The F3: "N minus one"

[MattyCiii]

Thanks for the kind words of concern guys. No more cable lock for me, I'll ride home without a seat if I have to!

Yikes! You in town today? Give me a call if you want to do some maintenance over here!

I wish... This is a "Rhode Island" weekend for me. I'll alternate between the A Line And the pedal only folder with spiked tires this week, and overhaul the bike next weekend. You around next weekend?

 

[900steve]

Oh we'll. I'm gone from the 14th through 21st. I just got back from Florida too. How are the roads up here? Should I switch to studded tires?

 

[MattyCiii]

Since I wanted to participate in a social ride Tuesday night, I did a ton of work Monday from about 6pm to midnight to get the bike back on the road. Replaced the NuVinci freewheel mechanism (yes I happened to have a spare) as the grease seal was shot. Serviced the electric drive chainring, which lost two of five chainring bolts some time after my October 3rd "Maintenance!" (http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39928&start=125#p806244). Also replaced a NuVinci shifter cable, installed a new chain tensioner (pix to follow), installed a new rack on the seat post (again, I had a spare… Yes, I have spares for everything important!). I got the bike back on the road in time to ride it to work Tuesday.

The new chain tensioner worked great in the morning and got me the 8 miles to work. But it failed within 5 minutes of my evening ride, so I stopped real quick, broke the e-drive train, kept up with the ride and pedaled all 2 to 5 miles of that ride and the 8 miles home. It was cold, but fun.

I don't have good luck with chain tensioners on this bike!

 

[MattyCiii]

Upgrades.

 

[MattyCiii]

Sorry to be a tease above. When I finished up working on the bike last night (and shoveling snow), I wanted to share my updated but I soon ran out of energy. So, one word and one pic!

I'll try to get some new pic's up soon, but here's the latest with the bike.
1. Installed Cannondale Lefty as front fork. This specific fork is destined for my third build, but with that build so far off I want to get this expensive piece of kit into use.
2. New BMX style handlebars. They have a wire embedded inside to route power to the bar ends where I plan to mount lights. Sadly, these bars are too narrow and they won't stay... I have a new handlebar on order.
3. A fender on the Lefty! I'll post pics as to how that's done. It's not easy.
4. The new front end is several inches taller than the old one. That required me to drain the rear hydro brake line, insert a new longer section of brake line, bleed the system and re-mount it. PITA.
5. The front brake is now a Hayes hydraulic. Why? Because I had it just sitting there unused.

I rode the bike in to work today. A bit of a gamble, as I did not do a test ride. Everything worked super awesome. The front is rock solid (the old front end had side play in its multi-link suspension). It soaks up the bumps too. The new geometry has me sitting up taller and straighter... that will take some getting used to!

 

[MattyCiii]

Next upgrade:

Hard to see in this picture, but what I want to do is have the Recumpence V4 drive straddle the rear shock. This will place the motor above the shock, the primary reduction drive higher up, and have less "stuff" in the triangle section between the seat tube and the rear wheel. This will basically make the bike easier to maintain, and if executed well, will make it easier to keep my final reduction chain tensioned properly.

I can almost get this done with the equipment I have. But the stock V4 bracket is just a bit too short to give me the what I need: Enough room to properly tension the belt, and enough room to move the drive up and down on the rear triangle to tension the chain. So I'm buying a two-stage motor mount that will give me the extra room I need. I also have a slightly longer belt on the way to ensure the optimal belt length & tension.

If all works as planned, the bike will be easier to maintain. Not sexy, but for a daily driver, very important.

 

[xenodius]

very cool idea for the gps tracker. does it require a prepaid SIM? Have you tested it out yet?

The tracker is called a Geogram One from DSS Circuits. I use a SIM from Telna, inc.

The sim costs $20 a year, has unlimited incoming SMS messages and 1000 SMS per month included in that cost. That to me is essentially unlimited.

The tracker can be put into a deep sleep (extend battery life). In deep sleep, the GPS and cellular radio are off. That's the trade-off. Tracker features include lots of great things: motion sensor and LiPo state-of-charge awareness. Here's how I plan to use it:
Normal operations: Set the device to do nothing but sleep all day, waking for a minute every 2, 4 or 6 hours to check in to the cellular network. Any pending SMS messages will be received by the device. Go back to sleep, repeat. This maximizes battery life. It can run a fortnight like this without recharge, so if I charge it once a week, I always have at least 7 days of life if it's stolen. If I get lazy with the recharges, it will send me a "low battery" warning the first time it wakes and sees less than 30% charge. Oh, and I might be able to fit in twice as much battery and have 1 month of battery life (awaiting first set of batteries to see).
Bike is stolen: With the device asleep, all I can do is send it some commands via SMS and wait for it to wake/check-in. Once awake I can send it commands to have it tell me it's location right away. But if the bike is in a basement, I'll get 00-00 x 000-00 as a location. If that happens, I can put it back into deep sleep mode, but with a motion sense override. It'll thus send me a new position within a minute of being moved (has to get a GPS fix). At that point it's a judgment call what to do. If the position is still 00 x 00, I'll have to decide whether to put it back to sleep and wake on motion, or have it just plain sleep, to balance between finite battery life and getting a position.

Pro's and con's:
Pro's: On the plus side, it's got a lot of features and is very small. The GPS and cellular signals pass through the aluminum emclosure well enough to work when above ground. It's open source and programmable - I should be able to add features such as a microphone such that I call the device and listen in on the bike thief before or as the cops come knocking on their door.
Con's: On the con side, deep sleep still draws a lot of power because the microcontroller is counting seconds for the sleep timer. There's chatter in the Geogram One forum to work in a deeper sleep mode. Sleep/wake timing becomes less precise, but life in deep sleep mode becomes so much longer. Also, the GPS antenna is right on its chip - no chance for an external GPS to improve likelihood of a basement position fix. The cell module has an external antenna.

Missed this thread till now. I just got my Geogram, waiting on Telna SIM. It's going to go under the seat of my KMX trike, and will enjoy perpetual USB charging output from my Adaptto unit. Thanks for introducing me to it in another thread. Currently welding some ABS together for its box! =) I plan on activating motion-activated tracking whenever I leave it somewhere for very long, such as when I park at work.

Did you ever look into GPS-Trace Orange?

 

[MattyCiii]

very cool idea for the gps tracker. does it require a prepaid SIM? Have you tested it out yet?

The tracker is called a Geogram One from DSS Circuits. I use a SIM from Telna, inc.

The sim costs $20 a year, has unlimited incoming SMS messages and 1000 SMS per month included in that cost. That to me is essentially unlimited.

The tracker can be put into a deep sleep (extend battery life). In deep sleep, the GPS and cellular radio are off. That's the trade-off. Tracker features include lots of great things: motion sensor and LiPo state-of-charge awareness. Here's how I plan to use it:
Normal operations: Set the device to do nothing but sleep all day, waking for a minute every 2, 4 or 6 hours to check in to the cellular network. Any pending SMS messages will be received by the device. Go back to sleep, repeat. This maximizes battery life. It can run a fortnight like this without recharge, so if I charge it once a week, I always have at least 7 days of life if it's stolen. If I get lazy with the recharges, it will send me a "low battery" warning the first time it wakes and sees less than 30% charge. Oh, and I might be able to fit in twice as much battery and have 1 month of battery life (awaiting first set of batteries to see).
Bike is stolen: With the device asleep, all I can do is send it some commands via SMS and wait for it to wake/check-in. Once awake I can send it commands to have it tell me it's location right away. But if the bike is in a basement, I'll get 00-00 x 000-00 as a location. If that happens, I can put it back into deep sleep mode, but with a motion sense override. It'll thus send me a new position within a minute of being moved (has to get a GPS fix). At that point it's a judgment call what to do. If the position is still 00 x 00, I'll have to decide whether to put it back to sleep and wake on motion, or have it just plain sleep, to balance between finite battery life and getting a position.

