Fiji Nichibei Sport Single Speed Mixte Road E-Bike

E-Mixte from Fuji with base model starting at $1100.

Nichibei Sport Single Speed Mixte Road Bike

* This bike is a nice light weight single speed model.

* This bike is only available with a mid drive motor due to the 120mm dropout spacing. Hub motors require a minimum of 135mm to fit. The two speed motor needs 145mm. Even though this is a steel frame, and can be adjusted, this is too much adjustment for safety sake. Mid drive motors are much better than hub motors anyway.

* Three Motor options.

TSDZ2 500w Mid Drive Motor $395.00   

Bafang BBSHD Programed for either 750w or 1000w Mid Drive Motor  $679.00

* With the above two motors, you can get a three speed Shimano Nexus internal geared hub installed as an upgrade for $150.

* An optional Mini Cyclone 2000w Motor  $419.95 is available for more experienced riders, but will require changing the front forks and wheel to a hydraulic disk brake setup. Rim brakes shouldn't be used on bikes with more than 1000w of power! I also recommend changing rims to double wall, and getting better quality stainless steel spokes with a Cyclone motor upgrade!

* For the Cyclone motors, I will install with my own proprietary mounts to frame for a clean look and stable untwistable solid motor mount. I do not use the cheap supplied hose clamps.

* Your choice of traditional ebike battery shark pack, or a hand stitched old world quality leather bag to hold the battery pack. These will fit inside the frame to keep the weight centered and as low as possible. With the leather bag, the largest battery that can fit inside the frame is an option (20+ amp hours for long range trips). With the shark pack, the largest battery size is 17.5 amp hours. Seventeen and a half amp hours is still about twice what most other ebikes come with! With a bigger battery, not only do you get more range before having to recharge, but you also get a longer lasting battery life because they don't have to work as hard as a smaller battery pack.

* One size fits all from  5'3" to 5'11" riders.

* Light Weight Steel Frame. 28.23lbs.

* Red is the only color offered by Fuji, but custom paint or a tough rock and scratch resistant powder coat is optional. Just pick your favorite color!

* Tires 700c.

* Chain KMC.

* Brakes are traditional style V brake. All bikes with V brakes get the pads upgraded to Kool Stop brake pads for more stopping power in all weather conditions.
 https://www.citygrounds.com/products/fuji-nichibei-sport-bike-2017?variant=35228522956
 https://www.plentyofbikes.com/products/nichibei-sport-2017


 Send me an email at dukesmotoelectric@aol.com to discuss custom options. Each bike is hand built to customer specifications. All batteries are assembled from the highest quality authentic LG or GA 18650 battery sells after order. I don't keep batteries sitting around on a shelf to get old and weak. Each battery pack is custom built by hand to order along with the bike.

New Stuff - Cyclone Coaxial 4K Mid Drive!

One thing about the ebike industry is that there is always new stuff weather it be batteries or motors.

I've been waiting for the release of this new motor and frame from Cyclone before saying anything about it.

New Cyclone Coaxial 4000w Mid-drive to be available in Mid-July 2017

THIS IS BAD ASS POWER!

.

The battery options are less than great in the small packs available at present. I'm ready to offer a carbon fiber, plastic, or classic hand stitched leather battery case to maximize the frame space for this bike. 

My comment on Youtube:
"I can make battery bags in leather, plastic or carbon fiber to get a lot more than 48V 13ah or 72V 7.8ah for this same frame. 48v is worthless, and so is a 72 with only 7.8Ah. Nikita, contact me if interested. Good job by the way! This is bad ass! I'm in USA, but can ship worldwide."

In the video, the motor is silver. It's being produced in black as I write this. The frame is aluminum with chro-mo rear pivot. 

It's available in 3" and 4" fat bike tire size.

4" tire Fat Beach / Snow Bike

I think it's funny that this front fork looks the same as someone I know locally who imports them, but without the company stickers on it. Haha!

3" tire Elite version Mountain Bike

While the details about what bearings are used in this rear frame suspension have not yet been released, I'm sure that whatever they may be, can be upgraded at a minimum cost if found lacking in durability.

You can see from the above side view that there is PLENTY of room for a larger battery pack! Dolphin and whale packs are the mark of a weekend worrier on a bike like this. I hope that Cyclone Taiwan gets back to me and at least offers me a chance to bid on alternative packs for this frame. I'm sure they can get a better price on plastic from a China Manufacturer, and maybe even on a carbon fiber setup, but not by much, and forget about leather from overseas competing with me unless it's from a couple guys I know in England!

Here's prices and options. http://www.cyclone-tw.com/Coaxial.html

Shipping times may vary, especially since it's not coming out till mid July, but assembly time should be the same as any other bike once received. As usual, no battery pack or bike is built before order at Duke's Moto Electric. Only this way can I assure you of the freshest battery pack available, and custom build each bike to customers desires. 

Duke's Update #1 (more to follow)

This has been an interesting month so far. I haven't had much to post for reasons described below. This is a start up company with no crowd funding. Either I do it by myself, for myself, and my customers, or I don't do it at all. I refuse to compromise any part of a ebike, so it must be a sole entrepreneurship or nothing.

Just to set the record straight, I'm not some big money pants who can buy tons of inventory. Just the opposite. Work that pays well has been almost non existent since I left the Plumbers union. I'm far overqualified for most jobs, but lack some silly credentials required to perform the work. We live in a world of Hacks with impressive credentials and no mechanical aptitude these days. Apparently this is what the market demands. I never thought I would see the day that someone qualified to build a nuclear power plant or a hospital, would think that a burger flipper job at McDonald's would be better than where they are now. Believe me when I say, this is the best motivation to build the BEST ebikes you can find! I won't even get into the deal about what ebike rip off junk is on the market. I've covered that topic before, and will again shortly.

