Tidal Force : "The Long Ranger"

Who was that masked man? Glad you are riding again and have healed!
otherDoc
 
I wanna say i know this guy but then again i may not. I remember pulling off the trail one day last year to help a rider that had a flat and he was on his way to work and it was getting dark and it was later then he was used to riding not dusk near pitch black.....no lights on trail. He did give him self extra time to get to work so he wasnt late. Anyways I had a cycle lumentor and I escorted him all the way to S. Cobb Drive. Near where his job was. That would account for the 11 mile trip one way from the Transit Bus Depot and his 22 mile round trip.
 

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icecube57 said:
OMG someone from GA. I stay over by Six Flags. The good part. I can let you demo or ride my bike any time you want.

I will be glad to take you up on that offer for a ride. :D Are you going to be around this weekend?

Kirk said:
Oh crap, now he's going to have a sidekick. The Long Ranger and his faithful companion Pronto, in the further adventures of "Life on the Edge of Traction".

LOL
But does that mean he will have to start saying "Hi Ho Tidal Force, away!" and change the intro music on the videos to the William Tell Overture? Or this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vavK9JFQfVw

Kirk said:
Wherever there is evil, you can find our heroes......hiding. In our next episode The Long Ranger secretly disguised as a mild mannered Abrams Tank...........
LMAO ... hiding ... more like riding away at top speed... or at least ice at speed and me pedaling like mad trying to keep up.

icecube57 said:
I wanna say i know this guy but then again i may not. I remember pulling off the trail one day last year to help a rider that had a flat and he was on his way to work and it was getting dark ... Anyways I had a cycle lumentor and I escorted him all the way to S. Cobb Drive.

No, Kemo Sabee that not me but, it very Long Ranger thing you do. :)

I'm over in powder springs, but recognized that side trail you took in the video was the Wild Horse Creek trail and is part of a loop I do sometimes just for fun. I have not ridden into work because its 22 miles one way. Would be about 11 miles on the trail and then down Atlanta Rd and over into buckhead. I do usually ride down to the bus and take that to the train to get to work.
Planning to build a bike that can average about 20mph for the trip with enough range to go in and back without charging between. Have been watching agnisum's threads on A123 AMP20M1HD-A Battery pack kit.

But your harness and li-po might be a better option. That is one of things I wanted to look at on your rig.
 
Got the post mount to 203 post mount adapter in today. The new Promax 203 rotor trued and installed with a BB7 Disc Brake Caliper with CPS. Took about 1 hour to install true the rotor and caliper .... now i can pull that bitch with my pinky. Rear Promax Vbrakes are installed. They look and feel awesome.. now i must take a ride at some point. As far as i know everything else is on point.
 
Ok the new disc brake is a little lack luster. I still think i need to true the rotor some more and and get the pad clearance a little tighter. But in a way still think it has something to do with the pull distance of the ebrake levers. There is a point where the caliper engages and touches the rotor and the lever is like 1 inch away from the handle bar and then it feel spongy all the way to the handlebar after that. The cable has been replaced the caliper is a BB7. Maybe its time for some new pads but I dont think they are contaminated. THey dont howl or do anything like that. The stopping distance is predictable but i was expecting more of a throw you off the bike type feel. The rear brakes feel soft and spongy as well. I still think its the lever and the vbrake pad compound is unusually soft. Both combined do stop me from average speeds but from top speed down to something manageable for the brakes is not worth mentioning.

My regen seems to be acting flakey. I think its the push button switch on my switch pod or something isnt right. Its like it comes in very weak or not at all but it normally works at even low speed so im not sure whats up with that but I bought a handle bar switch to replace the one i bought from lyen. !BvPm7CgEGk~$(KGrHqQOKiQEvz4Icmc!BMDuHOT2Og~~_1.JPG Its for Motorcycle and atv use. Its painted black aluminium and seems very robust. The lyen pod works but i failed to factor in extra slack and strain relief so the wire is pulling out the back of the pod when the handle bar is turned to the extreme right stretching the already short cable. Trust me this cable is already short and I though i extended the wires enough but apparently I didnt. So its best to start with a new better switch.

