CYC PHOTON

smitty2k1 said:

I got a Grin All Axle V3 coming for my 20" longtail cargo bike but y'all are giving me some Photon envy.

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Please consider posting a build thread on that. I have a 24” long tail cargo that I’m tempted to convert to the GRIN v3 rear hub. The only problem is the frame is boost QR dropouts, or 141mm QR. I might need to get creative by either trying to jam the tandem in there, or more likely get the 148mm through axle end caps and then get a bolt on adapter axle for it.

nervagon said:

It's already on my bike. Order shipped immediately. But I do plan on picking that up, thanks. The 1:1 cable is a little short. I might buy a second and splice them together, so I might be placing another order.

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Getting it on isn't the problem

I think there is a straight extension cable in the CYC shop, or there will be alternatives on AliExpress etc.

SammySamm said:

Thx. a very good hint

Yes......But since nobody has detected my DIY batteries as a 3rd party.

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You might need to get an UL sticker for that...

Posted 5 minutes ago

Edit...and already in the first 2 minutes the video addresses a whole heap of stuff that has concerned users. Like my assessment of the 34T chainring (in my post about it, I said it was prototype level rubbish)

Edit...this is really good stuff.

hindesite said:

Getting it on isn't the problem

I think there is a straight extension cable in the CYC shop, or there will be alternatives on AliExpress etc.

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I was able to splice and internally route the display/throttle combo cable because it was longer.




And I didn’t f*ck it up.

Done! Just needs a chain!

neptronix said:

It's the other way around.
The all axle motor hits peak continuous power and efficiency in a 20" wheel and because of this you get >3x the continuous power possible for only a couple lbs of additional weight.

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Put ferrofluid and hubsinks on this bad boy and you will have no problem scaling big hills either. And you have regen as well.

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Thanks, I'm getting a 52v 20ah battery but thinking it will be plenty powerful

nervagon said:

Please consider posting a build thread on that. I have a 24” long tail cargo that I’m tempted to convert to the GRIN v3 rear hub. The only problem is the frame is boost QR dropouts, or 141mm QR. I might need to get creative by either trying to jam the tandem in there, or more likely get the 148mm through axle end caps and then get a bolt on adapter axle for it.

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Definitely planning on it. Have you contacted Grin to see what they can do about your axle config?

So I went on a 23mi ride today on my newly completed Photon build with a direct drive hub motor rider and a BBSHD rider. The route was a mix of road and gravel paths, and the last leg of the ride was in the rain. We faced strong headwinds at points that would bring non-assisted bicycles to a crawl. The steepest grade was 12.9%. The other 2 riders were mostly using their throttle. I have the throttle installed, but I was cycling along.

Zero problems on the first real ride. The Photon was simply wonderful. My 21Ah battery pack was still full at the end. The BBSHD bike had a Luna Wolf Pack, and it barely lasted the trip. The hub-motor bike had a mystery battery in an ammo can. No info on his battery situation.

Some observations:

You do not need brake sensors. Even at a stoplight, preloading your pedal, brake cutoffs aren't needed. The cranks/wheels have to start spinning before motor kicks on. In all occasions, the brake sensors are just useless cockpit clutter. I am so certain of this that I snipped the cables off my Magura MT5e levers.

No, you do not need a shift sensor either, so don't worry about this missing accessory. The modulation of the torque sensor is very precise. You can ease up and have very clean shifts. There are no issues here.

The voltage readout on the display is a little too high. My fully charged pack was reading at 59.2V. This is too high for a 14S pack, and we checked it with a multimeter that read 58.8. The display was wrong. I'll need to look into this.

On this mixed ride, I never found myself wishing for a larger chainring than the 42T that came with my Photon.

My overall impression is very positive. I love my bike! When someone commented that at a glance you can't even tell I have an ebike, I felt like I had achieved my stealth bike goal.

42 is quite big chainring if you want to climb. of course you still can but this will put much more stress on the mechanics. imho 38 is quite okay . I have 34 x 50 cassette and with 27.5 wheel I'm happy . and I climb a lot

Not really. Photon with 42t chainring can climb most any "normal" grades easily. Maybe not if you have 25% or more but that doesn't happen here or many places. For road or gravel rides without those super steep grades you need 42t... or more... to optimize speed on the flats and downs, else you will spend most of the ride spun out. This choice is always a bit of a trade off and what works best depends on your local conditions and expectations.

pxl666 said:

42 is quite big chainring if you want to climb. of course you still can but this will put much more stress on the mechanics. imho 38 is quite okay . I have 34 x 50 cassette and with 27.5 wheel I'm happy . and I climb a lot

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My 21Ah battery pack was still full at the end.

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Ok so You forgot to activate the motor assist then. Got it!

Atak_Snajpera said:

Ok so You forgot to activate the motor assist then. Got it!

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Name looks so familiar… where have I seen…



Oh, yeah, it’s that dude jumps into the comments on CYC’s channel to shit on the Photon and tell people to buy a ToSeven dm02. Very normal and cool behavior!

To be specific, my battery voltage was 55.3v at the end of the ride, or 79% SOC, which still reads as full on a 4-bar battery level indicator. That works out to be just under 10 watt hour per mile while keeping up with a BBSHD. That is excellent in my opinion. At 10Wh/mile, a 1092Wh pack will take you far!