Pro's and con's:
Pro's: On the plus side, it's got a lot of features and is very small. The GPS and cellular signals pass through the aluminum emclosure well enough to work when above ground. It's open source and programmable - I should be able to add features such as a microphone such that I call the device and listen in on the bike thief before or as the cops come knocking on their door.
Con's: On the con side, deep sleep still draws a lot of power because the microcontroller is counting seconds for the sleep timer. There's chatter in the Geogram One forum to work in a deeper sleep mode. Sleep/wake timing becomes less precise, but life in deep sleep mode becomes so much longer. Also, the GPS antenna is right on its chip - no chance for an external GPS to improve likelihood of a basement position fix. The cell module has an external antenna.

Missed this thread till now. I just got my Geogram, waiting on Telna SIM. It's going to go under the seat of my KMX trike, and will enjoy perpetual USB charging output from my Adaptto unit. Thanks for introducing me to it in another thread. Currently welding some ABS together for its box! =) I plan on activating motion-activated tracking whenever I leave it somewhere for very long, such as when I park at work.

Did you ever look into GPS-Trace Orange?

I have not considered the GPS trace, as a matter of priorities. I want to know (1) if someone is messing with my bike, so I can intervene, and (2) barring that, where the bike is right now. It's probably useful, but less important to me, how it got there.

Funny you should mention welding ABS. Just this week I designed and printed an ABS enclosure for my Geogram one on the Makerbot.

My priorities for this device, when I get the time, are:
1. Look into adding a capacitive touch sensor. Back in the mid 80's, Sears used to carry a bunch of styles of lamps that would turn on/off if you touched them anywhere. I wonder if I can rig a capacitive touch sensor to act as a backup as the GeoGram One motion sensor. So if someone is touching my ride it sends me a text. The motion sensor - especially in sleep mode - can sometimes require **a lot** of motion to activate.
2. Look into adding speaker and microphone to the built in phone function (documentation is very sparse). I imagine a scenario: My bike has been stolen, and is now in someone's apartment. The GPS gets me to the correct building, but not the right door. If I can call the SIM and activate the mic, maybe I can hear a TV or conversation in the room where my bike is located.

I do see some value to the GPS trace… suppose I just go to the most current position of the bike. Maybe the bike was stolen, and sold, and now I've found it. I'm not recovering it from the thief, I'm getting it back from the buyer, who might be an innocent dupe.

 

[MattyCiii]

I have rim brakes on the rear- work really well and I like them a lot. But they are wearing away the rim side wall too fast (by feel, about 1mm of alloy lost in less than 7 months of riding). I want my rims to last at least a few years each…

So, I'm going to try to move to disc brakes in the rear. There's a rear disc brake mount, so conceptually it should be trivial to do. But the rear triangle is pretty small and the chain stay narrows quickly as it moves forward from the axle bolt. It looks like I'd be lucky to fit a 160mm rotor back there, and even a 140mm might be a tight squeeze.

I'll be doing measurements and posting pix later. Hope this works out because otherwise, I see a rim replacement and wheel build in my not too distant future : (

 

[MattyCiii]

Part of this bike has been blogged by Simon Arthur of Big Blue Saw!
(https://planiverse.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/a-more-sophisticated-waterjet-cut-bearing-block/)

OK, this is a most egotistical thread-bump. I think I sprained my arm patting myself on the back. That said, Simon Arthur's blog is pretty interesting and has perfectly sized lessons on how to make the most of the water jet process for making parts. So, look past my hubris for a moment and check out his blog if you think water jetting is a process useful to you.

 

[cwah]

Upgrades.

Wow I have a dahon jetstream too and I'd like to get better suspension. Can I put any suspension on it?

Like this one?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suspension-bike-front-forks-1-8-threadless-Ahead-100mm-Travel-/281313479338?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item417f970aaa

 

[MattyCiii]

Upgrades.

Wow I have a dahon jetstream too and I'd like to get better suspension. Can I put any suspension on it?

