Devinci Vancouver Hybrid - Front 9 Continent Disk

[chvidgov.bc.ca]

I had good luck finding this Devinci Vancouver bike for one hundred dollars - aluminum frame with front steel fork, nice beefy dropouts, and disk brakes front and back. The bike is unsuspended, and I decided I wanted a front hub motor, a 2806 fast rpm model from ebikes.ca - new model - disk version. I figured a front would be fine, and the new disk version of the 9C would work ok with my Promax DSK320 disk, with no issues. The front would balance well with a rear Ping battery in a rear pannier rack, and the controller in a triangular frame pack, in the centre. This turned out to be one of my easiest builds so far - all I had to do was add two extra little washers under the disk brake mount screws to get perfect placement of the disk, with about 2 mm of clearance from the motor casing. I had a special fenders which cleared the disk brake, and were perfect for attaching fender eyelet torque arms as well, which I only had one of. I used the other torque arm from ebikes.ca, on the other side....Here are some pix...











So, the order of installation on the axle was...washer inside dropout, dropout, C Washer, regular washer, torque arm, lug nut. I had to take off the Anderson phase connectors off the motor temporarily in order to get the wire through the torque arm. I find this step to be a hassle, decombobulating an installed Anderson to get off the plastic housing without damaging the Anderson. I just cut off the Hall connector - I love the sensorless mode on the controller - it works excellently - and very little cogging on this motor.

I hooked up a BMSBattery 12 mosfet controller, in the triangular frame pack. The PAS and throttle plugs on the controller were easy to confuse, as the PAS connector was perfect to connect (incorrectly) to the throttle connector. I had to cut the throttle connectors off and solder the wires.

Otherwise, a really easy and quite satisfactory result - the bike will attain 30mph fairly easily on the flats with moderate pedalling, with 100psi 26" wheel tires (Kenda Kwest, and Schwalbe Marathon Plus on rear). I think this bike is a great urban warrior - fast and discrete - and the colour of the hub seems to match well with the postwar Great Britain gestalt colourwise.

 

[beast775]

nice build,i really like devinci bikes,i will keep an eye out on the GG for you.ow yes you might want to flip the input wire cover over keep out the 4 month drizzle here.

 

[chvidgov.bc.ca]

Good suggestion. I think it will be ok with the self-adhering silicone tape I wrapped over it where it enters the axle. It was fun taking out a fairly strong roadie today on Crescent Road, going to work...I let him catch up and then pulled way away a few times and then said sayonara...and I'm loving the ultra-bright deal-extreme flashlight on it...

 

[John in CR]

Beast is right, you need a drip loop. Water running down a wire will always find the hole, and you have the double whammy of an uptilted hollow axle when on a kick stand? Is wire out of the right side a new 9c standard?

 

[chvidgov.bc.ca]

I'm not sure if it is a standard, just away from the disk side? You could do a 180 on the wheel and run it "backwards" to put the disk brake on the right side I think, then the wire would be on the left.

 

[chvidgov.bc.ca]

Thanks again Beast for the suggestion on moisture drip...it was painful to invert the wire entry by doing a 180 on the axle - had to go right back to taking the Anderson phase wire connectors apart, in order to get the torque arms inverted etc., pulling the phase wires through the nut. It turned out awesome though, as in the process I put on a new Schwalbe Big Apple 2.35 version tire on instead of the Kwest, and that is a big smooth rolling beautiful wheel now, and all the moisture can run off. The extra inch of tire elevation just fit inside my fenders perfectly and changed the geometry slightly so that my poor old neck is less cricked at the end of a ride, and you can really feel the shock-absorbing effect of the tire, which should help the spokes and the rim to stay true, over time. I also tried Justin's Alhonga caliper which I found was very nearly identical to the promax that was on there, in terms of caliper spacing, so I used that, as it came with new brake pads. So this bike is ready to RAWK...