Time To Buy More Motors!

The next motor will be a 800W geared rear hub drive Q128H with 750W controller and a 48V battery.

This combination is right at the edge of a street legal setup here in USA where we're limited to only 750W. I'll have several bike options for this motor setup, but the first will be a men's Sixthreezero EVRYjourney.

Pre production prototype bike in photo shown with a sweet little TSDZ2 500W mid drive motor. This motor was built for this bike! The production bikes will have no zip ties! Everything will be routed inside the frame. I even ran out of black zip ties! Now that I look at it in the photo, the white zip ties are a bit embarrassing to me, but ya use what ya got sometimes.

I have so many options for motors and bikes to use these days that blow the high priced factory bikes completely out of the water as far as reliability and power at less than half the price, that it's enough to make my head spin trying to decide on what to do next. I always have 5 or 6 projects floating around in my mind at a time. In my case, the projects are 3-5 different classes of bikes with different power level motors. 

What I want to do is not always what I should be doing. 
I've made the decision to concentrate on building street legal bikes for the moment. If I had all the money and time in the world, I would already have my 2000W and 3000W Cyclone bikes finished and ready for test rides. I have everything for them except the 52V 20Ah batteries. This is what I really want to be working on, but the batteries are a bit expensive, even though I'll be building them myself. I'll also be building custom battery boxes for these Cyclone bikes, and that's something I just don't have the time to work on for the moment. At some point, I'll be outsourcing carbon fiber battery boxes for these bikes, and that's one big project by itself.

What I should be doing, and have decided to concentrate on, are the street legal bikes for the company I work for Beachbikes Torrance. I'll be selling the Cyclone bikes myself under the name Duke's Moto Electric, but my employers have no interest in selling anything that powerful. The company owner has told me that once the bikes are complete, as in out of the prototype stage they're in now, that he would put them on his website. That's what I was waiting to hear all summer. The best news of the past decade for me! So now I need to get busy hiding wires in frame, and loosing all the zip ties I used to get the prototypes together. 

The next project bike will also be using the EVRYjourney, but will have a 500W Q motor, and then after that, a smaller 350W Q100 motor. Eventually the EVRYjourneys will also be available with BBS02 and BBSHD motor options. 

 Photo of Q motors stolen from ES.

Sometimes you need to start with baby steps. In my case I started a little faster than that, then went to the fastest stuff available. Now I'll be working backwards before moving forward up the speed ladder again, but it will happen!

WAVE 2.0 Electric Bike

I had the opportunity to put a Wave electric bike together for a customer last week. Over All I don't hate the bike, although there are a few things I would do differently building a bike for the same price.

First, I would use a hub motor that is laced inside and outside of the motor hub. WAVE laces it's wheels to the motor from the outside only. The 12ga spokes bend on each other this way where they cross one another.

You can see from the above photo how all the spokes are inserted into the motor from the outside. It would be better, especially when using such large spokes to have them alternating one in, one out. My photo doesent show the extent of the bent spokes due to this lacing. Ideally, they would also use a single or double butted 13/14 spoke for more flex and durability. It took quite a lot of truing just to get the wheel straight and true enough to adjust the rear rim brakes.

The above photo shows the Shimano TZ derailleur. This is probably the cheapest derailleur they could of used on this bike. Sometimes you get lucky with the TZ's, and sometimes you don't. I find that most of them are about impossible to tune nicely. Don't expect smooth quiet shifts with one of these on your bike. Expect to hear KLUNKs when shifting, skipping gears and or riding up on gear without going into gear.

The bike uses a 6 speed freewheel. Not bad, but with such a heavy bike a 7 speed would be nicer. The motor and rims look decent from the outside.

The seat tube has had an extra chunk of metal welded to it to hide the wires. This adds some weight to the bike, but looks nice. Overall the frame and rack appear to be sturdy, although I do have an issue with the BIG hole they drill in the chain stay to run all the wires threw once exiting the extra chunk of aluminum they weld to the seat tube. It's a big chunk of metal, but the hole is 1/2 the size of the tube! I warned the customer to check for cracks in this area along with frayed wires from passing threw the BIG hole.

 The packaging was pretty good, although not as through as other brands. It had some pretty deep dings in the frame and neck from shipping.

Not the greatest welds on this frame. I consider an aluminum weld like this to be a sure sign of the bottom of the barrel in Chinese cheap manufacturing. Many Chinese manufactured brand specific frames have nice welds, but this adds to the cost of the bike.

The battery. I didn't have any time to really check it out, but it does have a Samsung sticker on it. Assuming that they are real Samsung batteries instead of the fakes cheaper Chinese manufactured ebikes use, this would be a positive point for the Wave bike.

Over all would I buy or sell one of these bikes?
 Much better bikes can be had for little more money. For $1200 don't expect to get a nice color LCD display. You'll get the cheap LED display like the one the WAVE 2.0 has. As I mentioned above, you won't get a hand laced wheel with 13/14 double butted spokes. You'll get 12ga, but at least you should get them laced in and out instead of all from the outside. In this price range you should also expect to get nicer welds on the frame. So my answer is no, I would not spend money on a WAVE 2.0 bike.

Good day for bike sales and

Good day for bike sales and a ride at the beach!

I went into the warehouse to get together 10 bikes for a customer, and sold him another bike as well that was already assembled. Now I have a couple people coming over for two more bikes. 

