Reid's Stealth Cruiser: Float your eBOAT? Ideas, anyone? p22

[Reid Welch]

It is not the =doing= that is hard; it's the FIGURING OUT for one's first time, WHAT to do.


Roughing in and trial battery placement. It is a tall battery: 36V, 20 Ah. of PING LiFePo4
Required: easy leg-swing-over height. Therefore, the battery can be no higher than this.

Captions will be added shortly and this text somewhat altered. I am working on captions now.

The mess you see will pretty soon be uber-neat looking, most wiring is to be fully invisible
________________________

#1: overall view, extra-long wires yet to be cut and hidden away.
Main Thing: the battery needs protection from the inevitable bike-falling-over situation.
I realize now that a full-jacket battery box is not needed. A "letter in-box" of some sort, a few inches high, will serve as a "bumper".

#2: The excellent Wald rack: its middle, transverse bar, prevented full-lowering of the rack; it pressed the very crown of the fender to rub the tire, barely.
I want that rack as low as possible.
Result: cut off the middle transverse bar. Pressure point GONE. Problem solved:

AS IT WAS: made the Wald rack higher than desired.

#3:The Wald rack was lowered by a full one inch by cutting off the bottom of the original mount, and making a new hole:

LOWERED RACK

#4: First but not final "mount" of the Ping battery. It will be lower yet, setting in a shallow, "letter box" container, for reasons already told.

The Ping will probably be wrapped in lightweight fabric for "looks", and somehow, very securely affixed to the letter box, and the
letter box, securely affixed to the steel rack. The sixteen pounds will not tear loose, even in a spill and fall, though the "box" may get
scuffed or bent (it is replaceable anyway).


#5: a new and very safe, secure location for the eZee controller: wiring central point. I used the water bottle braze on mounts!

#7: #6: The ugly, much-too-long cables, will be shortened after fishing them througth the length of the curved forward tube.

#8: Two cables to solder-connect: all the little wires conjoined as one cable. And then fish the lengths of all the cables (main, Cycle Analyst and thumb throttle, through the bikes thick-walled, fat tubing, dowward toward the controller, exiting from a generous hole to be drilled just below the controller.
Some generous excess of cables' lengths will remain, stuffed inside the frame tube, to make it easy to remove the front wheel for basic servicing,
by pulling out cable from the tube, as needed. These holes will be grommetted and water-sealed.

#9 Exampling a right-proper soldering-in-line of two heavy gauge wires; eight gauge, I reckon.
Full solder penetration. Paste rosin flux, Radio Shack butane iron. Get now-banned 60/40 lead solder whilst you can; it's not brittle
like the new, lead-free lousy solders must be, lacking ductile lead.

____________

More later. Want to go to The Container Store and look for either a wood or mesh metal, letter in-box for the protection tray.
And then some few hours to carefully splice the controller cable to the motor cable (YES, I did purposefully CLIP off the former quick-connectors;
had too: no other way to fish/pull the main cable through the bike tubing. YES, the other end of that cable will also be clipped, and then....
we will decide whether to re-use the quick disconnects, or simply use the superior though bulkier, compression screw connectors.

Miles to go.....I'm distracted by other life projects....and don't even have a day job to use for an excuse.

Off to The Container Store now, for a letter in-basket. Go slow. Think, Reid, think. :|

 

[Reid Welch]

Comments and corrections and ideas most welcome at this time.

Thank you all for your patience with my long prose and hundreds of images.

Reid

 

[The Stig]

Seems like your heading towards a new level of custom ebike quality. Good job!
The only thing that's bothering me is how tilted back your saddle is. I can't imagine it being more comfortable like that. You must find a way to tilt it forward. It would certainly be more comfortable if the saddle was level or tilted forward slightly.

 

[Reid Welch]

Seems like your heading towards a new level of custom ebike quality. Good job!
The only thing that's bothering me is how tilted back your saddle is. I can't imagine it being more comfortable like that. You must find a way to tilt it forward. It would certainly be more comfortable if the saddle was level or tilted forward slightly.