I don’t care if you have a beef with CYC, but don’t come at me.

nervagon said:

Name looks so familiar… where have I seen…

View attachment 351124

Oh, yeah, it’s that dude jumps into the comments on CYC’s channel to shit on the Photon and tell people to buy a ToSeven dm02. Very normal and cool behavior!

To be specific, my battery voltage was 55.3v at the end of the ride, or 79% SOC, which still reads as full on a 4-bar battery level indicator. That works out to be just under 10 watt hour per mile while keeping up with a BBSHD. That is excellent in my opinion. At 10Wh/mile, a 1092Wh pack will take you far!

I don’t care if you have a beef with CYC, but don’t come at me.

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So IT was not full then. You lied to US and now you are butthurt. Got IT!

Atak_Snajpera said:

So IT was not full then. You lied US and now you are butthurt.

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I guess I might be butthurt, but I'm not sure. You seem to be an expert. Can you come and inspect my butthurt situation? Can you just get up in there and see how hurt my butt is? I'm sure you have a box of tools for diagnosing and treating this condition. I eagerly await an examination, good sir.

Raw, as it should be. ' The nerve '
Examine your very personalized (?) perception " The BBSHD bike had a Luna Wolf Pack, and it barely lasted the trip. The hub-motor bike had a mystery battery in an ammo can. No info on his battery situation. "
Lessee
My friends rode with me on my new bike had a BBSHD and serious HUB who were able to speed home in the damned cold wind and rain leaving me pedaling like a donkey (?).

Raw, as it should be. ' The nerve '

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Raw can be risky. Always exercise discretion and caution.

Examine your very personalized (?) perception

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Your question mark suggests uncertainty about whether perception is truly personalized or not. While collective or shared experiences do sometimes happen, perception is indeed highly personalized. I would argue that pedaling in the rain can be both a personalized experience (one man's struggle against nature), and a collective experience (as a symbol of human ingenuity and exploration).

My friends rode with me on my new bike had a BBSHD and serious HUB who were able to speed home in the damned cold wind and rain leaving me pedaling like a donkey (?)

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Your question mark indicates uncertainty about whether this comparison to a donkey is accurate or appropriate. I, myself, have never seen a donkey pedaling a bicycle. This might be possible, but would require a tandem bicycle outfitted with pedals that could grip and retain donkey hooves. A special bit could be fixed to the handlebars that would allow the donkey to steer with it's mouth while pedaling with all four legs. But a big problem here is that a donkey is only half the strength of a horse, while a BBSHD puts out 2 horsepower. It would be overly optimistic to expect a donkey to keep up with a BBSHD while trying to pedal a bicycle. But there still could be valid scientific reasons to conduct such and experiment anyway.

nervagon said:

I, myself, have never seen a donkey pedaling a bicycle.

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I didn't see these myself, but teh intarwebz thinks it did:


This one appears to have mutated *into* a bicycle.

And this one doesn't really count, because it's not pedalling and it isnt' a bicycle.


Hyumer interlude over, you may now resume your discussion.

@amberwolf the donkey grafted onto a bicycle image is some next-level biomechanical horror.

Not sure if any of those are electric.

I just had my most idiotic bike breaking incident. I realized right before my first big ride that I needed one more axle spacer behind the non-drive crank. But I was out of time, so I just torqued it on with gorilla strength and decided to deal with it later.

This morning I grabbed my square taper crank puller, put a penny against the ISIS spindle, and started turning away. The effort seemed normal, but the crank did not release. See where this is heading?

The penny deformed into the spindle, and in cahoots with my crank puller destroyed my axle!

Now I really am butthurt! I need @Atak_Snajpera up in here stat!

I did manage to get the crank off with steel washers instead. But, yep, axle is destroyed.

I’ll be ordering a new axle and isis crank puller. Don’t follow me down the same dark path. Nothing but sorrow here.

nervagon said:

I’ll be ordering a new axle and isis crank puller. Don’t follow me down the same dark path. Nothing but sorrow here.

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This guys trick has been working reliably for me with my photon. Of course a proper Isis crank puller is more reliable still.

Epithemeus said:

This guys trick has been working reliably for me with my photon. Of course a proper Isis crank puller is more reliable still.

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Not a great way of doing this. The puller may not use the full depth of the thread in the crank and to be safe you need to use as much as possible - and being aluminium is easily stripped. Ask me how I know. Also some of the cheaper pullers may not have accurate threads anyway. That aluminium crank thread isn't intended to have significant load on it while rotating.

Better to use the full depth of the puller thread and I drop a ground down coach bolt into the shaft which is easy to retrieve.

My current cranks have self extracting bolts, which work even better though they need to be well lubricated.

I couldn't find a new spindle on electrifybike's website, so I decided to give johnnynerdout a try since he had them listed.

@raylo32 Yeah, you were right about electrifybike support being slow. After I stupidly destroyed my axle, I contacted them about buying a new 68mm spindle. During the wait, I ordered a new one from johnnynerdout. My johnnynerdout order has shipped with an expected delivery this saturday, and I've yet to hear back from electrifybike.