Well except for a bit of tweaking the bike is finally complete.
Some major changes to the concept halfway through but the whole purpose of the build stayed intact.
Here is an extract from my original post dating back to late January when the build began.
Recent experience's with the some nice quality commercial e-bikes got me fired up to look at building a low powered but high speed commuter / flatbar road bike that would be hard pressed to even be recognized as an e-bike by the general public using the local bike paths.
As a bit of back ground, after having a quick test of an e-motion Jumper just around a car park, it felt so impressive that I seriously considered purchasing one. So the next move was to go visit the suppliers and take the bike for a proper test ride. First impressions were very good with some nice assist. However, the bike was limited to 25kph assisted as per Aust / Euro regs. So to ride the bike at a decent speed, you needed to work twice as hard because effectively the motor assist was doing nothing for you and you were now trying to push a 20kg bike at a decent speed.
In addition to e-biking, I have to admit I am a closet Lycra and avern
age about 100km a week on my carbon road bike. Every time I get on this bike I am always blown away by the efficiency of these modern high performance road bikes. I have no doubt I could average a better speed on my road bike then I could on Aust. reg compliant e-bike.
Well after two months. the project finally draws to an end with most of the boxes ticked off.
So first a few pictures of the end result.
View attachment 10
Now to a few more details.
Firstly the bike can run with 10S to 18S. Surprisingly, (well to me anyway
) 12S is actually a perfectly adequate for the bike with a speed of 35kph which matches the cadences in top gear quite well. The battery bag fitted will hold up to 4 x 5S 5ah (10S 2P) Lipos so around 250Whrs max. I need to do some more riding to work out the best battery combo but I think 12S 5ah is going to be good fit and should be good for around 30kms on this bike.
Dare I say it but 18S actually feels too quick for this bike. The frame is so ridged and with 100psi in the Gaterskins, you feel every pebble. Fine for road riding, but too quick for bike paths. Really makes me appreciate my Fighter's plush suspension.
The carbon fibre cable covers have worked out well and hide the battery and Cycle Analyst cables really well.
Now to the controls.
Firstly the CA3 has been perfect for this build and hats off to Justin for producing such a fine product. Word of warning though, its not not for the plug and play ebiker. Special mention and thanks to Teklektik as his help has been invaluable in getting the CA3 setup for this bike.
For those not familiar wit h the CA3, basically it act as as a true extension to the controller taking care of all throttle control together with speed based PAS, torque based PAS, switchable power and speed levels, cruise control, ebrake, and many other features. Also because the CA3 has complete control over the throttle input to the controller, all limiting is completely smooth and tunable.
This bike does not have a traditional throttle but instead uses a combo of Speed PAS, fully adjustable Watt limit, and push button throttle.
I wanted to integrate the controls into the bike in such a way that it didn't cutter up the handle bars but at the same time needed to be easy to operate with my hands still firmly on the grips.
The knob on the left gives you zero to 750W assist either from the PAS or from the button throttle on the right. The button throttle has a nice tunable ramp and is great for getting off the mark when you have come to a stop in a high gear and need to get moving again but cadence is too slow to fire up the PAS. So far, this control combo is really working well for this bike.
However, as much as I would like to say its the ulimate commuter, it does have a few undesirable features.
Firstly its a real bone shaker, the frame is so ridgid and the super slick Gaterskins have no give what so ever.
The bike is seriously over braked. Really did get a bit carried away on the brake spec with this bike
Need to be super gentle or the bike will throw me over the top in a flash. Kind of glad I have a bit of weight in the back with the hub and batteries.
Lastly, the motor has a quite a growl to it which seems to resonate through the carbon frame. I need to pull the motor down and make sure there isn't a problem with the motor but if Ok, need to find a way to dampen out the resonance.
All in all I am quite pleased with the end result with most of the original goals obtained. As with most builds, it came out a little heavier than first estimated but 12kg to 13kg depending on battery configuration is still a good result.
I will ride the bike for a while in its current config but dont be suprised if you see it converted to a hardtail and some nice soft tires :lol:
