Hyena's e-bike builds (now with HD video)

[Hyena]

And on an every so vaguely related note, check your nuts!

I just ducked out for a quick ride after work, hoping to catch the bushland shaggers(tm) at it again
I was hitting some hard terrain at pretty high speeds and my spokes were starting to complain. I got back onto the road on the way out and found several of them to be quite loose but the biggest worry was when I leaned on the wheel the whole thing shifted about 2mm in the drop outs!

I dont know how long they've been loose for but I've been silly to bash around a 2500w motor in an alloy frame anyway.
So this is another timely reminder fellas, check yo nuts!

[GCinDC]

Ok, I give up.

How did this nut 'work its way loose'? Was it not propertly tight? Or did you build the wheel partly, then set it aside and forget about it?

Any feedback from the girl who bought your old one?

How's the house? New 'hood? Any more frisky neighbor sightings?

[Hyena]

The wheel was an out of the box 9C, I had bashed it around a little and the spokes were quite noisy so i tensioned them back up. I suspect the nut coming loose was a combination of rough offroad use and regen with no torque arms. Yeah, sloppy of me, especially on an alloy frame but I'd only intended the motor to be on for a quick test. That quick test ended up being a few weeks worth of riding, then putting a few thousand watts through it and bashing it around over rough terrain.

The new house is sweet, heaps of space and backing directly onto the national park is awesome. In the reserve along side my house I have a small "offroad test track" with a few jumps courtesy of the neighborhood kids and at the end of the street is the main entrance to a big fire trail which goes for miles. Alot of the terrain is very rough and steep and I have to crawl down it so I don't come off (most of the track is covered in rocks the size of tennis balls and it's so steep in parts that you're almost going over the handlebars just sitting on the thing) but the rest of it is a blast. I really must get around to making a video when I get my next big poweful build sorted.
No more encounters with mating wildlife, although I haven't had a chance to get out much. I suspect that sighting was a one off!
I'm making some good progress setting up my workshop and gear. My garage looks like a refuge camp though!

As for the girl that bought my norco, she's had several issues with it. I got a call on the first day after her friend took the front wheel off to put it on the roof of his car, then squeezed the hydro brakes and locked the pads together. Then 2 flat tyres in the space of a week (I had one in 12 months prior to that) I then got a call that the watt meter had stopped working the day after I sold it to her so I paid for a replacement myself only to find out later she accidently grabbed the throttle while walking it through a shopping mall and it flew through the air and plowed into a wall. Finally she said it was unreliable after riding in pouring rain and the power kept cutting out and she wanted her money back. I told her to bring it to me and I'd fix it (thinking it was probably a loose or wet connection) to find that she'd some how broken the charger (by shaking it around in her bag?) and the reason it was cutting out is because the battery was dead flat and it was the controller LVC tripping! That was a few weekks ago, I fitted a new watt meter and repaired the loose wire in the charger and haven't heard from her since. This is the downside to selling ebikes, especially when I'm not making a big mark up on the parts price to cover the cost of "warranty issues". This was a bit of a one off though, I normally just hook people up with kits that they can fit themselves.

[Hyena]

Update on the girl who bought my norco:
She just texted me saying she had to sell it because someone at her work kept slashing her tyres 3 days in a row.
WTF !? Jealousy ?

[thewmatusmoloki]

I sold an e-chopper with a rear hub to a guy 2 years ago.
Everytime he gets a rear flat tyre I get a call to see if I can fix it. I did the first few for free.

But now I charge a carton of tooheys for a rear flat repair

Bring on the puncture's !!

[amberwolf]

Update on the girl who bought my norco:
She just texted me saying she had to sell it because someone at her work kept slashing her tyres 3 days in a row.
WTF !? Jealousy ?

I'm guessing it's someone that dislikes her, rather than jealousy, based on the way she's treated you. She probably treats everyone around her like that, and if so, they probably don't like her. I wouldn't.

[Hyena]

I referred her to get any future ebike related stuff done by alswiseowl here on the forums, who recently got a job in an ebike shop. I'm happy to throw the business their way and happy to not do it myself!
She was a nice girl just incredibly unlucky or careless...

In other news, I went for a ride on a trail I havent ridden in a while, I was belting along at about 50km/hr and saw this huge rocky outcropped that had been exposed with the recent rain. It was down hill and over the rough surface I didnt have enough traction to brake hard enough so I just stood up and rode it out. I hit the equivalent of a gutter height rock square on followed by a dip then another one. I yanked the front wheel so it didnt take too much of a pounding but hit the back HARD, fully expecting it to buckle the rim. It didn't but destroyed the tube putting 2 10mm long splits in it (same spot on both sides of the tube). I was miles from home in the national park and it would have been a right bastard to push all that way. I had a pump and some patches but it was too big for the patches. Fortunately I also had a roll of duct tape (never leave home without it ) and was able to patch the tube well enough that if held about 15-20 PSI. I pushed the bike out of the bush onto a near by road then took it easy on the smooth surface and was able to make the 6km trip home. Hooray for duct tape!

