GT i-drive 2.0 Build

[Thud]

Dbaker:

I don't think the landing that guy did on the rear wheel would have worked with a standard QR rear axle. Serious downhill bikes have 20mm front axles and 12mm rear axles with wheels built to take major punishment.

After watching that video 3 times I am not certain that rear wheel survived that landing.

[kfong]

Greg, was that you that tried to snipe my bike I 'm waiting on delivery. Should arrive Monday. Not an easy conversion if you don't have the tools. 150mm dropout with thru axial mount, as well as the floating brake to worry about. It will be my winter build. I'll have to CNC new plates and lower the axial to make it work. Should be a fun bike when I get done with it. Only drawback is the frame size, I would of preferred a medium. 9" of rear travel and the 888's was what initially caught my eye on that bike. The bike had the white fronts shocks, FYI.

Going with my favorite BMC V2T motor and actually started using Lipo's this year, now that I have a charger I trust and a system that I feel good about. Would be cool as an RC build, but I hate the noise they make in the trails. I still plan on converting my Kona Cowan to RC, that bike will be just for jumps, so balance will be a bit more critical.

yeah, i'm with you on all these things:

20mm front axles
12mm rear axles
wheels built to take major punishment.
shocks have more travel

i'm not getting another XC bike, that's for sure!

i came really close to buying one of these off ebay last weekend, but then realized a single pivot swingarm would be fine for ebike...

i doubted whether the hubbie would even fit w/ that brake stabilizer bar, and way too complicated in there for an non-hub... hell of a brute tho!

[GCinDC]

Greg, was that you that tried to snipe my bike

Nope. If I'd have tried, I would have won... I was prepared to go a fair bit higher, but I'm glad I didn't so you could you get it at such a bargain. I was sad to watch it go tho. Hell of rig and set of components at that price! I had an inkling that another ebiker was on top of it. I look forward to seeing how it goes.

I'd look into a 2kW, 40kph top speed, 500Wh Cyclone DH conversion for jumps and technical trails. As light as possible.

hey FT, your numbers confuse me, esp when i look here. 2kW/40kph? i'm seeing 1200W 70kmh... is this what folks typically buy?

It'd probably be good for me to buy low end and burn it up first, before going high end. how else could i truly appreciate it?

it sure would be wild to use the gears again...

gwhy!, i've been following your trials build ebike->motorcycle. i never found out what motor/controller kit it is. i've been looking at a lot of trials bikes lately, as they seem like such a nice blend. what's your top speed with that?

clay, thanks for the patient counsel.

it seems like at the 2kW level, the geared motors can compete w/ the cyclones. is that true?

[kfong]

I'm glad we didn't get into a bidding war
Yeah, I'm looking forward to the build as well, but it's going to take a while. I do plan to have it running by spring.

I'm running my cyclone at 50v. It was originally the 600w setup. Even the 24v controller was able to run at 50, but it looked over built to begin with. It pulls better than my BMC running at 40v. This isn't a far comparison since I have the BMC current limited at 35 and the cyclone has no limit and running lipos. The BMC is on konions, and can't really put out the current. It's not a bad setup if you can get better motor mounts for it. The ones that come with it are crap, and will break under hard use. I don't care for the gearing setup, you will have to give some thought to that if you want to pedal any significant amount. The noise is also an issue with me. I need something that does not attract attention when trail riding. My build thread shows what I had to do to get the motor mounted reliably for trail use. I had to put a bash guard on it since it sat so low. Never really intended to use it for my main trail bike, or else I would of mounted it differently. Still might, depending on how the Nuvinci hub works out. Going to be interesting with electronic shifting.

I plan to bump up the BMC to higher voltages on the new bike as well as move up to LIPos, I think the performance will be similar under the 2000W level.

I wasn't really impressed with the cyclone at 40v till I bumped it up to 50 this summer after watching a video one company pushing the motor. It does get hotter at these levels, so a heat sink on the motor would be a good thing. I plan on putting the Nuvinci hub on it this winter. If I can work out a drive setup where I can put useful pedal input. Then for a commuter bike this would be great, it's currently my utility bike for errands and groceries.

[chroot]

Greg- Make sure you want install the motor heat sink on the motor cuz that motor is damn hot when you push them hard. I went SF ebike club and I saw couple guys has the cyclone with heavy heat sink on the motor. It does work very well.