I did meet up with itsmedc65 this Saturday morning. Bright and early at 8... rolls eyes. It was my call but i had a rough night last night and didnt get much sleep. Anyways we met and went over a few things battery voltage amp hours battery placement on his bike torque arms brakes controller size and issues wh power requirements his planned route hills all the usual ebike questions. Then it came down to the ride. Ofcourse with every high powered build that you are demo to a customer you start them off in the low speed to simulate a 36v or 48v controller so they have a realistic expectation of what its supposed to feel like and he was impressed. But this was in a parking lot where there wasnt a lot of room to get up to top speed. He asked did I mind if he took it out on the main road. Seeing he didnt have a helmet I was a bit leary. I just replied dont wreck it. So he went up the road in low speed. To see someone else on your bike makes you realize how freakin fast it takes of with a normal rider and he wasnt even fully testing the speed. So he went up the street almost out of sight and then he came back and i think he might have kicked it into medium but he flew by in the opposite direction completely out of site... i was like oh shit where is he going. This reminded me of another demo where the rider disappear and took an extended joy ride. The road isnt that long but a few minute elapsed.... you start getting that sick feeling where you worst fears have came true. I calmy stood under the tree waiting his return. He finally comes back a few minutes later it was a while... trust me... he had that familiar grin all over his face shaking his head say.... no way im running 36v or 48v. He proceeded to tell me how he stopped behind a truck at the redlight and when the light change he hit the throttle and the bike reared up on him and he caught it before it got ugly and he proceeded to follow the truck and you know how you ride behind someone and you can tell they were purposely accelerating he described it to me and he described how he took it out of Medium speed and threw it into high an proceeded to chase this truck up past 40mph. I was like wow.. i wish i had this on video. The guy had balls and having no helmet at all. But Im glad he had a good yet unrealistic experience. He got to feel what an ebike should feel like and he got to experience the " short term burst" potential they have. We talked like two hours going over alot of stuff the morning grew hot and we had to go our separate ways but Im looking forward to see what he does and im glad I got to "turn" another person out.
 
THE NOOBIE TEST RIDE.
I thought I wanted an electric bike and icecube was generous enough to let me take his for a spin today. I regret to say, that instead of wanting one, I am now like an addict who MUST get his next fix.
BIG THANKS to Chris for letting me take his sweet machine for a ride. It was AWESOME!!! More on that in a moment.

Not only was the big man generous with his bike, he was kind enough to let me use his packs to test fit how much li-po would fit in a mockup box of my triangle. He took time to understand what I wanted to accomplish, and evaluate the potential of my bike, and then offer useful real world suggestions on what would be needed to achieve what I wanted. He also took a few hours to sit and talk thru various aspects of ebikes and answer and explain things. Even though I have read a lot of info on here and other places, there is nothing that helps put it together for me like being able to experience it in person. It also gave me an appreciation of just how high the quality of his work is. I'm old enough and have enough of a mechanical and electronics background from my 20 + years in military aviation maintenance to know quality when I see and feel it. Not only was the craftmanship of his harnesses and modifications to the bike high, I also get a sense that the man behind the work is a high quality human being too. His knowledge, experience, and drive to overcome obstacles in his path, plus the wilingness to share all that in a helpful and practical way make him the kind of person I am glad to know.

