Re: HT Norko Aline - version mid drive, adaptto+rv100pro

[sn0wchyld]

Looks like someones been inspired... :wink:
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31850&p=461214#p461214

Looks like he's going to beat me too. 24fet with a HT at 24s that things gonna fly if he can keep it from frying.

also looks like my last question has been largely answered here...
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=31777&start=15

So the switch to 24s is on. Just ordered my last batch of 4s packs from HK, to total 24s 15ah. Took the bike into the LBS today for a bit of a once over and to get the rear wheel re-trued. I cant say Im 100% confident in these washers yet, some of them look like they've 'seated in' a bit too far, as a result i could flex the spokes quite easity... witch is a bit worrying. Might have to get some made to order that are a bit thicker and wider (2.5mm inner >4mm outer dia. dont exist). The other alternative is to drill out the rim and get some 13g's. Ill give it a bit more time and see what happens.

Im seriously thinking about making a 24s backpack too, I miss how nimble this bike used to be. Im getting used to it but still, to have this power and still be nimble would be tits. Ill have to wait untill the last few batterys get here and pack em all in a backpack to see how the weight will feel. Might have to build a smaller 5ah pack for short little sprints to the local tracks!

Also ordered a 240w and a 900w bulk charger from BMSbattery, one for on the go and one for at home. Cause reconfiguring the pack each time might be good for keeping cells in balance but damnit its getting to be a pita. Be nice to just do it a couple times each month and otherwise just have a more 'plug and play' option in-between.

otherwise all has been going well with the bike. I can get too and from uni with ease (about 24-30km round trip) and still have about 30% left in the tank. going to 24s 15ah should mean I can have some more fun on the commute too. Next job... current based throttle, and a resistor bank with a switch for easy amp limiting.

 

[MadRhino]

...24fet with a HT at 24s that things gonna fly if he can keep it from frying.

The 24 fet controller is too much for the H series Clyte, this motor can't take the current that this controller can deliver and it will have to be set low anyway. Even the 18 fet is alot, and can fry the H clyte in no time if used at its full potential. I have 2 H Clytes here, that I ride now with upgraded 12 fet controllers, for they can supply enough current to obtain the max usefull performance from those smaller motors. The advantage of the H clyte is to be able to build light weight with fair power, they will never be able to stand the power that we feed to the big X5, and trying to do so can only result in unreliability.

I find that 24s is perfect for me, and all my bikes are running with the same 24s battery configuration. The big controllers are with the X5 series motors, and I am hoping for an X 5404 this winter to be upgraded by Farfle, then powered with a big kelly controller. Nevertheless, I am very happy with my lighter bikes that have the H motors for they have better handling, and in the mountain trails handling often wins over power.

 

[fractal]

...24fet with a HT at 24s that things gonna fly if he can keep it from frying.

The 24 fet controller is too much for the H series Clyte, this motor can't take the current that this controller can deliver and it will have to be set low anyway. Even the 18 fet is alot, and can fry the H clyte in no time if used at its full potential. I have 2 H Clytes here, that I ride now with upgraded 12 fet controllers, for they can supply enough current to obtain the max usefull performance from those smaller motors. The advantage of the H clyte is to be able to build light weight with fair power, they will never be able to stand the power that we feed to the big X5, and trying to do so can only result in unreliability.

I find that 24s is perfect for me, and all my bikes are running with the same 24s battery configuration. The big controllers are with the X5 series motors, and I am hoping for an X 5404 this winter to be upgraded by Farfle, then powered with a big kelly controller. Nevertheless, I am very happy with my lighter bikes that have the H motors for they have better handling, and in the mountain trails handling often wins over power.

24fet is pretty powerful, I will treat it with respect and monitor the temp closely. I could have gone with something smaller, but hey...what the heck!!! I like overdoing things and besides its all fun and its really cool

 

[MadRhino]

... I like overdoing things and besides its all fun and its really cool

Well, if the motor can't take more power that what can be fed with an upgraded 12 fet, that is about 10kw, it is not overbuilding to feed it with a downgraded 24 fet. It is only adding weight and size, without any performance benefit.

Ideas to overbuild your A-Line:

-Big air can extra lightweight shock like the Fox DHX 5 Air or Marzocchi Rocco Air.
-Magura Gustav brake calipers.
-Titanium nuts and bolts everywhere possible.
-Cane Creek variable headset.
-Race Face stem and handlebar.
-Shlumpf HS drive planetary crank.

