Yamamonger
1 mW
So I decided about two years ago that I wanted to build an electric motorcycle. Unfortunately I'm a poor college student and don't have a garage, so the idea wasn't going to happen any time soon. But in the mean time I wanted to jump into the electric scene and love biking so I figured I would get some experience building an E-bike. So my journey began.
I was going to write about my first experience here on endless sphere (Mark I), but I wasn't what you would call "impressed" by my first bikes performance or aesthetics. To be honest, it was very much so a first timer build on a low budget. I bought a cheap steel mongoose bike (as I was given advice to buy a cheap steel frame bike) and stuck a 1500W MAC geared hub motor on it. I wanted to go fast so I over-volted it to run at 62 volts and did my best to make it easy and reliable so I could ride it to school, and I succeeded after a fashion, putting over 200 miles on it. Unfortunately though I quickly found that I had made many mistakes not only with material choices, but with the bike, parts and craftsmanship. So in the effort of keeping things brief I'll just say that I wanted to take a crack at Mark II.
I made a list of characteristics for Mark II that were must haves and went from there. I wanted it to be a fun e-bike, but I also wanted it to be a fun bike. If I ever ran out of juice on a ride I wanted it to be more than just a hunk of steel on two wheels. I wanted it to be fast, because that's just who I am.
And I wanted to be able to lock it up at a bike rack at school without worrying about it being tampered with.
I found a listing on craigslist of a 2012 specialized camber for $800 USD and jumped on it. It was already converted to a shimano xt 1x11 group set which was important for my motor choice. I ended up going with a Bafang 8fun 750W mid drive motor. This was important to me since I wanted to get torque and speed in a compact form factor. It ended up being an awesome choice, and wasn't too difficult to mount to the frame with the added perk of having the controller in the motor and "waterproofing". Here are some pictures of me mounting it to the bottom bracket.
I started working on the battery box next. I wanted it to be nested in the triangle of the frame, lockable, and easy to access. Little did I know just how difficult it would be. I jumped on the camber because it has a large triangle for a full suspension bike, but I quickly found that it was going to be difficult to get everything fitted in perfectly. The batteries I choose are 10ah 6s multistar lipos from hobbyking. I run 2 in series for 48v and two of those packs in parallel for a 20ah 48v system. The batteries are awesome and give me a ton of range with good power density for their size, but they are still big (156 x 65 x 53mm) and were difficult to find space for. I ended up making the box with ABS and a heat gun to bend it. It turned out alright in the end. Here are some pictures of the end product and the process of making it.
In the end I am quite happy with the result. Top speed is around 35-40mph on flat ground and 45+ downhill. I can go over 40 miles on a charge with some light pedaling and have no problem making it up the super steep hills here (some over 10% grade). Total cost was just under $2000 dollars and it's a ton of fun to ride to school and the store. I'm always trying to make improvements and don't know that I'll ever be completely finished with it, but I'm happy to tinker so that's alright.
Hope yall enjoy the build!
https://goo.gl/photos/r8rj7kGygKxJJW779
-Yamamonger
I was going to write about my first experience here on endless sphere (Mark I), but I wasn't what you would call "impressed" by my first bikes performance or aesthetics. To be honest, it was very much so a first timer build on a low budget. I bought a cheap steel mongoose bike (as I was given advice to buy a cheap steel frame bike) and stuck a 1500W MAC geared hub motor on it. I wanted to go fast so I over-volted it to run at 62 volts and did my best to make it easy and reliable so I could ride it to school, and I succeeded after a fashion, putting over 200 miles on it. Unfortunately though I quickly found that I had made many mistakes not only with material choices, but with the bike, parts and craftsmanship. So in the effort of keeping things brief I'll just say that I wanted to take a crack at Mark II.
I made a list of characteristics for Mark II that were must haves and went from there. I wanted it to be a fun e-bike, but I also wanted it to be a fun bike. If I ever ran out of juice on a ride I wanted it to be more than just a hunk of steel on two wheels. I wanted it to be fast, because that's just who I am.
And I wanted to be able to lock it up at a bike rack at school without worrying about it being tampered with. I found a listing on craigslist of a 2012 specialized camber for $800 USD and jumped on it. It was already converted to a shimano xt 1x11 group set which was important for my motor choice. I ended up going with a Bafang 8fun 750W mid drive motor. This was important to me since I wanted to get torque and speed in a compact form factor. It ended up being an awesome choice, and wasn't too difficult to mount to the frame with the added perk of having the controller in the motor and "waterproofing". Here are some pictures of me mounting it to the bottom bracket.
I started working on the battery box next. I wanted it to be nested in the triangle of the frame, lockable, and easy to access. Little did I know just how difficult it would be. I jumped on the camber because it has a large triangle for a full suspension bike, but I quickly found that it was going to be difficult to get everything fitted in perfectly. The batteries I choose are 10ah 6s multistar lipos from hobbyking. I run 2 in series for 48v and two of those packs in parallel for a 20ah 48v system. The batteries are awesome and give me a ton of range with good power density for their size, but they are still big (156 x 65 x 53mm) and were difficult to find space for. I ended up making the box with ABS and a heat gun to bend it. It turned out alright in the end. Here are some pictures of the end product and the process of making it.
In the end I am quite happy with the result. Top speed is around 35-40mph on flat ground and 45+ downhill. I can go over 40 miles on a charge with some light pedaling and have no problem making it up the super steep hills here (some over 10% grade). Total cost was just under $2000 dollars and it's a ton of fun to ride to school and the store. I'm always trying to make improvements and don't know that I'll ever be completely finished with it, but I'm happy to tinker so that's alright.
Hope yall enjoy the build!
https://goo.gl/photos/r8rj7kGygKxJJW779
-Yamamonger
