Operation: Bazooka

[Hyena]

A little progress on the frame today. I bought a flap wheel to sand back a rusty other project I'm working on and decided to try it on the bazooka frame. Even with the finest grit wheel it was a bit too agressive for what I wanted...



So I just spent 2 hrs rubbing back the frame by hand, sanding out all the chips and scratches. This thing has had more hits than Elvis, you really should have taken better care of it full-throttle



I thought I had some high fill primer here but I can't find it so I impatiently painted it as is. I decided on matt black - 'rust guard' epoxy enamel, it seem like the best choice from what was available at bunnings (only thing open on a friday night at 8pm. Did I mention I was impatient? )

I'll give it another coat of paint tomorow and hopefully have enough time to bolt the swing arm and shock back on properly before heading back to work on monday. I actually got it in pieces so i've never had it all together.

 

[Hyena]

The Sintesi Bazooka, now available in matt black 8)
I knew I'd eventually get some use out of the clothes line :lol:

 

[GCinDC]

evil. stealthy. matte black is the color i want for my frame.

nice yard. got a pic of the garage/shop/HQ/seedy underbelly of hyena industries?

 

[Hyena]

evil. stealthy. matte black is the color i want for my frame.

It's only a few hours of your time and $20 worth of spray paint away :wink:

nice yard. got a pic of the garage/shop/HQ/seedy underbelly of hyena industries?

Thanks, it's great for the kids, heaps more room than our old place and there's great man-space for me too.
I just posted some pics in my other thread

 

[Hyena]

After an hour of swearing at the frame at implying it had homosexual tendencies I managed to get it all back together. It turns out I'm not stupid though, I just asked full throttle and he said one of the suspension linkages was missing a bolt when he went to send it off to me so he included a different one, but with everything reassembled it doesn't quite fit and hits the frame when the swingarm moves. Doh! Easily fixed, I'll just cut it down a little but I'll have to pull everything back apart.





Next on my list of fun jobs is trying to fit the headset with no proper tools. I've never had to do one before but I believe they're a bit of a bastard to get in. I'll have a hunt around at the enginering dept at work tomorrow for some threaded rod and see if I can make up tool to do the job. Failing that I have a large 3 jaw puller I might be able to adapt or as a very last resort I can take it to the LBS (gulp!)

As long as there's no sign of a motor or wiring they should be happy to talk to me

 

[gtadmin]

... That said I've just checked all 8 packs and 2 were suspect. 1 had a cell that was .15v lower than the others but it's come good after a balance charge. The second pack hasnt fared too well and has a 1 cell that won't go about 3.9v while all the others are sittinng at 4.2v. I'm discharging all the cells to 3.9v and will charge it again and see how it goes. If it doesnt come good I'll put it in as a warranty claim. This will be my first dealing with HK Australia so it'll be interesting to see how they behave. Their warehouse is supposedly at Taren Point which is only 10 mins down the road from my house so if they'll allow I'll just walk it in there and see if they swap it over. If not it'll only be a local postage issue to return hopefully.

Hi Jay, how did you go with this?

 

[Hyena]

No luck with HK Aus so far, it seems they're still opening "soon". I can't return these packs anyway but I'm trying to get a replacement / refund on another one I received that's was totally DOA.

These packs are OK though, I haven't used them yet but I've charged and partially discharged and they seem to be staying fairly well balanced. After a few weeks of sitting there 1 pack has all cells within 0.01v and the other shows the previously weak cell down by 0.05v. Not the end of the world but I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[Mark_A_W]

Jay, I just tap the headset in using a hammer and a block of wood (you hit the wood!) - with the frame resting very carefully on another block of wood on the vice.

It's it's on the piss, don't force it. That's all you need to know.

 

[gtadmin]

No luck with HK Aus so far, it seems they're still opening "soon". I can't return these packs anyway but I'm trying to get a replacement / refund on another one I received that's was totally DOA ...

Have you seen the "Turnigy LiPo Quality ?" topic? Email I got from HK is here. Will let you know how I get on if you like.

Cheers,
GT

 

[gtadmin]

Jay, I just tap the headset in using a hammer and a block of wood (you hit the wood!) ...

:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Hyena]

Have you seen the "Turnigy LiPo Quality ?" topic? Email I got from HK is here. Will let you know how I get on if you like.

No I haven't seen that thread, I haven't had been online much lately so updated my own logs and checked out a few threads I've subscribed too.
Yeah let me know how you get on. I got an email back from support saying "please send us photos to show the voltage readings for each cell of the defective battery. The front side of the battery, the warranty code, connected cables and tester have to be shown on the same photo. "
Full throttle got similar email, not sure how he got on.

I'm not sure how I'm supposed to show the front of the battery and the warranty code in the same photo considering they're on the opposite side of the battery!! Maybe I'll rig up a few mirrors
In the mean time I've cleaned up my workshop and can't find where I put the bloody thing to take another photo of it :|
I hope my 2 year old hasn't walked off with it

 

[full-throttle]

I've got a similar reply from HK. Still waiting..

The build looks great! Like the paint job - looks anodised in the closeup you've sent me.

On a separate topic: what's with all the rain in OZ? Had one of the wettest rides to work this morning, think I would've been drier if I just jumped into a swimming pool. Amasingly the electrics on the bike still work fine!

 

[Mark_A_W]

We are getting 15 years rain in one week.

I can't believe you rode

 

[Hyena]

The build looks great! Like the paint job - looks anodised in the closeup you've sent me.

Thanks, yeah I'm very happy with how it turned out.
I scratched the inside of the swing arm a trying to force it back together with that oversized bolt in there but I'll give it a light rub back and another spray when it's apart. The paint did seem to scratch easily which makes me wonder how it'll hold up bashing around out in the bush although when I scratched it it was only 12 hrs since the 2nd coat and it said on the can to allow 16 hrs before recoating so it probably just wasn't totally hard.

On a separate topic: what's with all the rain in OZ? Had one of the wettest rides to work this morning, think I would've been drier if I just jumped into a swimming pool

Could me worse mate, you could be 2 states north!
Poor bastards up there in Qld. While all the deaths are tragic I particularly feel for the people that had parts of their families killed in front of them mid rescue - like the guy who's wife and kid was lifted to saftey but got swept away and drowned before they could lower the harness back down for him.

 

[full-throttle]

Yeah you're right, could be worse. The fires in 2009 over here were really tragic.

I can't believe you rode

It was fun for the fist 15 minutes, miserable the next 15 and 'don't care' the last 15. Rode all week, shoes have not dried since Monday..

PS Could you change the 'location' in your avatar to "rainy Melbourne" ?

 

[Hyena]

I thought the weather in Melbourne was always miserable ?

You need to embrase the wet weather riding. I think I've told this story before but I got caught in a downpour once and after being miserable for a few minutes at the water spraying in my face and being soaked I realised it was actually like jetskiing, then started enjoying it and steering for all the puddles :lol:

Since then I've learned to waterproof my lipo packs if I'm going to go swimming though (the pack exposed to water got soaked and rapidly corroded and died in like a day) :x

 

[full-throttle]

I thought the weather in Melbourne was always miserable ?

Its more like "don't like the weather - wait 1/2 an hour"
Guess what: its full on sunshine with blue sky now and the roads are dry!
Can't complain

 

[gtadmin]

... The paint did seem to scratch easily which makes me wonder how it'll hold up bashing around out in the bush although when I scratched it it was only 12 hrs since the 2nd coat and it said on the can to allow 16 hrs before recoating so it probably just wasn't totally hard.

Probably take more than a week to cure (harden, not dry) if you have to allow 16 hrs between recoat. You could oven cure it if you had one big enough or use a catalyst to set it off (although too late for this)

... Poor bastards up there in Qld ...

 

[neuraxon77]

You need to embrase the wet weather riding. I think I've told this story before but I got caught in a downpour once and after being miserable for a few minutes at the water spraying in my face and being soaked I realised it was actually like jetskiing, then started enjoying it and steering for all the puddles :lol:

Wet weather is awesome!... when your on your way home and you can peel your clothes off easily afterwards.