I could suggest a few more, but just complete with the best fork that you can find and afford, then you will feel the real advantage of overbuilding. 8)

 

[sn0wchyld]

....
-Big air can extra lightweight shock like the Fox DHX 5 Air or Marzocchi Rocco Air.
-Magura Gustav brake calipers.
-Titanium nuts and bolts everywhere possible.
-Cane Creek variable headset.
-Race Face stem and handlebar.
-Shlumpf HS drive planetary crank.

I could suggest a few more, but just complete with the best fork that you can find and afford, then you will feel the real advantage of overbuilding. 8)

after only 20km i knew I wanted to upgrade the rear shock. but dammit there expensive!! particually those DHX5's!!

any suggestions to get the current shock working a bit better with the weight? at this early stage I know very little about tuning shocks on DH rigs.

 

[MadRhino]

very good price for a DHX 5 air:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fox-Shock-D...Cycling_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27be4d7d8f

Manual for your Fox DHX 4 coil:

http://www.foxracingshox.com/fox_tech_center/owners_manuals/010/eng/Content/Rear_Shocks/DHX_40.html

 

[sn0wchyld]

very good price for a DHX 5 air:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fox-Shock-D...Cycling_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27be4d7d8f

Manual for your Fox DHX 4 coil:

http://www.foxracingshox.com/fox_tech_center/owners_manuals/010/eng/Content/Rear_Shocks/DHX_40.html

damit, "ONLY shipping to USA lower 48 states. Thank you."

thanks for the manual, any tips on what to adjust to compensate for the extra weight? when I say I have no real experience I mean I have no idea if I should have less rebound or more pressure. Ill just have to start playing around and experimenting till it feels right. Be good if you can give us a good starting point though, sounds like you know your bikes...

 

[MadRhino]

Well, your DHX 4 is simply not enough to damp the weight of the hub, so you just set it to max damping and lowest preload that won't bottom. Unscrew the propedal first, fill the can to near max air pressure (190 psi), unscrew the rebound knob, set the spring preload to sag one third of the travel under your weight. That is about the setting that you'll need, fine tuning start from there and has to be done progressively with riding test on your usual terrain.

What you have to understand is that you want to use the maximum travel that you can without risk of bottoming the suspension. The weight of the hub complicates the setting, in the sense that an insufficient shock will work better with a heavy rider because it helps the damping, so setting your seat to the rear helps alot.

 

[sn0wchyld]

.....
What you have to understand is that you want to use the maximum travel that you can without risk of bottoming the suspension. The weight of the hub complicates the setting, in the sense that an insufficient shock will work better with a heavy rider because it helps the damping, so setting your seat to the rear helps alot.

Cheers MR. will start playing with the tuning next weekend.

In other news, I'll soon be the proud owner of a gopro!! Bought a heap of mounts for it so hopefully be able to get some neat angles. Really keen to film my commute, tonight was a sick ride. flat out, both me pedalling and WOT the whole way. Well, apart from corners and having to stop half a dozen times to inflate a slow leaking tire. Ill have to take the GPS next time too, so I can get a average speed and accurate distance.

Riding at ~30-50 along the narrow paths allongside the traintracks at night, with the LEDs on full, corrigated Iron fence on one side, wire and concrete pilon fence to the other. Trains roaring by, Metallica on the ipod. Bloody sick fun. Scary, but then that's what I made it for.

 

[sn0wchyld]

Ive had a few pms from people asking what my charging setup/equipment/batteries are, so rather than keep on typing it out each time I thought i'd chuck it up 'ere.

I want to firstly state openly though that I am still quite new to lipo and the rest of it, so there's a good chance that there's a better way of doing this, and a small chance that I may even be doing something wrong (though I've had no fireworks yet!). Anyway, here we go...