They used metal sheet like 1/4 or less inch gap thick aluminum mount on the frame with the cyclone motor on it. Pretty good strong than the clamp style.

[flyinmonkie]

clay, thanks for the patient counsel.

No worries Greg.

Others with more experience with cyclones can jump in here if I am wrong. They seem to be good with the higher watt and an external controller. They have a reduction planetary gearbox attached to them, so that is where a lot of the noise comes from. But, that means you don't have to reduce it as much before the rear wheel.

If you drive through the crank, then your pedal gearing with be opposite of your motor gearing. One of the main reasons I didn't go that route. Of course I don't pedal much now. It does seem the best way to do a non hub with a full sus so far though. Other than the motoped, which shares a jacshaft with the swing arm pivot.

Clay

[full-throttle]

hey FT, your numbers confuse me, esp when i look here. 2kW/40kph? i'm seeing 1200W 70kmh... is this what folks typically buy?

Hmm.. Cyclone numbers seem confusing too..

What I'm trying to say is: gear it for 40kph top speed. Any less and it's going to be too slow, any more and you'll start sacrificing peak torque.
2kW is what bike gears/chain should be able to cope with.

[gwhy!]

gwhy!, i've been following your trials build ebike->motorcycle. i never found out what motor/controller kit it is. i've been looking at a lot of trials bikes lately, as they seem like such a nice blend. what's your top speed with that?

The bike in that thread is geared for around a max of 25mph (40kph) but could be geared higher upto around 35-40mph and will still have enough grunt for trail riding, it uses a rc 3250W outrunner fitted with hall sensors, the controller is (at the moment ) a moddified 12fet (set to a 80A limit)and the whole system peaks at around 4kw @ 48v. Its not a kit but it is very simple to put together and wont break the bank, but it do get a little more complicated if you want to be able to peddle as well.

[Whiplash]

Yeah its a system similar to mine, but with lots more power! Same motor though, they make a bit more noise than a hub but they are a blast to ride!

[GCinDC]

thanks to FT for pointing me to Timma's 1200W cyclone review, for anyone else who's curious...

favorite single-pivot picture of the day:


instructive jump vid of the day - might have made if the front tire landed on steps too?:


just curious, anyone know what happened to the Blade 04? another vid.

[GCinDC]

[deecanio]

glad to see you were ok, good job job you didn't come off at any other point in the vid, speed!!

D

[GCinDC]

what it would have looked like from the front, from another vid, the repair work has been long gone, but there was light gravel along the sidewalk cutout. i braked, the right tire slipped, the bike went down on the left side and i launched forward doing what looked a sliding push up.

gravel.jpg (33.13 KiB) Viewed 791 times

it would have been very nasty w/o the gloves!

seems like lots of little tip overs lately.

i gotta replace that spoke on the rear wheel! was too lazy last night..

[rui_fujino]

wow! what happened there?! nd how fast were u going ?

[GCinDC]

wow! what happened there?! nd how fast were u going ?

didn't see the gravel. the front tire slid out. no big deal cause i was wearing gloves...

glad you wrote tho - i had you in mind when i posted the video in the rain, because you asked about that umbrella cover thing... i wanted you to see that the water that soaks me comes from the ground/tires, not from the sky! (granted, my fenders aren't very helpful either...)

[Sacman]

Nice bike Greg but with my dumb luck I'd probably snag my shorts in that exposed open chain.

[quote="GCinDC"]thanks to FT for pointing me to for anyone else who's curious...

favorite single-pivot picture of the day:


/quote]

[rui_fujino]

wow! what happened there?! nd how fast were u going ?

didn't see the gravel. the front tire slid out. no big deal cause i was wearing gloves...

glad you wrote tho - i had you in mind when i posted the video in the rain, because you asked about that umbrella cover thing... i wanted you to see that the water that soaks me comes from the ground/tires, not from the sky! (granted, my fenders aren't very helpful either...)

yea i got that...tho i've managed to make my mud guard almost perfect so that i wont get any wet rain off the ground!
I do agree that umbrella wont ever work out unless you travel at speed of normal cyclist :p

[GCinDC]

Nice bike Greg but with my dumb luck I'd probably snag my shorts in that exposed open chain.

it's a nicolai nucleon dh, case you're curious. and closeup pics of one here.

i originally found it while searching for Marzocchi Super Monster T (300mm travel) which happened to be on the electromoto blade:

what ever happened to these? anyone know? a video.. if anything was ever begging for lipo...

[knoxie]

Crikey Greg I was watching that last video through my fingers as I thought it might have been at speed, gloves for the win! I never go out without them (you can see in my vids) as even low speed crashes can really mess your hands up and as I need my hands for my job (who doesnt ...a grape crusher ) anyway yes good call, I use Fox motocross gloves as they offer a nice balance between weight and protection, to be honest we are all in the territory of proper motorcycle gloves and jacket for that matter, in the winter I often ride with a downhill mountain bike helmet, motorcycle jacket (has built in elbow and back protection and sometimes even motorcycle trousers, they have saved my bacon on 2 icy morning commutes already.

Keep the vids coming Greg and most importantly stay safe buddy

[GCinDC]

Thanks, knoxie. Ah, the fall. Wet leaves everywhere... And my rear tire is bald. And missing a spoke... And with the wobble, i had to spread the rear vbrakes so there's nothing on them... and we know my front axle is bent... I tried to replace the spoke with one from another ebike wheel but the spoke wasn't long enough to catch thread...

Still, I'd rather slower in the rain than take the metro! So a scenic detour yesterday, and a bit of tag with my son :


Anyway, now that push is coming to shove w/ my commuter, I'm madly hunting for a DH donor, and a MethTek HS3540 will arrive next week! I think the wheel will need upgrading - likely to an Alex DM32, as JRH suggested...

So... I've decided that while I'd really like low end torque, I won't need it as much on my commute unless I'm trials riding OVER the cars... The RC build will have to wait.

[Alan B]

Let's see. DS3540 is 40km/h at 36V, you are running about double that, right? so 80km/h which is 49.7 mph

Maybe you need motorcycle rims, tires, frame and brakes!

[GMUseless]

Anyway, now that push is coming to shove w/ my commuter, I'm madly hunting for a DH donor,

A few months back there were tons of early 2003-2006 Kona Stinky's on eBay. I picked up an 07 Coil Air Supreme I'm waiting to build up. It seems the Kona's are somewhat undervalued...maybe because the 4-bar linkage is usually shot. But replacing those pivots is nothing. And for eBikes there's a lot of in frame room on those Kona models.

Also, I liked the RM series from Rocky Mountain...single pivot, and a good bit of in frame real estate. There's a couple of RM-7 frames on eBay now.

[GCinDC]

Let's see. DS3540 is 40km/h at 36V, you are running about double that, right? so 80km/h which is 49.7 mph

Maybe you need motorcycle rims, tires, frame and brakes!

Hey Alan, you should know better than to just double the speed, right? It takes a lot more work to go faster and faster... Anyway, this looks to be a conservative estimate of the performance improvement over the 9C for my setup:

hs3540_vs_9C_at80v45A.jpg (88.62 KiB) Viewed 1580 times

thanks, GMU! i've been looking at those too, just not sure how much room there is in there! i'm liking the 03 giant dh comp... would be nice to finally join a TEAM... (i always thought you team owners were literally part of a team, or an ES team at least... )

[GMUseless]

The Giant DH's are pretty badass. I rode an 06 at keystone one year. The head angle was a little steep for a downhill bike, but it tracked like it was on rails. Huge fun. Just remember those dh comps have 150mm dropouts, which I'd guess would leave you with either an odd dish or some customization work when you go to dropping a standard hub in there.

[GCinDC]

The Giant DH's are pretty badass.

well, i found an 03 DH Comp in the rockies, and when i told him what i wanted to do and gave him a link to keyne's thread, he wrote:

Looks like a sick project. You don't want my frame though for it trust me, it been used hard for many years. In fact you might look at newer frames, 2005+ years. The geometry, for downhilling at least, is night and day difference. I recently did a demo of a 2011 Yetti 303D, it made my frame feel like a hard tail with 2 inches of travel in the front.

Some downfalls of this frame too:

Rear linkage is always coming loose.

Rear linkage hangs down really far. (I often times bashed mine, even when i wasn't bottoming out, on rocks and such.

Seatpost bracket often times hits top of suspension linkage when getting into the bottom end of the shock. I imagine with some extra weight, i.e. batteries and such, this could be a problem unless you had a very, very stiff spring, which could compromise the ride.

-2004 and up Giant started making better frames, everyone else has good stuff from 2005 and up.