Project build thread. Diamond back overdrive EV

[rborger73]

Good looking bike. Looking forward to pics of the finished version.

Saw earlier in the thread you talked about weight in the 65-70 lbs category. Have you done a final weight now that you have everything final/close to final? 70 lbs or less with all that battery power and gadgetry is impressive!

With my insulated lunchbox with wrenches, bike chain, meters, etc., it is in the 85lb to 90lb range. Was using a bathroom scale so not super accurate but fairly close I'm sure. I weigh about 155lbs so rolling weight around 240 to 245lbs.

First long night ride last night. Rear tail light and ridiculously amazing headlight made it an awesome ride. About 9 miles and didn't leave to come home till 10pm. Was still about 68 or 70 that late.

 

[the_dude]

Even at 85-90 lbs that still isn't bad.

I'm sure it helps being a lighter weight rider. I'm 210-215 with clothes, phone, wallet before I even get on the bike!

 

[newman64]

Great thread , been following it the whole time.
I was wondering if you could tell us more about your lighting setup, where you got it, how much and how it's configured
thanks and great work

 

[rborger73]

Great thread , been following it the whole time.
I was wondering if you could tell us more about your lighting setup, where you got it, how much and how it's configured
thanks and great work

For the headlight I initially planned to use 2 super bright handheld flashlights built into the front of the clamshell. More trouble than it was worth. I bought this front headlight, but in black. Can't seem to find the link for a black one anymore.

http://www.amazon.com/SUPERNIGHT-TM-Headlight-Aluminum-Rechargeable/dp/B00GGEAVCG/ref=sr_1_29?ie=UTF8&qid=1398195336&sr=8-29

Tail light and turnsignals (turnsignals aren't finished yet) I ordered 20 red leds for tail light and 20 amber for turnsignals. Ordered this light switch turn signal combo with horn button. Converted horn button to cruise control button. I'm not using the low beam switch. It is the "off" position for the tail light. Headlight has its own momentary switch on it. I plan to relocate it. Button takes 4 presses to cycle fully through. Off, low power, medium power, high power. Ideally I'd like to try and find out if there is any way to modify that with an external switch to bypass the "off" part. But even just relocating the switch with the off would be ok. I'd like a way to go from high power, to low power and back. Anyways here is the turnsignal unit. It is made of metal and very solid. Think made more for scooters and dirt bikes converted to street. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CE0SD0S/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[rborger73]

For those interested in how I'm charging as far as monitoring and ability to turn on and off remotely. The range I'm using it at is probably the max as you'll see I have to hit the button twice at one point, but there was some info on extending the range by adding an antenna to the receiver. I just have one 4s pack attached so I have an idea of where things are at. If I'm charging all the way to my top voltage I'll be next to it checking 4 to 6 packs. I normally check the balance on everything every 4 days.

I think when you are breaking in the batteries even though it is time consuming to use a balance charger for the first 10 to 15 cycles. The balance on this with bulk charging and shallow charging and discharging I'm not at all worried for now about needing a bms. I'm trying to wait for speedict to finish their bms controller solution so everything will be tied together. Reminds me I need to email him still about that for an update.

Anyways here is a short youtube clip.

[youtube]S9fF9eOfAc0[/youtube]

 

[rborger73]

This was part of my 420 celebration out and about.

 

[rborger73]

Got a trailer yesterday. 2 seat kid trailer from Aosom. Very happy with it so far. Going to add at least 10Ah of capacity to the trailer and wire up some lights on it as well. I figure the 10Ah should come close to making up for lost range due to the wind resitance and weight of whatever I pull. Good up to 100lbs so figure good for making dog food runs instead of strapping it on my back and buying a smaller bag. lol Puppies had 2 separate trips around the driveway and seemed to do well. Have to eliminate the area for feet for kids so they both sit right. Probably will either fill it with foam then cover it with vinyl, or if the weight distribution isn't wanky make a box to put the batteries in below the foam. I will probably get at least one of the lipo bags to put the batteries in or some sheetmetal to keep any risk of fire down at least long enough for me to pull the velcro cover off if the worst case scenario happened. Not too worried but I will take safey precautions.

Anyways rather close to being done with everything other than upgrades. I could use some ES HELP on what to do with the rear wheel. Still running it in the 26" rim I ordered it in. The plan all along was to move the motor over to the double walled aluminum stock rim so everything matched. I should of waited when I ordered. Golden motors canada was out of the 700c rim and since I knew I planned on moving the motor over and it isn't a huge difference to have it in a 26" to get it road tested I ordered the 26". I figured the local lbs would be able to do the job np, but I'd have to run the bike to Pittsburg which is 50 miles or so from here. I'll do that if I have to. There is a custom motorcycle shop here in town that is supposed to do wheel building for motor cycles. I'm going to give them a call today or tomorrow. I have no doubt I can build a rim, but on this bike I want to make sure it is done right. The local lbs does true wheels so as long as I could build it and get it close I could take it to them to make sure it was right, but since they don't build wheels I'm not sure I'd trust their judgement. lol

I know the rim I have and I have a magic pie 3 motor. So if I could order the spokes and be absolutely sure they were correct I'd probably give it a shot. I wish at this point I'd of just ordered the 700c and waited a week or two. The Magic pie rim when painted to match is not noticeable enough to bother re-lacing the wheel to the stock. Anyways love to hear some commonsense opinions on the best option to solve the problem. lol

Here are a few shots. Still haven't finished the rear carrier box. That is the pvc box that will slide into the vinyl covered sheet metal box when I'm done with it. Sheet metal box will be lockable. Soon as I figure out if I can find something off the shelf or have to make something I'll have a flip up cover that locks to keep the circuit breaker switch from being turned on or off without a key. Think like a lockable thermostat cover but smaller so it just covers a 2.5" or so wide circuit breaker.

 

[amberwolf]

My crappy Bell trailer that looks identical to that one has hauled over 300lbs on it, of dogfood and/or various other stuff/junk. I replaced the disintegrating original cloth/nylon with a simple plywood flatbed, though.

Now it has a plastic dog kennel bolted to it to haul Tiny (100lb St Bernard) around in--though I actually ended up haivng ot cut the frame in half down the longitudinal center, and splice in (bolted) tubing to widen it a few inches, for one of my experiments with that.

Should be pics in the Flatbed Kennel Trailer Mk2 thread.

 

[rborger73]

My crappy Bell trailer that looks identical to that one has hauled over 300lbs on it, of dogfood and/or various other stuff/junk. I replaced the disintegrating original cloth/nylon with a simple plywood flatbed, though.

Now it has a plastic dog kennel bolted to it to haul Tiny (100lb St Bernard) around in--though I actually ended up haivng ot cut the frame in half down the longitudinal center, and splice in (bolted) tubing to widen it a few inches, for one of my experiments with that.

Should be pics in the Flatbed Kennel Trailer Mk2 thread.

Ya I'm planning on modding it a bit. Where the foot rest is I'm going to add another 10Ah pack to make up for the capacity I lose from pulling the trailer. Then fill the area above the battery box with some foam so the whole floor is level for the dogs. I'm probably going to take them out in an hour or so here to see how they do on the road since its Sunday morning and not a lot of traffic. Lot of back roads here. Just have to go an 1/8th of a mile up our main road. Dogs are part Chihuahua and Part Schnauzer so they can get nervous around loud noises. So they'll have their leashes tied inside for awhile since I don't trust velcro to hold them in if they would get panicked for some reason.

On a side note I apparently got a kick ass tail wind coming down a hill I normally only hit 35 max on. I hit 36 the first run down it then the second I really had my feet cranking around with the 11t rear gear and hit 42mph. Bike handled perfect at that speed. I'm trying to wait on Speedicts upcoming bms / controller setup but I may give in and get a midrange controller that can handle 20s or 24s so I can play around. I'm hoping the speedict solution will be similar to the Mini E and get me that extra speed I want so I can just run 20s and get close or over that 40mph on a flat I want. I do between 28 and 30mph on a flat with it now with no pedaling. Pretty happy with that but just want that 10mph more. lol

 

[Avitt]

What size crank do you have? 42T? You must have been spinning at like 150 rpm!

 

[rborger73]

What size crank do you have? 42T? You must have been spinning at like 150 rpm!

Ya 42t, I am going to increase that as soon as I figure out how much I can get away with. Have some slack in the chain now with adding the 11t freewheel on the rear it will come off if I do some jumps now and then, but not very often and has to be a bouncing in intervals type thing for it to happen. The slack in the chain gets inertia going then comes off just enough to throw it. I still felt resistance at that speed as long as my legs were flailing about lol 29er wheel in the front, 26" in the back. I expect once I decide how I'm going to resolve the motor move and get the 29er in the rear I expect a slight increase in top speed, but we shall see.

 

[rborger73]

As another side note.. Today I'll hit 800 miles on this bike. Only time it let me down so far was my fault. I set the lvc for 48v not thinking I was running 12s. So I had a lot of battery left and was 2 miles from home without a laptop or the cable to change the setting. lol I know I'm likely already over 800 miles on it since my speedo app has crashed without me noticing on several rides since I have the speed display from the speedict I don' t notice the overlay going off at times.