Dear Stig: you are right: the horn of the saddle is quite too high, but cannot be made lower.
In practice, this is not a problem or discomfort: I sit well back from the horn, buttocks fully on the fat padding of the seat.
I get no groin rub or pressure in pedaling (hard to believe, but true). So the weird tilt of the saddle is no problem.
-----

Just got back from The Container Store. Found for $12US the =perfect= holder for the battery.
Will make a mock up picture of that soon as I digest dinner and rest for a spell.
Then later tonight (I am a night person), I will solder the hub motor leads to the controller leads (at the front wheel vicinity)
and use galvanized wire to super-tie the new mesh steel basket to the rack, then double-stick tape the Ping into the basket,
and also tie or otherwise fasten the Ping so that it cannot possibly bounce up, or tear off in a sideways fall of the bike.

It is going to look good. I got a much better basket than I thought I'd find: it has high sides, just an inch or so less tall than the Ping.
Plus, just enough room at the aft or fore end for my padded chain lock. I'm short on sleep, but may take a nap and then get to real work soon.

Thanks for your thoughts and props, Stig! The Thudbuster and weird seat angle -really are comfortable-. You'd agree if you could try the bike.
Videos, later to come, will prove the comfort and bump-thump absorbing ability of this hard-tail bike.

Having fun, but...yawn...full belly, need a nappy.

Laters,
R.

 

[methods]

I am concerned about the coaster brake

Just last week before my crash (actually the day of my crash) I was moving along at a nice 25mph clip on my "chopper bike". I am used to riding my Kona which has the disk brakes mind you and the chopper only has a rear coaster. Anyhow I was riding along and I came up on a semi truck at a stop sign. I timed my arrival so that as he was pulling away I would pull up. Only problem is that he never pulled away from the stop sign so about 40' back I had to slam on the coaster brake which (of course) locked up. I let off, then hit it again, let off and hit it again . . . Pumped the brake as best I possibly could but it was not good enough. In the end I had to bring the bike around sideways and slide right up to the back of the truck to the point where I could rest my weight on its rear bumper.

Point of my story you ask?

If you are going to let nOObs ride your bike who are not accustomed to how much energy is carried at upward of 25mph it is highly likely that they will get into a panic braking situation where the rear wheel locks up. It would be better if there were some sort of front brake available for new riders. . . Coaster brakes are really dangerous on an ebike IMHO.

On my cruiser bike I did this with a front drum brake. Drum brakes a weak but they look nice, dont require any mounting tabs, dont overheat easily, etc. You can do a pretty clean install. (note: I would make custom V-brake mounts in a second before using a drum brake again though. . .)

Just my 0.02

I wouldn't have said anything had I not almost creamed the back of a truck with my coaster-brake bike. . . . Gotta watch those bike nOObs (like me).

-methods

 

[Zoot Katz]

I'd not depend on a coaster brake for speeds above where I'm comfortable bailing out.
They're okay teamed with a strong front brake. Discs can make an almost as neat an installation as drums. You'll still be saving rim wear while maintaining wet weather performance. Both of my choppers have a rear brake only. One a side-pull caliper and the other a coaster. They're both kinda scarey.

When it comes to adjustment, modulation, strength and ease of mounting fenders (mudguards), I prefer plain old cable-yoke center-pulled cantis with the ancient type four-finger levers. The skinny pads and close clearance required for Vee-Brakes is a nuisance. They too often conflict with unmodified fenders.

A ped-elec type sensor might be kinda cool for engaging some regen braking.

 

[methods]

A ped-elec type sensor might be kinda cool for engaging some regen braking.

Now you are talking!

I was considering a regen brake on the front of the chopper for a clean front brake solution
Using a ped-elec would be an interesting way to do variable braking. An MSP430 eval board (microcontroller) can be had for $20
All we would need would be paired magnets on the crank in a directional pattern. 3 would do it.

