Reid's Stealth Cruiser: Float your eBOAT? Ideas, anyone? p22

[Almasi]

Nice work, I really hope for you that the battery will not need any servicing (like changing 1 cell)!

Clean stealth look!

[Lucky_Hoodlum]

Been lurking on the forum for sometime now reading and gathering as much information as possible, your build has been a wealth of information thankyou for taking the time to document it so well for us 'noobs' looking to build up an electric bicycle, i very much like the videos in your worklog, it helps greatly in understanding. Best of luck with your underwater ride also.

[Reid Welch]

^
Thanks, guys, for bearing with my interminable 'adventures' in detailing this modest bike.
This afternoon I've been fishing and pulling the power wires. Meanwhile, the pack remains in the oven,
baking/curing its thick (yet easily removed) waterproofing coat of PVC-E material. When it's fully cured,
all the white will have turned clear.

Now, the eZee controller, as supplied, is a supposedly sealed box containing a modest but robust 20A controller board,
with a plethora of quick connect lead outs from its bottom, all "sealed" with black butyl rubber caulk. No way this system is truly sealed, because water WILL get into it in time, if the bike is soaked: green would grow inside and the controller would malfunction.
Why, there are even four, open screw holes in the back plate for proprietary mounting on eZee brand bikes: if we don't seal those, at least: it's a perfect ingress for water to flood into the box, but not be able to get out.

My concept was and is to epoxy-pour (like a bar top) the controller board itself, only. And the box? Fully open at the bottom
and at its sides, allowing full ventilation, both for air-rush-through cooling whilst riding, and for drying out when wetted.
This controller will work underwater without the least trouble.

Today: pull the two power wires up the seat post tube. Holes have to be made.
At the top of the seat tube, but below the point where the Thudbuster post stops, two exit holes are made.
One exit hole is for the red wire, to feed right into the kill switch. That wire will continue out from the other side of the kill switch.
In the photos you see the hole-making operations, and pulling the wires, and disguising the bright red plus wire at its exit point
with a couple of inches of black heat shrink.
These holes all will be "grommeted " with PVC caulk later, so that no water can ever enter the seat post tube;
this caulking stuff is adhering, yet easily removed when and if the need arises.

This set of images is more or less self explanatory if you have read the description above.
The rack is now leveled, secured, ready for the battery pack to install (when it's finished baking its coating),
then a simple connection to the kill switch and installation of the trailer-type charger plug, all under the basket out of normal sight.
The wire run from basket to seat tube will be more or less invisible to the casual eye.
And then string-tie that pack securely to the basket, and decide how or if to cover it with cloth or nylon cloth for neat appearance.

Images of an hour ago:
























More notes: the fabric glue stuff does two things: seals and prevents screws from backing out of their own accord:
the case, you see, is only clamped partially closed; note the air gap? That's for water drainage and for ventilation.
The smears of PVC-E glue hold the screws from working out, yet they are removable by a screwdriver, and the smears
of glue in the corners of the box gaps set and maintain an even, small gap.

Lots of grinding dust and dirt and scuffed paint. I will repaint the bike someday in Krylon Fusion Yellow, a super nice bright yellow,
nothing fancy: I think I'll just strip down the bike of the battery rack, fenders, wheels and fork and wet sand and otherwise prep,
and go to work with the spray can.
Such a paint, if sprayed in low humidity and at 75F, lays out very smooth and glossy.
But this is a working bike, not a piece of the painter's art: I just want it to be drivable and also a beater,
and not cry if I lay it down: I can retouch scrapes and scratches with a small brush: yellow is an easy color to retouch,
unlike fancy clearcoat candy or metallic or pearl paint jobs.

Yellow with satin black Planet bike fenders....someday...it will look good and so that's about the end of the story for today.

Tomorrow afternoon: in with the pack, lace it tight, hook up the connecting wires, and maybe wrap and tuck the front fork cable,
and mount Justin's LED light to the Cycle Analyst, and call it a done deal.

Whew!

[Lucky_Hoodlum]

Very nice work with wires in the frame much neater than taping to outside. I worry of the joins in wire, have you also epoxied these to seal them not just taped?

[Reid Welch]

Very nice work with wires in the frame much neater than taping to outside. I worry of the joins in wire, have you also epoxied these to seal them not just taped?

