Semi-Recumbent Recycled-Parts Cargo eBike: "CrazyBike2"

[amberwolf]

I just welded a little piece of square tubing to the bottom of the steel headlight adjustment housing, since I took the whole unit including plug and wiring off the old 85 Ford LTD before I was forced to get rid of it by the city.

Then i drilled a hole thru the tubing, horizontally, and bolted it to an old bike headlight mount that I'd clamped around the front steering stem.
viewtopic.php?p=462420#p462420

The switch is just a 4PDT center-off toggle that's mounted in a bit of metal plate and ziptied to the handlebars, with some plastic under it to keep it from shorting. It's wired with power to the center row (all contacts together so they share the load on all four), low to the top row and high beam to the bottom row, with a big fat stud diode from some old linear PSU wired from high (anode) to low (cathode) so it can't turn on the high beam when low is selected, but turning on high beam flows both thru the switch to high beam and thru the diode to low beam. The other end of the headlight harness just goes to ground at it's common terminal.
viewtopic.php?p=469111#p469111

[amberwolf]

Had to hauld two trailer loads full of dog food today; this is where having the big cargo bike would've been handy. First load was 183.5lbs, second was 168lbs. Weight-wise I think the trailer and CrazyBike2's pods could've hauled all of it in one load, but it wouldn't have physically fit without being stacked too high and causing stability problems. So I just did two loads and only used the trailer, leaving the pods empty.

Traffic was insane on the way there for the first load, and pretty bad on the way back home with it; I guess they're gearing up for some kind of circus at the south end of Metrocenter so the whole area is crazy with traffic. Just getting onto/across westbound Dunlap was a 15-minute wait, because of traffic coming from the freeway and what was already on Dunlap, with people waiting to get into Metrocenter and those gawking at whatever was happening up there, instead of going when the light changed each time.

But the bike with the unlaoded trailer rode really well. I lashed the trailer to the bike with a steel dog tie-out cable, too, in case it's tube clamp failed or worked loose, so I couldn't lose the trailer no matter what:

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I've found that as long as I don't load outside the original framework, the trailer is pretty stable even with over 200lbs on it.(sorry I can't get focus to be consistent; I'm not sure if it's me or the camera, but focus seems to be a crapshoot these days--I take 10 pics and 2 of them might be in focus).

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Someone walking by when I was stopped at one point said "that's quite a train you've got there", and he's right.

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Cuz really, long bike is LONG:

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Some pics with no ambient lighting except a streetlight a couple hundred feet away, just the bike's own lighting. First the same side view:

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Then the right side:

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Then from behind:

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It's pretty bright and easily visible, even with no lights on the trailer itself (just reflectors) becaue of th taillight lighting up the trailer. .


The trip used a little more Wh/mile than normal, but by much, just 33Wh/mile vs the typical 27-29Wh/mile I've been getting. But it was at a much slower speed, as I stayed down around 18MPH cruising with the empty trailer, and down below 15MPH, closer to 12MPH most of the time, for the loaded trailer. Only went faster when I needed to get across or thru traffic, as it still pulls to one side a little more than the other, so it tends to wobble a bit at faster speeds, worse with higher loads on it regardless of tire pressure. It's due to the off-center mounting, I guess.


Anyway:
55m 31s trip time
10.98miles
21.2mph max
11.8mph avg

33.9Wh/mile
6.859Ah / 6.988
377Wh
63.52Amax

58.3Vstart
53.2Vrest
50Vmin

1.8% Regen
0.1259Ah Regen
-7.25A peak Regen


Also, earlier, another coworker took a ride on the bike and most definitely had the EV grin. It only took him about 30 seconds to get the hang of balancing it and steering it, though he stayed pretty slow while steering which actually makes it harder on this bike.

[amberwolf]

Longer than usual work commute next two days (probably about 24-25 miles round trip) so am adding a backup pack for this:
viewtopic.php?p=535912#p535912

[amberwolf]

Finished up the pack:
viewtopic.php?p=536242#p536242
and mounted it with pallet straps:

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It is pretty secure; a little foam under the front edge to keep it from sliding and scraping while I was tightening the straps, with the straps running in the slots for the handle so they can't slide around, then out to the triangles on the bottom of the frame. I'd like to make them tighter, but I can't pull hard enough without causing the strap to slip. Takes one hand to hold the strap clip in place, and the other to pull.

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Only test so far is a wheelspin test, am eating lunch right now then will take it for a spin.

[amberwolf]

Ride went fine, but the RC LiPo has more voltage sag than the main pack. So it doesn't accelerate as hard from a stop as with the main one.

It's only half the capacity of the main pack, too, so maybe it would be better in 3P or 4P, so I will try that later once I get more packs repaired and tested.

Anyway, I only went around the block, so here's the numbers:

1m 49s trip time
0.438miles
20.9mph max
14.4mph avg

38.9Wh/mile
0.316Ah
17.693Wh
49.91Amax

58.1Vstart
57.5Vrest
54.3Vmin

4.0% Regen
0.0123Ah Regen
-A peak Regen

The CA odo also rolled over to exactly 2400 miles as I finished. I forget now what the total is, but I think that's well over 3500 miles now total on the frame, though many things have changed on the bike during that time.

I recharged it using the bulk charger used for the other pack, which is the same desired terminal voltage.

Then last night I went off to work, which including all the roundabout ways I had to get around freeways and non-thru roads was a bit more than 13 miles, and took a bit less than an hour. Most of it I was able to stay at 19-20MPH, but there were quite a few stops/starts, and a couple places I had to go down to around 15MPH or less because of road conditions I couldn't see from the google maps satellite pics I used to review the route with beforehand. Some of those areas are in terrible shape, where even the patches over the potholes had partly or mostly disintegrated.

Thankfully there was almost no traffic at any point, so I didnt have to ride in the sometimes-unnavigable righthand edge of the road, and was able to mostly just take the lane. Other than the road conditions, it was pretty uneventful.

I changed my mind about battery use, and decided to use the ammo-can RC LiPo pack as far as it would take me, down to what should be 80% or so max discharge. At the ~1C rate I was typically using (~450W cruising, voltage sag down to anywhere from 56V at teh start to 50V at the end, during cruise; worse when accelerating), that would be about 49V or so, for 3.5V/cell, if I figured things right.

It ended up only taking about 69% of capacity to get there, though. So at a guess I could get ~15 miles range out of this pack, maybe a bit more, down to 80%, for a pack steady-state LVC of 49V. Due to voltage sag, the actual LVC can't be at that point, because it dropped to 48.8V even at the 69% SOC, during startup conditions. At a guess it'd have to be 44-45V actual pack LVC, or 3.2V-ish cell-level LVC.

I had some other thoughts, but was interrupted by doggies, and now I don't remember what they were.

So now trip data, outbound, using the 14s2p RC LiPo pack:
49m 50s trip time
13.33miles
23.5mph max
16.0mph avg

27.4Wh/mile
6.931Ah / 7.0444Ah
372.56Wh
62.42Amax

58.1Vstart
52.2Vrest
48.8Vmin

2.1% Regen
0.1508Ah Regen
-9.61A peak Regen



Homebound trip, using the main pack. Trip took longer because I missed a couple of turns that looked a lot different at dawn than they had at night, and had to go around some things, and backtrack a bit once. Was still pretty empty on the roads, though the road conditions were a bit better southbound than they had been northbound, and I could see better to avoid damaged parts of the roads, too, so I was able to maintain better speed.

55m 27s trip time
15.33miles
24.1mph max
16.5mph avg

24.1Wh/mile
6.796Ah / 6.9205Ah
374.47Wh
65.24Amax

58.3Vstart
53.3Vrest
49.6Vmin

1.8% Regen
0.1228Ah Regen
-9.696A peak Regen


Interestingly, even though I accelerated harder with stiffer voltage during accel, took longer, rode further and faster, I used less Ah and only a tiny bit more Wh (because the voltage didn't sag as much).

It might be the number of stops/starts, but they seemed similar. Didn't count them, though, so I don't know. Might be wind or slope, but I didn't notice much in the way of wind either way, besides that caused by riding.


EDTI: OH, now I remembered what I was thinking of earlier. The taillight wasn't working when I got home, but it had been when I left work. So somewhere in the 15 miles it stopped, but I dunno when. What I found after tracing the wiring was that the cord from the laptop adapter that's used to boost the pack voltage by 19V was cut thru, probably by the chain, as the zip tie had disintegrated that held the cord in a bundle to the frame.

It had very obviously shorted during the cut-thru, as both ends were blackened and melted, and I figured the adapter was toast...but after splicing and powering on, it still works just fine. I guess whoever made the crappy Averatec laptops didn't also make their AC adapters!