Peddling forward would give you a hall signature like this:

pulse----pulse-pluse
pulse----pulse-pluse
pulse----pulse-pluse

Peddling backwards would give you

pulse-pluse----pulse
pulse-pluse----pulse
pulse-pluse----pulse

Surround the crank with enough of them to ensure that the distance from any angle back you see a sequence and you would be in business

or. . . I guess we could just put a potentiometer on the bar =-)

-Patrick

edit: I got it!
We could put the CA hall sensor on the rear wheel. If the CA detected a fast rate of change on the rear wheel (i.e. panic braking) then the CA could trigger the front brake to compensate using the variable 5V output.

 

[Reid Welch]

Agreed: a front brake is a near-must, especially if I let first timers try the bike.

Points in "favor" of the coaster-brake-only:

-It is intuitive for beginners
-this bike is Ezee motored: I can fit a disk brake caliper to it later for my safety and theirs.
-IF I allow a first timer to try the bike, I will program the Cycle Analyst to limit top speed of the bike to, say 15mph at most.

-I have designed the bike to have a heavy bias of rider weight to the rear.
-We have no hills here at all. I would like to keep the bars lever-free as possible.

Reality check: I probably will in time, fit the Ezee's supplied disk brake with a caliper
and install a hand brake grip. The only "downside" of that: it now is no longer a geezer-looking, Stealth Cruiser.

Regenerative braking is not possible with an Ezee-type motor, is it? I'd just rather scrub off speed with a disk brake.

I expect to have lots less of the "forward throw of weight on heavy braking" because I'm sitting so far back, pulling back on the handle bars,
"whoa, Nellie!" (the rear tire has less tendency to lock and skid uselessly).

----Actual experience, when I get some on this yet-un-run bike, will dictate to me whether to "spoil it" with front wheel brakes.

Reality check: I drove my '22 Model T Ford (rear wheel braking only) for 25 thousand miles in Miami traffic.
It was fine in dry weather, if I paid attention to what might happen, in advance.
If I was inattentive on wet pavement, where rear wheel braking was really likely to result in skidding....
one time only, I failed to keep a safe following distance. I tapped the rear end of a BMW SUV.
The Ford has no bumpers, thank goodness, other than the tips of its front fenders.

-----
Again, for first time riders, I will be sure to dial-down the max speed of assist to some very coaster-brake-bike-like speed: such as 15, max,
and there are NO hills here and I won't let a first timer go out into traffic, but only toodle up and down a quiet street, after a lecture about speed
and about the danger of saying "golly gee!" and not paying attention to the fact that even ten mph impacts can be fatal. And always, a helmet.

Wanting to keep it Stealth as possible. But yes! ONLY a bike with a front wheel brake can be considered "safe" today.
Yet, back before 1924, there were NO automobiles with four wheel brakes. When, that year, a few luxury cars appeared with front brakes,
their "vastly powerful" stopping action resulted in so many rear-end accidents from hapless followers, that this rear signage became common
for the next few years to come:

FOUR WHEEL BRAKES (a sign in the circular area of the rear-mounted spare tire.
Brake lights, too, began to first appear at that time.
Woe to he who followed too close to the FOUR WHEEL BRAKES automobile.
Some of them even had their signs repeated, in front, lettering spelled backwards,
so that "leaders", looking in their tiny rear view mirrrors, could have the relief of knowing
that the guy who seemed to be tail-gating them, was, at least, equipped with "real" braking power.

---

Anywho, if I could get by for so many miles with a rear-brake only, two thousand pound auto, with about 50/50 weight distribution,
I hope I can get by -for myself at least- with a bike whose f to r distribution is heavily biased toward the rear.
It is a calculated gamble. The coaster brake is so easy and powerful, and the slick Bontragers so grippy...
time will tell. I will fit the front brake if I have to...but...this is not a speed machine except when I am riding it,
and then, it will not always be at 25mph, even if it proves capable of getting near to that for short periods of time.

