Deecanios first build the "DC1"

[deecanio]

Hi All,

Not been up to much as im getting married in four weeks ,the bike has to take a back seat for a while and to be honest the weather here is total shit anyway!
i've been grabbing a few parts here and there to finish the bike,new front end mostly but i have done the footwork on getting the finished battery cages and seat done by some metalwork guys in my town,expensive but they have the skill to do a nice job
I've decided to move the 2nd batt location for a couple of reasons, firstly it would be too high mounted on top of the top bar, this would be too difficult to mount well i think and not the best place for the weight either so it's gone below the first and they will be caged then bolted together clamping the downtube mounted on the rubber strips like i used for the conroller only bigger and double thickness.the second battery which faces the ground will have a plate to protect it from debris.
the seat will be one piece covering the controller and then on up the top tube to near the end, it will be just a bit wider than my saddle was then taper all the way down over the controller to the end of the top tube.i know some of you guys dont agree with the seat but i want a nice clean finsh and i see no reason to keep catching my nuts on a bicycle saddle when i can have a fat padded purpose built one
Anyway heres the bits i bought and a final paint image of how my bike will look when finished - hopefully by the end of august!! :lol:

 

[BiGH]

looks good
how far does that rear spring move?

top stuff

 

[deecanio]

Hey BigH,

the travel at the rear is only 2" or so - i plan to get a 4X mtb frame which has a very similair geometry to my frame but has 4" of travel on a 4way arm.
I won't buy the new frame until the electrics are on and im satisfied that it performs well enough to invest further as it will set me back about £500.
Should be getting the bike finished very soon then i'll get some video of it up at 72v


Cheers

D

 

[knoxie]

Hi DC

Yes it looks good, might need to check the rear travel to make sure your swing arm doesnt crack the battery cages, other than that it looks very cool indeed.

One thing I have noticed which is a good thing is that there is a lot of space behind your rear wheel there! now if you found that you didnt really peddle that much you could slip in a Kol or BMC in there and direct drive a Hub gear with it! that would be an option should 72V and 35A be a little too much for the Puma off road.

Still waiting for Mark and the factory to come up trumps with the new Puma motor, I could do with one to put on my main bike.

Keep up the good work and good luck with the wedding, I hope the weather is a bit better for you than this though, I have the week off here figured 1st week of July should be sunny...bah!

Later

Knoxie

 

[deecanio]

Hi Mate,

the rear suss doesnt get near the top cage - it is in the same location as it was when there was just one batt and even with me bouncing on the seat in a wheelie position it doesnt even get close to hitting, there is at least 2" clearance and the wheel would have to be travelling about 5" for the 2" to get fully used - it wont be a concern even with a new frame as the suspenion on a 4x frame is mounted so the shock moves in a vertical rather than horizontal path.
there is a lot of space there your right and we can look at options if the puma cant deliver (im hoping that it can to be honest), i haven't ruled out going to 24" wheels and having a good compliment of gears to help if it turns out that i can't get enough power in the bike - as it stands my single gear is perfect, it is only of use to about 8mph but thats perfect for helping out up steep hills when the motor bogs and starting off as i always peddle start to help out.In an ideal world the new puma will run at 72v sweetly,i'll consider the other options as secondry to that.
OH by the way knoxie, i went to pick up my parts on saturday and the guys at the lbs (new one) were really cool and very interested in the build - they started to tell me about how they had seen this guy online hitting 40mph on a red bmx :lol: "the guy was weaving in and out of traffic and hitting silly speeds, it was incredible!!!" ring any bells? lol.
one of them has a chopper like ypedals and he took it to critical mass but said it is a little heavy to pedal he is going to come round to drop off my headset and bring the chopper for me to see - i think really he wants to have a look at my kit as i told him a puma at 36v would push his chopper along sweet
Anyway better get on with some work - have a great week mate, it's supposed to be nice on thursday so hopefully you will get some riding time i can't believe the weather!!! i just hope i get one sunny day for the wedding at least - then im off to bali and hong kong for three weeks 8)
Let me know if theres any news on the new motors mate - i have a new double walled rim just waiting for dispatch


Cheers knoxie, hope you get some kit in to test this week!!!!



D

 

[BiGH]

yep what knoxie was saying was what i was concerned about too. I'd measure the rear spring to check what the total thickness of all the coils would be in the completely compressed form - ie how far will it travel when the suspension bottoms out. The force of u going down a large drop onto the seat (as a worst case) is likely to provide more force than u bouncing on the seat during a wheelie. - better safe than sorry!

Oh i can't wait for the video!!! 8)

 

[xyster]

Not been up to much as im getting married in four weeks

Try to talk your future wife into getting married whilst riding ebikes. It'd make for a great wedding video!

 

[BiGH]

i can see it now - an ebike wedding 72v at 35a and 2 carrots

 

[deecanio]

I dont think she will go for that Xyster as she already had to miss the town festival due to me building the front end on sunday lol.
i take your point BigH but think about it, to compress the rear suspension to it's full amount would require me to drop off about a 5ft drop - unlikely, i think it will do fine until i get the new frame - then i will have good travel to bounce on that wont impede the cages whatsoever so hopefully all will be ok. video will be up as soon as i'm out on it i promise!!!


Cheers


D

 

[BiGH]

yah i take ur point - but my motto with stuff like this is - the unlikely does happen

awesome can't wait for the vids mate!
Haydon.

 

[deecanio]

Hi Haydon,

yes it's good advice and i won't be doing anything too drastic until i change frames - to be honest i've never managed to jump the bike with one batt as it's fairly heavy but this is the kind of frame i will fit once i have my final electric kit tested and proven.
this will alleviate any problems with hitting the cages, give me real good travel on the rear - these types of frames come with standard 12mm dropouts and 135mm wide too so will be perfect for my bike.


Cheers


D

 

[BiGH]

Hey D,
Thats an beautiful Frame! not that ur bike isn't already amazing!

very nice! your bike is gonna be a beast!

H.

 

[geoff57]

Hi all

One thing I have noticed which is a good thing is that there is a lot of space behind your rear wheel there! now if you found that you didnt really peddle that much you could slip in a Kol or BMC in there and direct drive a Hub gear with it! that would be an option should 72V and 35A be a little too much for the Puma off road.

strange you should mention the BMC, I just recived a gray one through the post from the US, as far as I know it has a blown speed controller but I intended to bypass this anyway.It was an unmodified scooter ccw rotation.
I have a use for it, it's going into the KMX once I have done the mods on it.
Knoxie you must be psychic.

Good luck with the wedding as well.

 

[deecanio]

Hi H,

thx, yes im going for it in a big way top components all over screw the expense just waiting to see if i can get the electrical ooomph to go with!!
if i can get a setup like knoxie's bmx that would be just the ticket - great speed and great frame and forks should make for a cracking bike, fingers crossed!!!
vids as soon as possible!!!


D

 

[knoxie]

Guys from the bike shop saw a video of a BMX? electric? sounds cool! :wink:

Hmm yes a lot of people have seen that video for sure! hopefully the new Pumas will be ok at 72V, your holiday sounds like it should be sunny, I will try and get a new Puma for testing as soon as I can.

Knoxie

 

[deecanio]

yeh lol, mighty impressed they were too

no worries mate,the DC1 "Knox Worx" will be worth the wait im sure!
hoping that it won't rain on the day then off to Bali, cannot wait mate - then I'll be a married man with responsibility still keep a little time in the bag for the bike though

let us know how you get on,hopefully mark will get the motor to you soon,not that my project is depending on you but....my project is depending on you!! lol seriously mate no worries, i wouldn't have the bike but for all your help,the guys here too
Have a great week off and I'll crack on with completing the bike,while you whip up some magic to put in it!!

cheers Knoxie


D

 

[BiGH]

Yep i rationalise the expenditure this way: 10 tanks of petrol is $800-$900 if u save urself 10 tanks then spend $400 on ur bike if you want- you're still saving overall and enjoying urself then once it's built you have an insane bike, and its a money saver! or (in my case) I will continue purchasing parts for experiementing!

(or thats the excuse for the better half lol)

 

[xyster]

Yep i rationalise the expenditure this way: 10 tanks of petrol is $800-$900 if u save urself 10 tanks then spend $400 on ur bike if you want- you're still saving overall and enjoying urself then once it's built you have an insane bike, and its a money saver! or (in my case) I will continue purchasing parts for experiementing!

(or thats the excuse for the better half lol)

Way to massage the logic! :lol:

 

[deecanio]

LOL, massage away H

i have to find some money for my metalwork from somewhere - im not going to tell how much its going to cost to have the cages and seat made but believe its not cheap - maybe i could fake my own death and get the wife to cash in my life insurance


cheers


D

 

[Ypedal]

Hey d ! bike is looking sweet !

I must admit, the MX seat looks better than i expected it would..

Building the cage is the easy part.. mounting it to the bike is what kicks you in the balls...

