Luna - $20 Hydraulic Conversion

[methods]

Since I'm doing this hydraulic conversion of a Luna Cycle, I will find some time to throw down some useful information here.

Voice to text
I picked up a set of hydraulic brakes off Amazon (lol). There were only $35 to start with, $60 if you bought a pair, and $42 if you were willing to accept someone else's return

L O L

What a lesson that was! I'll walk through it when I'm at a computer with a keyboard later.

I need to get to a computer, I hate doing this from a phone.

-methods

 

[methods]

I think it was called the Luna Eclipse... It's basically the first new ebike I ever bought. My previous 42 ebikes were conversions.

Turns out
This one is a conversion too!

Out of the box it was an incredible value, but it comes as an unfinished project. Today we are going to finish converting the brakes over to hydraulic at a total cost of $42 + free labor.

* The black bike is my wife's
* The white bike is mine

In this video I set the stage for my opinions. I'm not a bike mechanic, I'm not an e-bike aficionado, I'm not a salesman, I'm not doing affiliate marketing, I don't do reviews, etc.

I'm a DIY tinkerer of 30+ years, an Electrical Engineer of over 20 years. I approach every project as a Test Engineer, so everything gets a PASS or a FAIL.

PASS
FAIL

If I like you then you can get a PASS after I modify your product (LOL). The LUNA got a FAIL for being pennywise and pound foolish out of the box.

Rationale
* The geometry is horrific, it feels like it's going to pitch you
* The brakes were nonfunctional even after adjustment
* ... The fasteners rusted, The parts sun bleached, etc

I will now show you how to get it to a PASS for very little cash and a whole bunch of your time and effort.

O N W A R D

-methods
(Voice to text from phone)

 

[methods]

PRO TIP
Make sure you take the time to compress your pictures. Yes I even compressed the screenshot of the compression.

PRO TIP
High definition video takes a while to upload... So instead of sitting there waiting for it to upload, always be at least one video ahead!

-methods

 

[methods]

I strongly prefer pictures in line... But right now I'm working directly off the phone. The phone just kills the written word, and that is part of what is wrong with Twitter.

* People are using it from their phone!

-methods

 

[methods]

Just had my birthday party

* Got a Ryobi brushless nail gun capable of 2 1/8 in
* Got a high performance battery set 2Ah, 4Ah, 6Ah

The new high performance packs are no heavier or bigger than the original packs. With the first generation of high performance you had to give up and amp hour of capacity, not with these.

* Same form factor that will work in any tool going back to the '90s
* 6 amp hours high C rate

Best Part?
* They were on super sale buy one get one free!

$100 for the brushless air nailer
$100 for all three batteries and a charger

N O W
My Ryobi bike just improved! 12Ah up from 6Ah @ 36V and less/no sag

Epic

I also got three more of those flashlights, what a bizarre coincidence that I happen to be talking about them today.

-methods

 

[methods]

The reason in a 2 1/8" nail gun is so epic is that you can quickly pin work together AND THEN ADJUST IT WITH A HAMMER then run your fasteners.

They're only 16 gauge nails and they're super long. This is the secret to framing doors and building boxes.

* Make your cuts
* Line the wood up roughly
* Bop bop bop with the nail gun
* Tap tap tap with the hammer
* Zzzzzzzip with a screw gun

I don't use hammer guns I think they're absolutely atrociously obnoxious. I only use those for removing lug nuts, otherwise I use old school geared guns.

* I always keep them in high speed mode
* I only use guns that have adjustable ratchet

I'll show you later today my workman's gun of choice. I think it's made by Bosch, it was only 60 or 80 bucks, came with two batteries, The batteries last forever, it has gobs of torque, and most importantly it's super lightweight*

-methods

 

[methods]

Anyhow
I'm not off topic because all of these things are the same. If you want to be a rockstar I suggest that you focus on more than just one hobby.

* Buy junk cars and fix them
* Buy junk bikes and fix them
* Buy junk electronics and fix them
* Buy junk houses and fix them
* Find junk people and fix them

Lol

It develops what I call "engineering empathy" which makes you a far stronger engineer and improves your probabilities of moving into leadership.

To qualify that
Believe it or not I'm a VP at a Robotics Company with over 100 employees. I tried the demote myself to Principal Engineer, but it didn't really work.

Only a short time ago.... I was a man on the road... Trying to find my way.

