1badfattie
1 mW
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2016
- Messages
- 12
This is a thread for anyone who doesn’t think they can build their own e-bike. If a ham-fisted monkey can do this, you my friend, can also do this. For those of you who know what they’re doing, this is going to be painful. Just keep telling yourself that people like me are good for the industry!
If you know bikes a bit and want to cut to the chase, Blizzard has an outstanding build thread for the Lurch/BBSHD. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel, but I’ll add some color commentary and helpful hints that could make life easier. http://electricbike.com/forum/forum/...fat-bike-bbshd
A little background. I am not a bikey-person. I don’t believe in spandex. Before today, I hadn’t ridden my own bike in 10 years. In my 30’s, bikes simply became too hard to get up my driveway, let alone a hill with 2-3 feet of elevation gain. I was good with this. Car salesmen were good with this. My belly, and its insatiable demand for expanding its real-estate empire, was really good with this. Then early this summer I had an epiphany at the beach when a strange man in a brown hood offered me two droids if I’d release Han Solo from carbon freezing. It is probably time to lose some weight. So, ebike.
Let’s appraise my skillset at the outset of this build:
Mechanical aptitude. My favorite tool is hammer. Hammer is for all the things. It is the king of tools. Last time I tried to tune up a bike, I carefully stripped each part down and reassembled it over the course of 3 days. It looked stellar. Clean as the fresh driven snow. And lighter. Because there were about 13 assorted pieces of the bike left over on the floor. In retrospect, I have a suspicion that those pieces belonged someplace on that bike doing something important.
Electrical aptitude: I’m aware of that electricity is dangerous and powerful and mostly made up of magic. I think it is blue. Or white. Hard to say. Oh yeah, it’s fast. Which makes it hard to say what color it is. One should never try to pet it. Ever. I have a vague notion of how it works. You place electricity into things, and it makes those things do stuff they wouldn’t ordinarily do regardless of how many times you hit those things with a hammer.
So I think we’ve stablished I have no business attempting this. But internets and whiskey, so what the hell!
I had three goals for this build:1.An all around bike that could do everything
2.Sub $3,000
3.Use hammer as little as possible on shiny, expensive new things
As monkeys are want to do, I started with exhaustive research on the type of bike I’d need. It went like this: “Holy shit they make bicycles that look like monster trucks!!! I must have one yesterday so I can ride it SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!!!” That led me to a 2017 16’ Lurch Bluto from bikes direct for $1,300. Amazing suite of mid-level components at this price point, plus those lovely, luscious, bedonkadonkin’ 4.8” wide Maxxis Minion Tires on Mulefut rims I gotta take them home and make them pregnant RIGHT NOW!!!
Ahem. Like all good 80’s porn, it came in the mail with free shipping in a non-descript brown box.
Bike was as advertised, and all I had to do was put on the front tire and handlebars. I like bikes direct. Very direct. Many bikes. Such value. Wow.
![thumbnail_IMG_20160915_185811903[1].jpg](https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/data/attachments/108/108507-49cdcb8b4091f8c93624c673073e8b70.jpg "thumbnail_IMG_20160915_185811903[1].jpg")
People say it’s easy to bend the rear hanger adjuster screws, so they’ve been flipping the screws around to go in from the rear of the bike, and adding nuts to prevent the thin screw from bending. Google Lurch Lounge for lots of info on the Lurch. But this is an easy preventative fix to do right away – check it out.
![thumbnail_IMG_20160916_125455923[1].jpg](https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/data/attachments/108/108508-6f350b81fe2fed67c985a7ee2a7090d8.jpg "thumbnail_IMG_20160916_125455923[1].jpg")
Of course I wanted a kajillion watt Cyclone kit and the battery that powers the space station, but reason, by some miracle, won out. The BBSHD seemed a great balance of good things: good power, good price, and lots of good build threads to crib from. All of which suggested it would not require too much hammer. So 120mm BBSHD from Luna Cycle (based on advice of Blizzard), plus the biggest battery in pack form I could find. The 52v 14AH GA Shark Pack. And the upgraded Luna Charger for $80 because from what I read, it slides that electricity into the battery so nice….it’ll have your battery begging for more.
Also got the gear shift doohickey for $40 as I’ve never had good luck shifting bicycle gears. Why that is rocket science to me, I do not know. Figured that would avoid adding to my problems. I got the 42t chain ring just on the online recommendations of other riders who’d built BBSHD bikes.
I followed Blizzard’s build and recommend you do to. Building on his build, here’s where monkey struggled:•I went straight to a bike shop and paid $15 to have the crankset removed. I’m pleased with this decision. I feel if the hammer was going to come out, this was when it would come out. Instead I let professional do it and had a beer. Best decision I made that day.
•Gear sensor derailleur - after one ride I already think that’s a good idea. If you do, unless you name is Gandalf, you’re gonna need a new rear derailleur cable. You have to cut off the thing that keeps the steel wires from unwinding…humpty dumpty scenario ensues. I spent a good 45 minutes learning this lesson. Hammer does not help. New cable was $5.