The current batteries...
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewitem.asp?idproduct=19499
So far so good, about 12 cycles down and they seem to be gaining a little capacity each time. As of writing, about 8 ah from 4.15 to ~3.75 (im running them 20s 2p). I have LVC set at 3.6, witch is about .1V above where the cells start to become unbalanced during discharge. Ive yet to drain them below about 3.7 resting so far, and they seem to stay very well balanced ruining them this way (less than .01V variance between each 5s2p pack when I come to recharge). I havent looked closely, but they seem to only drop about 2-3V or so under a 5C load, and that's when running 20s (so an average of .125V per cell). It could be more or less, but when running 50A through a HT I dont normally take the time to look at my CA . I did however recieve 1 dud pack out of an order of 9, so as always with HK buy 5-10% extra to save on waiting for a replacement to be sent out. Hk were pretty good with returning it though (to the AU wharehouse, then refunded the $$)



The Charger
http://www.fmadirect.com/new_applications/powerlab8.html
Expensive? yes. Powerfull? Definatly. Worth it? I think so.
This is the only charger ive owned, but from what ive read it seems to do the job as good if not much better than anything else. The PC connection is great, lets you generate graphs of cell V, individual cell IR, pack V, pack capacity, how much power your drawing from your supply and supply voltage, the list goes on. Though I havent had to do much balancing yet, it seems to be the bees knees when it comes to this too. Its able to balance during charging (apparently not all lipo chargers can) and can pull up to 1A from an individual cell or cells to allow others to 'catch up' and balance out. Has a 100W internal/1.3kw external discharge mode too!
A long story short a great charger, able to charge up all 8 5s packs at once, in about an hour (set to auto 1c charge, witch isnt the fastest but prob the safest+gentle on cells).




The power supply...
to power this monster I have 2 ex-server power supplies, that can supply 55A at 12V. They're connected in series (with some modification) for a 24V 55A power supply. Cost me $35 delivered, and about 45min worth of modding to get them to run safely in series. Ill may do my own writeup at some point, but for now this https://sites.google.com/site/tjinguytech/my-projects/diy-24v-47a
Is where I got all the info I needed to get these guys running. Many thanks to T Jin (I think that's his name).



The wiring...
basically, I have each of the sub 5s 2p packs permanently hooked up in parallel, both on the discharge leads and the balance leads. The main leads are hooked up in series and then to my controller for discharge, and for charging I need to reconfig the pack from 20s 2p to 5s 8p. The main leads (4 M/F combo's total) are disconnected form series, and reconned in parallel with some 4-1 parallel leads. the balance leads I have running to a 25pin DVI connector. By plugging in another single DVI connector I can connect each of the 5s balance leads from each pack into a single 5s pack, rather than having to plug in each one individually to some 4-1 parallel leads. All in all takes me about 3-5 min to reonfig for parallel charging (including removing the bats from the bike). Works like a charm.




You could save a few bob and buy a few 6s chargers off HK, and get a similar power output than the CP8, but to be honest the cost difference didnt seem that much given the gap in quality (in my eyes at least).



This should give you some idea what I mean... just make sure that your discharge leads ARE NOT plugged into series when you connect this, unless you like fireworks on your bike.

BMS?
I didnt bother with any sort of BMS or cell based LVC due to the number of people stating that if the inside these units happens to go south then itll likely take the whole pack with it, sometimes with some explosive results that, coupled with reports that those without bms/lvc boards have few to no issues so long as they're smart about it, and the decision was easy.



Future mods...
I've bought one of these http://www.bmsbattery.com/alloy-she...ifepo4li-ionlead-acid-battery-ev-charger.html for bulk charging, and will probably only balance once or twice a month depending on how well cells stay in balance. Im also going to make a cell level allarm plug using 4 of these http://www.dealextreme.com/p/1s-6s-lipo-battery-voltage-checker-tester-with-dual-speaker-low-voltage-buzzer-alarm-72381 so I know if any 1 cell dies on me, or if the pack gets way out of balance. I may end up switching to 24s too, for a bit more speeeeeed . alternatively I have enough to make a 20s 20ah case, for all those times I want to ride for 6+ hours straight .




Damn, didnt mean to make that so long winded. Ah well, writing this is a great way of procrastinating when I have uni work to do. .

 

[sn0wchyld]

Between hours spent on uni work ive been sneaking in an hours ride or two most days this past week. Today however was a tad warmer than it has been the last week. I was riding at about 25deg and a hot sun as opposed to overcast, windy and about 15deg. The temp probes in my bats read a peak of about 28deg, when they normally run at closer to 20. And what a difference it made!!!

I thought that the CA must need recalibrating or something, because it was showing me a pack V of 76, with 6.5ah having been used, normally by this time ive only used about 5.5 ah or less! I knew that lipo liked being used in warmer temps but I didnt know it was this sensitive! makes me wonder if something like this...
- i'd found a battery pack warmer on hk, but cant find it now...
is worth it for the colder winter days. better yet, a heat exchange that takes heat form the motor and puts it on the batts! hehe. Might be a tad bit of overkill i think... :?

