Two wheels and Electricity

java230

Adventurist
Maybe not what your expecting, but its electric bike time! I think these may be a great option for people who want something to be able to leave a base camp truck set up. Very light, bike with all mods is 42lbs on the dot, Batteries are 10lbs, that makes a pretty light and bike sized addition to a truck.

I have previously had a 250w hub motor in the front wheel of one of my bikes, it was meh, helped a bit on hills and whatnot, but when the batteries died I dumped it (this was years ago, tech has come a long ways!)

This will be my first mid drive. (Mid drive drives the crank, not a motor in the hub of the wheel) I wanted to do a mid for a couple reasons, a big heavy motor in the wheel really beats spokes and rims to death, and a mid can be mounted inside the frame, and you get to have the advantage of using the gears. Most clamp to the bottom bracket somehow and hang down, but I am making mounts for inside the frame.

The motors range from 500 watts to 7500+ if you go crazy. I settle on a DIY oriented kit, with a 3000w motor (if you run it at a full 72V). Running the motor at 52V as planned is ~2080 watts, 2kw = 2.68HP, motot is rated at 100Nm torque, so lets say we take 2/3 of that like the watts, 66Nm = 48ft lbs of torque
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The "kit" is a cyclone 3kw kit, its a Taiwanese company that makes them, and its pretty DIY. Basic BB clamp brackets are included, but its up to you to figure it out. I was planning to install in my old hard tail bike, but found a good deal on a older Intense XC frame. I want to mount it inside the frame to keep the ground clearance. This will mostly be a fun commuter bike, but there are lots of good trails around as well.

Plan for batteries is Multistar Lipo's, 52V 16ah (I already have a charger etc from RC stuff). My ride to work is 14.4 miles, so hopefully I will have enough to get there easily. I can charge at work as needed. To do this I used 2 4s packs, and one 6s, in series. These will go in a backpack.

I had the seller measure the frame opening, it looked like I would need to notch it, but it turned out to fit exactly tight between the tubes. Could not have had 1mm less space.

Frame, well a whole bike, but everything needs some love. Brakes are done, need to be rebuilt and bled (I have a new set off another bike I will use), Fork needs a full rebuild. Cables are broken. So really I bought a wheel set, frame and bars, but the price was right. Its a early 2000's Intense Tracer.
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Got the frame home and set it over the motor, I was super happy! It fit, just barely. If it needed to go any further to the drive side it would not have fit.
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Now to build the mounts. I picked up a sheet of 3/16" aluminum, a bit thicker than the stock mounts. I wanted to use the same style, clamp in with the BB and catch the motor bolts. A little bit of CAD and I have a design. It follows the down tube and catches three of the bolts on the gear side of the cyclone. These mounts need to be pretty sturdy, the motor wants to twist against them when power is applied. The Stock mounts are known to be very flexy.
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Rough cut with the jig saw (I used 3003 alu for easy cutting)
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Two of the three bolt holes are perfect, the top one was off a bit. Not sure exactly why, but sharpie, cardboard and hand drills might be part of it. I think I will be able to oval the hole enough to make it work. Luckily this one will also be tied to the suspension pivot point so I think it will be strong enough. (no the tensioner wont go there)
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This tab will help the BB not let things rotate and support the upper edge. I was only able to use 1/8" here, but its a short span.
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Hanging in place! Now to do the other side.
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The mount for the other side started with the stock bracket on the BB. I had to notch it a little for the suspension bolt. A piece of aluminum flat bar was cut the same width as the BB, I and drilled and tapped this through both of the mounting plates. It will sandwiching them together, adding a little shear, and also I can clamp around the down tube there if needed.
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Drilled and tapped for m6x1, not perfect, but it was all held in place and drilled together by my eyeballs....
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Now the two mounting plates were tied together, I needed to get something to help the motor not rotate under load. Hopefully what I came up with is strong enough, I have never done a mid drive... I used a piece of 1/8"x2" 6061, it catches the lower motor bolt, and then ties into the black plate down near the BB. Two bolts hold it in place down low.
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So at the end of the night I have a motor mounted in the frame (ignore the random hardware, I need to run to the hardware supply house and get correct stuff....), I trimmed down the connectors I would not be using off the controller, built the series battery connector, and tested the electrical side.
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Chain lines are pretty decent, although the drive chain will have a fair bit of slack to take up with the tensioner.
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Hopefully tonight I can get the bike side of things fixed up, replace the derailleur cable, swap my brakes over, fill tires etc. Need to figure out where to put the controller too, thinking a saddle bag. Then wire runs, replace the phase wire connectors with 6mm bullets and test ride! (and figure out what to do about the front shock....)



More coming soon. (I did d a test ride at 10pm last night, lets just say it was GOOD)
 
VERY cool project, thanks for sharing. I'm interested in these types of mods, looks like lots of fun.
 
Subscribed!!! I just test rode a Trek Powerfly 5. I've been wanting a e-bike to ride around town. The trek was pedal assist. I am more inclined to twist a throttle.
 
Subscribed!!! I just test rode a Trek Powerfly 5. I've been wanting a e-bike to ride around town. The trek was pedal assist. I am more inclined to twist a throttle.
I ended up with a thumb throttle, as the 'bike' people said they liked them better, I am not sure I am sold yet..... Left hand thumb is what is it now. I have heard the Trek's are getting pretty nice, but they want a pretty penny for them too!
 