So taillight was at least an easy fix. At least the failure happened in daylight, rather than at night, but at night I would have at least noticed it (as it is bright enough to light up stuff beside and to the rear of the bike for some distance; easy to tell if it's on or not just looking in the mirrors).

[amberwolf]

I didn't bike to work for yesterday's trip; I was exhausted and a friend offered a ride, so I took him up on it. Glad I did because I don't htink I would have made it all teh way home wihtout either stopping for at least one nap, or probably dozing off while riding.

Which would be bad.

Also--I got paid mileage for riding the bike in; only ten bucks but it's essentially like getting paid half-time just for riding.


As it was, I still was so tired after finishing up the overnight shift on the remodel this morning, that I fixed food and then fell asleep holding it without ever geting to eat any. In the few hours I was home, I only got a couple hours of sleep (in short naps) before having to go back in to work at my regular store this afternoon; the food just went into the fridge because I was too tired to think of bringing it with me to eat before starting work (or after). I felt lke I was in a daze, but on the ride to work (a normal short commute thankfully) managed to not do anythign dumb or get run over. If there had been more traffic I might've had problems keeping track of it, but it wasn't bad; a little less than usual, actually.

I got home and fed the dogs and let them out, sat down and started to check ES, realized I was really hungry, and promptly dozed off. Woke up again a couple of times and repeated the cycle; this tiem I actually got the food started reheating (while I type this up and replied to another few posts beforehand), and am hoping to actually get to eat some of it before I doze off again. All the dogs are really really bored with me; I am just too wiped out to go out and play with them though. At least they have each other to play with.

On a good note, I apparently impressed the people in charge of the remodel enough that they asked me to help with another remodel coming up next month, on the east side of the valley. It would be good because it would net me almost twice the hours that my usual shifts would (since these days I'm back to 25-ish hours a week), and I definitely need the money.

It's about the same distance as the one I just did, though there are fewer possible routes because North Mountain is in the way; one route goes up Cave Creek Road, which goes up between two of the mountains (big hills, really), and that's a lot of elevation change over a fair distance. Problem results not from the elevation change itself, but from the length of time I'd be going uphill. I think I would wind up heating the motor a lot, and definitely using a lot of battery. If for any reason I could not recharge at the destination (charger failure, etc). I would probably not be able to make it home without way more pedalling than I would be capable of, especially after the amount and kind of work I did at this other remodel.

I'd be able to coast down the hill on the way home, probably, with little or no motor or pedalling, so that would help. I don't think I could regen down it and still keep sufficient speed, though, so I would still have only whatever the remaining charge was in the packs after the trip out there.

There are another couple of routes, but neither is all that safe using the main roads--Greenway and Bell. Both are 45MPH+ roads, and people actually drive more like freeway speeds on them thru the stretches I need to be on. Greenway is a little better in that there is a wide sidewalk/bikepath I could ride on, but not at 20MPH, so I would be riding for a lot longer time. Not normaly an issue, but on my way *to* work I like to get there early just in case of problems, so have to head out early, and also have to still leave extra time, so a 1.5 hour allotment for travel time (expected to be actually half that) would double to heading out 3 hours before Ihave to be there, and possibly just sitting around able to do basically nothing useful for quite a long time once I get there, if I'm really really early (potentially 1.5 hours early if everything goes right).

I can also take half-mile streets and side streets for the unsafe stretches, but speed can be forced down due to road condtions there, and detours are common, with either streets that don't go thru at all or that go way around "enclosed neighborhoods" that only have one way in or out.

Anyway, I have to trace out some routes with satellite imagery to see what's really up (since the maps like google maps arent' always accurate for non-main roads), and find out if there actually are usable easy routes. I also don't know if I will be approved for doing the remodel instead of my regular work shifts (it's either-or; can't do both), so this whole pondering session may prove totally useless.


Hmpf. If AZ didn't limit ebikes to 20MPH, I wouldn't have any problems--I'd just ride fast enough to keep up with traffic in the places I had to...and have a bigger battery.

And now I am off to re-reheat my food, becuase I just realized how long I have taken typing this up and rambling.

[Alan B]

Driving tired is pretty much equivalent to driving drunk. Be careful. It is not worth it if it results in an accident.

[amberwolf]

Yeah, that's the biggest reason why I got the ride from the friend instead of riding myself, that second day.

[amberwolf]

Today I decided to try fitting a couple of "spare" controllers, neither of which I've actually used yet. Turns out both have some issues, though I expected that with the second one.

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No problems each time I went back to the repaired 12FET generic "ecrazyman", so the motor, connectors, and wires are all ok.

The first is a Methods' 100V 100A 18FET "infineon", one of the (I think) XC846-chip types, from before they were programmable, IIRC. (it has the header but software available to us doesn't talk to this one, AFAIK. Haven't actually tried yet). It has a switch on it for low or high voltage use (it is where I borrowed the idea for the one on my Lyen 6FET that is on DGA).

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I'd repaired this quite some time ago, to use for the 2010 Undead Race, but I had problems after playing around with it on the Fusin and DayGlo Avenger, trying to find the Fusin's phase/hall color combo for it. I had blown another FET or more (cant' remember now), and then fixed it in time for the UR. Didn't end up using it as instead I think I used the 12FET generic one I'd replaced the melted shunt and blown caps on from Ianmcnally, but I had worked out the hall/phase combo for the 9C for it...which did not work when I hooked it up; all I got was grindiness, even off-ground.

So, I played with variations and tried the simpler method of finding the right combo, but that method didn't work. I drew up a full 36-spot grid for all possible combos,

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and went thru them, and found several rough-running forwards and reverses, and a couple of almost-normal ones for each direction. But even those were MUCH noisier than normal, even once at speed. Off-ground they would at least spin, and drew only about 1.6A once at speed, even at full speed (~40MPH off-ground). But it wouldn't even start the wheel moving when on-ground even without me on the bike. Just grindiness.

So something is still wrong with the controller. Dunno what yet; will have to start scoping it out to see what the waveforms look like, and see if they tell me which FETs are still bad or whatever.

Also, I found some oddities:
--Regen braking does not work in forward motion. I shorted BK to GND with a jumper, and verified it's connection with a meter when it didn't appear to work. Brake signal input does stop the controller, but it does not actively brake the wheel (whcih does work on the 12FET EC). There is no throttle regen, either.
--Regen DOES work in reverse. I added a switch to let me enable reverse (so I can back the bike up, finally!) from X3 to GND (note there is no DX3, just X3). During testing of braking, it actively braked the wheel when X3 was grounded.
--neither X1 nor X2 do anything noticeable in off-ground testing. Most likely the controller is not programmed for anything to be different in throttle control with them.

I did go ahead and put the 3-speed switch on the bike...on the little nub of tube I have in front of the steering pivot. Right now it is wired with X3 reverse as top position, and middle as "default" speed, and bottom as X2. The actual switch is the one that came with the first Fusin kit from Dogman; I broke the throttle assembly off of it a long time ago, but the switch is still good. If I can't use it with this controller, I can hook it up to the 12FET EC or something instead.

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Unfortunately unless I can enable forward regen, I will not be able to use this controller on this bike, because I MUST have regen braking to help me slow down--the front rim brakes are completley insufficient to do it (and even with regen it is still insufficient sometimes--it takes far too long to stop).

But at least I have learned by accident that X3 is the same as DX3, and should enable reverse on the 12FET EC, too (it also doesn't have a DX3 pad).



Next I tried a Crystalyte "48V" unit 12FET or 15FET (is as big as an 18, but PCB doesn't run full length)

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from Karma, which already had a known issue that it required starting the wheel moving forward before it would begin running. I have not finished troubleshooting, but so far only tested one combo--the very first combo I tried worked audibly better than any of the combos for the 18FET, but not as well as the 12FET EC.

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On-ground testing started to move but ground to a stop instantly. This might be a false positive or it might be that I will need to take it out on the road to test it, throttling up and pedalling hard at the same time. If I have to pedal hard with no assist to startup, I can't use this controller on this bike--my knees won't take that for long.

Regen either does not work or is not enabled on this controller, or perhaps it does not have that function avaialble. Haven't explored it yet. Brakes just turn off the motor power.

The end cap has two switches on it, neither of which were wired to anything (there are nubs cut off on one switch, and various nubs on pads inside, probably from a CA-DP connector that isn't on there anymore). The second switch with no nubs might have once been soldered to the red wire that is spliced together in a loop now, which appears to be this controller's equivalent of the "ignition" wire.