I'll be at 1400 miles for the year from May to May today as well. I hadn't rode more than 10 miles in the 10 years before that so its a rather amazing number to look at. With my old bike I had maybe 5 breakdowns where I was able to pedal home. Had one call to pick me up because I was way further away than I should of been back when I was using sla's. Anyways probably hit a 1000 miles by the end of the month for this year. I feel great and it sure helps shed any depression you could have on a sunny day zipping down the road at 30mph with no exhaust sound and the warm air blowing by.

 

[Avitt]

This calculator will help you to find the right gearing for your desired speeds:

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

 

[rborger73]

This calculator will help you to find the right gearing for your desired speeds:

http://sheldonbrown.com/gears/

It's what I figured I need about a 52t up front. My only worry is how close it will come to the side of the clamshell. I'm going to stop by the Lbs this week and see if they have a 52t in stock so I can hold it up and get an idea if it would work or not. That would get me to 43.6 mph at 120 rpm. The 42 I hit was speeding down a smooth hill and honestly I may not of been pedaling when I hit it and was just tucked. While darting my head looking up and back at the speed. lol It saves the max speed though. And probably could be some variance on gps but speedict also showed 42. I think it was just the perfect storm of cadence, peak motor output, tail wind, and incline. hehe

 

[rborger73]

And my first spill in 1400 miles today. lol Nice face plant doing 20 to 25mph. Just bent a brake lever and took off one of my pedals reflectors. Scuffed up the end of one mirror. Bent my 350.00 Ray ban prescription glasses but I can bend them back. Protected myself as I usually do if I fall only problem was my glasses were on my face. Hand took the pavement, face went into hand, glasses were the meat in the samich. So of course with it being a nice facial cut above the eyebrow and a bit of a bump I was spewing blood all over everything. Car saw me spill and stopped to help, I probably looked quite the fright. lol Shoulder and knee both got some road burn. Tore a hole on my shirt where the shoulder raspberry is. lol and think my foot slid on the pavement long ways so have that sprainy feeling. Wipe some dirt on it and walk it off.. Blood dries scars heal.

Please no helmet or protective gear lectures.

 

[rborger73]

Well in my spill my triangle pack came unhooked and I didn't know it. Wasn't a problem except when I bulk charged I wasn't down very far and brought it up to my normal top off. Headed out for a ride and knew I was running off the 10Ah pack only pretty quick. lol Didn't matter anyways since weather.com was predictably wrong and the rain started 2 hours early so I had to head back anyways. So the main triangle pack after probably 50 to 60 maybe more bulk charges now was all within .04. Same with the rear pack. Doing a full balance charge and checking cell resistance etc and doing inspection today.

I think the key here is add way more capacity than what you normally use. Don't charge all the way to 4.2 on a normal basis. I am charging them all to 4.2 today since I don't want to try and figure out how to set the max per cell cutoff on the smaller charger so just to make sure they are all at the same charged voltage without messing around. Don't run your batteries to the edge on charge or discharge. This pack is nicely broke in and I think I'll have many miles out of it. About 8 or 900 miles on this bike and pack so far. I think again the key is knowing "The meat is in the middle". In other words when charging or discharging you have to keep in mind... "Is the juice worth the squeeze?". You don't get many more miles charging all the way to 4.2 every charge, and it isn't worth it running much below 3.7v per cell. Lowest I've run that I recall is 3.59. 90% of the time when I check a few packs before bulk charging I'm at 3.80 to 3.90. Variance on all 72 cells is ..02 to .04 and they stay that way from making sure I have plenty of capacity when I go out and I charge normaly to 4.16 to 4.17.

Bulk charging is scary until you start to understand your batteries and your equipment and make sure you have proper monitoring while riding even if just for voltage. With my speedict it is all at my fingers expect for individual cell voltage. I'm waiting for the speedict bms /controller setup. I may end up with the mini-e if it is looking too far into the future to wait on the speedict.

 

[newman64]

Hi, you mentioned the mini-e .

Can you tell us more about that? I'm interested in a system that monitors all the cells while riding.

Thanks, Newman

 

[rborger73]

Hi, you mentioned the mini-e .

Can you tell us more about that? I'm interested in a system that monitors all the cells while riding.

Thanks, Newman

There is a thread about it on here. I don't have any experience with it other than reading up on it. http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=58190&start=225&hilit=mini+e

 

[rborger73]

Was trying to hold off on buying a new tire for the 26" rim on the rear till I could get the motor swapped to the 29er wheel. However a German Shepard with a dead invis fence battery in their collar decided he wanted to run on the road with me today and had me in the weeds for 30ft wherein I managed to find 2 pokey objects which gave me a flat in the 3/4 mile to my house, but was still enough it was rolling as I got off.

