Endless Sphere

Wheelchairs are appropriate for those who need wheelchairs. If those who don't need them, use them, they can become debilitated. I would not resort to a wheelchair bike before first trying a wide range of rider position setup with a normal bike. A century and a half of experience and experimentation...

Yes, when you exceed the motor's free speed and its back EMF exceeds battery voltage, it applies a braking force that clamps your maximum speed. Back when I used a power analyzer that I could watch while riding, I could see the system voltage rise past the battery voltage and start to apply passive ...

4 stroke motor with a pull starter? They're slightly less obnoxious.

Or move to Florida where there are places to plug in an e-bike, and having a breakdown won't lead to death by hypothermia.

What about the Raleigh Twenty hinge? We rode our modified Raleigh Twenties halfway down US fully loaded (no ebike though). They are nice and stiff but there's no doubt the cockpit size is tight. I also built my own wheels. I don't know what the Chinese folders are like though. Torsional forces work...

add a downtube to the frame, and weld it in place. rong agin. :roll: oldskool biplane tech. https://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=210064 That's cool and all, but the downtube has to handle a lot of torsion and lateral beam loading at the bottom bracket. A wire can't do that. That b...

That's good news!

The last bike of mine that was stolen, was also recovered (but not the custom trailer that was stolen with it). It was away almost a year and a half. Eventually I rebuilt that bike into a capable e-bike for a friend of mine.

Yeah, most people don't understand the conditions here and i've had to explain myself till i'm blue in the face whenever i bring it up. Then there are those of us who've ridden tens of thousands of miles in the city, in the 'burbs, in the sticks, and toured multi-day interstate routes. Who understa...

That "heavyweight" folder still has the usual cheap-folder gate type hinge in the middle. Hopefully it's more substantial than the run of the mill, but you'll have to check it regularly to see that it's staying good and tight. Would you drive a car whose front and rear halves were kept attached by a...

So... who's used one of these motors, and how did it go?

They still have a few of the small "500W" ones left, though they're sold out of the big ones.

It seems plausible to attach a steering linkage (like that of a Long John bike) running from one side of the fork, under the bottom of your trike, to a longer lever in back, steering the rear wheels in the opposite direction. You will want the rear wheels to steer through a much smaller angle than t...

If it were my hub, I'd pull off the side cover and run new wires. I'd use Teflon jacketed phase wires, and reuse the Hall wires if possible. In any case, the plugs would need to be replaced, which more than likely means the plugs on the controller side also would also need to be replaced with matchi...

If he or she has their heart set on a folding bike, just accept it and help said person build the safest, funnest ebike their budget will allow. Okay. Here's how you make a folding bike safer for electric assist use: Get a steel-framed one. Weld up all the places that fold. Add a downtube to the fr...

I'm really surprised that a bigass motor like that is fine on 14 gauge spokes and radially laced. Likely only possible to get away with this on a 20 inch wheel! I'm surprised that the spokes stay tight as well as they do. 14ga spokes are about twice as elastic as 12ga spokes, but 68mm spokes are on...

As far as I can tell, radial lacing of a drive wheel is not a reliability issue when the hub and rim are close enough in diameter that you have to use it. Because the lever arm from axle center to hub flange is so long, and the spoke so short, windup is miniscule. It certainly seems to cause fewer p...

Have you tried unscrewing the back of the case, like you would a watch back? Maybe use an inner tube to develop grip against the metal surface while twisting with the perimeter features. That is a super cool gauge. I thought the 1960 airplane +/- ammeter I used on a stationary generator bike was hip...

When I was younger and at my fastest, I used handlebars situated some 8" lower than saddle level. It wasn't just for aerodynamics, either (though that was both an aim and a benefit). Keeping my back flat and my reach long meant being able to pedal really hard without having to pull on the handlebars...

DIY paint jobs give you a unique opportunity to enhance the security of your bike. Paint with a brush/mop/soup ladle to decrease the likelihood of theft, or use wet sanding and clearcoat to increase your chances of getting a bike ripped off. I'm usually cool with whatever raggedy paint my bike's lon...

Even better would be to have a folding car that you can carry in the luggage of your full-sized e-bike.

A folding bike isn't a good option for riding. It's not designed for that. It's designed to fit in places a proper bike can't. If you're not below average height and weight, a folding bike is not usually even a safe option. If you don't believe me that they suck, please go to a well-stocked bike sho...

As part of my research I found the same bike, one stock the other electrified, and they had different load limits. The stock one had a weight limit of 300lbs the electrified one had a limit of 250lbs. I imagine part of this to be the weight of the extra components like motor and battery (geared hub...

I think the better generality is that longer wheelbase bikes tend to make better cargo bikes than shorter wheelbase ones. For any given wheelbase, you'll be able to tote much more stuff on an upright bike than on a 'bent. That's an easy and factual generalization, because on an upright bike you're ...

Front rear suspension travel. As in, 130/120 means 130mm front suspension travel, 120 rear. 100mm travel bikes are rare now. 120 seems to be the default minimum. Zero mm of suspension travel is the default minimum, now as always. I have shortened fork travel by installing longer bushing spacers in ...

So what about any 100/120 FS xc bikes? All the FS frames are for enduro and sorry i already got a hardtail and I regret it from the day one I just that I don’t really need 140-160 suspensions 29ers frames are usually HT or enduro like the new Levo Like the title says: is any genuine FS XC ebike on ...

Here's an example of one of the unintended consequences of Slime in a bicycle tube: IMG_20190613_165358.jpg Glycol ooze has compromised the adhesion between the brass valve body and the rubber tube. What kind of slime? It was green. Which flavor of green Slime, I don't know-- but I know the feeling...

Here's an example of one of the unintended consequences of Slime in a bicycle tube: IMG_20190613_165358.jpg Glycol ooze has compromised the adhesion between the brass valve body and the rubber tube. This failure is less common than Slime clogging or fouling the valve, but I've seen it many times.