Now about that ride...
We met around 8 AM in one of the parking lots for the Silver Comet Trail. The lot is about half full and the trail has a fairly constant traffic flow of walkers, runners, riders and skaters. The weather is warm and humid but at least there is still a bit of shade around the edges of the lot. We make our introductions and took a few minutes to look over each others bike. Ok, it was mainly me oogling his bike but he didn't seem to mind and there is not a lot on mine to look at anyway. We talked a little bit bit about batteries and the math associated with them while he got the bike ready. Mainly him educating me and demonstrating little things like pre-charge. Next a discussion about the ebike secific controls and the new brake set-up that was only days old. As a side note, I've owned and ridden hard on a variety of dirt bikes and street motorcyles with disc brakes but, never a bicycle with a disc brake and never a mechanical disk brake. Also, I've never ridden a bicycle of the quality level of the Tidal Force frame and Rock Shox fork but, I have managed to rack up a few miles on a variety of pedal bikes over the years for both recreation and more practical trips like grocery store runs.
I took a short pedal around the lot just to get a feel for the bicycle aspect of it and was suprised by how normal it felt. After having read about the cogging effect of direct drive motors and how the extra weight affects handling I was expecting it to feel very awkward. Especially with the batteries on the rack over the back wheel. What I experienced was way better than the way my Schwinn Jaguar handles with a few groceries on the back rack. But that is kind of like comparing the handling of a modern aluminum framed sport bike to a Harley. The bike rolls beautifully and the Schwalbe Big Apples feel good on some tight low speed turns around the lot.
So I circle back around to ask a couple more questions about the ebike controls to be sure I have them right. Didn't think it would be good to mix up the positions of the switch for the Hi, Medium, Low power settings so I wanted to double check what I had just been told. Now for the big moment. Low power selected and try a few pushes on the the thumb throttle. Ok, this is cool and I motor up and out of the lot to the road. Pedal and throttle a little with it already on the big chain ring up front I shift the gears up to 7 and push the throttle down, now this is very cool. Accelerates to about 20 mph as shown on the cycle analyst and that matches up with what it feels like from the amount of air flowing past me. When I get down to the turn-in lane for the bus park and ride lot I move over and give the brakes a good solid squeeze and the speed melts away rapidly. Look over my shoulder and head back up the road in hybrid mode. The pedal cadenance matches nicely with the power of the motor. Must be time to try the mid-power setting.
Settle in behind a Toyota Camry that just pulled out of the parking lot for the trail and we stop to let some trail users cross the road. The road clears and its about about an 1/8th mile accelearation run up to the light at the main road. I'm hanging back and geting a feel for the bike under power with pedaling. Stop at the light behind Mr and Mrs Camry. Pull away from the light on mid-power and get a little wheelie until I put my weight back over the handlebars and start to catch up to the Toyota. Now he is accelerating harder. Time for Hi Power. Flick the switch to the position for high and pedal and throttle to stay right with the Camry. OH YEAH, this is WAY COOL. 8) We hit the posted speed limit of 35 mph, maybe a little more. Cruise along behind the Camry for a moment, then let off the throttle to coast and I'm thinking 'this thing coasts really well'. Wait, this isn't just coasting; what was it he said about cruise control? Hmmm... maybe I should try the regen button to see what that feels like. Alright, just a nice gentle slowing down and I'm putting a little juice back in the pack too.
Get the bike turned around and head back. Don't want the big guy thinking he needs to come find his bike. I'm already comfortable with the bikes ability to accelerate as well as scrub off speed if needed and did I mention how nicely it handles. Steady pedaling and throttle pinned feeling the wind blowing thru my hair. Breeze thru the green light and check the speed on the cycle analyst ... wait, does that say 42 MPH? :eek: Forget my plan to build a nice little 20 MPH commuter; I want one of these. Heck, I want THIS ONE. Wonder if he would notice its missing :?: Maybe he would trade it for one of the kids ... ok maybe both of them. :twisted:
:D The EV Grin ... you read about it, but until you have it plastered on your face you just don't appreciate what it really means.
 
icecube57 said:
The guy had balls and having no helmet at all.

Just wanted to clarify, I do normally wear a helment on something that would hit these kinds of speeds. I just wasn't really convinced it was capable of doing it with that cute little controller and those little batteries; even if there were a lot of them. But I also wouldn't have pushed it up like that if the bike felt questionable in any way and if I wasn't very familiar with the road and traffic flow on it.

That being said ...I have to repeat myself ... IT WAS AWESOME!!! :D

Thanks again ice ... for the ride and taking the time you did. Look forward to scraping up the finances and getting my build on.
 
Looked at the disc brake again and the pad clearance was way off. I did 1 click on the inside and about 5 outside.She feels tight. I am getting a slight pad :skeet: but its not a totally obvious misalignment. We talking about a fraction of a mm of rotor deviation but brake feels alot better now. Think everything has to bed in and get adjusted as you break it in.

It appears my rear motor has a little bit of a run out on the truing thats possibly why i cant get the rears to feel right. They are adjusted so they dont drag so if the wheel was perfectly true it would work tons better also.
 