Yes. All wires are soldered, sealed with glue-bearing shrink wrap, painted over with sealant or epoxy: no water can get into the wires anywhere to creep under and along the insulation.

It will be more dunkable than a donut, for sure. I hope to make some pretty exciting videos of running off sidewalk curbings at high (20mph) speed, banging over tree roots and rough turf, etc. And mostly: I want to make videos sharing the bike with
curious people in public, getting their reactions on video for youtube, selling the hybrid bike concept:

an ebike need not look weird or moto-like, though that's OK too.
I just want to make a stealth bike that offers surprises to the vast majority of folks who have never seen an ebike.

For example of what I don't much cotton to: high end commercially offered bikes like the Giant DX: full of cables and shifters
and fancy parts. A two or three thousand dollar bike? Who would dare rough-ride such a bike, or leave it unattended while shopping?

Here's what I mean:

It just looks too nice to leave unstolen...and would it live long if driven like a mountain bike?
It also click-click-clicks in freewheel mode, while you coast.
My bike, a coaster brake bike, makes NO sound while coasting or pedaling, and only a miniscule whine when running electric.
Stealth. Which is why I have that fearsome ding-ding bell!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwMZp2sAiEU
"Scary, eh?"

NO!

[Lucky_Hoodlum]

Good too hear these joins are waterproofed to, i see the one taped in the pictures above and was
worried only taped haha..The children liked the bike i think, maybe if you have parts
spared you can build a small BMXer type of bike for the children to try, be good way
to get them interested and spread word of electric bicycle you think?

[Reid Welch]

Good too hear these joins are waterproofed to, i see the one taped in the pictures above and was
worried only taped haha..The children liked the bike i think, maybe if you have parts
spared you can build a small BMXer type of bike for the children to try, be good way
to get them interested and spread word of electric bicycle you think?

Yes, those are nice kids whose parents are all well-to-do nice people.
That street, Matheson Avenue, is quiet and wealthy, but all the people who live there are very nice folks;
I've known them casually for ten years.
Mrs. Huggett, a widow now, lives at the end of the street.
It was her vacant lot, across the street from her home, that I trespassed the other day in video 31A.
By chance, the next day I saw her driving into her driveway. I had not seen her for ten years or so,
since Bill was living (he had chest pains one day, alone at home, drove to the hospital, where the doctors
dosed him with clot busting drugs, which caused a cerebral hemorrage, and he died due to medical incompetence,
and left behind a beautiful wife, and two fine, young sons, who are now fourteen and fifteen.
I knew them when they were toddlers. Mrs. H invited me inside and we traded telephone numbers.
She likes my bike and she likes that I was friendly with Bill: a social activist attorney who championed for poor people
scalded to death in a Carnival Cruise line's ship's boiler explosion.
"Do you still have Bill's 1930 Model A pickup truck?" (It was his favorite toy).
"Yes, and I drained the gas from the carburetor and put it on blocks; it's here in the garage;
and you used to drive that old Model T...and the boys are bright and interested in mechanics...
could you tutor them to learn to drive and maintain their late father's car?"

Yes, I can and I will. And if any of those boys want a bmx bike motorized: I'll tutor them to get the right parts
and show 'em how to wrench the simple components together, parents permitting, which is likely: if we make their bike
a low speed affair, there can hardly be much worry-objection to the idea,

and so, seeds for the future are planted. Kids are malleable in good ways, and these kids you met in the video
are very nice human beings already: they have no attitudes, no rudenesses, just raised right. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
extremely important correction!!!!: Mrs. Huggett is nor has sued nor resented ANYONE.
The "medical incompetence" charge is purely my own working, saying, thinking and indictment.
I am fuming about doctors in general. Mrs. Hugget is an angel, beautiful, accepting, smart, and insists
to live on, in the same house, raising to intrepid teenaged sons, coninuity, determination, and complete lack of anything like unpleasant resentments. Bill should be alive today, to see his sons, his wife! My words. My oaths. I am sorry that I implied that she may have held resentment. She holds only open arms for a total stranger. She loves and she trusts me.

[Lucky_Hoodlum]

these kids you met in the video
are very nice human beings already: they have no attitudes, no rudenesses, just raised right.

