LightningRods mid drive kit

I've been busy for the past few weeks. I've redesigned the upper sheets adjuster for the primary belt:

newupperadj.jpg


I designed my original upper adjuster so that it could easily be added to adjustable sheets that I'd already sold that had no screw adjuster. I designed an upper plate that set on top of the sheets in a 3/4" notch that could be cut with a common bench grinder. The problem with that design was that the plate popped up on the right side when you tightened the left adjuster. Think teeter totter and you'll have the right idea. This new adjuster plate fits through a slot laser cut into the sheets. It can't pop up. And now that the right side is held down the right adjuster bolt can be used for what it really is: a belt tracking adjuster. You can now level the jackshaft and adjust the tracking of the belt so it neither walks off of the end or rubs the flange. If you've ever used a belt sander you know that being able to adjust the belt tracking is important. This is a simple mod with a big payoff.

I've also made some changes to the bottom sheets and adjuster in response to The Great Hardware Crisis of 2014. On the 100mm BB sheets I've added a second adjuster bolt as suggested:

bigblock_loweradj.jpg


This not only makes absolutely certain that the lower slide is level in it's travel, it splits the load of tensioning between two adjusters. I'm hoping that this will help users adjust the secondary chain without too much frustration.

I'm still fussing with slide hardware trying to come up with the best solution. Right now I'm using M5 hex nuts with nylock nuts. The next time I have a bunch of lower sheets laser cut I'm going to redesign everything to use larger bolts and I plan to upgrade to Grade 8. People have asked why I've mixed metric and SAE hardware. I try to stay to an international metric standard wherever possible. Since I live in the USA where SAE was the sole standard for many years there are still a lot more choices in hardware in SAE. Metric is still looked on as "special" hardware here. Some metric bolts are hard to get and some just can't be had.

Other plans on the horizon are switching from painting steel parts to black oxide coating them, making new design pant rings and belt guards out of aluminum instead of steel to reduce the weight of those parts by 2/3, and designing a far better upper frame mount to reduce the inherited GNG upper mount flex. I'm finishing the first big block kit right now. It will have the first new upper mount to help deal with all of the torque of the big motor.

I'm nearly done with the first big block kit for Walter S and have motors, long jackshafts and sheets for six more. I'm also nearly done with a 100mm stretch small block kit for Andrew F. Along with that I have an order for Stephen F in Switzerland that includes five small block kits with a wide range of 68mm and 73mm regular and stretch BB brackets. The orders I'm working on right now are about 4 months old. A lot of orders came in at this time so it's taking time to dig through them.

I've been corresponding with many of you pretty regularly by e-mail. In addition to his constant presence on this thread Emaayan has sent me over 240 e-mails, most of which I responded to. I do my best to respond to all of you, to take care of all of you, and to deal with the challenges of what I've taken on as best I can. Thanks to all of my friends here who've been so supportive and helped me keep it together.
 
hey, when i invest myself in something i INVEST MYSELF IN SOMETHING. :lol:

when i saw the new upper sheet design i was like "i'm so getting those" unfortunately i remembered that since my belt pulley is stuck on the jackshaft, there's no way i could order just those sheets alone as i can't slip the sheet past the pulley, so i guess i'm gonna have to wait and see if this holds out, or i'll have to order the entire upper drive :(

here's a picture that clarify about the popping plate
IMG_20141004_224749.jpg
 
emaayan said:
or i'll have to order the entire upper drive
Click to expand...

hey emaayan if you order new stuff i'll take yours I'm absolutely sure i can fix it with the smalles effort.

think about that!?!

it might be better for you to buy a totally developed easy to mount kit.
 
i'll consider it, meanwhile i got the ISIS bb here, i keep wondering what exactly does it mean by Left and right side, is it left side of me standing from behind the bike?

and i think i'm missing a tool to close it.
 
ok,

keep in mind, i'm the man to contact, if you want to sell your LR-GNG stuff !!

greets

Gernot
 
text deleted for being off topic
 
...Imagine a world where this thread strictly focused on technical LR install/usage issues and anything else is communicated via PM or Better Business Bureau.

I think I speak for the majority of reasonable adults here when I say, "we dong frocking want to hear your whining.... Take it somewhere else."

Do us all a favor: <insert_username_here>, cancel or send it back your order ; then go buy something from Bionix or a similar reputable company; then pollute their forums because your kickstand is out of alignment.
 