 

[gtadmin]

...Yeah let me know how you get on. I got an email back from support saying "please send us photos to show the voltage readings for each cell of the defective battery. The front side of the battery, the warranty code, connected cables and tester have to be shown on the same photo. "
Full throttle got similar email, not sure how he got on. :

Received an email from HK customer support informing me that they had made an exception in my case and
1. I did not need to send my defective batteries back to China
2. They credited my account by $55.20 US
8)

IMO, excellent customer service and I hope everyone else's issue is resolved positively.

 

[Hyena]

Nice end result GT, as it should be.
After a few emails and photos my claim has been forward higher and they said they'll be in contact. Surely they'll come to the same verdict with 4/6 cells dead in my latest pack.

You gave me hope with your comments re: the paint hardening but after a week it's a still a bit on the soft side and I was able to scratch it with my finger nail. I was trying hard to scratch it with a hard edge but still I'd hoped for a bit tougher finish than that. Oh well, matt black is easy to touch up if/when it gets scratched.

A little progress on the build: I took Marks advice on headset fitting with a hammer and block of wood and she's now happily in there. I've still got to paint the stem but otherwise the painting is largely done. Once I have the seat and headset spacers that are on the way I can take it for a test spin, although I still need to fab up some steel torque bars for the back end. I imagine the swing arm is as tough as they come for hard downhill riding but my planned 10kw motor is tougher

I've ordered some front and rear mud guards, not sure if I'll fit them yet. They might look a bit funny on this bike, if so I'll put them on my commuter.
Still not sure what crank set I'll put on it yet, it only needs a medium sized single front chain ring but I'll see what I can come up with.

[/QUOTE]

 

[Hyena]

Rims and shock destickered for moar blackness

Anyone know of anything that will remove the stickers on the tyres ?

I might cut down the steerer tube a little, with the high rise bars the front end look very long...

 

[AussieJester]

Anyone know of anything that will remove the stickers on the tyres ?

Brillo pad and metho...

KiM

 

[Hyena]

Have you had good success with metho and steel wool AJ ?
I just tried it on an old tyre and it took some of it off but more just made it faded and made the side wall look like I'd taken the smooth layer off the top and looked like a bald tyre with the canvas about to show through... Maybe I'll leave it on my good ones.

In other news, it looks like I had some success with hobby king. I emailed them pics of my dud pack and they said they'd submit and claim and let me know if there was any progress. They didn't get back to me but when I logged into my HK account this morning I noticed it had $56 bonus credit, so I guess they refunded the money. Win!

The reason I logged in was I got an email notification that 25C 6S Zippys were back in stock, so I promptly gave the money back to them, and then some
I was going to go with 20S on this build but at the expense of a little extra battery bulk I decided to go the whole hog and run 24S

Now that I'm going 24S I'm thinking going with custom frame mods is probably the best way to go in at attempt to keep it looking like a normal bike.

I was playing with a few battery mount options tonight and came up with 2 I like the best - for 24S3P and 24S2P. I don't really think I need 3P nor do I really want to carry around the extra weight but I could pull it off pretty neatly.

This shows how I'd fit the 3P pack - keep in mind that dark area below the white edge at the bottom is shadow from the flash so I'd still have a fair bit of open frame space. It'd only be about 105mm wide which is a fair bit narrower than the stealth bomber and is the same width as the swing arm below.



The other option which clears my legs better (although my old bike had a pack that wide on the top bar and I rarely hit my knees on it) is to have a 12S2P of pack single file and 2 high at the back of the bike and another 12S2P 2 wide 2 deep at the front - like so



And there's plenty of room to pedal and not hit the new wider frame section. Either way leaves enough room for the triple clamp forks to rotate around as much as possible with the existing frame



Decisions decisions...

Either way i'll ride it with the packs strapped on any old how for a few test rides before getting too fancy.

 

[gtadmin]

...In other news, it looks like I had some success with hobby king. I emailed them pics of my dud pack and they said they'd submit and claim and let me know if there was any progress. They didn't get back to me but when I logged into my HK account this morning I noticed it had $56 bonus credit, so I guess they refunded the money. Win! ...

Excellent Jay. Their customer support emailed me as well, but a refund / credit to account is a just outcome.

Cheers,
GT