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I'll play with this more later; I had to stop to feed the dogs and myself.

I did find this LED spotlamp that Texaspyro sent to be very useful while doing the wiring combos. I just put it into a clip-on desk lamp, and clipped that to the bike frame to point it at the controller area:

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[amberwolf]

Haven't been able to get back to the controller stuff yet.

Today was VERY windy and gusty both on the way to work and coming home. I don't know what official reports are, but coming home around two hours ago was bad enough that it took up to 720W to maintain 12MPH, at times! It was close to 1300W to maintain 20MPH and I was wondering if I'd overheat the motor. It is ventilated, and I stopped to check--while pretty warm on the windings it was not hot, so I guess the wind blowing around was helping cool it.

A few times I could not even maintain 20MPH and the best I could do was 18-ish, at nearly 2KW and so I had to slow down to mitigate risk of overheating motor or controller. Only lasted at most 10-20 seconds each time but it felt like forever.

There were severe enough crosswinds to blow me into the sidewalk's curb at one point, scraping the rightside cargo pod, and another time to blow me into the lane to the left of me by over a foot before I could wrestle it back to the middle of the right lane. No traffic this time of night, so no problem, but if it had been that bad when I was on my way to work at midday, I might well have stopped for a while to see if it got better!

Occasionally the wind would push from behind, and I'd suddenly feel and hear the motor not pulling any current, yet still feel myself accelerating.

Pretty sure that instantaneous readings were correct, as when it was not gusting or I was in wind-shadow of buildings/trees/etc., readings were much more normal.

I think something must've gotten corrupt in the CA readings this trip, though, so I don't take all the data seriously--some of it is obviously wrong. Shows over 100A peak (never ever been over 60-ish before), and even regen A peak was extremely high.

At first I thought I must've forgotten to reset it after charging (since I do that htru the CA in reverse) but then it would show at least doulbe the miles (from yesterday's commute), and at least a couple of Ah of regen, from recharging. It doesnt' show either, and the uber-high MPH average reading is totally bizarre, so it's some other wierdness. I'll be resetting again after charging is done tonight (probably is now, actually) and then we'll see if the problem persists tomorrow, or if it's a one-off glitch.


25m 32s trip time
4.891miles
20.3mph max
47.8mph avg

49.1Wh/mile
2.87Ah
497.1Wh
103.5Amax

58.3Vstart
56.3Vrest
49.2Vmin

18.3% Regen
0.0051Ah Regen
-37.2A peak Regen

[amberwolf]

CA data perfectly normal for yesterday's trip, so either the power cycle or the reset fixed it. Working, anyway.

But on the ride home the rear wheel snapped a spoke, which I had to replace today. Again it's on the drive side, in the same line and series of them that broke before. Replaced easily enough, but annoying, wasting half an hour today. Plus, this rim is getting pretty untruable, and I'll have to swap it out for a different one soon.

[amberwolf]

A few days ago (friday?) it was all windy again, on teh way to work, but not so much on the way back. It was more than 60Wh/mile just to get to work, no pedalling. Took what felt like forever to get started from each stop, and watts-at-speed were as bad or worse than when the CA wasn't reading right, but this time all was normal with it; just that it took more than twice the power to reach work vs normal. The way home was pretty close to normal.

I'd written down all the numbers but got distracted before posting them, apparently, and can't find the sheet now. All I remember for sure was >60Wh/mile for the 2.2 mile trip to work, and the 68A peak current, and seeing lots of very high wattages during accelleration *and* cruise. I checked the motor temperature by hand and it was kinda warm, but not even hot-tea kinda hot, on the windings and what metal I could reach thru the large vent holes. The magnet ring, however, was notably warmer than the rest.


Also, on the way home, the lighting pack ran out, and I had to switch to the secondary one. It cut out rather suddenly, so I guess it has a BMS of some type inside it, at least for LVC. When I got home I switched back to the Ultralife pack and watched it with a wattmeter, and it went down from 11V to about 9V very rapidly (seconds) and then just shut off. So whatever cutoff it has is at that point.


The rear wheel is having more problems, though no spokes are broken, it is bent up sideways beyond the ability to retension spokes to fix. I'll have to unlace it and try rebending it flat, then relacing it. But since that is such a huge PITA and time-waster, I first have to fix up a different wheel to replace this one and use for my commuting. I figure with the little functional waking spare time I have right now it's probably going to take days to work up a wheel.


But the worst part:

The front rim, for the motor wheel, is bent too, sideways, and has been growing worse. I've already tensioned it up as much as I possibly can on several spokes, and loosening the other side doesn't help as the spokes will just rattle around. It's basically got to be unbent just like the rear rim...but I don't ahve the option of a "spare wheel" for it, as I don't have spokes to build the rotor/magnet ring off the other (9C/GM) into any of the rims I've got, at least not with any easy lacings.

I am probably going to have to try some lacings with it in various rims and see what I can do.

It wouldn't matter about it being bent, but it makes me have to keep the rim brakes looser than they should be, so I don't wear the pads out just from riding down the road, so I can't brake hard enough to stop quickly even with regen braking. If I adjust the pads for proper braking, they are worn enough from just the ride after a commute to no longer properly brake. That's a lot of wear. It's also enough to add a couple of Wh/mile to my power usage.


Same problem I had with the original Fusin on DayGlo Avenger, after bending it's rim in a skid, though CB2's problem is not nearly as bad.


If the rear rim was any better off, I would just finish what I meant to do originally and weld on brake studs for the rear wheel. But it would also just wear the pads quickly if adjusted properly. It might still help even if left adjusted loosely, so I'll probably install them.

A disc brake would be better, but I have to build a hub that has freewheel threads on one side and disc brake mounts on the other...but I only have front aluminum ones with the brake mounts, and I don't think I can succesfully reliably meld one with a threaded freewheel type. I do have a pair of steel hubs that are identical and can be mated with freewheel threads on each side, and use a thread-on disc (I have two cheap ones).

That would at least give me "reliable" rear brakes. Since I have none at all right now, that would add that much more braking power to the bike. I might be able to do both disc and rim in the rear, so we'll see what happens, when I have time to actually try doing this.

[amberwolf]

Wrenches as torque arms *can* work, but even at only 2KW max sustained, cruise 400-700W, and 300-400W regen peak, they are not a perfect solution:

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That was a nice older made-in-USA wrench, too. Not like the cheap Chinese one I bent open on DayGlo Avenger previously, and was able to sledgehammer back into clamping. This one was nice and hard and just broke instead of bending.

I don't know when it broke, but I suspect the last few days, possibly even yesterday. Starting sometime the night before, I began to hurt all over so bad that on the way to work I didn't even bother trying to help startups by pedalling. Then while at work I could feel myself coming down with a cold ro something, and by the time I was on the way home I was so sick I didn't even try to pedal or go very fast; I think my peak speed was about 15MPH. I didnt' trust my driving so I kept it slow and out of any traffic. Today I laid in bed most of the day and am now mostly over the cold I think.

So if it was already ready to go, then the strain of the power against the winds last week plus yesterday's no-pedal startups probably caused it to fail. I usually check it each ride but have not done so last couple of weeks (see what happens when you forget to check? )

I don't know which side failed first. Could've been the hose clamp on the short torque arm, which then let it wiggle and twist on that end, which could've put more stress on the wrench and broke it.


Anyway, I decided that while I was having to fix the bike anyway, I'd just setup DGA to ride to work for now, with the ammo-can RC LiPo pack running the Lyen 6FET and Fusin front hub, and get several things fixed on CB2 while it's down. I was hoping I could do most of it today, but I was too sick until a couple of hours ago, and even now am still having troulbe focusing on things, and a little dizzy, and sneezing/coughing. So I did not get a lot done.


I took the whole front fork off, wheel and all, and decided to shorten up the add-on 1-1/8" headtube that had previous caused the geometry issue leading to death-wobble and my crash and broken leg/ankle at Death Race 2011, and then install the same nicer fork that I'd used for that race. But I must've mixed up the bearings and races for that fork with another one, because the ones I have are loose and allow the whole fork to wobble around--they don't fit right in the headset either. I found some that are too big, and many that are too small, but cannot find the ones that are the right size. Also can't find any other headsets that are any differnet and will still fit in this headtube. Again--some are too big, most are too small (1").


I did some experimentation with various frames' headtubes and forks, and found that the Trek that's the front part of my new bike must be larger than 1-1/8", because it fits that double-crown Hill Assault fork just fine where the one on CB2 will not. Unfortunate since I need it on CB2, not the new bike.


