First, thanks to
My local bike shop, "The Bike Shop" in Richardson Texas. Most of the accesories, including the tires, fork, rims, bags were purchased there.
KTA services, I purchased my motor, controller and wiring here. I had to call Ken a couple of times, answered all of my questions completely.
EV Tech, I went to their office in Addison TX, which, at the time I thought was a showroom. Doug Canfield was there and was very interested in what I was building. He steered me to using the odyssey battery. He showed me his hub motor, battery pack that was in his office. I explained to him that I wanted to build something along the line that Eric Peltzer had done. Doug got on the internet, looked at Eric's bike, suggested I use the above battery. We went outside where Doug had his bike in his truck, He pulled it out and said ride, my first electric ride. This was last July in 100 degree weather. His bike is as advertised. I was impressed, rode it around the parking lot several times, power, acceleration, handling, but whoa, $2000. This bike was used and abused, it had a lot of miles on it. I am 6' 1", Doug towers over me, he's pretty big, Pro football size, when he advertises that he has tried to kill this motor, he means it. The bike is light, very light, it handles like a well built mountain bike should.
After building my 1st bike, with speeds close to 30 mph, the raliegh was very twitchy, I was too high, the front end would not track, I could not hold a line and did not feel safe. I put an old rst suspension fork on the bike which helped the tracking and smoothed out the ride. Still, it was uncomfortable at top speed. So, I ordered the manual on the "Cheetah".
The book is worth the $40 I spent on it. But, it is missing some dimensions on the main frame plan, I had to redraw on Cad to find some critical dimensions. After building the main frame to spec., my front wheel hit the front down tube. I cut the original tube off and moved it back 2" from the steering tube and had to bend this tube so I had clearance. Now it is as advertised, light and nimble. 100 lbs. over half is battery, 56 lbs. The batteries are still going strong after 7 months and guessing about a 1000 miles. I just purchased a cat eye computer last month, this bike goes 25.5 mph on the flat, on steep long grades it rarely drops to below 22.5 mph, downhill it never goes faster than 28 mph. Gear ratio is 10.4 to 1 and I am using a scott 1hp motor and allthrax 180 amp controller. Overall, I am generally pleased with the bike, rear shock has an 800lb spring, should be around 4 to 5 hundred lb per the Bidwell manual, front forks from chili works, need more spring, basically, they can't handle the load. I also fell safe at all speeds.
-if they pan out at 72V i will probably get one and wouldn't mind a setup like Maytag's.