Like this one?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suspension-bike-front-forks-1-8-threadless-Ahead-100mm-Travel-/281313479338?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item417f970aaa

Yeah It's not too hard. I'm no expert, but the Lefty came with a standard size threadless head tube. I kept the Dahon bearings (I should swap them, they have more slop than I like). Then take off the cap nut that threads into the stem, and take the folding stem off. Now you can lose the Dahon stem and fork and put the new one on.

The only tricky part was trimming the head tube to the right length for the stem. The stem has to be just the right size or the folding handle post won't open and close right. Also, what to do about that threaded cap? Off the shelf stems aren't threaded inside. Well fortunately Dahon made things in a standard size… I was able to use a standard star nut and headset cap (if that's the right term) In place of Dahon's cap. It's a perfect functional replacement for the Dahon setup.

Let me know if this is unclear, and I can take/post some clarifying pix in the next few days.


Lastly… just consider whether the new front fork will make the bike harder to fold. Not an issue at all with the Lefty, since it's… one sided. A single crown like you pointed to should be fine, but I wouldn't put a double crown fork on this bike :wink:

 

[cwah]

Yes if you can put pics that would REALLY help!! thaanks so much

my bike now:
[youtube]t9vuGRYKaQI[/youtube]

I've put the battery on the frame for better balance, but now it isn't easy to fold because the batteries have to be removed first... It's a 72V20AH battery. 1440WH. Not easy to find a place to fit it :lol:


So that's good? I can buy it?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suspension-bike-front-forks-1-8-threadless-Ahead-100mm-Travel-/281313479338?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item417f970aaa

It says 100 MM Travel and 1/8 Threadless. It's compatible with my Jetstream headtube?

 

[KarlJ]

WOW read the thread end to end.....

My first thought as an aircraft mechanic was about page 5 where the bolts for front suspension had holes drilled in them ....
OMG disaster waiting to happen Loctite is your friend instead.

Anyhow as you ditched it in recent posts i'm relieved.

Lots of work considering a 6T MAC motor in rear wheel is $350 + post and you're done and 2000W (at least in bursts,
easily achievable)

Quite an effort well done I am impressed with the energy expended to persevere.

Well done Unique!

 

[MattyCiii]

Yes if you can put pics that would REALLY help!! thaanks so much

OK, I'm away from home now that'll take a couple days.
In the mean time I do have a couple of illuminating pictures here (6th pic down through the 8th): http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=49927#p801865

I've put the battery on the frame for better balance, but now it isn't easy to fold because the batteries have to be removed first... It's a 72V20AH battery. 1440WH. Not easy to find a place to fit it :lol:

I use a much smaller battery, 12s2p LiPo (50v * 10 AH). Slung under the mono tube, the bike folds up fine. Notice I put the controller (Castle Creations HV-160, it's pretty small) and the shunt there on the right side of the mono tube so it's out of the way when folded):

It says 100 MM Travel ...

The Lefty I'm using has 100mm travel too. The front sits up noticeably higher, the step-over height is raises, my riding posture is more upright and the bike is nominally easier to wheelie. I guess I get a better head tube angle for riding at speed too. More simply put, the geometry of the bike will change with the 100mm travel, assuming you stick with a 406mm front wheel.

It says … 1/8 Threadless. It's compatible with my Jetstream headtube?

They probably meant 1 & 1/8 inch thread less, which I think is the standard Dahon uses. I can caliper the Dahon steer tube when I get home and confirm. With that confirmed, yes, a 1.125" thread less will be the right fit.

So that's good? I can buy it?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suspension-bike-front-forks-1-8-threadless-Ahead-100mm-Travel-/281313479338?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item417f970aaa

I know very little about suspension, except - paraphrasing some of the great minds of ES posted elsewhere - "no suspension at all is better than bad suspension". I'd recommend you ask around separately whether this fork is decent or it's junk. I can at least confirm whether it will fit.