Of course, all work and no play makes Chris a dull boy, so a trip to the beach was in order! I was feeling a little stir crazy. Work build bikes, home build bikes, work build bikes, home build bikes, work build bikes, home build bikes.

A few photo's at Redondo Beach with the Sixthreezero In The Barrel BBS02 750W E-Bike.

 I think I've found another cover photo!

 Maybe I just found two new cover photos!

 Yep. I still need to lace a drum brake into the front wheel.

 The Kool Stop[ brake pads are working pretty good in the rear. I just have to use a little extra common sense with only the rear brake for now.

 The nickel plated freewheel could work a little better. It likes to skip teeth at high speeds with both throttle and heavy peddling in high gears. I need to play with the chain line to see if that helps before I totally trash the product with a bad review. 

 Still using the back pack to hold my battery. At traffic lights I have my foot on the left pedal in front of the motor, and with the battery in the pack, nobody would guess it's electric.

This bike is great as a commuter to and from the bike shop, but it's a ton of fun down on the beach!

Sixthreezero "In The Barrel" With BBS02B Motor And Springer Forks

I'll admit that despite all it's followers who love this little BBS02B 750Wmotor, I was a bit skeptical considering Bafang now has the BBSHD 750-1000W motor available. Now after a couple weeks of cruising around on this bike, I've reconsidered any skepticism I once had.

It's a strong little motor with plenty of torque!

I used a stock motor from China instead of the upgraded one from Luna Cycles because I wanted to see how they compare. It may be a while before I get my Luna version to do the comparison since I have some other motors I need to get for several other bike builds. It may have to wait until this spring when the bike business picks up again at the bike shop. 

For now I'll just have to enjoy the standard model with color display and thumb throttle.

I upgraded the bike with a nickel plated freewheel and nickel KMC chain. I'll also be upgrading the derailleur and revOshifter to a click shifter. The Shimano Rev shifter works pretty good, but I like the quick shifting of a click shifer better for ebike applications.

I wound up buying a bunch of these bikes with shipping damage to the forks at a nice discount price! For the money I saved, I ordered springer front ends to replace the damaged forks. I'm really liking the feel of the springer suspension. It does a decent job of smoothing out some of the bumps in the road at 30mph. 

I still need to get a disk or drum break for the front end. I've had a couple close calls with people pulling out in front of me with only the rear Kool-Stop brakes. I just haven't had the time to lace the wheel to either of these brake options. I should have time to do this sometime after January when the X-Mas sales are over. I'll have a LOT of free time for a few months after New Years!

Most of the time on this bike I spend in power level 3 and 4 between 15-20mph. I have too many obstacles on my daily commute to put her in 7th gear at power level 5 very often. It seems like every couple hundred feet I have a pedestrian or a car pulling out of a driveway, a traffic light, or something else in the way. When I have a clear path to travel, she'll get up to 30mph (50kph) without pedaling on level ground with the 11/46T sprocket combo I have for seventh gear in 5th power level.

I'm running it on a 48V 17.5Ah battery in a back pack at the moment. I think that after I build my battery box, I'll still keep it at 48V since this is not the improved model Luna sells. When I get the Luna 02B, I'll run it at 52V.

Cyclone 3000W Build (part 1)

About time!

The 3000W Cyclone motors are back in stock at my local supplier! I just ordered one for will call pickup on Tuesday at the warehouse.

 Cyclone 3000W motor kit.

It's been my plan to put it on another 7 speed In The Barrel from Sixthreezero I've been hiding in my home shop garage, but I'm beginning to wonder if a 3 speed Nexus Internal geared hub wouldn't be better for that much power? I just happen to have one I bought and put together yesterday sitting in the shop right now. I'll do both the 7 speed and the 3 speed eventually, I'm just trying to decide which one to use for the first prototype. 

It's my opinion that you don't need any more than three speeds with that much power!!! I may add a larger rear sprocket for a super amount of torque for hill climbing with the 3 speed Shimano Nexus IGH when I get around to it.

 Sixthreezero In The Barrel with Nexus 3 speed hub.

For starts from a stop, you're in second gear. After you get going, shift into third gear, and when going up hill, downshift into first gear. Can it get any simpler than that?
I'm thinking that for most applications, the Nexus three speeds are probably a better choice for most of the ebike motors at 750W and above for their simplicity and smooth shifting. At least for daily riders/commuters. You don't have to worry about that CLUNK when you shift like you do with a traditional 7 speed external derailleur setup. The 7 speed nickel plated freewheels available for 7 speeds are only one, and not the best quality. 

Unfortunately the 7 speed stuff is getting/has been phased out of the serious bike world. Ten and eleven speed seems to be the ticket these days, especially for mountain bikers. For now I'm working with what I have available. Next year when project Skunk Works Carbon is revealed, it won't be using a 7 speed drive train I can assure you! Not only my Skunk Works Carbon, but also my single track Fat Tire mountain/snow/beach sand bikes won't be using the 7 speed setup either!
This bike combo is not even close to being street legal. It's more than three times that! But it's going to be a hell of a lot of fun!

Like I always tell people, don't try selling disappointment with a 250 or 350W hub motor and a weak anemic 36V 8Ah Chinese made battery. Sell grins, sell BIG GRINS with plenty of power and a battery that will outlast customer expectations!