I also thought I might take some of the various spokes I have, including some Ianmcnally had sent me along with a rim, and see if I could lace up that other GM/9C into a wheel. But I cannot find my red box with the spokes in it. Must be buried under something (possibly behind the several hundred pounds of dog food that's taking up a lot of the bike parts room). So no wheel building today, either. I'm just not up to moving that much stuff to find the spokes.


i am thinking that in the next few days I might, just for now, weld up a swingarm for a regular bicycle wheel (rather than the one for the MC wheel using NV as jackshaft), and use a front hub on the new bike, just to get it going as a spare bike, while I continue to collect the parts to build the MC wheel the way I need to. I haven't yet got a seat made for the bike, or the cargo frame. STill have to decide if I am going to permanently mount the seat or make it removable/adjustable. But that's all for the new bike, so I'll psot about that in it's thread when i have more info.

[amberwolf]

Been too many things going on to get much done on CB2, and nothing on the new bike. Had to fix the fence at the driveway gate--apparently if whoever built the fence bothered with concrete to hold the posts in, they didn't do it very close to the surface. So it rusted thru a few inches down, and when I opened the gate on Friday when doing yard work to get the mower and stuff thrru, the gate almost fell off the fence. All that was holding it up was the chainlink wired between the hingepost and the vertical post next to it.

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I started to dig it out to fix it, but for unknown reasons, when i went back inside to get some tools, Fred and Nana started a fight with each other (no idea who started it, it was just before I got to the porch to open the door). I didn't get hurt very much getting them apart, and all they had was scratches, but teh bruising on my right hand was enough to not only stop me from digging the post out, but also to do much work on the bikes.

For now I just hammered in some conduit into the ground either side of it and wired it to that, but I need to finish digging it out of the ground and weld a new piece across the rusted-out section. Then wrap it all up in plastic and re-bury it.



Today my hand isn't aching much so I started at least working on the wheel-lacing. In this case I decided to lace the GM/9C into a 24" rim. It's meant for CB2 but I can also use it for the new bike until I get a chain drive going, if I have to.

I am nowhere near finished with the lacing, but it is started. I don't have spokes anywhere near the right length to lace it up, but I borrowed Karma's idea:
viewtopic.php?p=301135#p301135
which has worked for years for him, on a bike of similar weight to DayGlo Avenger. I took spokes off an old ten speed bike's wheel, since i have a number of those that I will almost certainly never use as complete wheels. Then I marked the spokes before I started bending and lacing them, but I won't be sure that I did it right until I am actually done. I figure on having to do it twice before I get it good enough.

The biggest problem I have is that the only suitable rim I have is pretty out-of-true: it's the one I had used on CB2 for the DeathRace 2011, that got bend up from sideloading/bouncing in the trailer on the way there. But it is the only one I have that can be even reasonably trued well enough to work properly with rim brakes, and rim brakes are still all I have for CB2.

I have about another 22 hours before I have to get ready to leave for my long commute, the first of 2 weeks' worth. I doubt I will be taking CB2 for it at least the first day or two, maybe more. DGA will have to do the job instead.

I'll have a 3-day weekend Fri Sat Sun to maybe get it ready for the commute the second week, if I don't get it before then.

[amberwolf]

I rode DayGlo Avenger for the past few days, Mon-Thu. On Fri morning, on my way home from work, the Fusin geared hubmotor failed, when the clutch cracked, leaving it unable to transfer motor power to the wheel. I got that fixed well enough to get home, but DGA needed a new clutch. Since it turned out to be impossible with my tools of the moment to remove the clutch from the existing motor, or a spare clutch from a dead motor, I decided to fix up CrazyBike2. If I failed at that, I coudl always move it's 9C hubmotor wheel over to DGA in place of the Fusin, and that wouldnt' take very long.


So far it has been a success, though rather than a repair it turned into a major remodel of the bike. I have not road tested it yet as it is pouring rain outside just now, about 4am on Sunday. If it stops for a moment I'll take it out and we'll see how it performs.

As a summary:
--I moved the 26" motor wheel to the rear.
--Added a freewheel thread to it off an old rear hub.
--Installed a single-speed freewheel to that.
--replaced the front crappy fork with a slightly better Suntour identical to the one I used at DeathRace2011, but this one is from Mdd0127.
--Welded a disc brake mount on that fork.
--used the 24" disc brake wheel from the old Mongoose originally bought from Goodwill for that specific purpose.
--replaced the 160mm disc with a 180.
--installed a YUS caliper for the disc.
--lengthened the steering tie rod and affixed it to the clamp-on "stem" on the new fork.
--bolted the headlight to the front of that stem in place of handlebars.
--moved the controller from the front triangle to just in front of the seat under the center toptube.

There may end up more changes by the time I'm done. I should have pics up in a little bit; been trying to take them as I did the work so there are mroe than a few.

I want to also cut off the rim brake studs and reinforcing U-bar from the fork and move them down to the 24" wheel position, but that depends on handling with the disc brakes. Having both woudl be ideal. But it might not be necessary: I also have an identical wheel to this 24" in a 26", from Mdd0127. WIth that I can use disc and rim brakes at the same time on this fork.

Right now I only have regen braking for the rear, but now at least I *have* rear brakes. I want to weld on studs for rim brakes, but probably wont' have time to do it for now. I would have had time for this and more, but I was so exhausted when I got home Friday morning (almost midday, actually) that I slept almost all day and night, only getting up to eat something and feed the dogs, and I think I may have browsed the forum and/or posted here and there (can't remember) and then slept more until almost all the way thru Saturday, too, wiht a little forum browsing that I do remember vaguely.

But while sleeping I dreamed the solutions to the bike problems, and woke up actually still remembering them in detail, which is unusual these days.

More later after "dinner".

[amberwolf]

How to turn a front 9C hub into a rear:

First, this old hub (originally from DayGlo Avenger, when I tried JBWeld to hold sprockets to it for my first motorization attempts. )

DSC06163.JPG (32.94 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

And cut the threaded end off including it's spoke flange:

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Then because the bearing hole is not big enough for the 9C axle to pass thru, I had to tap out the bearing cup (cuz I haven't got a drill bit that will enlarge the hole) and the cylinder behind it. I had an old fork tube from a wrecked fork that I'd taken the disc brake mounting from, months ago (which I used on the Suntour fork today), which was just bigger at it's top than the part of the hub I needed out of the flange. I set it on top of the tube, and used a worn chisel and a hammer to tap it out--it only took one hit.

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So I was left with just the flange and the threaded part of the hub:

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which of course is too large to fit over the motor hub's cover "stump"--but I knew that would be the case.

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So then I had to cut off that stump, which should be safe because the only thing it does is keep the bearing inside the motor, and does not appear to be a support for anything. It might add a bit of strength to the hub there, but hte bearing itself does not ingress into this stump, and stops level with the cover edge.

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So now the hub flange will seat against the cover, so that it can be bolted to it.

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Next step is marking the points to drill for bolts.

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All i have for bolts of the right approximate length, that might be strong enough to handle pedal torque if I have to use it, were 1/4"-20 bolts, 1.25" long I think. I ended up grinding down the ends a little to ensure they cleared the left side of the freewheel.

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I forgot to take a pic of the slots I cut in the spoke flange for the bolts.

One of the things I want to do but don't have time for right now is to shape and drill some scrap aluminum into little wedge-nuts to go under the washers, to keep everything straight and ensure better force-transfer:

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Here's the freewheel threaded on:

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ANd here's what it would look like (using the GM stator) in a Diamondback Coil frame's rear dropouts, which are wider than the ones on CrazyBike2 by a considerable amount:

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Then I took the 9C wheel off CrazyBike2's old crappy fork, and took of the rightside cover to replace it with the one above. Here's a shot of the windings and such, with no signs of damage or even much dust. That should tell you how little airflow there must actually be into or out of the motor, given the many miles (at least several hundred, probably more than a thousand) since I put the drilled-out covers on there. I have to wipe dust and dirt off the CA and mirrors several times a ride, yet there is not even that much dust on the entire stator inside these drilled out covers--if there was a lot of airflow they should be FILLED with dirt, especially given how close to the road they are.

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Before installing the "new" right side cover with freewheel, I added vent holes only at it's outer edges of the bell, for exhaust of air that can come in on the left side's much larger center holes.

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Since the freewheel sticks way out from the axle shoulders, I used the axle washer at those shoulders, as normal, and then added a slice off the same handlebars I used one end of for CrazyBike2's trailer hitchpost, as a spacer tube:

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I forgot to take a pic of it, but I also used the torque washer on the outside of the spacer tube, inside of the dropouts, to try to help with torque reaction, as there will not be space for a torque arm on this side.