Im trying to get another ride line up to get some fresh video. Ive yet to revisit the arm breaking trail again. I want to take photos and video so everyone can get a good idea on what really happen. So I can also get some closure. The weather is starting to get cooler which allows me to get more ride time in because i like cooler weather. Less traffic on the trail. I personally can stay cooler. Im still trying to gauge if my bike is ready for long distance and more adventurous riding. Im planning on doing a critical mass type ride on the second friday of the month. The real Critical Mass has been stopped in Atlanta but a bike club started up a smaller more law abiding one.

Im trying to get back down to Peachtree city and hang with Mike Fairbanks. We kinda loss touch after the trike incident and my arm incident. SInce im back on the road i would love to go riding down there. He also has a new personal steed which im excited to see and hopefully we can demo our bikes together and get some more adopters in his area. We both have the same motor but vastly different levels of power it would be nice to see the reaction of people but my bike can be misleading since i do have very high peak numbers that cant be sustained but even the sustained restricted speed and amps at 84v my build is still beastly off the line.

Strangly I dont have the need for speed. I dont want to go any faster. I dont want to volt up or over complicate my ride any more than it is. I actually want a small grocery getter pack. I would actually be happy with a small 44v 10AH pack. The pack im carrying is way to big and only needs to be carried when I know im exploring and seeking trouble to get into.

Actually I want to change my bike over to a single chainring up front and put a 54-56T but I already have a comfortable cadence in the low 20s which i i wanna be at 90% of the time. Switching to a larger chainring is just going to promote me to go faster which i really dont want to do.

Im at a finishing point but sometimes the final touches is what gets you when you should leave well enough alone. Things like getting a cycle lumenator and a rear blink from ebikes CA are some of the things that go through my mind but my flashlight and my AAA led powered blinky accomplishes the same task. My gear shifters are a little worn but they dont have to be replace. Its just even the small things that are in budget are some of the things that nickle and dime you to death in seeking perfection. Ive even looked at ways to redo my battery harness and I have to walk away from it. There is a car or some type of vehicle i need to purchase. SInce I have no cromotor here is no need to invest anymore in this to bring it closer to road DOT standards when its going to be used sparingly in that capacity.

I checked my pack for balance today. All of them are in 10mv or less deviation. Ive been bulk charging no.. balance charges since the initial cycling and perma joining of the main leads. Balance taps were left unparalleled. Im bulk charging in parallel at 16.8v 120AH. Icharger and PSU are working fine no hiccups.

However I did want to mention I bought some ESP 135 modded on ebay and those power supplies do seem to be current limited at 47-48A. Bad thing is the seller set the fan speed too conservatively so the PSU overheats when fully loaded but should be perfectly fine for 350w chargers. I was sucking 575w ...the full rating so i was a bit ambitious. My I charger wanted more but the power supply wasnt giving up its goodies. So it makes me wonder if these were isolated and the PSU do seem to do their own current limiting. You could make a bad ass charger if the output could be fine adjusted which my dell PSU does have a pot for find adjustment so im thinking a dell 57A 700w PSU with the voltage trimpot.. isolated in series with one of these ESP 135 w/47-48A current limit would be bad ass. But i then run into the thing. I have a 30A i charger do I really need to charge more agressively than thats. Then also KISS comes to mind and everything is working fine why mess up a good thing.
 
I think I have a hall acting funky. Im not sure waiting for the motor to cool I was taking a quick spin in my neighborhood. My hilly neighborhood. I just programmed my controller to a lower amp rate.. go figure. trying to protect myself ended up killing a damn hall. The temp sensor worked after the incident go figure. What Im having is rough commutation. Rough to where the controller still works and spins the wheel forward but its very rought like a bad hall combination. The wheel doesnt spin roughly when the the controller is on and off so its not shorted phase wires. If a fet was partially on or stuck on it woul Regen is affected which makes me think its a hall.... Damnit... Ill have to investigate later.. im tired...
 