Following distance must be kept. I must always remember the time of the Model T.
Oh, the stories I could tell, of locking the steering wheel, and going for miles down rural roads,
suicide doors both folded back against the body, me, standing OUTSIDE the car, on the running board,
touching the steering wheel just a bit if the car tended to drift left or right (I used the SteadyFord) wheel clamp,
one of thousands of aftermarket T "improvement" products.
It was a great thrill to set the throttle, and go 45mph, across the Florida Everglades on Flamingo Road (no side streets, just a road across the swamp),
wind in the face, standing on the running board, as stated. "Look ma! No hands or feet or traffic...just panthers and alligators!"

KISS (me motto). One tap, one time, in the rain. ALL my fault.
With the bike, I won't be that often in traffic, anyway. Mostly side streets and reasonable speeds,
and again: we are "blessed" with totally flat terrain. NO WAY I'd do this if we had down grades.

Will give a picture of the battery basket in the morning light. I did no work on the bike last night,
only slept for a few hours, dreaming of full body casts and road rashed-me.

:|

 

[methods]

The first time I put my wife on my electric cruiser I was not thinking. . .
It was running 100V with an 80A current limit, she had no helmet or protective gear, the bike had *only* a front drum brake and that brake was not paired with the correct lever so it had little braking power. Stopping distance at top speed was at least a hundred feet (with my feet dragging too).

She takes off down the street and not a peep

2 minutes later she BLASTS by coming from the other direction (having rounded the block) at no less than 40mph !!!!!

I should have known. . . She is no "normal" woman. I once put her in the driver seat of a Jet Ski and she did nothing but try to buck me off the back for 30 minutes.

Sounds like you have a plan their Reid.
Don't too hard on em though, 15mph can be a bore =)

And you are right, the ezee is geared so no regen. Btw: How does it freewheel? Can you turn it with your fingers?

-methods

 

[marty]

I'd not depend on a coaster brake for speeds above where I'm comfortable bailing out.
They're okay teamed with a strong front brake. Discs can make an almost as neat an installation as drums. You'll still be saving rim wear while maintaining wet weather performance. Both of my choppers have a rear brake only. One a side-pull caliper and the other a coaster. They're both kinda scarey.
X

Our bicycle expert say coaster break = not good. Don't know how the laws apply to bicycles, but if you kill someone with your car because of a accident. That is called a accident. If you kill someone because you knowingly drove a car with faulty breaks. That is called murder.

To say I can drive a electric bicycle with old style, not so good, breaks because I used to drive a antique car with antique breaks is wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right. Does that make any sense? Marty says if you can't stop. Don't go.

Reid its not too late. How about a whole different bicycle? Lets find Reid a cool bike with GOOD breaks.

 

[marty]

One more thought? Marty says "there is nothing that you can build that is better or cheaper then you can buy"
Compare Reid's set back seat with the orange bike in last post.

I like orange one better. More cool 8)

 

[Reid Welch]

Ha ha. I missed owning a Schwinn Orange Krate the first time round.

My conventional, 200 buck, Chinese cruiser, is not a long wheelbase, super, Rans, USA-made bike.
So I don't get the full Rans "pedal forward effect",
but I get a good measure of improvement over a standard diamond frame bike.

It feels great to lean back and PULL on the bar ends and DIG those pedals.
Must do something for wardrobe, though. Maybe full leather?

______________

Color! I like this silver. But'cha know what, Blanche?
I think you're gonna turn yell'a on me someday.
Yeah. YELLOW, Hummer Yellow. From spray cans. Last on the list of things to do.
Krylong Fusion brand in "sunshine yellow is the perfect sunny yellow, and dries with a wet gloss
if sprayed in low humidity condtions. No need for spray guns...and it is cheap and re-touch-able.