Here's the front 9C now mounted on the rear:

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As hose clamps are obviously insufficient (given that mine broke, and even the wrench snapped), I bolted the torque arm that came with the 9C from Lyen to the accessory mount on the frame:

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[amberwolf]

Adding the disc brake mount:

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My welding is MUCH better with this new welder; Im still not perfect but at least I TRUST these welds.

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ANd here is the best use of SLA.

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I needed to hold the bike off teh ground completely, so I stacked them up under it beore taking off the wheels.


Here's how I setup the steering and stem clamps:

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It is basically the same as when I used an identical fork for DeathRace 2011, but at a different front height because of both the wheel sizes and the slight cutting down of the front headtube, so it doesn't get the death shimmy.

Not having a regular "threaded" stem to put the headlight clamp on, I bent the mount and screwed it into the stem's clamping holes instead.

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The controller was moved from the front triangle to the center toptube instead:

DSC06201.JPG (48.21 KiB) Viewed 1026 times

[amberwolf]

Finished the rest, including installing the fenders cuz I don't need to get soaked from the puddles if it isn't still raining when I go to work tonight. Not much avoiding the rain itself, if it happens; I don't have a raincoat anymore apparently.

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Rain stopped at dawn, so I took it for a test ride. Had to do various adjustments at points along the 5-mile ride around the neighborhood, especially the brakes haivng to be readjusted almost every time I used them. It got a little better each time, but I'm thinking these YUS calipers just aren't worth the powder to blow them up. I'll wait till they "wear in" and see how it goes from there, but just in case I am going to bring a couple of other calipers with me since they're relatively easy to swap out on the road if I have to. Rotor seems fine.

Braking from 20MPH is improved, but I can't lockup the wheel, still. It does lockup once I get down to 8-9MPH or so, but then a new problem crops up--judder.

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The headset keeps working loose, no matter how much I tighten it down. It is a threadless, and I am sure I do not have all the right components for it. I used a bearing race for the top of the steerer identical to the one on the bottom, and bearings that fit those as closely as I could, along with the headset races. But they don't fit perfectly. If I hammer down the clamp on the steerer while it is partially tight, and then tighten it down thoroughly, it stays for a little bit, but as soon as I rock the bike back and forth with the brakes on, or do a hard stop, it gets a little loose. Never a lot, just a little, just enough to judder during braking after that, and to feel a little vibration thru the steering.

Teh good news is that even this cheap Suntour fork is MUCH MUCH better than the crappy junk I had on there before. I deliberately rode thru the worst stuff in teh neighborhood, and whiel I can feel it, it doesn't shake so hard that I have troulbe steering, or feel like the rim is being flattened into a square.

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Also, between the fork's supsension and the geometry changes (swapping 24" and 26" rear to front, and the more forward fork position and length), it rides much better over the wide speedbumps. Used to I'd have to slow to 13MPH or so to avoid being heavily jostled and virtually slammed down at the end of one, but now I can go up to 17-18MPH or even a bit more before getting that kind of treatment, on what should be 20MPH speed bumps. Dunno what it'll be like on the narrow bumps like many parking lots have. Probably no different--those just suck.

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It feels quite different from the way it did before; I think I like this better except for the headset-caused issues. I am going to have to figure out how to fix that, ASAP. I think I can live with it for tonights' commute--I don't have time to fix it anyway, cuz I have to go get some sleep soon.

Gonna take some more riding to get used to the differences in feel, though.

[amberwolf]

Commute went well, no adventures.

Everythign worked as expected, though I didn't slam the power on at any point and always helped pedal startups, from middle gear (which is good to about 10MPH at most before I'm pointlessly spinning). I actually only have two gears now, big chainring and middle, as the derailer is not made for this crankset so it doesn't have enough range for that big a difference in size (28-48, IIRC). I don't have a shifter on it, I just move it by hand, with the derailer only there as a guide to keep the chain from falling off or into the wrong chainring if it derails while pedalling over bumpy roads. But having to do it by hand I can't shift on teh fly, only at a stop. the big chainring is good for about 15-17MPH.

The startup pedalling is only so there is less stress on the axle/torque arm, as it is a single one now, until I get the chance to weld up some clamping dropouts I have two perfect pieces of metal for this, salvaged from a fixture being tossed out during the remodel, but have to do some serious grinding and filing and a bit of welding before they can be ready to put onto the bike. They're about a cm thick, I think. Have to measure them. I probably wont' have the chance to do this until Friday or Saturday, my next days off.

I don't really pedal, but rather just ghost pedal, once I am started up. Even the ghost pedalling is not done on the streets or bike lanes, just when on bike paths/sidewalks, but that is about 10 miles of my current route to work, out of almost 17 miles total. The rest is all on the streets.


The one serious problem I need to deal with is the headset looseness. It causes a reaction against the steering tie rod point that twists the front wheel to the left during braking, which means that the bike pulls to the side when braking even a little, and it's pretty bad when I slam on the brakes from 20MPH.

The next problem is with the YUS calipers--they are cheaply made, and wiggle all over the place during braking, making it hard to modulate them much without lots of vibration or shuddering, often accompanied by screeching or squealing with a vibrato effect. If I hard brake, that doesn't happen the same or as much, just hwen trying to slow a little bit, especially at 12-15MPH.

I also am having a slight problem with the speedo part of the CA, and I haven't figured out if it is the sensor or wiring or the CA itself. Sometimes it reads 0.00MPH when I drop below 12MPH or so. Sometimes it's fine. It uses the reed pickup, which is on the rear wheel now. I thought it might be magnet placement/alignment, so I fiddled around with that but it didn't change anything. Haven't been able to check anything else yet.

The most annoying but still very minor problem is the rear fender. Because it's a bigger wheel, the fender is larger and sticks farther forward, so it sits right up against the back/bottom of the seat mesh. If I sit back in the seat or push hard while pedalling at startup, it pushes the fender down against the tire by pushing the front edge of the fender back. I may have to bend the fender or spread out/flatten it's front end, which I don't want to do because this is the fender intended for the Nishiki build cuz it's a nicer one. What I will probably do instead is make new mount points for the red 24" fender I used to have on here, and install it in place of the bigger black one, and then add some plastic or metal flashing down in front of the wheel since the smaller fender won't be long enough to reach under the seat anymore (or else not enough to reach all the way to the back). I do need to deal with this soon, because I need the fender cuz of the rain we're having this week, and the tire is already in bad enough shape withotu fender cuts in it.



The motor in the rear wheel between the two metal boxes is much louder during the resonant grindy-sounding parts, like startup, 15MPH, and 20MPH. I had to stick some foam in the bottom of the right pod (which is usually just bare metal) to get it down to tolerable levels. It's better with my full face helmet on, which I wore today because of the rain, but with a bike helment on it's pretty loud. I may add some egg-crate foam to scatter noise on the *outside* of the pods where they face the wheel.

Other than that, I like the motor on the back better than on the front. It makes it far easier to move the bike around when parked, because I can easily lift up teh fornt of the bike to pivot it around the rear tire or a cargo pod corner. Also much easier to do off-ground testing of the motor. Either just rest a pod corner on ground and then lever bike up a bit to get wheel off ground, or stick stuff under both pods to hold the whole backend up off the ground.

It also seems to handle better, but it is difficult to tell whether that is because of the geometry change or the weight shift or something else. Turns at speed are still hard to do but I think it is beause of the headset issue and me not being used to the new setup yet. I keep going way too wide even though i can actually tilt much further over in a turn without scraping a pod now, because of the greater rear wheel diameter holding the pods further off ground.

More later as I think of it. For now, ride data:

To work (north on 31st ave to greenway, sidewalks on greenway to 44th st, 44th st to bell and around the corner to work):
1h 14m 42s trip time
16.27miles
19.9mph max
13.0mph avg

22.7Wh/mile
6.75Ah
374.6Wh
49.79Amax

58.3Vstart
53.2Vrest
49.7Vmin

1.6% Regen
0.1101Ah Regen
-6.865A peak Regen


Back home (reverse of above route):
1h 13m 34s trip time
16.71miles
22mph max
13.0mph avg

21.3Wh/mile
6.063Ah
362.87Wh
59.28Amax

58.3Vstart
53.0Vrest
49.3Vmin

1.6% Regen
0.1066Ah Regen
-9.18A peak Regen

[amberwolf]

I'm definitely getting used to riding the new geometry. I am still having trouble with the headset rattle; it causes bump-steer, too, as well as brake steer. It's not terrible, but it is problematic.