Unfortunately too few kids are like this, when i was their age we would get a clip behind the ears if we did the wrong thing (do this today your kids sue you ) we respected our elders, many kids have little respect for themselves and others in this time. I watched your model 'T' YouTube video also, Henry Ford offered this car in any colour you choose as long as its black haha.. will be like times when you were young working on the widows late husbands car i think while learning her sons mechanics also. Todays cars are much different, plug to computer to diagnose problems not like days of old haha.

[Reid Welch]

Unfortunately too few kids are like this, when i was their age we would get a clip behind the ears if we did the wrong thing (do this today your kids sue you ) we respected our elders, many kids have little respect for themselves and others in this time. I watched your model 'T' YouTube video also, Henry Ford offered this car in any colour you choose as long as its black haha.. will be like times when you were young working on the widows late husbands car i think while learning her sons mechanics also. Today's cars are much different, plug to computer to diagnose problems not like days of old haha.

Back in my Model T days, that five year period when I drove nothing else but the T,
my favorite use of the car was to show and share; not show off, but share. I took it to the poorest, most dangerous neighborhoods in town, in particular.
People would gather round, especially the children. They were always polite and fascinated. I did this hundreds of times,
giving rides to poor people, kids too, if parents or guardians were present and allowed. The car started by turning the hand crank in front. This requires technique.
I recall a 13 year old black boy with his posse. He was SURE he could crank that car. I showed him the method.
He gave the crank a mighty, upward yank. He beamed as the car sputtered to life, turned to his doubtful comrades and exclaimed,
"SEE, I can do anything!"

But I digress, can't help it. The new ebike will bring similar adventures as was this,
penned by yrs. unruly, a period-correct comic verse.
In fact, though, my steed was as reliable as any new car today.


Oh, my Ford!
How it shakes and it shivers;

It rides still rough on smoothest roads
Because its front wheels quiver.

I do not mind the shakes it makes
So long as naught falls off or breaks.

Oh, my Ford!
How it shakes and shivers;

The ride is rough yet the exercise
Is very good for livers!


-----
Myself in 2000; in 1922 too

PS: it's funny to consider that this car was rear wheel braked only...just like the ebike I'm making here today.
I never rear ended anyone! Honest! Not unless they like that sort of sport.

[Lucky_Hoodlum]

Many model T Fords sold but not many left in this condition today haha...Most i see
now look like below picture.




I would think this would stop and start a bit quicker than your Model T but not as economical haha.

[Reid Welch]

OK. Herman Munster is dead. Back to topic.

The battery must be truly waterproof. Its conformational coating is about fully dry.

Let's get it all wet again in order to make an illuminating test.
Upcoming is a photo of a red bucket (photos yet to be taken).
Other photos of this test procedure will follow later today.

The pictures to come will tell the story of the first test of this submarine-capable bike's components.

tbc...

[Reid Welch]

play it in "HQ" if at all possible, and...
...please please please go rate that video and subscribe to ampdavolts;
or I'll probably just go drown myself in shame....uh, wet my pampers, I mean.

[Stevil_Knevil]

Well done, brotherman! How many meters do you figure this pack is good for?

[Almasi]

You are very confident....(I'm not sure I would have done this) Nice work!!!

[Reid Welch]

Well done, brotherman! How many meters do you figure this pack is good for?

Thanks for the undeserved props, Stevil.

How many meters do you figure this pack is good for?

I'm still stuck with knowing my feet. Water pressure increases on the order of about one PSI per foot of depth. Really, it would be "how hard can poptarts be squeezed without damaage?" They are basically dry inside, dense, and so I'd think thirty feet might not hurt them at all. I won't be aqua-lung diving the bike, but a pro could do that for a fun stunt.
I think the great difficulty of running fully underwater will be keeping the bike upright, running fast enough to balance;
keeping weight on the vital front drive wheel. A sort of front dive plane, tilted downward, might be needed.

However, what I want, for real world impressive riding: wait for a day here when we've had a few days of monsoon rains.
Then some of our lower-laying, poorly drained streets flood with two to three feet of water. Cars stall and drown.
That day will be my day to shine: have a bud video me plowing through where cars can't go...on an ebike, of all things!
The battery wouldn't even be submerged. OR, for sure I can make a run around that basin of the Desoto fountain
and video that. OR (and this'd be much harder), work the System, sell the stunt idea to the City fathers and managers of the beautiful Venetian pool for a ride around much of its area: most of it is knee deep to neck deep water.