I like a yellow and black-acccented bike: extra visible in the daylight. Looks like a mad hornet, too.
So do I. Damn that photoshopping KIM!

 

[Reid Welch]

Speaking in Southern-ese, we have done NO work to the bike for two days, other than find a
wonderful battery basket at The container store. I need to solder the hub motor wires to the main cable, neat,
for a pull-through-the-frame tube job. Here is the "beauty" this AM, ten minutes ago:


(pitchur coming shortly. Meanwhiles, ya alls are wekkome to have breakfast here in the Deep South.
Wan' some poke an' grits? (pork and grits). Den just....

Poke yo' feets under the table an' grit yo' teef.


Cheers,
Reid, South of Brooklyn

 

[Reid Welch]

Pitchurs just taken...about to be captioned. Stan' by. Eat Mo' Poke.


___________________
From USA's "The Container Store". Perfect.
Room for a chain lock. Box wire-tied to the rack, very secure.

IF I decide to paint the steel mesh basket BLACK, the battery will visually disappear.

Today I must splice the (cut off) motor cable to the controller cable. I hate precision work: three pair of reader glasses stacked,
so that my lousy eyes can really see what I am doing with the solder connections.
The splices will be staggered in position so the cable won't be "lumpy", and then wrapped in silicone tape,
and then....

....then the cabling will go through the main tubing, to the controller box area. I hate this present lash-up look.
It could cause arrest by the po-po on grounds of excessive fugliness.. BTW: I hate with passion, our local cops.
Some, a great number, are lying cheats, a few of whom even murder people, if they have you alone in the dark, no witnesses.
They are Nazis in blue shirts, some of them... but others are pretty damn decent -disciplinarians- who only Taser
for long enough for their buddies to all get their laughs. I have not been tasered yet, but I know grannies who have
been shocked enough to pee their panties.

________

These remaining pictures are self explanatory. It will be a nice looking normal looking bike at the finish.
I do think: gloss black for the basket will be best, though (to hide the battery and chain lock.
The battery and chain lock will be secured from bounce-up by some sort of mesh nylon elastic cover,
and glue for the battery, too.

I hope my friend, Ping, approves. The battery will be safe from side-dumps or upside-down air flights.

 

[TylerDurden]

I was once in Arkansas and was offered Pooed Poke.

 

[Reid Welch]

I was once in Arkansas and was offered Pooed Poke.

I like my Pooed Poke in Krylon Fusion, blackened,
then baked at 160F for two hours for a total, fast, tough cure (sure beats waiting for paint to dry-hard in cool air).

About Krylon Fusion: It is designed to stick well to plastics, like to plastic lawn chairs.
Prep, vital, consists of scrubbing the item with alkaline cleaner, such as ammonia.
This basket was/is powder coated, or it was painted in Taiwan with some other smooth, silver paint of tough, non-chippy nature.
So I scrubbed the basket for ten minutes with a green scrub pad, pad loaded with non-chlorinated powdered counter cleaner,
dish soap, and lye, and rinsed with hot water, then baked =dry=.

Hung on tie wire, painted outside in the still air....
((Fusion, like most "lacquers" will "blush" dull if the humidity is high or a breeze is blowing, condensing water into the wet paint))
IF sprayed in still, dry air: Fusion does dry with a wet gloss. It is fast drying like a lacquer, but not brittle.
It adheres better to any undercoating paint, than does acrylic enamel, and Fusion is tougher than alkyd (Rustoleum) enamels,
and is a unique sort of paint. However, prep (despite claims to the contrary) is vital with all spray paints.
NO oil, no silicones, no water droplets must be allowed to remain on the work. No greasy hands in handling the prepped part to be painted.

