My wife's new Townie...

[GGoodrum]

I finally got my wife's Townie conversion going. It has a front-mounted 5304 Cruiser and one of the new-style 7240 controllers, which is mounted in back, between the seat and the rear rack. For power, there are two 12-cell 40V/10Ah LiFeBatt packs, connected in series, in an 80V/10Ah configuration.

With a 39A limit, this stock controller allows peaks up to about 2500W, which is more than enough for my wife. She has no problem keeping up with me, but she also weighs about a buck and a quarter less than I do, so 2500Wis plenty.

-- Gary

 

[Dee Jay]

Wow, them's purdy tars... I bought Big Apples for my wife's Revive since it has no front suspension, they really do smoothen the ride. But Big Apples aren''t baloony enough for me and was hoping for Fat Franks in 20" for my bike. No-have. Got me some no-name puffy BMX tires instead.

That's a really tidy build too, nice. If you can paint the rim and the motor the same shade of green, that would be too sweet.

J

 

[Lessss]

Just make sure to tell her NOT to hit bumps with the front tire whenever possible. things like cubs and pot holes.

 

[Ypedal]

Nice work !! 8)

Rear brakes only after all ? :lol:

The bike looks nice and clean, the only suggestion i'd give is to find a better way to secure that expensive battery pack !!! wide velcro works surprisingly well, i'm a big fan of metal straps myself.. but bungies will not stand up to an accident, and can cause the pack to creep during a bouncy ride.. i've found my pack on the edge of a rack a few times with bungies lol..

 

[Ypedal]

Or this way.

 

[TylerDurden]

Ja, them blond skins are nice.

That's a sweet enough ride to run the wires through the pipe and lose the black zipties.

 

[Drunkskunk]

Very sweet ride. It needs some leather saddle bags to match the seat, and hide the controller and the batteries in.

What controller is that with the fins?

 

[GGoodrum]

Just make sure to tell her NOT to hit bumps with the front tire whenever possible. things like cubs and pot holes.

Actually, the whole point of using these big "Fat Franks" is that you only ned to run them at aroud 30-35 psi. The ride on this bike is the smoothest I've ever felt, even over minor pot holes, etc. I don't see her jumping too many curbs on this, though.

-- Gary

 

[GGoodrum]

Nice work !! 8)

Rear brakes only after all ? :lol:

The bike looks nice and clean, the only suggestion i'd give is to find a better way to secure that expensive battery pack !!! wide velcro works surprisingly well, i'm a big fan of metal straps myself.. but bungies will not stand up to an accident, and can cause the pack to creep during a bouncy ride.. i've found my pack on the edge of a rack a few times with bungies lol..

I took the pictures before it was actually complete. this was after a quickie test ride. What I ended up doing was swapping out the front fork for one that has standard brake mounts, and it is getting a heavy-duty set of mountain bike V-brakes. This should be fine for this bike, as my wife weighs about half what I do. For my Townie, I found the stock V-brakes were having a hard time stopping my generous heft ( ). hurling down moderate hills at 40+, so I just got a new super heavy-duty hydraulic front disc brake with an 8" disc.

The packs actually are more secure than they look. There are strips of heavy duty Velcro between the lower pack and the rack, and between the upper and lower packs. The bungee cords just add an extra level of holding power. Trust me, they aren't going anywhere.

--Gary

 

[GGoodrum]

Ja, them blond skins are nice.

That's a sweet enough ride to run the wires through the pipe and lose the black zipties.

Yes, I'm afraid zip ties are to me what duct tape is xyster... :lol: My wife wants me to lose them as well, so I'll have look into doing something.

A matching leather bag in back would look good, but I don't dare suggest this to my wife or she'll end up back at the Coach store at the mall. She and my daughter did some serious damage at that place at Christmas.

The controller is one of the new-style Crystalyte 7240 "v2" controllers that EVdepot/Electricrider sells now. It is a newer, supposedly more robust design than the previous version, I'm told, but who knows. I'm sending one up to Bob Mcree to play with, to see if he can figure out how to do the same 4110 upgrade on, and to see if the same "filling-in-the-shunts-with-solder" trick will work to up the current limit.

-- Gary

 

[Ypedal]

I've found it possible and more esthetic to zip tie the wires directly to the existing cables( brake/shifter ) instead of going around the whole frame tube.. if that helps any lol

 

[GGoodrum]

I've found it possible and more esthetic to zip tie the wires directly to the existing cables( brake/shifter ) instead of going around the whole frame tube.. if that helps any lol

Actually, that is exactly what I did for the two big cables going to the motor, on the bottom of the lower tube. The wires on the upper tube are the ones with all the zip ties around the frame tube, going to the two Watt's Up units and the key switch. I'm not happy with this setup anyway, but I wanted to be able to easily monitor the performance of the two 40V LiFeBatt packs, at least until I understand how they do, compared to what I see with the a123-based setups. So far, I acn't tell the difference between these, or my 24s6p a123 configuration. In any case, I'll figure something better out, and re-do this later.

-- Gary

 

[albie]

How did you hook up the Watts Up meters? I noticed you have two thats why.

 

[Mark_A_W]

Wow, it has about 8 times more power than my bike - which goes fine.

So I think it should go "just fine" for your wife!!

 

[Smoker]

That is an awesome color scheme!. I love tywraps myself yet that bike looks to awesome to sport them. It looks like you could enter the frame where the rack connects. Does watts up use a shunt or does the current flow through the unit?

Wow, I used to paint my 1975 porches in need for speed 5 (PC game) the same colors.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BaEacclrzAM

 

[Eric G]

I'd like the colour scheme also,very nice,esp.the beige tires.Yer wife must love it!I beleve the current goes through the Watt'sUp meter but not 100% sure with Gary's 3 wire hookup,Gary?

Thanks
Eric

 

[GGoodrum]

Yes, the color scheme is pretty cool. My wife likes it a lot. They have a men's version that uses a blue frame color very similar to mine, which also looks great. I was able to get a set of the Fat Franks for mine, from the North American distributer up in Canada, but they don't make the tan-colored versions available. Electra might have an exclusive on them.

The Watt's up has an internal shunt on the negative lead. the documentation says this has an insertion resistance of 0.001 Ohms, and is supposedly good to 100A. I am using the "3-wire" setup, which only pases the main current through the negative lead of each unit. I've tried also just directly connecting the packs, bypassing the Watt's Up units, and the power switch, and I can not detect a difference. I've also done the same thing on mine, which has a 4110-modified controller with a 75A limit and can't tell the difference with or without the Watt's Up units either.

-- Gary

 

[Arbiker501]

Awsome pics and clean job,

DUCT TAPE DID SOMEONE SAY DUCT TAPE WHERE >>>>