all season e-bike (second build, Fattest)

[Tommy]

plan A is to gear the front drive for 0-10mph, and the rear geared for 10-30mph.


before I have to return to working for a living I plan to complete a add-on 18hr
auxiliary battery pack(for Sunday rides).






I have tried a number of times to set the disk brakes so that no noise comes from them.
I was thinking it was a case of you get what you pay for(cheap ebay hydraulic brakes), but
it may be in the install. the adapter I used to connect the rotor to the axle may be at fault.
about .010" runout.

the adapter I got from farm&fleet.

 

[Tommy]

while the brakes still have a lame stopping force, they are quiet now.

what seemed to make the biggest difference is the steel spacers between the gears and hub.

it also gives a warm&fuzzy feeling that the gears and hubs are not going to shift out of position.





while waiting on freewheels and gears for the front wheel I have some time to look at the kickstand.

 

[amberwolf]

If you can afford them, the Avid BB7 Mountain calipers would probably be the best braking for the money. I use a single one with a 200mm rotor on the front wheel of SB Cruiser to stop it, and it's more than enough to skid the wheel (max braking you can possibly get).

I got mine on a sale for less than $40 each with rotors, but you can find just the caliper (probably all you need) for about $50 average.

If you have regular bicycle rim brake levers being used, you'd want the MTB or mountain version (this is the most likely). If you're using dropbar roadbike levers, they have different travel, and you want the road version to match.

 

[Tommy]

amberwolf, found a Avid BB7 MTN Mechanical Disc Brake Caliper on ebay for 24.00 & free shipping

 

[amberwolf]

Just make sure it's a *genuine* one, and not just something labelled as that in the ad. There are dozens of aliexpress/ebay/etc sellers that have generic brakes they *call* that, but are not; some have actual pictures of the brakes they are selling and it's obvious they're not.

My guess is that if it's a seller with lots of them at that price, rather than an individual selling their old used brakes, $24 is probably not genuine--but you could be lucky.

Like these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/AVID-BB5-BB7-MTB-bike-MTN-Mechanical-Brakes-Disc-Brake-Calipers-Front-Rear-Set/274209226446?hash=item3fd824bece
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32980305192.html


I found this one
https://www.ebay.com/itm/AVID-BB7-MTN-DISC-CALIPER-INCOMPLETE-SELLING-FOR-PARTS-OR-REPAIR/281423696093?hash=item418628d0dd:g:RBUAAOSw7NNT~cYd
but it doesn't have any of the mounting bracket, so you would have to invent that or buy one (which may bring the cost to that of a new caliper, depending on whcih parts you end up needing)


If you have or can get road levers instead of mtb levers, you could use this
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Avid-BB7-S-Road-Mechanical-Disc-Brake-Calipers-160mm-Rotors/164203048161?hash=item263b43ace1:g:OU0AAOSw2H5ewB36 but you still have to make or get moutning hardware.

 

[Tommy]

the power kickstand turned into a much bigger job then it was worth.
too slow for me, but it can lift the bike with me in it.
used a DPDT toggle switch to control it, installed limit switches on each end of it's travel.

only thing left to do with it is to come up with a way to bypass it if it fails when I'm out riding.
and connect the up limit switch to the arduino controller to disable the drive if not up.

 

[Tommy]

got some parts welded

 

[Tommy]

with the frame welding I get a warm&fuzzy about it holding together on the road or trail.

 

[thundercamel]

Not bad! What's the performance and handling like?

 

[Tommy]

thundercamel, with the 16ah pack and I hold it to 15mph it can go 10 miles before
the cells go to 3.5v(current recharge point). it rides nice when not going through pot holes,
I'm going to have to look at some kind of suspension.

all in all a fun bike so far.

I really like being able to charge the pack in 30min.(25A charger)

 

[Tommy]

200 miles and all the welds held(Sweet!)
did both on road and off road.