[Hyena]

Uh oh, trouble in paradise. I got a shipment of lipo today, my first order from the new HK Aussie warehouse. Sadly I have a DOA pack. Apparently HK aren't accepting returns to the NSW warehouse despite it having been open for a few months now. Their answer to how long until they can take warranty claims is "soon" so I'm going to hang onto the pack and see if I can return it "soon"

dead-lipo.jpg (138.77 KiB) Viewed 779 times

In other lipo related news, I nearly had an KFF incident last night! It was bound to happen sooner or later, in this case I was being lazy using aligator clips jammed into andersons to quickly test a controller and forgot to disconnect them at the pack end before disconnecting at the controller end. The brushed past each other and WHACK. No burns to my fingers, that's just black powder from the vaporised connector.

nearly-KFF.jpg (71.04 KiB) Viewed 940 times

[deVries]

In other lipo related news, I nearly had an KFF incident last night! It was bound to happen sooner or later, in this case I was being lazy using aligator clips jammed into andersons to quickly test a controller and forgot to disconnect them at the pack end before disconnecting at the controller end. The brushed past each other and WHACK. No burns to my fingers, that's just black powder from the vaporised connector.

nearly-KFF.jpg (71.04 KiB) Viewed 935 times

That's an excellent split frame picture that shows "Thee! Warning!" what might happen to the right side while viewing/doing the left side...

Love your duct tape posts...

[gtadmin]

Uh oh, trouble in paradise. I got a shipment of lipo today, my first order from the new HK Aussie warehouse. Sadly I have a DOA pack. Apparently HK aren't accepting returns to the NSW warehouse despite it having been open for a few months now. Their answer to how long until they can take warranty claims is "soon" so I'm going to hang onto the pack and see if I can return it "soon"

dead-lipo.jpg

Ah sh*t Jay And my finger was poised to click on "buy now" too. Hope it gets sorted "soon"

[nhendrix]

But now I charge a carton of tooheys for a rear flat repair

Bring on the puncture's !!

For us "Aussie-challenged" folks this is a toohey:

Sounds like a fair trade.

[AussieJester]

TEDs (Tooheys Extra Dry) is a nice drop alot of my mates drink it in summer



KiM

[Hyena]

Sounds like a fair trade.

I would have though a tyre change was more of a 6 pack job but if thewmatusmoloki can score a whole case for the job good luck to him!

$56 for a case of New though
That's one of the cheapest beers you can buy here! Although I guess it has novelty 'imported' status there.

[Hyena]

While working on my next build (bazooka DH offroad bike) I've decided to revamp my commuter bike as by far it's what I ride the most. Aside from tidying up the wiring and making some neat side covers I'm adding some extra lighting, not to see with, but to be seen. Having had a few near misses on the road recent I figured some day time running lights world be in order, similar to those on Audi's and alot of other new cars now. I've combined that with the usual bicycle flashing white lights to put my own spin on it. It's KITT's litle ebike brother!
There's about 20 different flashing modes but I like the first one in the vid below the best.
It even comes with a remote so I can turn the lights on while the bike is parked and people are looking at it



(yeah AussieJester, I know, I'm a flaming homosexual )

Another KITT style gadget going onto the bike will be a rear camera with a 3.5" LCD screen mounted on the handlebars. The wide angle camera mounted on the back of the bike will enable me to see the cars behind me and a little to each side simply by glancing down at the handlebars instead of turning around and looking right over my shoulder.
Yeah, I could fit a mirror, but where's the tech in that
(and the camera will give me a wider field of view)

rear-cam.jpg (91.62 KiB) Viewed 801 times

[AussieJester]

(yeah AussieJester, I know, I'm a flaming homosexual )

Fiiiinally...he comes out of the closet with lights blazing...or should that be scrolling

Definitely suits the bike HiGHSiDE, complements the girlie streamers from the end of the bars the spokie dokies on the wheels and lets not forget the lovely arrangement of my little pony stickers that adorn your frock

KiM

[zenon]

It's KITT's litle ebike brother!
There's about 20 different flashing modes but I like the first one in the vid below the best.
It even comes with a remote so I can turn the lights on while the bike is parked and people are looking at it

Hi Hyena,

Here's the tune you should play on the next vid with those lights on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo8Qls0HnWo

Seriously LED lighting is the way to go

Zenon

[amberwolf]

There's about 20 different flashing modes but I like the first one in the vid below the best.
It even comes with a remote so I can turn the lights on while the bike is parked and people are looking at it

Product Link?