Today I chose to ride the streets only, up 31st ave to Greenway, then east on Greenway to 44th St, north on 44th to Bell then to work. I only had one car zoom agressively past me barely changing lanes; everyone else courteously changed fully to one of the other lanes, and often signalled.

This was more efficient riding, essentially without having to stop except the usual dozen or so stops I must do on the first two miles as I head thru Metrocenter from home, to get to 31st Ave. There are a couple of mid-mile stop signs from there to Greenway, but I made all but one of the lights by timing arrival shortly after cars got there to trigger them. Same with the lights on Greenway itself; had to stop at two but made the rest. I got 26.5Wh/mile out of the trip.


On my way home, I rode streets only, as well, but a slightly different route just to see. I took Bell to 44th St, then 44th south to Greenway, then Greenway east to Cave Creek Rd. South on CCR down the mountain (with a couple of slight uphills first, one of which took about 1200W to sustain 20MPH, for a bit over a minute before cresting the hill--pedalling would've been pointless as it doesn't help past maybe 17MPH). CCR ends at 7th St and Dunlap, where I continued west on Dunlap to 28th ave and then south to home. I had only one stop the whole way home. That and the long downhill on CCR gave me 22.8Wh/mile.

I couldn't quite coast down the hill, but I didn't need nearly as much power as normal to maintain 20MPH. At one point, I was able to coast down at 24.0MPH, no power at all. That lasted about 20 seconds, then I began slowing, and about 2 minutes later I had to start powering up again to bring up from around 19MPH to 20.


On the way home I had an extra 25lbs with me, as I had saved some square tubing from a dog-clothing fixture being tossed out.

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I also saved all the allen-head (5mm) bolts from it, since I can use these for the bike and stuff. I wanted to save more of it, but couldn't haul it home, it's just too big of pieces to fit on the bike, and I don't think I would risk hauling a trailer full of stuff on the paths I'd have to take. I'd ahve to take the full lane the whole way, cuz the trailer would never make it thru the problems at the side of the road, and weaving in and out of the lane constantly would be even more dangerous. Too much chance of cars just running right over the trailer, or clipping it, and I couldn't just dash out of their way unlike just with the bike.


It was FRIGGIN COLD on the way there and on the way home, though; even more than yesterday after the rains. My hands were practically numb from the cold even with the snowboarding gloves and their inner liner gloves, over the fingerless gloves. Legs were warm enough with two pair of sweatpants plus my work pants, and torso and arms ok with work shirt, sweater, and leather jacket, and head warm enough with the FF MC helmet even with the shield up (though my nose was cold). Even right now, 1030am, an hour and a half after getting home, it's still only 55F out there, despite being sunny. I dunno what it was while I was riding, but it felt well below freezing with windchill, and maybe not too far above freezing in actual air temperature.


I still don't like the Cave Creek Road downhill run in the bike lane becuase of the large deep pits frequently blocking more than half of the bike lane, forcing one to end up mostly in the rightmost traffic lane instead, since some of those pits are several inches deep--I'd hesitate to ride thru them even on a motorcycle--hit them wrong and you could lose steering control, and wipe out ending up under other traffic. On most bicycles you'd probably break the front wheel, and quite possibly endo. To avoid them I took the regular lane as much as possible for the long stretch that had them. No one seemed to have a problem with me and passed me normally in the other lanes.


Now for the ride data, trip to work first:
56m 38s trip time
16.25miles
22.2mph max
17.2mph avg

26.5Wh/mile
7.977Ah
432.93Wh
63.5Amax

58.3Vstart
52.6Vrest
49.1Vmin

0.9% Regen
0.0725Ah Regen
-8.64A peak Regen



Then the trip home:
47m 12s trip time
13.91miles
24.0mph max
17.0mph avg

22.8Wh/mile
5.855Ah
322.86Wh
59.58Amax

58.0Vstart
55.4Vrest
49.7Vmin

1.9% Regen
0.1141Ah Regen
-9.5A peak Regen

[mdd0127]

It's good to see you putting some of that stuff I gave you to good use! You're probably going to end up with a brand new, never installed suntour v3 xct fork soon too. No one seems interested in it....even at $35! I'm definitely getting you a nice pile of useful goodies together and will bring it on my next trip down.....unless you feel like hooking up the trailer and heading north!

The front to rear hub motor magic is awesome btw!

As far as your commute goes, is there any reason why you can't just take an entire lane on the road, blatantly, and just let the cars go around? You have awesome lighting and clearly can use a large portion of the lane without causing too much confusion. You might need one of those reflective triangles on the rear like tractors and amish buggies use but it might be totally legal and much easier that way. You'd just have to fend off the negative energy of all of the idiots in a hurry to go nowhere that get stuck behind you. My old military truck was that way. At first, I could feel the negativity behind me and it stressed me out but eventually, I started to get a kick out of how upset people would get because they had to slightly nudge their steering wheel and go around. Most of the streets I saw down there were 35-45mph zones and I'm pretty sure you have the same rights as a car. It would be ballsy for sure but would start setting the stage for people getting used to smaller lighter, slower, but waaaaay more efficient vehicles being on the road. Lead the way and others will follow! (but be safe ) What do recumbent trike riders do, one wheel on the curb and the other in the gutter? The ones I've seen just take the whole lane.

I'd love to come down and ride/play some music soon but probably won't be able to until after May 2nd. We're still building stuff like crazy, trying to get everything ready for the Mexican 1000. I'm donating my time and skills to the effort so I'm barely making enough to eat, much less travel! After the race, I have some good paying work lined up a lot closer to you so that should be cool!

Take it easy!

Danny

[amberwolf]

It's good to see you putting some of that stuff I gave you to good use! You're probably going to end up with a brand new, never installed suntour v3 xct fork soon too. No one seems interested in it....even at $35! I'm definitely getting you a nice pile of useful goodies together and will bring it on my next trip down.....unless you feel like hooking up the trailer and heading north!

I dun think I could make it up there with the bike and trailer. I'd need a few recharges along the way--I might make it in a 2-day trip if I carried all of my batteries, cuz I'd have to go pretty slow to use part of them (the TS 10s 60Ah cells), and I'd have no way to recharge the TS cells after getting there, unless you happen to have something that could charge them back up.

So I'll have to wait for your next trip down. I definitely appreciate whatever you're getting rid of, and like I said before, if it isn't very much I can also offer whatever you'd've gotten scrapping/recycling it.

There is a chance I might get a friend to take me up there, like last time (but a different friend). Depends on what days you'd be avaialbe if I could come up there;

The front to rear hub motor magic is awesome btw!

It was kind of a desperation move, which I wouldn't even have tried if I didn't have two sets of covers and two (different but interchangeable) stators and two magnet rings, in case I really screwed it up. Hopefully it will inspire others to try something similar, only better.

But it was the only way I could use disc brakes in the front without the custom disc I made from scrap metal for the hubmotor's cover bolt ring, and welding a caliper mount to that hill-assault fork (that doesn't fit any of the steel headtubes I have except the one already on the new bike frame ). I still want to do that giant brake disc, but I have to get the right cover bolts for it first. I think I want to try it on the rear, since welding a caliper mount there ought to be easy enough, compared to on the fork. Should be plenty of clearance.


Speaking of clearance, apparently the frame flexes enough in the rear triangle to cause some tire rub during regen braking. It *only* happens then, not during accel or if I only brake with the front disc. I can't tell but I think that the dropouts themselves might be flexing, along with the thin stays.

The flexing itself isn't an issue, but the tire rub is--this is the thin sticky compound Cheng Shin I like on the front, one of which had a thread failure on the tread section, and then split the casing along the tread. The one now on the rear is showing two bulges on teh sidewall, probably from damage from friction heating as it rubs on the frame. The bulges stick out more and rub earlier and for more time, and harder, which exacerbates the problem.

So, I need to change the tire before I have a failure. I don't know which one I want to put on there, because I would like one that is going to be tough enough to last a while, and is also going to help with traction, etc., but not have a high rolling resistance or bumpy ride.

I've got four "tough" candidates, but all are knobbies.

DSC06212.JPG (108.23 KiB) Viewed 979 times

Two are in this category only because they are thicker walled and treaded, the Kenda \

DSC06215.JPG (117.23 KiB) Viewed 979 times

and the Tiandi.

DSC06214.JPG (92.09 KiB) Viewed 979 times

The Maxxis

DSC06216.JPG (86 KiB) Viewed 979 times

and the Specialized

DSC06213.JPG (104.67 KiB) Viewed 979 times

seem to be made well enough as well as being thick. None of them have all that much wear, I think. But the Specialized whcih is the best of the bunch (rated for 85PSI vs 65 on all the others) is also very much wider than the others, not only wide in the tire itself, but extra knobbies on teh edges add like 5mm on each side.