That said I suppose it's a good risk at that price. Again with a confirmed fit, it's an easy install. You could try it, and if the suspension itself is crap, at least you'd have the experience and skills to upgrade again later, and a confirmed head tube size

 

[MattyCiii]

WOW read the thread end to end.....

My first thought as an aircraft mechanic was about page 5 where the bolts for front suspension had holes drilled in them ....
OMG disaster waiting to happen Loctite is your friend instead.

Anyhow as you ditched it in recent posts i'm relieved.

Lots of work considering a 6T MAC motor in rear wheel is $350 + post and you're done and 2000W (at least in bursts,
easily achievable)

Quite an effort well done I am impressed with the energy expended to persevere.

Well done Unique!

Thanks KarlJ!
This bike is very high utility/versatile, my vehicle of choice for trips within its modest range.

 

[MattyCiii]

cwah,
I didn't have time to take any pix, but I was able to measure the stock Dahon steerer tube with calipers this morning. The dimensions are:
1.125" diameter
5.55" length, from the top of the crown to the top of the tube where the threaded nut is inserted.

So, I'd say it's safe to buy a 1 & 1/8th inch front fork. Remember you'll need some components (read about threadless forks here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headset_(bicycle_part)), like top cap, star nut (http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/310939998801?lpid=82) and spacers.

The first time I had a fork installed I had a bike shop do it but I asked if I could watch the mechanic - that was probably the right choice for me because I would have definitely been a few parts short of doing it right.

 

[cwah]

Hey yeah thanks, no problem for that. I'm already extremely glad you explain me in details about all of this.

I'm hoping not to make any mistake!! Do I need to bring my bike to the bike shop? Apparently it's better to buy branded fork, so I might go with this one if it's through-axle (I'm considering dual motor).

It says 28mm is the Dia of the stanchion, the plunger bit. The steerer tube is 255mm long. I suppose I will have to cut the top part to fit it on the bike?

Why do I need additional part?

I'm just asking now but I'm going to read all your post and link and try to make sense of all of this !!

Thaaanks

 

[MattyCiii]

cwah,
My sincere apology for not sending a reply. As we were chatting about front forks, I killed both my e-bikes and my automobile, and all my discretionary time since has been of (1) transportation and (2) fixing my means of transportation. Hopefully the info I provided got you close enough to move forward...

 

[MattyCiii]

What's new?
Freewheels. New freewheels.

Recently my freewheel failed, I was pedaling, and when I put power to the pedals, the cranks spun a lot before the freewheel engaged. This happened for a few miles, and got worse until I could spin the pedals all day and not get the pedal drive to engage. Classic freewheel failure. Luckily I had a spare. I took the bike home, replaced the freewheel, and was back on the street.

Here are some pix:

1. The three pawls, and the 2 halves of the spring. When whole, this spring keeps the pawls "sprung out" so they engage with the pawl-ramps

2. This is the freewheel body, see the three indents where the pawls go. In the background: grease seal to keep the water/rust out.

3. The NuVinci - freewheel drive side.

4. Cleaned up NuVinci: I took pix like this every 30 degrees and inspected them to see if there's damage. Nothing untoward is visible. My guess is the spare on the shelf was corroded from being in the basement (not too likely, it was in a plastic bag) and/or an improperly installed grease seal led to water intrusion and failure (in about 2 weeks time - not likely). Actually I have no guess why it failed:

I rebuilt the wheel with yet another spare FW (One taken from another NuVinci) simply to get on the road. It gets my bike back on the road, but for how long? Who knows. At least the last time it failed I had a lot of battery so I just rode the electron wave all the way home.

 

[MattyCiii]

By the way, the spring that failed is a 27mm diameter ring (1 & 1/16") made of 0.57mm (0.0225mm) diameter wire.

 

[MattyCiii]

Including my girlfriend's hybrid, pedal only bike, the folding IGH bike I bought my daughter (that she never uses) and my bikes, I have 6 steeds at my disposal. 2 are electric (in my signature). This bike is my mainstay. Including my old panel van and ICE scooter, this is the vehicle I spend the most time on, have the most fun with and... pretty much rely on the most.