 

[deecanio]

hey mate,

yes im sold on the mx type seat - it wont be out and out mx but a custom build specifically for the bike made from aluminium and then cover in foam and top cover - i think it will look bang on
i am going to pass the bike on to this guy who tells me it will cost but he will do a cracking job. the difficulty will be that the cages have to be transposable to the new frame but we have talked it through and he sais he can make it so one cage bolts to the other and vice versa so they clamp the tube in effect and therefore are swappable.The seats shape is dictated by the controller width for part of the way but will taper quite nicely up the top tube and flare slightly at the back to give me a solid comfy seat - i think it will work really well.
had some grips turn up today (ODI mushrooms from my old bmx days if anyone remembers those grips?) so really i just need my headset to turn up then i can get the bike built and ride it down to the engineers to complete the build
i should be up and built very soon so hopefully we will see it built and running, not totally sure yet on power config but will know soon as paul has had chance to test out marks new kit.
happy days fellas - just need the weather to break, as knoxie mentioned the uk has had non stop rain for nearly 2 months now!!!! major bummer, the only saving grace is my bike isn't ready to ride yet or i'd be pulling whats left of my hair out!!!


cheers


D

 

[deecanio]

hi all,

i've always hated the throttle i got in my kit, the grip was awful and it was too short in length to the point that i could feel the edge of the bars digging into my hand after a while out on the bike
so took a stanley knife and junior hacksaw to it and it's now quite nice 8)
i can remember a year ago most of the wise heads here advising me to go for the half grip throttle, but no, i had to have the full grip one
also got my headset courtesy of http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk - (sound fellas there to deal with if your uk based) so banged that in and the forks are now spot on and well supported.
hope you all had a good weekend - there was actually some sun in the uk!!!


cheers


D

 

[gwsaltspring]

Hey D

I've been following your project, but I am confused as to whether you have managed to get to the 72V stage yet.

Also which controller did you wind up with? I believe Knoxie was modding both a 20A and a 35A version. I'm electrically challenged so I may have just missed the final discussion.

 

[deecanio]

hey Greg,

sorry for the delay,manic at work.
No you haven't missed anything mate my project kind of stalled on two fronts.
firstly i was going to let the guy who did my crank a look at the seat and battery cages but i had to strip it to get the frame in my 2 seater car so i could get it to him,this made sense as i had to buy and fit the marzocchi forks so it had to come apart at that point anyway.as i've now found a nearer option im rebuilding to ride it there,this took some time as i waited for forks/headset/hub/wheel and other parts to arrive.
this is all sorted now and the front end is peachy
:lol:

Secondly i am totally stalled on the electric side - knoxie has found some issues with my setup at 72v and he has tested both controllers (35a & 20a xlyte 36-72v) and upgraded them but we have another issue with the point one lipo's bms circuitry having 55v components - so even with the uprated controller which seems good, there is still an issue to resolve - either i will have to have the point 1 bms uprated or the puma will need to be swapped or both.

i don't have any control over this which is really frustrating to say the least but i knew it was a new venture and there would be some teething troubes.
My supplier has been first class providing me with replacement parts (1st blown controller/throttle/torque arms etc) and has agreed to give me the 72v system i want but he has no control over the factory in china and they have been slow to say the least, leaving me ready to finish the bike but unable to do so to my standard as i need to know the final system to be worth while having custom parts made,you can see why i'm stuck now.

Basically i now have a couple of choices, wait it out and see what my supplier can come up with or build on and run at 36v20ah - not so good.
its not all bad news though as he is expecting some factory controllers soon and some new motors so eventually i might get near that monster performance seen in knoxie's 72vbmx vid but due to the nature of the purchase this is by no means garuanteed

the motor i have now is good, i love its torque but i need more power, i can only hit 17mph when my goal was 35,30 would probably do actually - so at the moment i consider it "not ready".
if i wait it out i probably won't get to ride again this summer which is bumming me out to the point that im considering getting a couple of 48v nicads from justin and riding them this year until my 72v lipo situation is sorted (please god!!! hehe )
im not sure how nicads work so i will have to find out - justin has 2 48v5ah slimline nicads on the site so that got me thinking if i bought 2 would that give me 10ah at 48v or would i get say 6ah? i dont know, like you mate im electrically challenged so i depend on the guys here to help and advise.

any way chin up i'll get this sucker running at top speed soon i hope then i can finally have the bike as i first thought of it - monster!!!


cheers

D

 

[Ypedal]

ah man . that bites....

See.. this is why you need multiple Ebikes.... so this way you always have something to ride.. and work on at the same time !!! ( will cut into the wife's personal time.. but that's just the way it is !! hehe )

There is a serious shortage of good quality Lithium packs around..

Irony here : I have 2 packs that work well at 72v.. but need to work out a mounting setup... there is actually dust on them packs..