Bikes been going great. Got the rear tube upgraded to a heavy duty DH piece, hopefully that means less punctures in the future. Getting the tire off and on again was a pain in the ass too, Im thinking I might have to switch to a traditional slot dropout with a pinch bolt. Should be just as strong if I make it out of SS or similar too.

top speed so far has been 64km'h, confirmed via a gps. it was on about a -3% grade or so though. Fastest on flat has been about 55. Makes me reconsider the switch to 24s, as I really dont need more speed for what I use it for. Still, Ive gone and bought the batts now so may as well give it a go. It'll make reconfiguring the pack for balance charging much easyer too, given that ill be using 4s packs and I have an 8s charger. Ill make each 4s pack into 'effectively' a 8s 3p sub pack, before hooking these subs up to be a single 24s 3p pack for discharge. Im hoping the extra voltage will give a bit more mid rpm push too, witch couldn't hurt.

Range has been great for a smallish 700wh pack. 24km friday, 26km today, both on about 6.5-7ah each time. Works out to an average of around 17wh/km, and given how ive been raging around the local hills to find little dirt trails Im pretty damn happy with that. I do however still pedal like a maniac, I feel guilty letting the motor do all the work, particularly up hills. makes you feel like superman too to be going up a 6 or 7% grade at 35km'h. and Ive started trying to hold wheelys and being a bit more agressive on the trails since upping the support inside the battery cases, to stop em moving as much. The throttle in those conditions takes some getting used too, best ive managed so far is a pretty abismal 20m or so. Keep giving it to much and falling off the back. Moving the battery case down lower should help with the balance.

Speaking of witch, with the mid semester break coming up I will hopefully have the time to do a bit more work making a neater batt case and clean up the hornets nest of wires I have at the moment.

Damit, how the hell do i keep making these long ass posts? :x

 

[sn0wchyld]

DAM

too pissed off to right much now, but suffice to say that 3ft drop = broken spokes. Sheared off at the nipple. Rode for another 5km or so, wondering why the bike felt unsteady. durrr.



I think I know when it happened. landed awkward off a small jump, smacked my knee into the batt case, which I thought was the reason for the bang. Guess it was a couple of spokes too. Makes me reconsider the purchase of a 5404 too. That'll have to be a pure on road commuter I think... RC drive 4 offraod asap. witch is ages, since the funds are near gone .

Back to the shop, hopefully the rims not too frocked from the riding i did after. Since it was just riding round streets ill hopefully be ok. guess its a good time to drill the side covers etc while im at it...

 

[MadRhino]

Forget about jumping with a hub motor, one or 2 feet is max your wheel can take landing flat. If you're going fast in a slope, it can take a 3ft drop as long as your suspension is well set and you're standing. That is what my X5 builds take usually, with wheel trueing average weekly over a year. Sun BFM rim, 12ga spokes, 2.7 Kenda Nevegals.

 

[sn0wchyld]

Forget about jumping with a hub motor, one or 2 feet is max your wheel can take landing flat. If you're going fast in a slope, it can take a 3ft drop as long as your suspension is well set and you're standing. That is what my X5 builds take usually, with wheel trueing average weekly over a year. Sun BFM rim, 12ga spokes, 2.7 Kenda Nevegals.

yea im seeing that now... im using 14g SS spokes, DT swiss fr600 rim, the rim held up ok, doesn't appear to be dented fortunately, just way out of true.

It was a downhill landing, about a 10% grade actually, so I thought it'd be fine. Was a shit landing though. And onto a road, so not soft either.

Ah well. Shit happens as they say, least I can start to see the limits of this build. I was hoping to put off the RC build for a while, but this makes me think ill be brining it forward as the funds allow, and as HK or wherever I source my motor from gets stock. I'd probably bail on the 5404 purchase too had I not already committed (and paid!!). Still, with an 18fet and 94V 15ah of lipo planned it should make for a hell of a commuter!!!

Ive got what should be the ideal bike for RC conversion now, an old Avanti D8, made of good ol cromolly. The plan is to cut out the lower 'pole' of the frame and replace it with a large square steel pole, to house a motor, reduction drive and batteries. Should end up looking like a chunky DH frame. There's a member who's done similar in ally, though I cant remember his nick right now. Bike looked great though. Hopefully I can equal, or even surpass it!