[Spacey]

Hyena, damn good idea on the LCD screen and camera for rear view.

With regards to your rear wheel coming loose I bought some Nordlock washers, so far the rear Chinese Toffee bolt has not come loose and that's with 2,500 Watt 9C in rear of Canandale with no torque arms. Must get some of those, but so far no twisting of the axle yet after 3 months.

[docnjoj]

+1 on the camera, Hyena! Where does one get such an item. It could replace this on my trike!

100_4768.JPG (112.41 KiB) Viewed 553 times

otherDoc

[Hyena]

product Link?

There's a few places selling them but this was the cheapest at the time.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... &viewitem=
Cheaper and easier than soldering up a still LED display!

This is the link to the 3.5" AV in LCD screen. I'd liked to have used my existing 3.5" GPS if I could have hacked it to do AV in (or got a cheap webcam to work on it via the USB input under the winCE 5 OS) but this one will do. I'm actually going to get another one or 2 for my house - one for my workshop and one for the kitchen. Not that I live in a bad neighborhood (at all) but they're cheap enough even as a gimmick. There's a hole in my kitchen wall where I removed an old obsolete phone socket - one of these will cover it nicely and is easier than patching and repainting the hole!

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWNX:IT

You can use any old camera as an input, I tested mine with a small CCD I had laying around but the best bet would be to get one of the 170 degree wide angle reversing cameras - they're about $20

Spacey, what size bolts are you using ? I had a look at the local hardware for some nyloc nuts but couldn't find something with the right thread, they were all too fine for the fairly "chunky" thread of the axles

[AussieJester]

I'm actually going to get another one or 2 for my house -

And half a dozen to scatter around the National Park behind his house to catch the fornicating couples i'm guessing... Link to video uploads pleeease

KiM

[Spacey]

I just ordered some Nord Locks that fit the axle for the 9C's, can't remember the size but man do they hold the bolt on tight. I am also trying to get hold of some steel axle bolts for the 9C as I just do not feel happy tightening the metal made out of cheese that seem to come from China lol.

Am also going to fit a LCD screen with a rear facing camera instead of a dorky rear mirror, also the Knightrider lights would be great for being seen at night.

Hmmmm upgrades upgrades upgrades.

product Link?

There's a few places selling them but this was the cheapest at the time.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... &viewitem=
Cheaper and easier than soldering up a still LED display!

This is the link to the 3.5" AV in LCD screen. I'd liked to have used my existing 3.5" GPS if I could have hacked it to do AV in (or got a cheap webcam to work on it via the USB input under the winCE 5 OS) but this one will do. I'm actually going to get another one or 2 for my house - one for my workshop and one for the kitchen. Not that I live in a bad neighborhood (at all) but they're cheap enough even as a gimmick. There's a hole in my kitchen wall where I removed an old obsolete phone socket - one of these will cover it nicely and is easier than patching and repainting the hole!

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... K:MEWNX:IT

You can use any old camera as an input, I tested mine with a small CCD I had laying around but the best bet would be to get one of the 170 degree wide angle reversing cameras - they're about $20

Spacey, what size bolts are you using ? I had a look at the local hardware for some nyloc nuts but couldn't find something with the right thread, they were all too fine for the fairly "chunky" thread of the axles

[Spacey]

http://www.dinodirect.com/3-5-LCD-Car-Rearview-Mirror-Monitor-with-COMS-Camera-RPAS-ET-350.html?cur=AUD&AFFID=74
http://www.dinodirect.com/view-camera-car-rear-dc-12v-cmos-ac-607l-currency-AUD.html

[gtadmin]

Better the nut to fail (cheap) rather than the axle ($$) .... and happy new year guys

[Hyena]

Ah Spacey I didnt realise they were just washers, I thought they were new nuts.

Speaking of bolt failure though, I got a nasty new years eve present yesterday - riding home I jumped a gutter near my house going quite slow and the bolt holding my seat on to the post sheered off. The seat flew up and whacked me in the nuts, which needless to say wasn't a pleasurable experience. No other issues or damage luckily, I just picked up the seat and the clamps off the ground and will chase up a new bolt when bunnings opens back up tomorrow. Luckily i was close to home and didnt have to be seen riding around on a bike with no seat

Happy new years guys