![thumbnail_IMG_20160917_142032117[1].jpg](https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/data/attachments/108/108509-fd94763547b4ae73c8ca7a1a5400aeb2.jpg "thumbnail_IMG_20160917_142032117[1].jpg")
•I was mightily tempted to hit this with a hammer
•Monkey was surprised at how easy restringing cable and even adjusting the derailleurs is. There are manuals online.
•Mounting the motor was easy, but monkey got confused with spacers, and I’m not sure if I got this right. The 120mm motor definitely needed the extra spacer kit. I ended up with 6 spacers on the side you poke the motor through, and 4 spacers on the side the motor pokes out from. Here’s how I used them. Would love any insight into if this is a good way to mount this, or if this is wrong.
![thumbnail_IMG_20160916_145750347[1].jpg](https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/data/attachments/108/108510-2790e4f6ff0a2bc4a8b69ce7e40dfd38.jpg "thumbnail_IMG_20160916_145750347[1].jpg")
•You’ll need the $10 spacer kit from Luna Cycle. Those spacers need to go on the other side of the black motor lock-amabobby thing or it won't hold - but again, I'm thinking I could be off on this. Not sure if the 100MM Motor would avoid this or cause more problems. Putting the spacers on the outside of the lock thing seemed to be a good idea and got it flush against the bottom bracket.•The 42T chain ring makes your stock chain too short. I bought a new KMC X10.93 116 Link 10-speed chain for $40 and it was the perfect size right out of the box – maybe 3-4 links longer than the stock one. Gears shift great, no hopping after 20 minutes of hard riding.
•The rest of the kit mounted right up with zip ties and some electrical tape. The battery fits perfectly.
•You’ll need to pull the left hand side handlebar grip off. I didn’t have an air compressor so I shot some brake cleaner between the handlebar grip and handlebar to loosen it, and then some sun block to lube it back on. This was monkey think and may not be advisable. But it worked fine for me.
•Turned power on and everything worked great. Eric’s video on adjusting the bike to go to 9 (really, can’t they program it to go to 11?!? Cuz most bikes only go to 10 and it’d be faster if it went to 11. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...95&FORM=VRDGAR
![thumbnail_IMG_20160917_170221[1].jpg](https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/data/attachments/108/108511-89b19f12ea9778ce9516084b6b7f6d21.jpg "thumbnail_IMG_20160917_170221[1].jpg")
It's so big!
My first ride: I’m over the moon, and perhaps have figured out the Luna in Luna Cycle. I rode around my neighborhood giggling like 13-year old me used to giggle on my bike. I climbed the super steep road to my house at 15mph. I maxed out at 29mph on very soft clown shoe tires on a straightaway. This is a game changer for me and I’m very excited. I really believe it’s going to kick off a healthier life and all kinds of crazy adventures. I’m stoked I decided to build it myself. I now know a ton about ebikes, motors, even the ‘lectricities. The build process made me much more comfortable with even the basics of my bike like brakes, derailleur and shifters – much more so than if I’d just bought an ebike.
HUGE thanks to everyone who paved the way for me to build this amazing creation with such an easy time of it. I learned a ton from endless sphere and am loving the e-bike community for how helpful everyone's been.
I now feel like I’m only have the monkey I used to be.
And I never even used my hammer.
If you know bikes a bit and want to cut to the chase, Blizzard has an outstanding build thread for the Lurch/BBSHD. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel, but I’ll add some color commentary and helpful hints that could make life easier. http://electricbike.com/forum/forum/...fat-bike-bbshd
A little background. I am not a bikey-person. I don’t believe in spandex. Before today, I hadn’t ridden my own bike in 10 years. In my 30’s, bikes simply became too hard to get up my driveway, let alone a hill with 2-3 feet of elevation gain. I was good with this. Car salesmen were good with this. My belly, and its insatiable demand for expanding its real-estate empire, was really good with this. Then early this summer I had an epiphany at the beach when a strange man in a brown hood offered me two droids if I’d release Han Solo from carbon freezing. It is probably time to lose some weight. So, ebike.
Let’s appraise my skillset at the outset of this build:
Mechanical aptitude. My favorite tool is hammer. Hammer is for all the things. It is the king of tools. Last time I tried to tune up a bike, I carefully stripped each part down and reassembled it over the course of 3 days. It looked stellar. Clean as the fresh driven snow. And lighter. Because there were about 13 assorted pieces of the bike left over on the floor. In retrospect, I have a suspicion that those pieces belonged someplace on that bike doing something important.
Electrical aptitude: I’m aware of that electricity is dangerous and powerful and mostly made up of magic. I think it is blue. Or white. Hard to say. Oh yeah, it’s fast. Which makes it hard to say what color it is. One should never try to pet it. Ever. I have a vague notion of how it works. You place electricity into things, and it makes those things do stuff they wouldn’t ordinarily do regardless of how many times you hit those things with a hammer.
So I think we’ve stablished I have no business attempting this. But internets and whiskey, so what the hell!