I got some footage with the new GoPro, which arrived on Saturday. If I can figure a good easy way of editing it ill get it uploaded. Nothing exciting, just a run through some local small trails. And the event that lead to the broken spokes. Wish it had at-least been on a more spectacular jump.

 

[GCinDC]

Forget about jumping with a hub motor, one or 2 feet is max your wheel can take landing flat.

There's some hub motor/suspension/spoke/rim combos out there that handle big drops... key is finding the right combo. 14ga prolly not gonna cut it. what does the stealth use?

hey madrhino, what's the bike in your pic there? any other photos of that? RC build under there? what wheels? photos w/ that custom bike stand ok too.. :lol:

I got some footage with the new GoPro, which arrived on Saturday. If I can figure a good easy way of editing it ill get it uploaded.

Looking forward to it! If you've got a decent internet connection, just upload it to youtube and edit it there. easy to make simple cuts..

 

[sn0wchyld]

Forget about jumping with a hub motor, one or 2 feet is max your wheel can take landing flat.

There's some hub motor/suspension/spoke/rim combos out there that handle big drops... key is finding the right combo. 14ga prolly not gonna cut it. what does the stealth use?

hey madrhino, what's the bike in your pic there? any other photos of that? RC build under there? what wheels? photos w/ that custom bike stand ok too.. :lol:

I got some footage with the new GoPro, which arrived on Saturday. If I can figure a good easy way of editing it ill get it uploaded.

Looking forward to it! If you've got a decent internet connection, just upload it to youtube and edit it there. easy to make simple cuts..

Yea im gonna get the lbs to just use 14g again, but when the funds allow Ill order some 13 or 12g from holmes. I think though I may need to drill out the eyelets a bit, the nipples arn't quite able to 'allign' properly, so they're at a slight angle from the rim... increasing tension on one side of the spoke. Im thinking the rim wasn't the best choice, Its strong but the eyelets are kinda small. Still, hopefully fixable. at least the washers seem to be holding up ok.

yea id classify the ol' aussie internet as somewhat less than 'decent', particually by USA/CAD standards. I think ive got about 900kb's upload, so a 1gb 'tube vid will take an age. Anyone know of a good (hopefully free) video editing software? I have access to adobe stuff, but its a steep learning curve, and I have windows movie maker that I havent really tried yet. Problem is I need to convert the .mov to .avi for WMM to read it. Takes ages too.

 

[GCinDC]

what windows version do you have? wmm on win7 ain't that bad. get used to long conversion times...

 

[MadRhino]

...
hey madrhino, what's the bike in your pic there? any other photos of that? RC build under there? what wheels? photos w/ that custom bike stand ok too.. :lol:

It's a Stinky Deluxe, leopard custom paint, old pic. Not motorized.

My Ebikes are Norco A-Line, Specialized Demo 8, and Santacruz Heckler. All builds with Clytes hub motors. I will build next on a GasGas trial frame, Agni 95BR setup. Other than that I prefer the silence and simplicity of hub motors, and I plan to work on a liquid cooling system this winter, for one of my Clytes.

 

[sn0wchyld]

The other day I found a guy selling his old avanti d8. beaut bike, made of cromolly and in good nick, very good nick considering its age. Given the events of yesterday the plan is to change this into a RC drive monster, 1kwh or more of lipo, and a yet-to-be decided motor and drive system. I may buy a purpose kit, even a crystalyte kit to begin with, and then make up my own one. The idea is to remove the lower beam of the frame, and replace it with a large 'C' shape box beam. Hopefully, it will still be strong enough compared to a box frame, but allow simple access to the batts and the drive system. Its early days yet, but I'm aiming for ~5kw continuous and peaks of at-least 7. Making a reduction and drive system to handle this power is going to be the hardest part. Ill prob only run ~2kw 90% of the time anyway. Also aiming for quite operation, at least at lower power levels. A brushed motor may even be the go , given their simplicity and controller reliability.

Heres some pics of the new toy...

And what i plan to do with it...

The rim went to the shop today for replacement. Also noticed a nice big dent that wasnt there before. Guess I did more damage than I initially thought. And having to go easy on a bike just makes the RC drive option make even more sense, and leave this hub motor stuff for commuting and light trail rides.

Managed to get windows movie maker working, but I have to convert the video before it'll recognise it, so hopefully ill be able to get a short vid sorted over the next couple days.