Or perhaps seeing as this thread is already so long and so full of discussion not wholly related to installing this kit, a new thread be started specifically titled "Lightning Rods Mid Drive Kit - installation and technical".

Discussion of the kit, includes discussion about the process of the development of the kit, and people's experiences ordering the kit. As such, it pretty much IS the place to share anything and everything to do with this kit. I totally agree with the sentiment to move personal queries to PM, but understand completely the frustration some have felt, I've been there myself. Its not a trivial amount of money to spend for most people, the anxiety associated with that is understandable. People deal with that in different ways.

As the water here is already muddied, why not start afresh with a clear stated criteria to the allowed content in the new thread/s.
 
t0me said:
Or perhaps seeing as this thread is already so long and so full of discussion not wholly related to installing this kit, a new thread be started specifically titled "Lightning Rods Mid Drive Kit - installation and technical".

Discussion of the kit, includes discussion about the process of the development of the kit, and people's experiences ordering the kit. As such, it pretty much IS the place to share anything and everything to do with this kit. I totally agree with the sentiment to move personal queries to PM, but understand completely the frustration some have felt, I've been there myself. Its not a trivial amount of money to spend for most people, the anxiety associated with that is understandable. People deal with that in different ways.

As the water here is already muddied, why not start afresh with a clear stated criteria to the allowed content in the new thread/s.
Click to expand...

or switch to L-R's facebook page:)
 
I want to make it absolutely clear that Emaayan is not unhappy with my mid drive kit. He has a personality disorder, one that he will readily admit to, that causes him to fixate and obsess on the tiniest problems. It's been a bit of a disaster for me because this constant focusing on the negative, with very little appreciation or enjoyment of the positives, has given the wrong impression of 2 1/2 years of hard work on my part. I don't believe that he has tried to harm my business intentionally. He's just gotten fascinated/obsessed with my kit and this is how he expresses it.

Emaayan is correct about Stocaz. They may both be difficult but Stocaz is angry, mean and belligerent. To Emaayan's credit he does keep his outbursts confined to low level sarcasm and almost never uses the caps keys.

The main thing that Stocaz wanted from me was ACS flanged freewheels. I'm now an OEM reseller for ACS. The first time he went for my throat it was because I was in the middle of negotiating with ACS and didn't have an answer for him immediately. I've considered sending him the parts he wanted two time since but he's lost his load and attacked me publicly before I could do it.

I'm also glad to see that someone deleted Stocaz's most recent outburst. Reasonable moderation is not censorship any more than painting over graffiti on a public building is.

Back to work. It's 7am on Sunday and time's a wastin'.
 
t0me said:
As the water here is already muddied, why not start afresh with a clear stated criteria to the allowed content in the new thread/s.
Click to expand...

The dynamic here Tom is that we have at least one participant on this thread that wants to talk about anything and everything else. I want you to stay here because I personally want people on this thread who want to stay on topic. It is the policy of E-S to allow forum members to say what they please, even if it annoys the wee out of everyone else on the forum. Unless you cross the line and directly attack someone, like Stocaz, you get to have your say.

I have much better control over my Facebook page and delete any nonsense that is irrelevant to my kit. Emaayan is also on my Facebook page but interestingly chooses to mind his Ps and Qs there. Post deletion and complete blocking are a click away. That's where I've been for the last few weeks.
 
while he gets back to work, i'm asking, has anyone tried placing the ISIS bb on a 68 mm shell?
 
emaayan said:
hey, when i invest myself in something i INVEST MYSELF IN SOMETHING. :lol:
Click to expand...



It's actually not something to LOL about or to take lightly. I see you as polite but obsessive, as LR has indicated above.

I, too, am impatient about getting this kit and getting it on my Big Dummy. I've sent Mike an email every 2-3 weeks. Sometimes it was to check up, other times (like most recently) it was about the THUN BB. I really wanted torque sensing on my first ebike, but oh well...

What you have to think about, emaayan, is that your actions have consequences to others, and perhaps you should not wholly concentrate on yourself. If Mike is responding to your 240 emails and to some of the posts on this thread (thank goodness he stopped posting here), that means LESS time for others. Less time that he can work on MY kit, for example, and the other's who have ordered (and we are no more or less important than you or your kit). It also means LESS time for him to design and implement changes/improvements.

You try to have every single piece of information BEFORE you even had the kit in your hands. Life does not work that way, ESPECIALLY with a brand new product from a SMALL (as in ONE man small) new company. If you want all the information NOW, then buy from Bionx or Bafang or from the many other retailers who have already sold thousands of kits. You'll know much more going into it.