I know that it will not clear the frame, unless I cut off all those side knobbies, or somehow spread the frame at the tire area; I dunno what that would do to the frame strength. So I'd rather not do it.



In other news, I fixed some of the shudder during braking with the disc brakes in front. I could not tell before for some reason, but when I stopped to bang at the headset again today, I found that the cone nuts on the axle/hub in front were not fully seated, so the whole wheel had some left/right play/wobble. Not very much, but enough to feel it rocking the tire left/right. While still on the sidewalk, I stuck the FF MC helmet under the bike near the cranks to hold the front end up, then took the wheel off and adjusted the cone nuts, whcih when put back on fixed the worst of the brake shudddering--there is still some because of the headset looseness, but it is not as bad.

Befoe, it would rattle around during all braking. Now it is only during light to moderate braking, while modulating the brakes to slow rather than stop. Worst druing right turns. Heavy sudden braking fully locks up the headset into it's rear-dragged position, so it doesn't have a shudder problem.


One other thing I would like to change is the steering ratio. It is too sensitive. I thought I had calculated and measured things to keep it the same as it was before, but apparently not.

As far as your commute goes, is there any reason why you can't just take an entire lane on the road, blatantly, and just let the cars go around? You have awesome lighting and clearly can use a large portion of the lane without causing too much confusion. You might need one of those reflective triangles on the rear like tractors and amish buggies use but it might be totally legal and much easier that way.

It's theoretically legal anyway, depending on road conditions. Whether I get harassed by police about it would depend on whether any pissed off drivers call me in or something, or if the police see lots of cars doing stupid things passing me, and then do what they usually do--remove the slow vehicle from the road rather than catch the idiot drivers and teach them how they *should* pass slow vehicles.

I think if I were to take a whole lane on either Greenway, Bell, or Cave Creek, I'd need to to have one of those super-bright sequential flashing arrows like construction and cleaning vehicles often have. I've considered one before, but if I had to do this commute for another couple of weeks, I'd build one for sure. It's not really needed for most of my riding, as I can usually either stay on slower main streets or on side streets.

I try not to go places where the only option is to go thru roads like CCR, Bell, or GW, which are all 45MPH for most of the length I have to go on, but are the only roads around the mountain, with sidestreets nonexistent for parts of the journey and discontinuous most everywhere else. That makes it impractical to take side streets. Sidewalks are possible but only practical for a small part of teh journey, unless I don't mind taking a significantly longer time to reach my destinations up there. But sidewalks are dangerous unless they have nothing crossing them, and are nice and wide, and in very good condition. None of those is true for most of the sidewalks in the valley, and even when one is true usually the others aren't.

You'd just have to fend off the negative energy of all of the idiots in a hurry to go nowhere that get stuck behind you. My old military truck was that way.

But it is also quite a lot bigger than my bike, and unlikely to have someone run over it if they either don't notice the speed difference thru obliviousness, or if they are just mad and can't be bothered to follow the rules of the road or even just do the safe thing and pass in the next lane.


I don't have a problem with the attitudes themselves, as I'm used to that, just the possibility of someone not bothering to change lanes enough and running right over me. I suppose in theory taking the lane fully gives me more options for getting out of their way if I had to, but I don't know if it is true or not.

Anyway, it's a thought.

Most of the streets I saw down there were 35-45mph zones and I'm pretty sure you have the same rights as a car.

I do, *but* am required to ride "as far to the right as is practicable", whatever "practicable" is supposed to mean. I'm also supposed to ride at most in the center of the rightmost lane, or to the right. Given road conditions, sometimes even the center of the lane isn't far enough left to clear the untravellable portions of the road. Mostly even just a little between center and right is far enough, but hardly ever is it really possible to stay all the way to the right for more than a few dozen or a few hundred feet.

It would be ballsy for sure but would start setting the stage for people getting used to smaller lighter, slower, but waaaaay more efficient vehicles being on the road. Lead the way and others will follow! (but be safe )

There are a lot of cyclists on the road now, but so many of them are the same idiots that drive cars without knowing or caring about the rules of the road (such as not drinking and driving, which is probably why they are riding bikes now), that I think they are causing a significant amount of the aggravation many drivers have with cyclists. There are also aggressive cyclists (even lycras) that get in the way of faster traffic when they have no right or even need to; I've seen one of them twice now (same one I think) on my morning ride home, that cycles on the righthand side of eastbound Greenway, sometimes almost in teh gutter but sometimes suddenly just swinging out left way into the lane even though cars were coming right up behind him--and he NEVER looked and had no mirror on helmet or bars.

He also had no road-condition reason to swerve; I have ridden that same path several times now, and while the road has separation cracks several dozen feet apart all down that stretch of road, they're not that bad even on my heavy bike; on a light road bike they'd probably be trivial even at the 15-20MPH he was going.

But in all cases of swerving out, there were cars coming, and all of those had to brake (screeching in some cases) and swerve left around him. Since I was riding the other direction (but on the same side of the road, as I was on the sidewalk at that time) I only had him in view for a short time each time, so I assume he's doing that kind of thing all along his ride path, however long that is. I imagine it would piss off drivers a lot. It would more than irritate me, and I might ride up next to him and wave him over to try to tell him what he is doing is going to get him hurt or killed, or cause an accident between cars. I doubt it would help, though.

What do recumbent trike riders do, one wheel on the curb and the other in the gutter? The ones I've seen just take the whole lane.

Trikes haven't any choice--the whole lane is the only option. Almost no bike lane is wide enough, because here they often include the gutter as part of the bike lane's width, which of course is stupid and pointless, especially with storm drains in it that would break your wheel and throw you off the bike into traffic if you actually tried to ride thru them.

Even most sidewalks aren't wide enough for a trike at any real speed, because they are just wide enough for a wheelchair in many cases, sometimes maybe 1.5x that. In rare cases there are paths like the one for a few miles on greenway that are 5-6 feet wide, and those are actually usable...but often the concrete sections are sinking at angles or different rates, as the sand under them gets washed out by rains and sinkholes, so there can be "cliffs" between sections of up to 3-4 inches, and commonly at least an inch to 1.5 inches, and less often 2 to 2.5 inches. . Or construction workers have lifted the sections out to do work under them, then dropped them back in in a "roof peak" fashion, making a huge peaked double "ramp" with it's center 4-6 inches higher than it's ends, over about 2-3 feet length depending on how big the sidewalk sections are.

Anyway, no point complaining; they're not gonna do anything about it, even if they had any budget for it.

I'd love to come down and ride/play some music soon but probably won't be able to until after May 2nd.

That's ok. Maybe I can even get time off by then.

We're still building stuff like crazy, trying to get everything ready for the Mexican 1000. I'm donating my time and skills to the effort so I'm barely making enough to eat, much less travel! After the race, I have some good paying work lined up a lot closer to you so that should be cool!

That should be interesting to participate in. I kinda wish I could help out, but I haven't any time off for a while, nor anyone I'd trust the dogs with.

It'll be nice to see ya again when you get back this way afterward, too.

[amberwolf]

I forgot to post the ride data from yesterday (actually I fell asleep before adding it in). I think I rode 31st ave up to GW then across to 44st up to bell, all on the street, but I forget exactly. On the way home I know I took Bell to 44th then south to GW then east to CCR, then on dunlap to 28th and home from there.

to work
51m 34s trip time
15.1miles
22.9mph max
17.5mph avg

28.1Wh/mile
7.876Ah
427.4Wh
61.96Amax

57.9Vstart
52.5Vrest
49.2Vmin

1.1% Regen
0.0898Ah Regen
-8.59A peak Regen

to home
53m54 s trip time
14.33miles
23.5mph max
15.9mph avg

21.8Wh/mile
5.717Ah
327.58Wh
59.18Amax

58.3Vstart
53.9Vrest
50.3Vmin

1.8% Regen
0.1085Ah Regen
-9.72A peak Regen





Today I rode the same to work path, all on streets, and then on the way home I took bel to 44th st then to gw all teh way west to 29th ave, wher ei met a friend for breakfast. when we were done i went hom via 31st ave, stopping at peoria and 28th at my regular workplace for next week's schedule, then going home via my usual normal from-work commute thru metrocenter.

It appears to be pretty economical on power to ride around 20MPH on the nearly-non-stop greenway for 2/3 of the trip, as my wh/ mile to work was only 25.8, and going home only 21.5 (similar to CCR with all the downhill runs, though GW is a much gentler downslope).


work
58m 2s trip time
15.64miles
23,5mph max
16.3mph avg

19.43Wh/mile
6.9Ah
404Wh
61.75Amax

58.3Vstart
52.8Vrest
49.9Vmin

0% Regen
0Ah Regen
-0A peak Regen


home
1h 4m 55s trip time
18.26miles
23.4mph max
16.8mph avg

21.5Wh/mile
7.211Ah
392. 66Wh
62.86Amax

58.3Vstart
Vrest 52.9
Vmin gx 50.1

0% Regen
0Ah Regen
-0A peak Regen



I stopped due to numb hands about 3 miles from home, and looked at the bike whil estopped. I found that the left motor axle nut must be stripped, because it is finger-loose, and hand-tightening it just spins it, never getting tension. I hpe it is the nut and not the axle, cuz I can find another nut. Otherwise it is down to clamping dropouts from now on, which I don't have time to fabricate until after this workweek is over. This does explain the movement during regen though. So it's good that I decided against using regen at all before I left for work this "morning" (last night).

I also found the bolt that connects the lower cargo pod rail on the left to the bike frame has lost it's nut. I must've failed to retighten it properly. Since I don't have another nut to replace it with, I have to remove the entire bolt and replace both, which due to it's length and placement means removing the left cargo pod to do it. More work I don't have time for and am way too tired to be doing.


Yet more work to do: Those tire bulges are getting worse and at least one sidewall crack is visible on one bulge, so I must replace the tire before leaving for work tonight. I'm unable to hold tools right now; too tired, can barely type this up (can't sleep yet cuz of caffiene keeping me awke for the ride home and stuff, hping to nod off while typing this like i did yseterday). so after a nap i have to change the tire. For now I will try the Maxxis since it is narrow enough to fit in the stays spacing, without doing frame modifications i am not confident i can do correctly, or within the hour or two I might be able to spend on the entire bike repairs today.


the braking-caused pull to the left has changed to a pull to the right, for no reason I can find. I think it happened right after i tightened the axle cone nuts in front to fix the loose-wheel issue, but I really cant' remember.

I am going to test to see if it is disc-related or not by changing the 24" wheel out for a 26" otherwise identical wheel but using the Kenda krossroads tire from DayGlo Avenger's currently-inoperative front fusin motor wheel. It's the best of the smooth-centered tires I have for the front.


I have a headset i forgot about from a badly dented alloy frame Mdd0127 gave me, that i will see if i can make work on the fork instead of my makeshift headset. if so it should fix the loosening problem, which is getting dangerous because of it's effect on braking steer.

no pics for now cuz i am too tired to find the camera, wherever i last put it wsan't in plaing sight apparently.

[amberwolf]

I guess i was so exhausted after posting the above that I fell asleep until my alarm went off. That gave me an hour to do *something* for the bike, and then leave, after feeding the dogs.

Since the most dangerous problem was the headset rattle, with the most potential to crash me during braking in traffic, I chose that. I also was pretty sure I could do it in only half an hour.

I got the headset out (forgot pics cuz I was in a hurry, but have to take it apart again so will get pics then) from the Giant NRS frame, or at least the bearings and split-cone washers/bushings. I found that the bearings (which are more like sealed bearings than typical units on cheap bikes like I've always had before) didn't *quite* fit into the races/headset rings on CB2, but they would fit fine in the ones on the new bike. So I swapped them, as they are both for 1-1/8" tubes and both fit the same headtube. I am sure I have another set somewhere that would fit, too, but I didn't have time to look for it.

I pulled off the old ball bearing rings and the bottom race from the steerer on the fork, and replaced that with one of the split-cone bushings from the Giant headset. I slipped the bottom bearing from the Giant over that, and then inserted the whole thing into the bottom headset cup on CB2.

Guess what? It had fit perfectly into it before (or so I thought), when I hand fit just the bearing, but now it has just a *little* movement room. I shimmed it with aluminum flashing, and that helped, but it is not perfect so ti still has a little slop. The *top* is perfect, though.

It improves it DRAMATICALLY. Two things help. First is much much less slop--probably less than a tenth, probably a lot less. Second is that the bearings are so smooth, they're better than ANY headset bearings I have EVER had. EVER. This means that it is effortless to do tiny corrections to steering, and this means that my arms don't get nearly as tensed up, eventually giving me aching shoulders and back, too, and I can more easily just lean back in the seat and cruise. I am still working on finding the perfect centering of the handlebars--that has to be redone every time I take the steering apart, as I keep forgetting to mark it once I find that spot.

Takes quite a few miles of riding to find it, with stopping to adjust in tiny tiny increments left or right, until I can just keep my fingers on the grips and thumb on throttle tab. But until now, I could never really do that, because the stiffness of the headset meant I could not quite as easily push it back and forth for steering corrections. Now I can. So yet another thanks to Mdd0127 for something trivial yet incredibly useful and helpful.

Now I just have to resolve the bottom bearing cup issue, so there is no slop there, and then it shoudl be almost perfect.

Remaining to make it perfect is to remake the front steering tie-rod point so it is adjustable in radius from pivot center, so I can easily change teh steering sensitivity. It is just a bit too sensitive right now, and I have to re-correct my inputs frequently. I am getting used to it, but it is still annoying and adds to the stress of a long ride in traffic like on Greenway. This may not happen soon, but I do need to do it.


But anywya, the rattle problem is still there, just at the bottom headset instead of top, now, and much smaller. But becuse it's there it gets worse becuse it slowly pries the upper headset and clamps and stem upward, loosening the top, too. This happens during bad road conditions with lots of vibration, or during braking. It doesn't matter how hard I clamp down the steerer clamp or the stem clamp, even with both their large clamping areas holding them in place. I guess it is a lot of force prying at them.



I did not get the chance to change the rear tire, which was the next most important thing, and as it turns out, the one I SHOULD have dealt with insted of the headset.

I will have pics later, but basically the tire came apart exzctly like the other of the pair, along the cloth insde the tire, tearing thru the fibers and then the rubber, actually twisting the tire as if the rim awas out of true, but not wtisting the rim. Before it shredded I had some warning, so I got off Dunlap itself and was going to head up side streets to the canal, just before 19th Ave on my way home from work. That was about 11 miles in. Another 3/4 mile, and BOOM the tire exploded, as the tread just separated, allowing (forcing, really) the tube to herniate outward and just get ripped apart by teh road surface.

Before I could even coast to a stop, the tire had come off the rim completely in one area near the tear, and the tube inside had flopped down around the bolts holding the freewheel-thread hub piece in place to the motor cover, and then wrapped tightly around the freewheel and cover. I had to cut it to pieces to even get the wheel to be able to roll!

I slipped the tire back onto the rim, but without air it wouldn't stay in place to ride, and the shredded part kept flopping around so every revolution it would be thumping the whole wheel up and down a few millimeters or more, and doing that in about 3 places--just worst in the actual rupture location. So I couldn't ride ti home; I had to walk it around 3 miles I guess it was, on the sidewalk. Fotunately it's not hot yet, being only about 70F or so at around 8am when this happened. It was getting hotter, around 77F, by teh time I got home, and it was a LOT of effort to push the bike up even teh SLIGHTEST incline.

Using the motor to hlep was necessary on any upward incline, but very hard as low enough throttle to be useful at walking speeds 2-3MPH is almost impossible to do, and definitely impossible to hold in place. I wish I had put the 3-speed swithc on there as planned long ago.


So the lesson here (beofre I finally fall asleep) is that if you think your tire's days are numbered, replace it NOW, and you might not have to make a 3-mile walk of shame pushing a flat-tire bike that weighs more than you do home.


Thankfully I am now off until next Wednesday, so I feel like sleeping the first two or three and then fixing things.

[amberwolf]

Wanton destruction pics:

Tire after 3 miles of walking the bike home wihtout my weight on it, but still with 130-ish pounds of bike/etc on it (30-something pounds is carried by the front wheel)

DSC06223.JPG (55.64 KiB) Viewed 939 times

Tube after i cut it out of the freewheel. Most of teh smaller holes and ragged edges are presumably from the freewheel bolts munching it up as it wrapped around them.

DSC06225.JPG (45.36 KiB) Viewed 939 times

Some of the tube is still stuck in the freewheel/bolts:

DSC06227.JPG (19.84 KiB) Viewed 939 times

More later, as I only woke up maybe an hour ago, and am still very tired. Gotta get food and then see about changing the tire out. Then while it's off the bike anyway, might as well make the clamping dropouts, since the left (wire-side) nut is stripped out pretty much completely, and the bolted-on torque arm is the only thing keeping the wheel on the bike on that side. The right nut seems ok, but I am not comfortable with 2KW on tap with just that.