-methods

 

[methods]

FEEDBACK
* Never make more than 3 posts without a picture or Video

 

[methods]

And now back to our regular programming

* Removing the pads before bleeding the brakes

-methods

 

[methods]

I am going to teach my 11yo how to run the nail gun today, so off to the Hardware Store for

* Shortest 16ga nails (1/2"?)
* Longest 16ga nails (2 1/8")

Today I am
* Installing front hydraulic
* Bleeding 3 systems
* Epic Ride
* Celebrating the 4th
* Looking for some mortars (cough)

-methods

 

[methods]

Just invited Matthew to the thread. I hope he feels free to steer us off course onto his projects

-methods

 

[99t4]

Methods! Long time no see! Glad to see you again!

I do have a question regarding your pass/fail criteria on this project, but will wait and see if you address it first

Those look like decent tires for the street.

 

[methods]

The Schrader valve on this need to be screwed in two revolutions with a pair of tweezers.

-methods

 

[methods]

Methods! Long time no see! Glad to see you again!

I do have a question regarding your pass/fail criteria on this project, but will wait and see if you address it first

Those look like decent tires for the street.

Feel free to wait or fire away. I'm working on eight things at once as usual....

* I bought the bike blind, it was not any kind of gift

* It showed up with a broken battery, that never saw quality test, I fixed it myself and documented that... For the other reviewer got a free battery out of the deal

* I've only put like 100 mi on the bike, with the longest ride being 15 miles round trip but towing 100 lb... So the heavy bike plus 200 lb of me Plus 100 lb of trailer plus hills

Anyhow
We have to really quickly build a birdhouse, then we'll get back on it.

-methods

 

[methods]

I'm going to talk about Ryobi a lot in this thread.

* I have don't work for Ryobi and I've never worked there
* I don't know anyone who works at Ryobi
* I've never gotten anything free from Ryobi
* All of my tools are Ryobi, for the most part...

Here is their latest offering... On sale for buy one get one free! I got everything here for $200 bucks.

I have wrecked two Ryobi tools over the years
* The original brushed 4-in skill saw, I killed it on the 8 ft long piece of 1 in thick plywood
* The replacement brushed 4-in skill saw, it died cutting 2x4s

Both of those died from overloading the brushed motor. They are the lightest duty you can possibly get... Because it will fit in your toolbox (or the old one would)

Onward

That's called "product placement". I am intentionally injecting two things into these threads

* Family
* Ryobi

Consume or don't consume, I couldn't care less!

-methods

 

[methods]

-methods

 

[methods]

I've got my MkII setup going. This time I'm going to try a gravity feed similar to a cat watering device.

I'm sure there's a thousand ways to bleed these brakes appropriately. I'm also sure that I did it the most ghetto way last night, and they are perfect.

* Crack the bottom plug but don't remove it
* Keep the top full
* Jiggle the handle a little bit but you don't really need to
* Seal the top after an arbitrary period of time
* Seal the bottom
* Keep trying until it works

It's not going to be a one finger brake... But it's also not going to be like squishing a wet waffle and then flying into an intersection on an 80lb bike towing your kid.

I dub this: "The Kapton Tape Special" aka KTP method

-methods

 

[methods]

PRO TIP
CUT A BUNCH OF WOOD ON THE SAME TABLE YOU'RE DOING A BRAKE BLEED ON.

If you haven't figured it out yet this isn't a professional operation. We focus on building useful things out of garbage, on the side of the road, hungry, dying of thirst, with only $4.20 in your pocket.

-methods

Edit
For voice to text error

 

[methods]

 

[amberwolf]

Got a Ryobi brushless nail gun capable of 2 1/8 in

Diameter? :lol: (I guess that would be a nail howitzer instead, though)

What's it's range?

 

[methods]

Perfection is the enemy of progress. Every single amazing thing you see in the world started out as a fubar prototype.

If you keep sitting around watching... Waiting for your grand day.... to come out with your amazing product.... It's never going to happen for you Brother.

-methods

 

[methods]

Diameter? :lol:

What's it's range?

Amberwolf definitely knows about progress not perfection.

That would be 2 in deep and 18 gauge diameter. It's a killer little gun.

-methods

 

[methods]

-methods

 

[methods]

There should be one dead video above, that was a double upload. I never delete videos, I don't even set them as private. I sent them as unlisted*

* Unlisted videos still render in forums
* Unlisted videos still render in playlists
* Unlisted videos still work if you have the link

The video above was deleted, confirming that it really is a pass-through, and not a local copy here on the forum.

Eh hem, good

(Unless Google decides to monetize YouTube, oh wait they already have)

If anyone needs to post videos somewhere other than YouTube I will support that on my servers. No porno, talking about hating white people, conspiracy theories, etc. I will post baned or prohibited content though.

-methods

 

[methods]

-methods