I had three goals for this build:1.An all around bike that could do everything
2.Sub $3,000
3.Use hammer as little as possible on shiny, expensive new things
As monkeys are want to do, I started with exhaustive research on the type of bike I’d need. It went like this: “Holy shit they make bicycles that look like monster trucks!!! I must have one yesterday so I can ride it SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!!!” That led me to a 2017 16’ Lurch Bluto from bikes direct for $1,300. Amazing suite of mid-level components at this price point, plus those lovely, luscious, bedonkadonkin’ 4.8” wide Maxxis Minion Tires on Mulefut rims I gotta take them home and make them pregnant RIGHT NOW!!!
Ahem. Like all good 80’s porn, it came in the mail with free shipping in a non-descript brown box.
Bike was as advertised, and all I had to do was put on the front tire and handlebars. I like bikes direct. Very direct. Many bikes. Such value. Wow.
People say it’s easy to bend the rear hanger adjuster screws, so they’ve been flipping the screws around to go in from the rear of the bike, and adding nuts to prevent the thin screw from bending. Google Lurch Lounge for lots of info on the Lurch. But this is an easy preventative fix to do right away – check it out.
Of course I wanted a kajillion watt Cyclone kit and the battery that powers the space station, but reason, by some miracle, won out. The BBSHD seemed a great balance of good things: good power, good price, and lots of good build threads to crib from. All of which suggested it would not require too much hammer. So 120mm BBSHD from Luna Cycle (based on advice of Blizzard), plus the biggest battery in pack form I could find. The 52v 14AH GA Shark Pack. And the upgraded Luna Charger for $80 because from what I read, it slides that electricity into the battery so nice….it’ll have your battery begging for more.
Also got the gear shift doohickey for $40 as I’ve never had good luck shifting bicycle gears. Why that is rocket science to me, I do not know. Figured that would avoid adding to my problems. I got the 42t chain ring just on the online recommendations of other riders who’d built BBSHD bikes.
I followed Blizzard’s build and recommend you do to. Building on his build, here’s where monkey struggled:•I went straight to a bike shop and paid $15 to have the crankset removed. I’m pleased with this decision. I feel if the hammer was going to come out, this was when it would come out. Instead I let professional do it and had a beer. Best decision I made that day.
•Gear sensor derailleur - after one ride I already think that’s a good idea. If you do, unless you name is Gandalf, you’re gonna need a new rear derailleur cable. You have to cut off the thing that keeps the steel wires from unwinding…humpty dumpty scenario ensues. I spent a good 45 minutes learning this lesson. Hammer does not help. New cable was $5.
•I was mightily tempted to hit this with a hammer
•Monkey was surprised at how easy restringing cable and even adjusting the derailleurs is. There are manuals online.
•Mounting the motor was easy, but monkey got confused with spacers, and I’m not sure if I got this right. The 120mm motor definitely needed the extra spacer kit. I ended up with 6 spacers on the side you poke the motor through, and 4 spacers on the side the motor pokes out from. Here’s how I used them. Would love any insight into if this is a good way to mount this, or if this is wrong.
•You’ll need the $10 spacer kit from Luna Cycle. Those spacers need to go on the other side of the black motor lock-amabobby thing or it won't hold - but again, I'm thinking I could be off on this. Not sure if the 100MM Motor would avoid this or cause more problems. Putting the spacers on the outside of the lock thing seemed to be a good idea and got it flush against the bottom bracket.•The 42T chain ring makes your stock chain too short. I bought a new KMC X10.93 116 Link 10-speed chain for $40 and it was the perfect size right out of the box – maybe 3-4 links longer than the stock one. Gears shift great, no hopping after 20 minutes of hard riding.
•The rest of the kit mounted right up with zip ties and some electrical tape. The battery fits perfectly.
•You’ll need to pull the left hand side handlebar grip off. I didn’t have an air compressor so I shot some brake cleaner between the handlebar grip and handlebar to loosen it, and then some sun block to lube it back on. This was monkey think and may not be advisable. But it worked fine for me.
•Turned power on and everything worked great. Eric’s video on adjusting the bike to go to 9 (really, can’t they program it to go to 11?!? Cuz most bikes only go to 10 and it’d be faster if it went to 11. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...95&FORM=VRDGAR
It's so big!
My first ride: I’m over the moon, and perhaps have figured out the Luna in Luna Cycle. I rode around my neighborhood giggling like 13-year old me used to giggle on my bike. I climbed the super steep road to my house at 15mph. I maxed out at 29mph on very soft clown shoe tires on a straightaway. This is a game changer for me and I’m very excited. I really believe it’s going to kick off a healthier life and all kinds of crazy adventures. I’m stoked I decided to build it myself. I now know a ton about ebikes, motors, even the ‘lectricities. The build process made me much more comfortable with even the basics of my bike like brakes, derailleur and shifters – much more so than if I’d just bought an ebike.
HUGE thanks to everyone who paved the way for me to build this amazing creation with such an easy time of it. I learned a ton from endless sphere and am loving the e-bike community for how helpful everyone's been.
I now feel like I’m only have the monkey I used to be.
And I never even used my hammer.
