RIP e-stinky. This bike is disassembled and a new thread will begin for where a lot of the parts are going onto a Vector frame.
Having built this bike and enjoyed it for a little bit, here are some overall impressions from this build.
My bike was ugly. There was nothing graceful about it's build - this was in part due to the fact that the bike/frame itself started from a frame that was a rental bike. It looked rat, which was kind of cool for a while, but it's not something I was overtly proud of.
Bike was powerful. Controller needed no mods aside from programming and what Lyen did to it for me (R2, precharge resistor).
Comfortable range on this bike was about 15 miles where ~60 amps were pushed while on the road and with traffic. It was able to keep up with most zones of traffic for in town riding, but for zones 55mph+ it would be curbside riding which is not exactly fun stuff here in Maine. Our roads all all fackered up from the generations of wintah. Now that I've moved ~7mi from work with these 55mph zones, I do want to be able to keep up a bit better.
The quality of this build lacked in several areas. I never got regen braking to work (still unsure why) and my rear brake calipers never quite made it to the perfect mounting on the brake. This was due mostly to the brake mounts simply not being able to align correctly with the DOPE system (floating caliper mount) but even when I installed a fixie for the rear dropout it still never quite aligned right. The dropouts were quite thick and I was able to get away with only using a single GRIN torque arm - but the thought of the motor breaking loose from the slots still was heavy on my mind. The position of my batteries was a bit high with the bike bag, but I felt it actually helped keep the front down which was good.
The things I did right with this build were the charging harness I made for it, having CA for the first time, tires and rims were great on pavement and dirt. The suspension on this bike was great as was the drive train. The MXUS 3000w and rim from KInaye was perfect and I'm glad I grabbed the 4t for the extra torque. Barent was so helpful and I'm actually hoping to work with him soon for a bulk charging meanwell setup. The 18fet low RDS worked great at 70a and Lyen was really helpful. The additiv bike bag (sold to ES member already) also was integral in making this build work.
Overall, grabbing the stinky for $450 was a great purchase. I'm going to transfer the hydraulic hayes strokers, the suspension, the drive train, pedals, headset, handlebars right over to the Vector. Total cost for these components new or used still outweigh the cost of the bike in total. If I were to have done this again, I would have bought the Vector first and then stalked craigs for a similar bike and only looked at the front chain ring/pedals/suspension/etc rather than the bike as full package.
moonshine said:
Vector frames are cheaper than raptor frames. Custom frames are not really any option for me. Will look into downhill frames again just to be sure. But retrofitting batteries and making it look nice is a PITA. I'll figure this out.
TRUTH.
Some obligatory pictures. All waiting for their new home on a black vector frame.