I finally had a chance to start assembly of the In The Barrel 3 Speed with the 3000W Cyclone motor today!
I don't know If I'll be keeping the motor positioned where I have it now. If I wind up attaching the controller to the seat tube as it sits in the above and below photos, then this position is perfect. You won't see all these wires when I'm done. They will all tuck nicely up inside the battery box above the motor.
This is one of two ways I'm thinking about offering the bike. With the controller like this, I will have no problem making the battery box large enough for a 72V battery.
In the below photo, you can get a better idea of the other way I want to offer this bike. The controller would be mostly inside the battery box, but hang out the bottom of the box by about 1/3 of it's height for better cooling than if it were just inside the box. This will be a pretty cool way to do it low profile while keeping the controller and batteries cooler for maximum longer life! I wouldn't want to just bolt it to the bottom of the battery box. I like my low profile idea much better.
The only drawback I see is I don't think I can get enough cells inside the box this way for a 72V 20Ah battery with the controller taking up some room inside. I should have enough room for a 60V setup, and no problem fitting a 52V 20+Ah battery!
With the controller tucked up in the bottom of the box, I'll have room to move the motor back closer to the seat tube, and add an additional clamp for the motor to the seat tube.
I hate having spare brackets on a bike that are not used for anything, so I drilled a hole in the Cyclone drive side bracket to use a bolt with a small spacer attached to the front chain guard bracket. Eventually I'll be making my own bracket for the drive side. I don't like the factory bracket! My bracket will also have room for a better chain tensioner, and will have an extra part to attach it to the chain stay. This will totally eliminate any motor creep from torque.
Below is another view of the little bracket I used to help keep the motor from moving under torque. I don't trust the little steel bracket to hold up for ever, so I plan on fabricating my new bracket with chain stay support sometime soon! If this was an aluminum bike, I wouldn't trust the little chain guard bracket at all!
Nickel plated half link PMC primary and PMC Z secondary drive chains to be replaced by BMX Nickel plated heavy duty chains!
Over all I'd rate the Cyclone 3000W motor to be a easy installation. Everything lined up perfectly on the drive side first try. On the non drive side it took a little measuring to get the spacers figured out just right. With the added space from the adapters I used to go from American to EU bottom bracket, I wound up using two spacers and a lock ring. Then the non drive side bracket, followed by two more lock rings. This gave me 2mm of extra space on the drive side bolts (where the spacers are), and when everything was torqued down, it put just the right amount of tension on the whole assembly to keep everything tight! Those 2mm disappeared when everything pulled to the drive side when torquing it all down. Perfect chain alignment!
I really have to give Cyclone credit for getting it all so right! Yeah, the mounting brackets are generic, but they will work on most bikes. If you have any mechanical aptitude, and a few tools, you would have no problem fabricating your own to meet your specific bike needs.
The only real complaint I have is with the factory freewheel. It's so loud and crappy, you can almost hear it breaking on the road before you ever hook a battery up to the bike! Yeah, like a crap time machine! You know it's garbage by hearing it when you spin the cranks. Having said that, and having said that I'll offer the SBP heavy duty freewheel as an upgrade, and only charge $50 to do the upgrade after the stock freewheel blows up, I'm considering only offering this motor in a bike with the upgraded part. If you insist on using the crappy factory part, the labor to change it out after it breaks will be $150 instead of only $50. You would have to be an idiot not to upgrade this part, and idiots need to pay extra when forewarned that this will happen! The cost of the SBP freewheel will have no extra markup costs. It's just as easy for me to install this in the first place as it is to install the factory crap freewheel! You only wind up paying more if you're a penny pinching idiot!
The SBP freewheel uses 2 bearings to help deal with end shaft torsion and sounds smooth as silk!
I love this motor in this bike! The Sixthreezero In The Barrel, with it's forward peddling Bottom Bracket position provides a ton of room to place the motor inside the frame with multiple motor positions that will work for whatever you have in mind! This bike is available in single speed, (my favorite) three speed, and if you have some steep hills where you live, you can also have it in seven speeds.
I see no benefit in 7 over 3 speed in top end speed. The three speed Nexus may even beat the 11T rear sprocket by 1 or 2mph if you count chain skipping with throttle and pedal power applied at the same time! None of that with the 3 speed IGH!
Most of the time I just leave my less powerful BBSO2 and BBSHD in 2nd gear unless I just want to drain amps off the battery and go fast. If you're taking off from a stop with the 3kw Cyclone motor, it's always best to start in 2nd gear with the Shimano Nexus 3 Speed IHG. The reason for this is the placement of the sun gear inside the hub. It's placement is in second gear, and is the strongest of the three gears. This motor has plenty of grunt force, and you want the strongest gear when taking off from a stop!
Still on the list of things to do:
1. Motor chain guard.
2. Upgrade all hardware to Stainless Steel.
3. Drive side aluminum motor mounting bracket with chain stay frame mount.
4. Gas tank style battery box.
5. Cut, solder and modify all wires to meet inside battery box.
6. BMX chain for both primary and secondary drive. Cheap and Strong!
7. Three speed switch that don't suck!
8. Batman battery monitor.
9. Optional Springer front end with Hydro disk brake.
Yeah, all the extras! Only available with ISIS drive!
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