Cannondale Electric Bike

[Dlogic]

Hi everyone,

after registering here, i was wondering what you´d think about my homemade ebike.

It´s a Cannondale Super V-600 with a Cyclone 500 Watt kit.

Since the motor always overheated, i´ve machined a new motor housing out of one solid aluminium block, integrating cooling fins.

Located on the rear side of the bike is the 36 Volt 20 Ah battery pack. The kit normally runs on 24 Volts, but i just hooked up this battery and noticed that it felt like it had more power then the 36 volt kit with external controller. The picture shows that kit, but when water got inside the controller and shortet it out, i just grabed my old 500 watt kit with the controller integrated in the motor, connected 36 volts to it and was stunned that it ran much better then that 600 watt kit.

The original planetary gear box was to long to fit between my legs, so i made a new one, using the gears, but manufacturing a new enclosure.

Yeah, those Cyclone kits aren´t too good, but it´s all i have for the moment and around here in Germany this type of power is totally illegal. But the permited 250 watts are such a joke.

 

[litespeed]

Fantastic job on the mods. Bike looks fantastic also. What are your top speeds and range on average rides? Terrain? Details man, we need more details.

Tom

 

[Dlogic]

Some technical data:

Range without pedaling: 43 Km
with moderate pedaling: 60 Km
pedaling like hell: 65 Km

Top speed on level ground: 47 Km/h

Battery: YESA 36 V 20 Ah Lifepo4

Headlight: Homemade waterproof LED 3W lamp with built in dimmer.

Thanks.

 

[beast775]

nice rig.well put together.

 

[dogman dan]

So good you should sell a few. Very nice work. Not like the tape and baling wire approach I'd have.

 

[Kaño]

Very nice bike!!

Just a word of warning, internal Cyclone controller has 35V rated caps, a 36V pack is playing with fire.

Check this tread: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8621&hilit=cyclone+500w+cyclone+500w+36v

 

[kentlim26]

hi Dlogic,

welcome to this ES. A nice place where ebikes riders can be communicating. your build is nice. The cyclone kit is good the looks less for ebike, however the speed will still notice people. if your controller has a sticker for 24v, try not to run 36v. I had blown my controller for 24v (sticker). Cyclone has a few types of controller 36v, 48v controller. honestly speaking. im one of the cyclone kit user has shift over to hub motor. i lost alot of luck with cyclone kit, as my controller seem to working afew months to the most less then a year. hub motor seems to have many ways better over the cyclone kit, eg " the easy replacement for hall sensor " for cyclone motor to replace hall sensor is very difficult, and also price is 50% cheaper over a cyclone kit.

kentlim

 

[Dlogic]

hi Dlogic,

welcome to this ES. A nice place where ebikes riders can be communicating. your build is nice. The cyclone kit is good the looks less for ebike, however the speed will still notice people. if your controller has a sticker for 24v, try not to run 36v. I had blown my controller for 24v (sticker). Cyclone has a few types of controller 36v, 48v controller. honestly speaking. im one of the cyclone kit user has shift over to hub motor. i lost alot of luck with cyclone kit, as my controller seem to working afew months to the most less then a year. hub motor seems to have many ways better over the cyclone kit, eg " the easy replacement for hall sensor " for cyclone motor to replace hall sensor is very difficult, and also price is 50% cheaper over a cyclone kit.

kentlim

Hi Kentlim,

that´s true, the integrated controler makes it really difficult to open the motor. Putting it back together is even worse, cause you have to take extreme caution in order not to damage any of the sensitive electronic parts on the pcb. I´ve had to take the motor apart to make it run backwards. When i saw those hall sensors, i knew that, at least i for being no electronics guru, had to find another way. So i carefully removed the little round magnet which sits on the motors rotor, turned it around 180 degress and pressed it back on it´s seat using a bit of glue. Tadaa, now the motor ran in the opposite direction.

 

[jag]

Beautiful machining work!

The original planetary gear box was to long to fit between my legs, so i made a new one, using the gears, but manufacturing a new enclosure.

So you're not using those annoyingly wide cyclone cranks then?

Some detail pics on your gearbox would be nice. How much shorter is it?

B.t.w. with the machine shop skills you have, you should really try to make a small aspect ratio gearbox for a better motor like the Astro. They have very compact high power motors, so motor+gear could probably be made to fit between the cranks.

 

[Dlogic]

Beautiful machining work!

The original planetary gear box was to long to fit between my legs, so i made a new one, using the gears, but manufacturing a new enclosure.

So you're not using those annoyingly wide cyclone cranks then?

Some detail pics on your gearbox would be nice. How much shorter is it?

B.t.w. with the machine shop skills you have, you should really try to make a small aspect ratio gearbox for a better motor like the Astro. They have very compact high power motors, so motor+gear could probably be made to fit between the cranks.

Thanks for the compliments. I must say though that my machines are all manually operated. There are no fancy stepping motors on my mill or lathe. Just good old fashioned dials that have to be turned by hand. That´s why it took me almost 7 month to finish all the parts needed.

My gearbox is 17 mm shorter. The original uses 2 ball bearings stacked together. I use one and to give it stability have placed the other on 3 rods inside an aluminium plate.

I use the original bottom bracket. The cranks however are from Cyclone. The freewheel mounted on them is from a trial bike. These are much more robust then the flimsy, unsealed Taiwaneese ones. After destroying the third one, i decided to spend some more money and get myself a freewheel with real ball bearings and not just loose balls rotating in an unsealed enclosure. The only problem was that this freewheel has teeth on it, so i had to machine an adapter plate to screw the gear on.

Here you can see the original gearbox held up in front. The new version is inside the bike´s frame of course.

 

[wildharemtbkr]

Hi just found this build! I really like it, how has it been? Do you still use it? Thanks