In praise of hose clamps :)

[jonescg]

Hi all,

We have decided to lend the original alloy framed bike of Katherine's to a friend. This meant removing all of the e-bike gear and installing it into my shitty old steel-framed trek I bought in Vancouver for $150 (and proceeded to spend $300 on making it rideable). When I brought this bike home with me to Perth I thought it would be good to have a spare bike for when I have a flat tyre on the Louis Garneau or just feel like a change.

Well now the steely trek is an e-bike.

I couldn't get the captive nuts to work since this frame is a bit smaller than the alloy frame it was originally installed on, so I decided to bite the bullet and add a pair of hose clamps to either support.

Wow. These things are rock solid. Now I don't sound like a freight train rolling through campus :lol: The steel frame has a nice amount of give in it, so even bumps don't jar as bad as they used to. Oh, a shameless plug for our local arts radio station. Big shout out to Joe from Midland!!

The controller had to sit on a make-shift rack until I can find a basket rack to mount on the back. Seems to work, but waterproof she aint

The cell_man triangle pack is still going strong. 10 Ah is no drama, but it seems to be doing a lot of balancing nowadays, especially when I leave it in a discharged state for a few days. I think we're on cycle number 250 and have put over 6000 km on it. I would expect nothing less from a quality ES supplier

 

[John in CR]

Nice quick solution. I'd add one more on the vertical as high as practical...I don't trust a hose clamp long-term.

That Cellman pack is slick. First time I've seen one. Does he do those customer order, or does he have certain dimension triangles?

John

 

[jonescg]

No, Paul only makes the pack as a bunch of cells in a triangle, and nowadays they come shrink-wrapped. I got the box fabricated out of polycarbonate and dremmelled the Cycle Analyst into the lid (and made a botch job of it :lol.

But the attachment system using the captive nuts to hold c-channel was OK, and I'm amazed it lasted as long as it did. Now, this thing is so solid I can go jumping gutters and nothing come loose. It pops wicked monos now too I just wish it was a bit more waterproof. Even humid air is enough to cause the Cycle Analyst to lost it's display until it dries out again.

 

[dogman dan]

Though I tend to not trust hose clamps much either, it looks like the way the load is carried, those should hold fine. A few seconds with a drill would make it possible to add two more though. If they do fail, they'll likely loosen up rather than actually let go, so a rattle would let you know one of the clamps stripped it's notches.

That's a really nice box, well done.

 

[jonescg]

The four I have on should work their magic for the time being. As you say, they will work loose and rattle before failing outright.

The only qualm I have on this bike now is the gears - I am in the second-highest gear possible, and it's still too fast to pedal and help the motor out. The highest gear isn't available as the chain rubs against the frame :x

Still, it might force me to slow down a bit and conserve power. ...nah :lol: I'm going to be popping wheelies on this thing like no-one's business

 

[dogman dan]

Looks like you have the clearance for a monster front gear. Bend out the frame, and put another spacer washer to get clearance for your 14t rear cog.

 

[kfong]

I wouldn't worry about the controller getting wet. I put all of mine in direct exposure to the elements. Just as long as you have a drip loop. The controller themselves are relatively well sealed. Nice poly battery box. Looks like a setup you can move from bike to bike with relative ease.

 

[sico]

Continuing the hose clamp praise, here's a battery box held together with 6 hose clamps:




And a couple of dodgy switch installations using hose clamps (I have a definitive version now, but no photos):

View attachment 1

 

[amberwolf]

So far the hose clamps I have broken all snapped across one of the slots, except for one that pulled the whole worm-bolt out of the housing while splitting the housing apart at it's folded-over "seam".

Many of the clamps I've used over the years have failed, mostly to hold various accessories to various bikes. I don't think I could even name all of the ways I have misused hose clamps, much less list their failure modes.

Since adding motors to bikes, I have had a few: One was on a cargo pod design on DayGlo Avenger, intended to help clamp it's bottom edge to the chainstay--the rest of it was U-bolted to the frame, and those held fine. Another on a trailer hitch clamp on teh same bike, essentially doing the same thing. One more on CrazyBike2's front forks, holding torque arm in place--failed after months of hard startups and hard braking with regen, slowly rocking it back and forth just a teensy weensy bit till it snapped. The scariest was on the front of CrazyBike2's seat though--it held the front bottom rail of the seat down to the "toptube" of the frame, so when it let go the seat just leaned way back.... :/

However, most of the many many clamps I have used never failed at all, even when I didn't have long enough ones and had to join 2 or 3 of them in series, and sometiems they were not all the same width! :lol:

 

[jonescg]

Amberwolf - The U-bolt idea is essentially what I will resort to once these fail. But hopefully that will be some time away.