POINT: this bike will be quite safe to ride in drenching rainstorms, splashing through deep puddles, on days when NO other bicyclists even dare to ride for fear of degrading their lovely bikes. THAT will be the fun and the practical value
of waterproofing this cruiser. The bike and myself don't mind warm, Florida rainwater. We both air-dry just fine.

I'm a day sleeper. Just woke up. Battery is in the basket. Time to lace it securely in place and make three or four wire connections.
But too: we have a roof leak and I need to get up on the two story ladder and perhaps find that leak instead.
No leaks on the bike yet, but the upstairs of the house is taking on water so maybe I'd better attend to the home first.

Splish splash,
R.

[Reid Welch]

You are very confident....(I'm not sure I would have done this) Nice work!!!

Yes you could have done this. You can do it, or use some of these techniques with your next ebike build. It's not the doing that's hard,
but only the conceptualizing that takes time. I've done my conceptualizing, setting the bike aside and sleeping on ideas
for days or weeks at a time, wondering how best to keep it simple.

What's lacking and must lack: great speed potential, because it's rear wheel brake only, and a hard tail bike with no suspension other than its soft tires and Thudbuster seat.
It lacks "complex looks" appeal, which can be a plus for a lot of people.
It looks like a nothing bike, nearly, which -is- the goal here.
It must be rugged, reliable and unbreakable and weatherproof-supreme: leave it out in the rain, etc,
and just use the thing, and no wear-out of the usual parts because there are no $!@( hi-tek, unservicable cartridge bearings;
just grease fittings and hundred year old cup and cone bearings and brake, all of which cost mere pennies to replace
if ever I can even wear them out (which is unlikely because they are all greasable at will).
And the hub motor: it -does- have two cartridge bearings, but they won't ever fail because they run in contained oil,
as does the motor internals, themselves; oil that can be changed at intervals, not that that should be needed,
but it can be done in a few minutes, without much mess or effort: two screws, drain, refill with a few ounces of ATF oil.

Proofing the Cycle Analyst against moisture entry will be the biggest challenge. Things with wire entry points are a challenge to truly seal, particularly against pressurized water (as when/if the CA is put several feet under water);
its mode switch must be capped with a rubber button-cover of some sort.

Concepts are my strong point; luck of the bloodlines. I get free thinking from my g'dad I never knew:
the first portable window air conditioner.
I get my big mouth and confidence and conviction of ideas from my g'mother's first cousin,
Drew Pearson: telling the nation about the end of the line for Hitler and of the start of a new era.
Note that he talks a great deal; I do too!

[Reid Welch]

About ready to lace-tie the pack into the basket...

I had second thoughts: the sides are that milky-clear. Why not lightly paint the whole thing black with Krylon Fusion
(It will stick fine to that rubbery sealant). Meanwhile, what have we in the Cycle Analyst?


Waterproofing must be done at some point. For now I must solder the two leads of Justin's 12 LED headlight
to the CA's 36V input power (the headlight has an inbuilt voltage converter and regulator to drop the volts down to the LED's needs).


All I had on hand ten minutes ago is gloss Fusion. Note how the top looks lumpy and brush-marked.
I could've gotten the top a lot smoother had I water-brushed the wet caulking, easing it down flat.

But the top does not matter: I'm going to cover just the top and the two ends with black cloth glued
on with Polyseamseal adhesive clear caulk (PVC glue is what it really is) and then tie across the top of the pack.
See, the black sides of the pack will pretty much visually disappear behind the diamond mesh sides of the basket.
That's the plan anyway. The paint is dry enough in thirty minutes, but I have to go work on the roof now.
More pictures later...possibly of me, splattered on the pavement twenty feet below the roof leak
___________

PS, afterword: I'm alive!
Clickable bloggy pictures
The same PVC rubbery caulking as was used on the battery pack.

My life-helper, Ernie, ready to catch me if I fell....uh....wait...I've got a 500K life insurance policy hanging over his head
I am worth lots, dead, and nothing, alive. So that's why he's smiling, I think.