Chains are on, cranks and pedals are on. Brakes are done. Controller is just temporarily zip tied on, its going to go in a saddle bag in roughly that spot. I put 6mm bullet connectors on for the phase wires, I have a 6pin waterproof one coming for the hall's. Only issue is the throttle/shifter interference. (I ended up just putting the throttle on the left side, time will tell if it stays there or not) I fired it up last night and it all spins nicely!
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It works like this, there is a freewheel on the crank (trials crank basically for bike people), both the gear that the motor drives and the gear you pedal at attached to the freewheel. The motor also has a freewheel. This allows you to pedal with the motor off, or motor without having to try to keep up with the pedals. The rear gears can be shifted lower or higher for climbing hills or speed as needed, this helps keep the motor spinning and in its efficiency range. The motor also has a planetary gearbox on the nose of it, IIRC is 6:1 ish.
 
Ill try the left thumb for the time being..... Bars done for now.
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I know SBP says these are right or left, but it was not comfortable for me, maybe I have a short thumb.... I'm making an extension, hopefully I don't break the tab off... Its just a little piece of aluminum.
rough shape. I will bolt and glue it in place.
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Batteries! These are cheap ish lipo from hobby king. 16ah worth. It's making a 14s pack.

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Made the umbilical from backpack to bike. Came out nice I think!
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Got a 6 pin waterproof connector to run the Halls through.
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Wiring the motor side.
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Braided sheath over everything coming up from the frame side.
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Feeding all the wiring into the saddle bag that will house the controller.
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Bag in place
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On the test ride!
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This is fun! Just did 5.2 miles.

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OK Parts and prices list!



3000w Kit Sick Bike Partsor Luna Cycle I used SBP as they had it in stock and are local ish to me. $350

Thumb Throttle SBP $25 (not needed, the kit comes with either thumb or half twist, but the volt gauge is only good to 48v, I wanted one that would read correctly for my 52v pack)



Batteries will get a bit more complicated, it will vary depending on how much range and voltage you want. More voltage=more speed, more amperage=more torque. The kit is advertised as 3000w, but that is at 72v. I went with a 14s pack, which is 52v nominal, and 16ah. Speedy riding is supposed to be roughly 1ah per mile. The batteries can be had anywhere between 3ah and 20ah, this will drive price accordingly. You can also make a 12s pack or a 18s if desired (simply use different number of cell count batteries).

Second note on batteries, I am using Lithium Polymer, they are very energy dense, but also want to be treated with some respect, abuse them and they can burst into a lovely chemical fire.... You will need a charger designed for them, it should be able to balance charge, you want the cells all within .05volts of each other in an ideal world. High internal resistance or cells that are at different voltages can cause the packs to melt themselves down. "puffing" is generally the first sign of a pack going south, a cell will get hot, or may not, but will start to expand, If it puffs don't keep using it (IMO!).

For a 16AH 14s pack I used

Two 4s 16000mah and One 6s Wired in series. $242.21

Charger again is up to you, make sure it can charge 6s if your using a 6s pack, some cheaper ones stop at 4s. I would suggest 10amps charge rate if you can. It takes awhile with a big pack. Most will also need a 12V power supply. (I had a charger from my RC stuff already)

Misc parts:

Lipo cell monitor. This is kinda the bare minimum system, volt gauge and a cell checker (you dont need the volt gauge...) The cell monitors have a buzzer and can be set of a cutoff voltage. Lipo packs DO NOT want to get below 3v per cell, EVER. These will warn you, I set mine to 3.4v usually. Amazon $7

Battery connectors, XT90 (i got anti spark, but you don't need, it, its just nice. The spark will erode the connectors over time.) Amazon XT90$12.99 You need at least three males, the batteries get wired in series.

So that is bare minimum, assuming your OK with clunky Chinese electrical connections, supply your own wire etc.

Total is $621.19 Not including the charger

Now a few more things I did:

6mm Bullet connectors for the phase wires, gets rid of the huge plastic things. $11.99 Amazon I got 20 pairs.... If you have a local hobby shop you could probably buy the three needed a lot cheaper.

10 gauge silicone wire. The batteries are good for 160amp currents, big wire is good. $16.59 Amazon 20'

Crank puller and BB tools, you will need them.... $8 Amazon

Connector for the hall wires (I probably would just solder them if I was doing it again, how often will I remove the motor?) $10.89 Amazon

Braided sleeve, because its awesome stuff.... NOTE the XT90 connectors do not fit through it (I found out the hard way) $15 Amazon

Saddle bag for hiding the controller and connections. Could just be zip tied. $12 Amazon



So add another $75 for all the little goddies.



So lets say $696

Charger $53 Hobby King add car battery or 12V power supply (old computer PSU or Amazon has lots)



So here is my battery charging setup.... V1.0

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Now I say V1.0 because apparently that power supply was not happy running the charger with bigger packs, its always been fine for my smaller RC packs, but I let eh magic smoke out....

NFG

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Intermediary, v2.0. Old computer power supply, you need to jumper between the green and any black wire to get them to turn on, but then black to yellow is 12V. was not getting the wattage needed for 10 amp charging still.

So v3.0 is a real power supply....

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I see you used Strava for your ride... I do hope you logged that ride as an electric bike.
 
I wish I could tell you I knew how.... I will figure it out. It was simply the first data logging bike computer app I saw....

There are a ton of cyclists out there chasing segment times all over the map for records. Not logging correctly could get your rides flagged and piss people off.

Edit your ride and use the first drop-down. Select the E-bike and all will be well.

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Did another quick ride yesterday. 2.4 miles, .84Ah used. (7.4wh). Not a very long ride, but lots of full throttle, worked out to about .35ah/mile, so my pack should do 45 miles. Need more data..... First ride with the shunt in place.

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