...... There was no real warning. I wasnt going fast i was in speed two cruising through my neighborhood.My hilly neighborhood. I think the controller being stuck in current limiting an high phase amps had alot to do with it I had just reprogrammed my controller for way less agressive settings which were 110 50 . Actually I was pretty near the rating of the controller. All I know is the commutation started getting roughl like a mosfet had blown but it hadnt. The wheel had way more drag than normal. The drag was the same with or without the phase wires plugged into the controller. Like i said it was very rough with a way high no load like a bad hall combination. Apparently It got hot enough to reflow the solder on the hall board. So one of the halls wires was disconnected. I soldered it back on without with the wheel still on the bike. Thank you 1 inch venting holes. The no load did go way down but it was still high ... like around 5A and there was a drag to where normally while the bike is on the kickstand Im able to pedal it up to 25-30mph. Im struggling to get it to 15 so it feels like a partially shorted phase. I took the wheel off and popped her open 30-40% of the stator was pretty black so there was 1 phase that was shorting for whatever reason... We know.. But other than a varnish smell there was no smoke.. I did notice the temp sensor had tripped. But what I didnt notice is when the motor gets hot the stator normally scrubs the magnets a little bit. So I never thought it was critical The performance was solid... all the way up until it cut out. max amp was 60 with 45A continuous lowest voltage was 79.8. WH a M was 70wh. Ive done far worse riding at 18s and never had this problem its amazing how a small 10v increase in voltage can put it so far out of the efficiency range that it could do this to a motor. it is a different motor with a slightly different winding instead of 9x7 its 8x7. I was gone from the house less than 5 minutes I want to rebuild but i know I need a X5 or a 5400 or a cromotor... I have the money but my wife says this is like a drug habit that breaks homes and destroys families and its a money pit. I broke my arm and it costed us an arm and a leg and we never recover. Filed B and it help a whole lot but when the car was taken it did hit kinda close to home and my work at home job situation is changing to where I might have to switch and get a real 9 to 5 and we need a second car so i can get back and forth to work so basically once I get my priorities straight you can revisit this later but I need you to handle some shit... basically is what the conversation boiled down to... which she was right. I sunk alot of money into this when I could have had a more formal mode of transportation and been half way to a decent rig but the ebike fever bit and i took the plug and I so thought I was done and it was finished and to have this huge setback which basically sets me back 2-500 but realistically 5-600 to replace the motor with the one I really need that can handle the power I need it to handle. My area sucks i might as well be riding in the north Georgia mountains.... there is no relief with these hills around here. I still thing i could fry 5400 and a cromotor at this point which reduces my faith in Hub motors drastically and will be forced to do a different approach next go round. BB geared possibly.
 
Sorry things are not going well and frying the motor sucks. As I mentioned after the test ride I have been there when things are hard financially and as they say; when Moma aint happy, nobody's happy.
Saw you sold off your pack and sent you a PM before I thought to look here. Hope you are not having to sell the Long Ranger. That is one sweet machine.

There are definitly some intersting developments in BB setups. The most intersting one to me is the Pinion E1.8 combo of motor and 8 speed gearbox. Fine $$$$ German engineering
http://pinion.eu/en/discover-pinion/pinion-e1-8/
But at this point I think they are struggling with supplier issues just to deliver the Pinion 1.18 gearbox (18 speed pedal gearbox) in place of the bottom bracket. Of course ti would require SERIOUS frame mods at the BB to fit in on a bike not designed for it.

Again I'm really sorry to hear things are not going well and know how hard it be to balance the whole home, work, hobby parts of life. And how easily it can get out of wack... especially when big medical bills roll in. I'm on a bit of an ebike bug trip at the moment myself and this is a hard reminder to me to keep it in perspective. I feel priviledged to have gotten to ride your bike and hope you can bounce back from this.
 
http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=110958941293&index=18&nav=SEARCH&nid=53352117360
Looks like your friends are at it again. Are these the same guys you bought the other cheap motor from? Got so tempted to buy then I was like...... Wait a minute, I know somebody who bought something like this at a great bargain :mrgreen:
Hope all is well mate.
 
Same people. There is no way that fits in a front fork. Remember over half the case is empty and the stator is only 30mm. Also most front hub motors are 100m from axle shoulder to should this is 120mm. So you would have to go all spread eagle with your forkk to wedge this in and you could probably forget about the disc brake. This vendor should be really put back in their place and if you really knew who this vendor really was or who he represents....

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=22338&hilit=maxi

This may jog a few memories. Hate to dig up old post its not like its a secret its public info. Dont take my word but this is my best guess.
 
Makes for some excellent cooling mods I bet :wink:
 
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