Painting took five minutes. Fifteen minutes of air dry,
and now in the oven for two hours, 160F, no more time needed than that,
and it's done; you can tell: no more "new paint" odor. The rack is now ready
for permanent attachment to the Wald rear luggage rack. Digression:
__________________
General tips for spray can paint: Warm the can and its contents by soaking the can in 120F water,
shake, soak again, shake, get the contents to 120F. This does several good things: it "thins" the paint for smoother spraying.
The heat also eases complete mixing of the pigment and the vehicle. And it makes for higher spraying pressure.
As the can is sprayed, it cools itself down. If you take a break for the first coat(s) to dry, might as well re-warm the can meanwhile.

Shake again; you cannot shake pigmented paint too long; though black is the easiest color to mix its settled-contents in its can
(black is solvent, binder and merely 2 or 3% carbon black; black is the "easiest" of all colors to formulate and has the greatest hiding power,
other than titanium oxide whites).

Shake the can again. Wait a moment. Spray a mesh basket from CLOSE IN, but be moving the can fast.
IF you spray from 12" away, the solvent is partially evaporated during the spray-distance-time,
and the paint may go on "pebbley", known as "orange peel".
IF you fail to move the can fast enough, your first wet coats, after the initial "mist" (tack coat), can run.
Fusion brand, like other Krylon paints, is very forgiving and does not tend to run or sag.
Get it on. Let it dry for a few minutes, then do a second coat, ensuring no missed areas.
Finish it off WET, but not dripping, and hang the part in a STILL AIR place to avoid blush, if the air is at all damp.

Some spray can artists do large, flat surfaces, with a can in each hand, random, fast, close, constantly moving the cans:
they (and I) can cover large panels with a wet-look, even, no-streak finish. Following generic instructions on spray cans
will not give pro results. Practice. Be fast, deft, and get it to look decent, for work that matters.
(my quick-sprayed-silver controller box does not matter, so I did not take pains to make a perfectionist job of it).

________________

The next step is to tack-glue the basket to the rack (just to get it all nicely squared, aligned, with Elmer's Stix All
(a silicone rubber glue that does not go "bad" in the tube once opened).
Then two hours after that, the Stix-All is set-up, I can WIRE TIE the mesh basket to the rack with light gauge
galvanized tie wire, many points of attachment.
Basket will be superbly unitized to the incredibly rugged USA-made Wald brand rear rack.
See, I am going to be doing air work. UP, down, flying around...
(it's my German/English/Irish blood. German predominates to-day. Curbs: fear me!
___________________

MORE pictures to be inserted in this form later on tonight, probably, will show the simple steps.
_________________
Think twice, mess up once, if at all...
________________

Then the PING 36V, 20Ah battery gets sticky-taped to the inside of the basket
and otherwise, as I can devise, made ultra-secure from ever bouncing up and out.
Yet it will be removable (with effort; think: Goo Gone brand: citrus-oil-bearing, gummy-stuff solvent),
should the Ping battery ever need warranty service. It will come out intact, without force.
I like its duct tape enclosure, tape is better than shrink wrap, btw, in my opinion, for prismatic cells.
_______________
To be continued, in this form, so to not raise the thread unnecessarily...

laters,

r.

 

[Sacman]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww... that's a good way to stink up your oven... and future food baked in there.

 

[Reid Welch]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww... that's a good way to stink up your oven... and future food baked in there.

Right, except that this old man of mine built his house right. The oven, 35 years old now, still works as new. IT IS EQUIPPED with an exhaust fan, ducted, taking the solvent and baking smells to OUTSIDE of this house.

For you guys without de-luxe oven venting, just get an old used oven and use it outside of the house and open the door occasionally,
that you should not get a build-up of fresh, solvent-laden air that might self-ignite from the heating element, opening the door for you.
That would be bad. The cajun-blackened Pook-basket is READY. Now we tack-glue it to the rack. Pictures to follow soon....

 

[The Stig]

...opening the door for you.

:lol:

 

[Reid Welch]

So it won't slide out of alignment whilst I wire-tie it in one hour from now.
Fresh pictures. Will caption momentarily:
_____________

Acetone to clean the Wald rack.