 

[deepfraught]

Quicktime Pro is a good basic tool for conversion and cutting up .MOV and uploading to youtube. If you want to add anything more than that like titles and transitions or corrections, use it to convert to format of choice and go from there with your step-up editor.
Free too if you talk like a pirate Yarrr! Otherwise Apple are kind enough to slug you $30 for it =P

Was it the front or rear rim that copped the damage in the drop?
Any current pics of your road going setup prior to the wheel breakage?

 

[sn0wchyld]

Quicktime Pro is a good basic tool for conversion and cutting up .MOV and uploading to youtube. If you want to add anything more than that like titles and transitions or corrections, use it to convert to format of choice and go from there with your step-up editor.
Free too if you talk like a pirate Yarrr! Otherwise Apple are kind enough to slug you $30 for it =P

Was it the front or rear rim that copped the damage in the drop?
Any current pics of your road going setup prior to the wheel breakage?

Now that ive got the windows editor working in conjunction with a video converter I should be ok now thanks any way mate...

It was just the rear, lost a couple of spokes and a minor flat spot.

this
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=29373&start=30#p455676
is basically how it looks now... Ive added a cover for the wires and done a bit of general tidying up, but since Ill be building a new case soon Im not going to do too much more to the old one.





What do people use to protect their connections (namely those from the controller) from the eliments, and keep them all neat and tidy (ie hidden) For now I've just been using good ol' ducktape/electrical tape, but it then becomes a major chore to disconnect anything... Ive had a hunt around for some waterproof connectors but they dont exist locally, and I'd like to get this done in the next week rather than wait a month or more for shipping from china!

 

[sn0wchyld]

Well, its been a while since I added anything to this thread... but thats not to say I havent been busy.

Ive finally finished the new battery cases. Well, nearly. They're good enough to last me till the uni holidays in a couple of weeks time, when Ill polish 'em up and make 'em look all nice and pretty.

The upgrade to 24s is also complete (main reason for the new cases)... and it makes for a MUCH bigger egrin! this is the kind of performance I was hoping for in the first place. I havent done any speed tests yet, but the bike now pulls hard past 45+, where before it was getting a bit weak at 40.

The positioning of the batteries is much lower now too, and the whole case is thinner, making for a much nicer ride. The new seat makes it far more comfortable too (new meaning ripped off my 12year old bike!)

While I had the controller open to upgrade the Vsense I also upgraded the regen - new regen is about 100V, and its nice to have it from the time I leave my house rather than by the time ive gone to uni and half way back.

Ill have to keep a eye on the motor and controller, the controller seems to warm up allot quicker now and so I've removed its little case to allow better airflow. The motor doesnt seem to get notably more warm on the short couple of rides ive done so far, but a longer ride later this week might show some more heat. Neither has gotten anywhere near what I'd call 'hot' or even 'too warm' yet, I'd guess max of about 30-40deg or so (~18deg ambient).

So... some pics of how she looks now...

You can see the gap near the handlebars on the second pic that still needs to be filled in - after adding the padding between the case and the bike it ended up being a bit wider than initially mesured so I had to cut the lid in half and add a bit more width.

Otherwise just needs another coat of paint and a few extra bits to blend it into the frame and its done. Still need to tidy up the wires on the bike a bit, but I think I'll leave that till the holidays.

 

[deepfraught]

What do people use to protect their connections (namely those from the controller) from the eliments, and keep them all neat and tidy (ie hidden) For now I've just been using good ol' ducktape/electrical tape, but it then becomes a major chore to disconnect anything... Ive had a hunt around for some waterproof connectors but they dont exist locally, and I'd like to get this done in the next week rather than wait a month or more for shipping from china!

Some ideas... for connectors locally, try a motorcycle wrecker and see if they've got any old harnesses or bikes with damaged ones that you can poach relevant sized silicon/rubber sheathes used on those connectors. Look to the Japanese manufactured wrecks and not the Europeans for waterproofing electrics =D
Also check out marine supplies if you have any locally.
Once you have your physical protections, You can use Lanolin sprays (e.g. Inox, Lanox here) as a di-electric grease on the contacts, and plenty of other di-electric grease options to insulate the non-contacted points from corrosion and conducting.

 

[full-throttle]

Heres some pics of the new toy...

Love it!!

You even got the red one

Just remember to measure twice, cut once

 

[heathyoung]

The D8 is what full-throttle used for one of his builds IIRC.

Nice frame, and weldable. Bit of a bugger about the spokes though