Here goes! This will be my first mid drive. I picked up a cyclone 3kw kit. I was planning to install in my old hard tail bike, but found a good deal on a older Intense XC frame. I want to mount it inside the frame to keep the gorund clearnance. This will mostly be afun commuter bike, but there are lots of good trails around as well.
Plan is Multistar Lipo's, 52V 16ah (I already have a charger etc from RC stuff). My ride to work is 14.4 miles, so hopefully I will have enough to get there easily. I can charge at work as needed.
I had the seller measure the frame opening, it looked like I would need to notch it, but it turned out to fit exactly tight between the tubes. Could not have had 1mm less space.
Frame, well a whole bike, but everything needs some love. Brakes are done, need to be rebuilt and bled (I have a new set off another bike I will use), Fork needs a full rebuild. Cables are broken. So really I bought a wheel set, frame and bars, but the price was right. Its a early 2000's Intense Tracer.
Got the frame home and set it over the motor, I was super happy! It fit, just barely. If it needed to go any further to the drive side it would not have fit.
Now to build the mounts. I picked up a sheet of 3/16" aluminum, a bit thicker than the stock HD mounts. I wanted to use the same style, clamp in with the BB and catch the motor bolts. A little bit of CAD and I have a design. It follows the down tube and catches three of the bolts on the gear side of the cyclone.
Rough cut with the jig saw (I used 3003 alu for easy cutting)
Two of the three bolt holes are perfect, the top one was off a bit. Not sure exactly why, but sharpie cardboard and had drills might be part of it. I think I will be able to oval the hole enough to make it work. Luckily this one will also be tied to the suspension pivot point so I think it will be strong enough. (no the tensioner wont go there)
This tab will help the BB not let things rotate and support the upper edge. I was only able to use 1/8" here, but its a short span.
Hanging in place! Now to do the other side.
The mount for the other side started with the stock bracket on the BB. I had to notch it a little for the suspension bolt. A piece of aluminum flat bar was cut the same width as the BB, I and drilling and tapping this through both of the mounting plates. It will sandwiching them together, adding a little shear, and also I can clamp around the down tube there if needed.
Drilled and tapped for m6x1, not perfect, but it was all held in place and drilled together by my eyeballs....
Now the two mounting plates were tied together, I needed to get something to help the motor not rotate under load. Hopefully what I can up with is strong enough, I have never done a mid drive... I used a piece of 1/8"x2, it catches the lower motor bolt, and then ties into the black plate down near the BB. Two bolts hold it in place down low.
So at the end of the night I have a motor mounted in the frame (ignore the random hardware, I need to run to the hardware supply house and get correct stuff....), I trimmed down the connectors I would not be using off the controller, built the series battery connector, and tested the electrical side.
Chain lines are pretty decent, although the drive chain will have a fair bit of slack to take up with the tensioner.
Hopefully tonight I can get the bike side of things fixed up, replace the derailleur cable, swap my brakes over, fill tires etc. Need to figure out where to put the controller too, thinking a saddle bag maybe? Then wire runs, replace the phase wire connectors with 6mm bullets and test ride! (and figure out what to do about the front shock....)
Id love to hear thoughts on if my mounts look sturdy enough!
Plan is Multistar Lipo's, 52V 16ah (I already have a charger etc from RC stuff). My ride to work is 14.4 miles, so hopefully I will have enough to get there easily. I can charge at work as needed.
I had the seller measure the frame opening, it looked like I would need to notch it, but it turned out to fit exactly tight between the tubes. Could not have had 1mm less space.
Frame, well a whole bike, but everything needs some love. Brakes are done, need to be rebuilt and bled (I have a new set off another bike I will use), Fork needs a full rebuild. Cables are broken. So really I bought a wheel set, frame and bars, but the price was right. Its a early 2000's Intense Tracer.
Got the frame home and set it over the motor, I was super happy! It fit, just barely. If it needed to go any further to the drive side it would not have fit.
Now to build the mounts. I picked up a sheet of 3/16" aluminum, a bit thicker than the stock HD mounts. I wanted to use the same style, clamp in with the BB and catch the motor bolts. A little bit of CAD and I have a design. It follows the down tube and catches three of the bolts on the gear side of the cyclone.
Rough cut with the jig saw (I used 3003 alu for easy cutting)
Two of the three bolt holes are perfect, the top one was off a bit. Not sure exactly why, but sharpie cardboard and had drills might be part of it. I think I will be able to oval the hole enough to make it work. Luckily this one will also be tied to the suspension pivot point so I think it will be strong enough. (no the tensioner wont go there)
This tab will help the BB not let things rotate and support the upper edge. I was only able to use 1/8" here, but its a short span.
Hanging in place! Now to do the other side.
The mount for the other side started with the stock bracket on the BB. I had to notch it a little for the suspension bolt. A piece of aluminum flat bar was cut the same width as the BB, I and drilling and tapping this through both of the mounting plates. It will sandwiching them together, adding a little shear, and also I can clamp around the down tube there if needed.
Drilled and tapped for m6x1, not perfect, but it was all held in place and drilled together by my eyeballs....
Now the two mounting plates were tied together, I needed to get something to help the motor not rotate under load. Hopefully what I can up with is strong enough, I have never done a mid drive... I used a piece of 1/8"x2, it catches the lower motor bolt, and then ties into the black plate down near the BB. Two bolts hold it in place down low.
So at the end of the night I have a motor mounted in the frame (ignore the random hardware, I need to run to the hardware supply house and get correct stuff....), I trimmed down the connectors I would not be using off the controller, built the series battery connector, and tested the electrical side.
Chain lines are pretty decent, although the drive chain will have a fair bit of slack to take up with the tensioner.
Hopefully tonight I can get the bike side of things fixed up, replace the derailleur cable, swap my brakes over, fill tires etc. Need to figure out where to put the controller too, thinking a saddle bag maybe? Then wire runs, replace the phase wire connectors with 6mm bullets and test ride! (and figure out what to do about the front shock....)
Id love to hear thoughts on if my mounts look sturdy enough!