My fugly "medusa" photo lighting system. You can't have too much light (daylight is best, of course).

"Stix All" is a conventional RTV silicone glue, except that it does not "go bad" once opened and used, like other brands do.

A few dollops of Stix All. The blue tape is squared, and tells me where to locate the basket, clearance from the cantilevering seat.

A big dollop on the crown of the Planet Bike fender to keep it from shaking side to side (the fender is not yet perfectly aligned).

Plenty of time to align the basket, both by measurement, long straightedge (not shown) and by eyeball, too)

Li Ping's wonderful LiFePo4 battery as a weight; waxed paper to keep it from sticking to the adhesive.

Looks pretty good. The tail of the plastic fender still requires squaring-up. Can do that later on.

What's up with the water spray bottle???????

WATER SPEED-CURES any kind of RTV silicone, in one hour or less, rather than many hours if the air is dry.

"I am all wet"......btw, this bike will be capable of being dropped in a swimming pool, taken out, and ridden, no harm,
no water instrusion, anywhere, ever. It will be a ride in the rain bike.

_______________________

In one hour from now: out with the battery, and we wire-tie the basket forever to the rack (yet, it could be removed in the future, if needed)
It will be so solid as to support any weight. Then after the wire-tying....we figure out how to best attach the Ping battery.
Also, I must decide where to hide/install the master on-off switch in the red power output lead of the Ping.
This will be my ignition "key": mysterious to mere meddlers, and out of sight, I hope, to toddlers:

(picture to come of The Switch, here, later on).

 

[Reid Welch]

...opening the door for you.

:lol:

KABOOOM :lol:

...more pitchurs full of pictures for you all.

yrs,

The Wizard of Very Odds

(stand by a moment---pictures, then captions)

 

[Reid Welch]

I PAID for that fender. Do I have to ADVERTISE for

them

? NO!
Acetone...will dull the black plastic, sure, but I can re-polish the plastic if I wanna.
Also, a satin black fender is more geezer-like, bike to use, not to be polishing fingerprints, etc...

The Power Cut-Off Master Switch. Where to mount it?

ON

OFF

The red roll of gluey double-stick super tape will go around the bottom perimeter of the Ping battery. The blue stuff: is just handy for trial-tacking things.

Still waiting for the Stix All to fully set. It has been an hour. I'll give it another hour to be sure; then wire-tie and more PICTURES (booooooo!)

Merely tacked-on with blue tack for now, this will be epoxy puttied in place, then covered with a fabricated plastic shield/hidey-thing.

OUT is "on"

IN is "off"
______________
painted silver, the cover and the black knob in silver will "disappear" this vital kill switch.


me so clever... NOT.

 

[Sacman]

In one hour from now: out with the battery, and we wire-tie the basket forever to the rack (yet, it could be removed in the future, if needed)
It will be so solid as to support any weight. Then after the wire-tying....we figure out how to best attach the Ping battery.
Also, I must decide where to hide/install the master on-off switch in the red power output lead of the Ping.
This will be my ignition "key": mysterious to mere meddlers, and out of sight, I hope, to toddlers:

You gonna use black plastic zip ties to tie that basket down to the rack? That's a good extra measure and not relying on just the silicon glue to hold that basket (along with it's cargo) in place. Another better way is to get some thin black wire and spiral wrap the basket's mesh to the tubing of the rack.

 

[Sacman]

Acetone...will dull the black plastic, sure, but I can re-polish the plastic if I wanna.
Also, a satin black fender is more geezer-like, bike to use, not to be polishing fingerprints, etc...

I got the same exact fenders. But I like to keep mine shiny black and would not want to dull the shiny surface so I just stuck some black electrical tape to cover the '"Planet Bike" emblem.

 

[Ypedal]

2" wide velcro is awsome stuff !!! :wink: