First ride today!
Just a quick trip around the apartment complex, as I'm still waiting on the big battery, so for now it's just a 36v pile of old SLA tie-wrapped to the rack. The two white ones are 10Ah borrowed from a UPS, the small black one is a 5Ah unit I swiped out of the security system in the apartment. Even with this mediocre power source, the performance is quite impressive. Compared to the old Amped direct-drive motor at 48v, this one accelerates much faster and more smoothly- it's a torque
monster. No idea as to top speed or hill-climbing, that will have to wait for the 52v battery.
The freewheeling geared motor is also great. Apart from being a tad on the heavy side, it pedals just like a regular bicycle. Some tweaking is still required on the rear derailleur- I replaced the SRAM X4 trigger shifter with an X5 twist shifter, because A: I prefer twist shifters, B: it allows me to use my old thumb throttle as opposed to the new twist-throttle that the kit came with, and C: it allows me to "nudge" the derailleur if the chain is having trouble dropping onto the next gear. It's still an 8-speed shifter on a 7-speed gearstack, so I may never get it perfect, but its usable. Worst-case, I have a seven-speed shifter / derailleur combo on the old bike that I can transplant onto this one if need be.
Same basic configuration as the last bike insofar as the controller and wiring mounted to the underside of the rack. I had to buy a different rear rack to clear the disc brake caliper, but it's the same model as the last one (Topeak Explorer), and has the same basic dimensions. I'm also ditching the plastic milk-crate, and going with two smaller foldable wire baskets on the side for this bike. They weigh slightly more than the milk crate, but the weight is much lower- better for handling, and a lot more stable when putting the bike up on the centerstand with a full load of groceries. Only one basket is mounted at the moment to leave me with wiring access.
Unsurprisingly, the Cell_Man kit comes with the same crappy white flat-pin connectors that seem to be the standard in the industry.
Good-bye.
Fortunately, we have the proper tooling for Molex Micro-Fit 3 connectors at work, so I've replaced all the low-current interconnects with those, and used Andersons for the high-current stuff. The Cell_Man controller and motor already had Andersons on the phase wiring, but used the crappy connectors on the battery interconnect. I used the same connections on the front end, on the CA, the throttle, brakes, etc.
It's kind of difficult to get a good photo of a black connector on a black wire against black handlebars.
Seems like there are still one or two bugs in the CA3 beta (the temp reading is kind of squirrely right now) but it's definitely working. As a sidebar: with the rear wheel in the air, you can indeed use the rear brake as a dyno load for testing and calibration.
This, however generates heat.
A lot of heat.
As in
"Hmm, what's that smell? Oh, my rear brake is on fire. I should probably stop now."
And the DocBass torque arm. I only did the wire-side for now, since I can't quite figure out a good way to put one on the chain-side just yet.
Paul has promised that the triangle battery should be shipping "soon."
The wait is killing me.