I ask you to please not monopolize Mike's time further. He is a nice enough guy to not ignore you, and you are exploiting that, at the expense of the others in his queue, and at the expense of Mike himself. You may very well be HURTING his new business.

I, personally, do appreciate your build advice once you had the kit in hand and are building your bike. You saved me the headache of trying to mount a THUN BB myself. It's something I think might still be possible, but I am not going to spend the time and extra money to find out. I may check out a LBS that specialized in e-bikes (though all hub drives I think) to see what they say, but I am betting that mid drives are too much of a boutique item to yield much of a result.


I am glad of one thing, though... I thought I was bothering Mike by corresponding too much (once every 2-3 weeks).... I no longer have that worry.
 
Deanwvu said:
emaayan said:
hey, when i invest myself in something i INVEST MYSELF IN SOMETHING. :lol:
Click to expand...



It's actually not something to LOL about or to take lightly. I see you as polite but obsessive, as LR has indicated above.

I, too, am impatient about getting this kit and getting it on my Big Dummy. I've sent Mike an email every 2-3 weeks. Sometimes it was to check up, other times (like most recently) it was about the THUN BB. I really wanted torque sensing on my first ebike, but oh well...

What you have to think about, emaayan, is that your actions have consequences to others, and perhaps you should not wholly concentrate on yourself. If Mike is responding to your 240 emails and to some of the posts on this thread (thank goodness he stopped posting here), that means LESS time for others. Less time that he can work on MY kit, for example, and the other's who have ordered (and we are no more or less important than you or your kit). It also means LESS time for him to design and implement changes/improvements.

You try to have every single piece of information BEFORE you even had the kit in your hands. Life does not work that way, ESPECIALLY with a brand new product from a SMALL (as in ONE man small) new company. If you want all the information NOW, then buy from Bionx or Bafang or from the many other retailers who have already sold thousands of kits. You'll know much more going into it.


I ask you to please not monopolize Mike's time further. He is a nice enough guy to not ignore you, and you are exploiting that, at the expense of the others in his queue, and at the expense of Mike himself. You may very well be HURTING his new business.

I, personally, do appreciate your build advice once you had the kit in hand and are building your bike. You saved me the headache of trying to mount a THUN BB myself. It's something I think might still be possible, but I am not going to spend the time and extra money to find out. I may check out a LBS that specialized in e-bikes (though all hub drives I think) to see what they say, but I am betting that mid drives are too much of a boutique item to yield much of a result.


I am glad of one thing, though... I thought I was bothering Mike by corresponding too much (once every 2-3 weeks).... I no longer have that worry.
Click to expand...

ok ,then i'll monopolize YOUR time then, here's the dilema, i'm trying to insert the ISIS BB into the shell as i slowly but surely destroy the flanges without having a proper tool (and no the part tool bbt-018 for 8 notches i just purchased simply doesnt' reach all the way in so i'm forced to hammer it in with a flat head screw driver or use another spanner) , but it doesn't go all the way in, so mike says that's why the spacers i got with the crank arms are for. fine, but, he also said that i should use the thinnest one and never use both, because the would not allow the other side to thread into the bb, but now i'm using the THICKEST of the ones, and the chain side (that's the right side, right?) STILL doesn't thread all the way, i've placed the remaining spacer to demonstrate how both would fit the bill exactly.

so what gives?
IMG_20141012_180836.jpg
 
emaayan said:
ok ,then i'll monopolize YOUR time then
Click to expand...


No, you will not. I will not allow it.


emaayan said:
without having a proper tool
Click to expand...


There is your answer. Either:

1. Get the proper tool.
2. Find someone around you who has the proper tool. (LBS or just someone who likes and/or builds bikes)
 
Deanwvu said:
emaayan said:
ok ,then i'll monopolize YOUR time then
Click to expand...


No, you will not. I will not allow it.


emaayan said:
without having a proper tool
Click to expand...


There is your answer. Either:

1. Get the proper tool.
2. Find someone around you who has the proper tool. (LBS or just someone who likes and/or builds bikes)
Click to expand...

1. i'm not sure there's unless park tool has more then one tool which handles 8 notch isis drive, i believe this particular bb renders them useless because of it's length,
2. LBS'S won't go near my bike, they take one look at it , go "just no". i have only bike shop chain, in another city i have to go and get tools and even they don't have full stock.

so basically i'm alone at this.
 
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