Seven Speed E-Firmstrong Urban, not an actual Chicago Schwinn Stingray.
It's been a couple crazy weeks. I never got the chance to take the red three speed E-Firmstrong Urban down to the beach for photographs, and in the meantime I wound up swapping the BBSO2 motor into this black 7 speed. Before I do another three speed Urban, I want to have everything to make the battery and battery box. I hate zip ties on my bikes, and until I build the battery box, the three speeds will need zip ties for the rear break cable. When I have the battery box, that cable will be run threw the box. That's the main reason I swapped out for the 7 speed Urban. I may swap out the rear wheel and derailleur for a 3 speed Nexus IGH setup this weekend. The 7 speed is fine, but since I don't have any real hills in my area, the 3 speed is all I need, and it does better on the beach since all the gears are inside the hub. Believe it or not, external gears and derailleurs don't like getting sand in them!
Starting this weekend I'll be making the custom wire harness to clean up the bike even more. You can see from the first photo all the wires like a tossed bowl of spaghetti with the wire connectors everywhere. The short wires with connectors is the only real complaint I have with the Bafang BBSxx motors. It would be great if they made them long enough to tuck inside a battery box, or at least get below the handlebar height.
You can't tell from these photo's, but I've made a couple other changes to the trusty little BBSO2 motor.
1. I added a 42T Lekkie chain ring. It's real nice, and only a little slower than the 46T sprocket. It should allow the motor to last considerably longer than the larger chain rings on the BBSO2 motor. With this ring, dropping chains has become a thing of the past! I also picked up another 42T Lekkie chain ring for the BBSHD motor, but I think I'll like using the 46T better on that one.
2. I changed the RevOshifter with a rapid click thumb shifter. Yeah, it's better than the RevOshifter, but I still need to find a better option than the one I used. I may wind up trying the 8 speed SA thumb shifter.
I still need to make a better bracket for the chain guard, and trim the radius to match the chain ring. Right now I just made a quick little bracket to get it on the bike. It needs to come down more over the chain ring, and a little farther forward. I wanted to make sure I wanted to use the 42T chain ring before doing this. I only have one chain guard per bike, and I didn't want to start cutting into it, then change my mind later about what chain ring works best for this motor and bike combo.
It was a fun ride today down to Redondo Beach. I wound up stopping for pizza, then rode back up the beach to take these photo's before heading back home. I wish I had time to go on a beach ride every week!
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