I've taken a job as an apprentice A&P mechanic at the local airport in order to get ebike supplies. I had this same job with 100% more responsibilities when I was in High School back in the 80's. So far that's been as big a fizzle as a couple of old style Rolaids dropped into a cup of water. "Plop Plop Fizz Fizz etc". I went out and blew almost $100 on new work shirts for the job, and now there is no work. At least I still have the shirts on my back, and had a nice steak dinner to celebrate the first paycheck. NOTE TO SELF: Don't celebrate a first paycheck again. Always wait till the second or third check has cleared the bank.

So that's not all bad. It gave me the opportunity to get in touch with a bicycle company that imports Beach Cruiser bikes down the road from where I live. I've been meaning to go by the shop and talk to the owners about an electric version of a few models anyway. So far I have yet to see one of the owners after two visits to their store/shop, and have been playing phone tag. Apparently they were looking for some bike assembly people. I hope to get in doing that to make some cash for ebike parts. $15 per bike, and I figure I can do five or six per hour. That would be better than the airplane mechanic job if they have enough bikes that need assembly. I'm still working on my sales pitch for the owners on the ebike thing. It would be great if they could get the factory to add disk brakes to the rear dropouts! I have one of their bikes already. I may have to make it electric and show up on it to impress them enough to get them to understand the added value product concept as it applies to ebikes.

At least I had a good day working as an electrician yesterday, and have more work doing that this Friday. Out of that I'm trying to put away $200 (half what I need) for the battery pack on the Schwinn Wayfarer project. I'll run the battery in a backpack until I can afford a few more leather tools, some saddle leather and supplies for a proper battery bag that the project requires. 

 Bags on this bike are crap!

I've come up with another design for a bag that will fit inside the frame triangle. I should call it a Lithium holster, since it's based on a stretched leather design like many popular pistol holsters. I think it will be a popular design for everything from city commuter, to Beach Cruiser, to down hill racing MTB. They're easy enough to make, but very time consuming. Hand stitched leather ain't cheap because of the labor that goes into them, but it's the best money can buy. I can't ever see Chinese factories making anything of similar quality. These will be 100% USA made, including the cow hides! No imported leather! Ever! And hand stitched by myself with the highest quality cord.

So, this is the Duke's Moto Electric State of the Union Address for Thursday June 15 2017.

How dedicated to ebikes and my customers am I?

I put off for several hours making shrimp Scampi.

If you could smell and taste this, you would understand how dedicated that is! 

If you're thinking about getting someone else to build you a bike, or getting some cheap junk, ask the guy if he EVER put off shrimp scampi for even a second in the name of customer service!

What Schwinn Stingray Krate Wanted To Be, But Never Was

Did you have a Stingray Krate as a kid?

What if you could have an adult sized version now? One with a real motor instead of a playing card stuck in the spokes. Well, you could still do the card trick if you want since electric motors are almost silent. 

I'm thinking full on:
*  Banana seat. (with custom upholstery by request.)
*  Ape hangers.(from mild to wild!)
*  Springer front end. (one that actually works!)
*  Built using adult sized beach cruisers. 
*  Disk break front, rim break rear.
*  7 Speed.
*  Tires. Fat Bike 4.0 or 2.125
*  Motor Options (500w - 1000w hub) (1000w two speed hub) (750w, 2000w Mid drive)

I'll have my own colors to name. 

Optional powdercoat for bulletproof chip and scratch resistant color.

  

I like the big reflector under the seat on this Sears version.

I'll have to make a big round light to fit.

You can still get the sissy bars with springs, although I doubt their 

usefulness for a full sized adult. I may wind up making my own that adjust up to a 250lb rider. More importantly, a 250lb rider traveling down the road at 30-35MPH!

Check out the vintage disk brake on this Lemon Peeler Krate.

Classic looks that are hard to beat.

Wait until you see my battery box for these and beach cruiser bikes! 

My eyes may not see 20 20, but they are sharp on aesthetics! I haven't seen one design for these bikes yet that looks good on the bike. Mine look GREAT on these bikes! 

Battery Tec LG Vs GA

There's nothing I hate more than researching something on line and reading page after page of information and opinions just to find out that the answer I was looking for is lacking. I'll start at the end with the answer, then get into the why and how of it all.

Answer:
LG MJ1 18650 battery cells outperform Sanyo Panasonic GA cells in applications where there is less current discharge. This is a good choice for motors 500W and under. (36v controllers)

Sanyo Panasonic GA cells outperform LG where higher discharge rates are needed. Think 750W and larger motors. (48v and up controllers, although 48v could probably go either way depending on weather you're using a pedal assist setup or just throttle.)

Ok, the bottom line for me is simply that I'll use the LG for all 36v setups, and the GA for everything else. The price is close enough between the two batteries that it doesn't make much difference. If I didn't have to pay shipping, the LG would come in a bit cheaper than the locally available GA batteries. 

I'm looking forward to using the 20700 and 21700 in the near future. I'm designing all my battery boxes to maximize space for these slightly larger battery cells.


Here's a couple links for the LG vs GA comparison.
 https://yunergybattery.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/2015-new-sanyo-ncr18650ga-vs-lg-inr18650-mj1/


https://www.electricbike.com/18650-cells-for-e-bike/