With heavy rains and snow predicted on the most travelled day of the year, the no-brainer choice was to take this bike to work. Besides, I just last night replaced the NuVinci freewheel (again!), shifter cables and electric drive chain. I wanted a "check ride" as quick as possible to be sure the bike was back to 100%.

Things went great. The morning commute was awesome as usual; the precipitation was still hours away. The ride home... raining hard. Yeah I was wearing all the gear - was wearing a full face moto helmet and waterproof clothes. I was passing all the cager fools stuck in traffic queues like GC in DC (no, not really, I pass stopped cars much slower). Then as I passed this one car - who was so hugging the curb I went around him to the left - I heard a strange sound. Hard to describe, but in retrospect it makes sense - it was the sound of a crackling fire.

I looked down, my bike was on fire. Flames, about a foot below my balls and less than an inch above a kilowatt hour of LiPo. Daaaaaaaaaamn!

There was a big puddle - yeah I mentioned it was raining, and had rained several hours before I left work. I hopped off the bike quick as could be and leaned the bike down trying to get it into the puddle and thinking ahead, I could scoop handfuls of water onto the fire if need be. But miracle of miracles, the fire went out on its own. All this in a second or three, and somewhere in the middle I pulled the 6" long dead-man's wire link separating the batteries from the electronics. I walked the bike awhile up the sidewalk, watching the battery pack & 'tronics, and when I thought things were OK I mounted the bike (with electrics still fully, completely disabled) started pedaling home.

When I got home I cleaned stuff up and did a post mortem. The capacitor pack I had soldered to the HV-160 was half vaporized. Best I can tell, when I soldered the cap pack to the HV-160 I did not insulate it well enough. With road vibration, chafing and perhaps a little rain, the main (+) and (-) power leads seem to have shorted through some path of opportunity. All the caps seem intact, but a fair bit of the copper terminal and circuit board of the (+) side of the cap pack are completely vaporized.

I can post pix on request. Couldn't find the camera and went full steam ahead on repairs. I swapped in a spare HV-160 and so far the bike is back in action...

 

[Alan B]

Making electronics tough enough for ebikes is not easy. Was there a main fuse or breaker?

 

[MattyCiii]

Making electronics tough enough for ebikes is not easy.

Indeed. This setup has been on the bike, untouched mostly for at least a year. Lots of rain, road salt, vibration over the many days and miles in between...

Was there a main fuse or breaker?

I use a detachable link (pictured below) as the ultimate cutoff. It sits right on top of the mono tube, well in reach whether I'm on or off the bike. You can see it here:

Came in handy awhile back when I had a runaway throttle, and indeed the other day when the bike was in flames.

As a routine matter, it serves several functions. On one end there's 4 Anderson connectors, set up to take two separate 25v (12s LiPo) battery banks and combine them in serial to 50v. Somehow I feel safer with the pack voltage at 25v unless the bike is actually being ridden. But this is also practical for charging, where I have a parallel harness that charges at 25v. When getting ready to ride, I connect this end first, so the Andersons don't suffer the 50v inrush spark.

The other end is an EC5 connector. It pops and sparks when I plug it in due to capacitor inrush. I don't use a precharge resistor for simplicity. The EC5 shows a little bit of pitting from the spark after more than a year of use. It's easy enough to replace eventually once the damage becomes substantial.

 

[Alan B]

I'm going to switch from the fuse I'm using now to a solar circuit breaker. They are rated for various currents (mine is 63A rated, and will hold a bit more for awhile), and DC voltages up to various values, rated for our battery voltages. I would think that a breaker would have tripped and reduced the damage in your recent event.

I'm going to use a precharge resistor and a momentary pushbutton with the breaker to protect it.

I also use a kill switch on the handlebars, made for mopeds and small engine bikes, available online. It powers the controller logic battery voltage input, so it will kill runaway throttles etc, and it is near my thumb for quick and convenient use. With that I can activate and deactivate the bike as needed so I don't have to risk a throttle bump accident (been there, done that).