I never before noticed how nice that courtyard brickwork was done; that fantail pattern.
Ernie built this house 35 years ago. One craftsman laid all that brick in mortar, on a six inch poured slab,
twenty two thousand bricks, three months, working five days a week. They don't do this sort of work anymore,
which is OK by us because we don't have any money anymore. Sometimes people outlive their moolah.
At least the house looks nice. Appearances deceive.

________________

OK, now back to the battery pack: will put some black cloth over the top and down part of the sides of the pack,

PPS: Done! Clickable boring pictures. Thick black woolen billiard cloth. The thick "glue" (Polyseamseal Clear Caulk)
does not soak through. Then into the low temperature oven, then fold and glue the short sides later (the BMS does not get covered).






and then into the g-d basket for the last time, and tie it in and wire it in and never stop posting to this silly thread

[Reid Welch]

Now to the Cycle Anylyst: I want it to be fully dunkable. The side switch needs to be replaced with one amenable to a neat sealing job.

Earphone bud coated with that very nice-handling silicone glue, Perfect Glue #1.
A spacer (a rubber grommet probably) may be needed to space out the new, longer N.O. switch.
Wire in the 12LED headlight from Justin's firm to the V+ and G pads on the Analyst board, seal,
done. Should be good for five or ten feet underwater (not that I'd go that deep), only due to the plastic window of the C.A.
'cos it's not a submarine pressure hull

[Reid Welch]

Notes: a second application of Perfect Glue will be applied in a couple of hours (it will bond to previous coats)
I may need to install a loose rubber grommet =under= the switch flange, to space the switch body out, away from the board; not a problem if that's necessary: once the clamping nut is lightly tightened: no water at all can enter this one weak point of the C. A.

[Zoot Katz]

. . . Notes: a second application of Perfect Glue will be applied in a couple of hours (it will bond to previous coats)
. . .

That confirms it. You're a solvents junkie!
No wonder you're nuts, but we love you. uhhh, Not that we love your nuts but do admire your balls, so to speak.
Go for it big guy.

[Reid Welch]

. . . Notes: a second application of Perfect Glue will be applied in a couple of hours (it will bond to previous coats)
. . .

That confirms it. You're a solvents junkie!
No wonder you're nuts, but we love you. uhhh, Not that we love your nuts but do admire your balls, so to speak.
Go for it big guy.

Thanks. It really is much ado about nearly nothing. It will be fun to try to break the bike,
bend rims, etc. I suspicion that the 10PSI front Big Hank will go a long way toward protecting the spokes and the eZee from shock.
We'll see pretty soon. Hoping for a monsoon rain soon for a first swim of the bike around and past stalled cars.
It won't go fast but it should go far. I wonder if the plain thumb throttle will give trouble if submerged or soaked?

I don't like the look of the intial lacing. Think I'll probably just tie straight across, many times, each tie knotted and taut..
The battery is a bit lumpy and uneven as made. The thick cloth smooths it out to a great extent, purely cosmetic.

And yet: I can always, always, get right into the pack if service is needed. All of the coating and cloth an tape will come right off.

Boring stuff but maybe some of the ideas will be amenable to other kinds of ebike builds.

Little brain, small balls Reid.

[vanilla ice]

I wonder if the plain thumb throttle will give trouble if submerged or soaked?

I think it will give trouble.

[Reid Welch]

I wonder if the plain thumb throttle will give trouble if submerged or soaked?

I think it will give trouble.

Then it will be made to work.

"Nothing worthwhile ever works right, the very first time, just to please you;
you've got to MAKE the damned thing work!"
Thomas Edison

[vanilla ice]

"Word to your mother." -Vanilla Ice

[Reid Welch]

Please rate the video? Just click on the image, log into yt, and please give this video five stars for the kids;
after all, I'm one of them too

Yes, 'tis my favorite little video today, mostly, entirely because of the children:
kids are perfectly open to new concepts, ideas.

"Those tires are a little..."

a little what? Phat for a bike? (I'll never know what he was thinking of saying),
but he'll never forget the bike, and I'll never forget the inherent honesty of childhood.

PS: that bump is a notoriously nasty ficus tree root just under the asphalt covering.
No unsuspended bike or rider can pass over that root at any speed at all.
Here I sit on the Thudbuster, digicam in my free, left hand, and steer the tiller with my right hand,
and the bump is a bump, but it's not a ride killer or camera-catapult.