I'm just back from a crazy week in spain, now it's time to get this thing rolling for good
I need to make a battery case and get some air back in the rear shock to be able to ride the bike under motor power. The 206mm BB is way too wide and makes any pedaling ridiculous so I won't even bother to get a working chainline on it for now, I ordered the 153mm offset BB from sbp to get the left side crank to clear the swingarm and solve the issue. Now I just hope I wont face any major failures as I really want to get it rolling and reliable before September.
destroyed bearing...
One of the red belts holding the battery got stuck in the drive sproket and destroyed the bearing :/
I need to replace this bearing and find a good way to secure the batt, but the suspension seems to work quite well and the bike is really silent. Acceleration is a little weak with the stock 12 fet, they usually peak at 1600 or so watts. Top speed and low end torque are good.
Lol at the cigarete when trialin'
The bike weigths exactly 33,3kg, just back from a ride offroad. I'm not really happy by the power rigth now, the bike can't really pop wheeleys exepted with a lot of help in 1st gear. It can still trial quite well up rocks due to the monster torque. There is some stranges noises coming from the drivetrain that I need to identify, it was really silent on the first tests, I hope it's not the motor!
The rear suspention works quite well on jumps and bumps, and there is no Drive Grip at all.
I had another great ride with this bike today, but at abour 20 mins in, the left side sproket started spinning on the jacksft and I had to push the bike home Now I have to take it apart again and find wtf happened.
I had the suspention set a little bit softer, and what a difference! The bike glides over any surface and takes drops like a champ. I just wish the drivetrain was more simple and reliable, there is plenty of failures point all the way to the rear wheel :/
The steering tube was machined for 41mm bearings, but the bearings I had were pressed into cups for another bike and I could not source them again... I ended up cutting apart an old alum frame to make some adapters, 41mm>34mm, 34mm is the standart headset diameter for mtb's.
I rode some more today, all went perfect and the bad noises are now gone. There is still an unpleasnat sound at mid RPM while accelerating, I think it comes from the motor :/ I'm tempted to raise the power up to 2,5kw but I fear the motor will not like that. Rigth now the bike is fast but lack some neck breaking acceleration and hill climbing power. It sures climbs, but slow (20kph :wink: ) Still, it is so small and agile! That makes me more confident in keeping speed in tigth areas where I was usualy slowing down a lot, now I can keep accelerating and change direction in a hearbeat.
On a less positive note, I think the rear swingarm is bent, the rear wheel is not in line (vertically) with the frame and front wheel :/ I don't know if this happend while riding but I dont like that at all. I will probably need to make a new swingarm and jacshaft soon
Yeah, evrything went fine until today The motor spun the dropouts while riding, I hope the wires are not damaged... The plug disconected and the wires warped themselves around the axle. Shit of cake, bad karma for me today :|
I tested the motor and the wires appear undamaged. However the clutch seems to be locked as the motor does not freewheel anymore ! I'm building new stronger dropouts and I'm back on the trails. I have less than 10 days left to get it reliable, I'm moving to Lyon in september for my engeneering school and I won't be able to get all my tools there, plus I won't have a place to work... If I don't succed I will buy a kit (the GNG 450w brushless looks promising!) and a second hand DH bike later. Too much new ground to discover to be left without an e-bike too long :wink: