Custom 140XL X5404 CruiseMeister

[thewmatusmoloki]

Greetings all,
A friend recently asked if I could help him put together an ebike, he had no idea where to source any parts or how to wire it up
but he's a professional sheetmetal worker and a great welder so I knew the battery box would be no problem and I am always keen to help
people get the e-grin.

It's a 2011 Merida 140 with an XL frame, pretty high quality bike, handled better than anything I'd ridden before without e-assist.

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The motor is an early release sensorless HS35 with all the axel wire problems
that these came with.
Forewarned by this forum was forearmed in this case.
Took the cover off and noticed that the wire casing was touching the rotating part of the hub (what a surprise, NOT)

Bit of dremeling on the axel channel and expoxied the wires down, chucked in some hall sensors and Bob's yer uncle !

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[thewmatusmoloki]

Powered by 12 x 6s 8a/h zippy li-poly batts in 18s4p configuration giving 75 volts and 32 A/H hot off the charger.

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Not sure who came up with the forward pannier battery box idea on this forum but THANKS ! (the first one I saw was dogmans, brilliant)
It's made of 1.2mm stainless steel and the batts fit snugly.

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[thewmatusmoloki]

The headlights are $30 halogen car spotties modded with cheap mr16 led globes from ebay,

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DC converter is just a $5 switching transformer (100 to 260 volts in 12.6 volts out) off ebay with the wires just soldered to the ac pins.

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My mate Brett fabbed up some brackets out of stainless for the lights. (his work is remarkable)

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The lot of them were then powder coated.

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[AussieJester]

LOL@thread title, its a fine build mate good job The saddle bag type battery enclosure ous great idea, I believe Luke was one of the first to adopt this approach many have followed suit.

Hope the frock is ok been a few of that model burn up recently.
.

KiM

[thewmatusmoloki]

Didn't really want to risk a major heat build up in the motor so it was air conditioning time for those covers

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The controller is an 18 fet 4110 from Lyen and fit perfectly under the battbox

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The side with the fets is facing downwards for max airflow and some air gets in from the box front Ignition and light control box is also s/steel

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[thewmatusmoloki]

Thanks AJ, it's actually been running for about a month now and used as a high speed commuter 6 days a week for work. Everything seems to be within tolerances and staying cool (ish). My mate couldn't be happier.

Matt

[thewmatusmoloki]

This is my 9th ebike assembly from over the years. I've never had an axel spinout yet and don't intend to start now.
These torque arms cost $180 to get made at mates rates. I think they are bullet proof !

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16mm laser cut stainless steel clamping arms Scalloped to the rear dropout shape

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Then of course, powder coated

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[thewmatusmoloki]

Can't really say enough about how important fender's are.
Unless you live in a desert like some of the members here you're gonna get caught in the rain at some stage.
It's happened to me countless times, once, I just went around the corner to grab a beer and got caught in some kinda cloudburst I don't mind the falling rain but the stuff that comes up from the road is pretty horrible in the eye's and on the teeth.

Had to mod these lightweight plastic guards and it wasn't easy, but worth it I reckon.

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[thewmatusmoloki]

And finally a couple of shots of the finished bike.
Just need to add some black platform pedals now. These tiny silver things are pretty bad.

Acceleration is very nice (for a hub motor), top speed is 75kph, economy cruising at about 60.
Feels superb to ride, something very nice about the way it corners.

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[Whiplash]

Wow! 35ah? How far can you go on that??!! My bike would do an EASY 100 miles on that battery!

[thewmatusmoloki]

Cheers Whiplash, It's only 32 a/h tho.
Don't really know the range yet the furthest it's travelled so far is 40 km and used about half the capacity
going into a light headwind at about 60kph.
I think this controller lets out a few amps.

[Whiplash]

That's a good speed though and mine is a pretty efficient RC setup, so the big C-Lites have a hard time keeping up efficiency wise. But you got a real nice build there!

[Bluefang]

Ohhh very nice, but i am sure you could try and spin those drop out clamps, but i think the bolt holes on the frame would spin out first.

[thewmatusmoloki]

Thanks Bluefang, this frock's axel ain't goin nowhere. The frame is hydroformed 6061 aluminium, I'm told it's pretty solid stuff.

Here's how it gets charged mostly. It's a 75v 11amp custom charger from an ebay vendor that I've
been getting charger's from for a while now.

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It's quite large, but still fits in the backpack Balancing is done with an eco6 200watt li-poly balance charger as needed, however it hasn't needed it yet as all the cells seem to be staying at between 4.16 and 4.18v like they are locked there or something!

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[thewmatusmoloki]

I re-up'd the photo's with some improvements.
The bike is still performing well and has recently passed 2500 km's use.
Thanks for looking.

[neptronix]

Those are amazing torque plates. Nice mounting solution for that crapload of batteries too.
What a road eater!

[thewmatusmoloki]

Thanks Nep, sure is or was !

Hasn't gone entirely well though, these pics are from yesterday.
The guy I built this bike for was involved in a pretty nasty accident on a bridge not far from here, 3 days ago.
He doesen't remember how it happened because of concussion, or for that matter no memory of whether he was coming or going.
Had a full face helmet on so his head is OK now.
Lost 2 fingers on the left hand which have been sewn back on, still touch and go whether they stay on. Not sure how thats going to affect his career as a first class sheet metal worker.
Broke left arm above the elbow. Bruises and cuts all over.
Nasty scar over left eye, vision not affected.

We suspect some drunk driver plowed into him from behind. They took off. No witnesses apparently.


Some pics of what left of the frockmiester ...

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He's currently in hospital and will be there for christmas at least.

Take it easy out there chaps.

[thewmatusmoloki]

Looks like he was hit from behind and was pushed into the bridge railing.

From the looks of the bike it had absorbed a lot of the shock but not enough unfortunately.

Picked up the bike from the police yesterday, Lipo's are all ok despite being left on for 2 days in the holding compound.

Some rear spokes are broken but the major damage is at the front.

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[binlagin]

Wow.. how terrible... best wishes to the rider. I've gotten rear ended and sent 30feet on my motorcycle.. it's a scary experience.

That's my biggest fear when riding on the street... having an accident that would prevent me from doing my every day work.

How did the battery case hold up?

Get well soon!

[Justtoby]

Get well soon to the rider....a lesson to all to wear a good helmet!

[ohzee]

Damn that is just terrible at least he is still alive. Agreed on the helmet I need to get a full face one myself.
Crazy that he doesn't know what happened and no witnesses.. Hopefully his memory comes back to him.
keep us updated how he's doing please such a sharp bike also.

[thewmatusmoloki]

Thanks for the well wishes guys ...

The battery box & batteries remain undamaged, just a couple of scratches in the powder coating !
Stainless steel would have to be one of mankinds greatest inventions, right up there with such things as glass and language.

[GCinDC]

Lost 2 fingers on the left hand which have been sewn back on, still touch and go whether they stay on. Not sure how thats going to affect his career as a first class sheet metal worker.
Broke left arm above the elbow. Bruises and cuts all over.
Nasty scar over left eye, vision not affected.

Brutal. Was this his first ebike? Best of wishes to him. Hate to hear about this. Glad he's alive.

[oatnet]

Glad he is alive, I wonder what the heck he hit at speed! Heck the brake disk is as dented as the rim~

-JD

[thewmatusmoloki]

Nah it wasn't his first ebike, had 2 previously, only golden motor ping powered types before though.
He's a good rider without any doubt (I will only put ebikes together for people/adults with at least half a brain).

Being hit from behind by a car dosen't make much difference to the type of pedly tho, probably.

He's getting his arm rebroken and set today, could be home by the weekend now, fast healer apparently, very fit.