the wheel. Got to buy tools to take it apart too.

Edit: charge time back up to 2 hours 10 minutes. Ah, warmer weather 6/09

Broke another rear spoke yesterday so thats 2 spokes in about 7000 miles. Not bad.

 

[D-Man]

Finally hooked up an amp meter. All I can say is that it works really well. No interference. Large numbers. Easy to read. 25amp shunt. 25amps=50mv. So 2:1 ratio. Did some hill climbing. With mild pedalling, I was holding about 12amps up a 9% grade at 7mph. 6% was 6 amps. 48v system. Climbed 1000 feet. 10 miles round trip. I was able to get it to pull 20amps if I wanted.