So patched the two holes last night making this the 3rd patch in a week. So enough of that. Rode the patched tube 9 miles to the lbs and got closest to the front 29er tire I could find and a heavy duty thorn resistant tube. Ended up with the WTB velociraptor (I have a WTB wolverine on the front) which I'm thinking I'm going to lose a mile or two per hour with it. Have to see off a full charge. Was still able to get up to 30 mph, but the tire was at only 35lbs on that run. Have closer to 50lbs in front and back now and will tweak and test things tomorrow and make sure nothing is dragging with the tire change. But if I lose a bit of top end for now at least I shouldn't have to patch tires as often I hope.

Also repainted the motor and resanded and painted the rim and spokes.

 

[rborger73]

Ordered 10Ah of 4s Thursday from HK since it was back in stock. Got it this morning. All cells look dead on so far. Lucky for me I left the bike uncharged and its right at 3.86 on most cells as are the new packs. So just going to wire them in and bulk charge them up and watch them to see if they stay balanced.

Have a total of 40Ah of 12s now on the bike. I did lose a bit of torque with the new heavier tire. Which this extra 10Ah will help overcome at least the range reduction due to it. Hoping Speedict's controller comes out soon. I may end up with the Emini setup still as I want the increase in speed and torque it gives without having to change from 12s. Just about happy with the speed I have now, but closer to 40mph on a flat will be nice too. About 28 to 30mph on a flat. Closer to 30 the long a flat stretch I have.

Have a rough plan to build a all in one rear fender, rear carrier, battery area for the additional 10Ah, and bolts to the seat tube as well as the axle bolts. May try to photoshop up the concept later today. Around 1300 miles on this bike this year. I'm close to the 2k club between last years 500 miles on the fwd bike. Few hundred more and I'll be at 2k. Shouldn't take long with the nicer weather finally.

 

[rborger73]

Little photo update.

 

[meelis11]

MP3 looks much better when all-black. I cannot stand its stock-look
Why you put so much battery on-board (how much range you normally need)?
Should be better to just carry less weight in everyday use and put extra battery to rear rack only when going longer ride?

I have GNG mid drive setup and everyday commute is 30km (19miles).
Converted my bike 11 monts ago, just broke 3000km mark.

I have 10Ah 48V battery and dont need more - I use about 5-6Ah per 30km.
I also pedal all time, cruise speed is normally 33-38kmh.

 

[rborger73]

MP3 looks much better when all-black. I cannot stand its stock-look
Why you put so much battery on-board (how much range you normally need)?
Should be better to just carry less weight in everyday use and put extra battery to rear rack only when going longer ride?

I have GNG mid drive setup and everyday commute is 30km (19miles).
Converted my bike 11 monts ago, just broke 3000km mark.

I have 10Ah 48V battery and dont need more - I use about 5-6Ah per 30km.
I also pedal all time, cruise speed is normally 33-38kmh.

I live out about 6 miles from anything. So just to get to somewhere is 12 miles round trip. I normally do 20 to 45 miles a day when I'm out. Sometimes I charge after 20 miles, but have done 50 miles in one charge and 70.1 miles in a day. There is more to it than just range. The more capacity you have on board the shallower you charge and discharge your batteries overall. I believe I'd kill a 10Ah pack in fairly quick order if I did my normal 20+ miles a day. I'd start running the pack down lower. I also have other components on the rear rack. The bike is still only about 110lbs right now total maybe a little less.

With the tire upgrade it is more balanced out now, so the next mod is going to eliminate the weight on the carrier down closer to the axle and kickstand. I may add 5lb in the mod but it will get my center of gravity lower. With the new tires I can go around in a tight circle and the thing feels great. There will be nothing on the actual rear carrier when I'm done I'm hoping, or possibly still 10Ah of batteries plus the speedict, my dc /dc converter, security system, and the controller I'm replacing the mp3 internal one will, but it's likely that will be under the carrier not on top.

The aim of this is make the bike my main transportation. That means I need range, I need simplicity. I'm very close right now. My range is just about where I'm wanting it to be. Weight I am good with just want it slightly lower.

Capacity is where it is at for keeping batteries nicely balanced with a long life. I'm hoping by the time these batteries need replaced I'll have a lot more capacity for the same amount of space and weight. 100 mile range at over an average of 20mph is my hope at some point.

 

[rborger73]

Having received my new connectors today.. These far surpass the standard banana plugs that come on the batteries stock. Going to suck to re-solder 24 bricks and all new harness but once it is done I have no worries about these coming accidentally unplugged. They pull apart nicely too but takes a bit of strength to unhook them for sure.

Time to slim my wires down to the necessary lengths and wire in a nice new harness this week. So skip the hxt plugs and go right for the xt60s.

Now trying to find a weatherproof cap for the female end so I can mount one as a charge port.

 

[rborger73]

Finally going to be rainy and icky enough the next few days I'm about to start replacing all the ends and building the new harness today. Been using them on the charging port for days now and they work awesome. 24 bricks to replace the ends on. Gonna take a minute. lol