Update:
Better late than never, right fellas!!??
Well, the build off began showing signs of deadline infringement Thursday night. Thud was not happy with the skewed rear end, and so he chopped, bent and cut the thing back into a proper looking dropout and added some bracing/ motor mounts. He and I stayed up till 3:00 soldering everything up and he showed me how to convert a controller that would last. The frame was mostly done, but there was still a ton of work left to do. Pics of the progress the next morning:
Friday morning we wake up about 7 and start one of the longest days of my life, bodies broken, hands looking like vienna sausage we begin to tackle the seemingly ever increasing list of to do's. We are optimistic but quickly realize that any unforseen hurdles could throw the whole thing out of wack. First things first, we need custom 184mm spokes and JensonUSA does not have them in stock. Luckily, I find a place an hour away with a Phil Wood spoke cutter/threader so I head down to pick those up, I almost died 2-3 times splitting lanes in Friday LA type traffic on my motorcycle, but eventually make it back to find the FED Ex box full of Thud Gear has arrived! Woot!! Woot!!!
Then Jay64 show up around 8:00 pm, what a great guy with good racing stories and a very cool attitude. Of course his Frock motor needs minimal work to be put together and he sets up shop on the "dark" side of the patio. Long story short we stay up till 4:30 and decide to call it quits as our zombie like motion was not being very productive. We were not at all convinced that we would make the race at this point. We had a roller, untested motor setup, but pretty close to complete. Pics:
Race day!
We are not ready and we know it's coming down to the line, but still possible! I set about putting the Jr Brute back together, connected the battery up around 10 am, went out front to test it, applied power.....
:x motor is spinning rear sprocket but the wheel is not turning! Come to find out Aluminum, while easy to file and cut, is not suited for the keys that lock the freewwheels onto the cassette hub. FROCK!!!!!! We are beaten, broken e-builders at this point. The keys are a major component to both our systems which means neither bike is raceable. We shower up, pack mr GF car up and prepare to go up to the race as spectators and commune with the other forum members. Then I get a call from Jay64 saying the whole thing is almost over and we would miss all the action anyway. We make a crunch decision to go put 2 more hours into make steel keys just so we can get some track time. Success!!! so we pack up some batts, riding gear and throw the bikes in the back of the jeep, Grange here we come!!! Got there before everybody left but atfter all the action and had a really good time hanging with the guys. THIS is what it's all about, the race is just a damn good excuse to hang out with like-minded people and swap ideas and knowledge. We got to take some runs on Farfle's bike, and DAMN!! I didn't think a hubmotor could accelerate like that off the line. What an awesome build, and a great guy. I got to take a few laps after the sunset to ecperience the track... AWESOME track!! WAY better than Willow Springs crappy track, I hope we have another event here soon, count me in AND ready! Here are some pics of the bikes as of the moment. Along with some pics of my backyard as found this morning:
It was an epic week, a crash course in scratch built ebikes if you will. Thud is a wealth of knowledge and I tried to extract all the knowledge I could from him. A priceless expereince in my book, and I'm sure it will remain etched in Thud's memory as well. Today is cleanup day, and we will also complete the yet to be named Grange racer and we will be sure to take some videos of it in action today. Maybe Thud and I will do some drag racing!!
Can you find the dog in every picture?? :lol: