Wheels are in!

The weather has cleared up to almost summer weather again! And the new wheels have arrived in the correct configuration this time. Motor on front!  This has led to some reconfiguration of the bike itself.

The operation has started, bike on its head and time to take it almost all apart. It's going to be a few days of working on this on and off to get it back up to road worthy speed.  I still need to swap out the rubber on these, but when the warranty tires came in, it came with brand new rubber.  I have a hard time justifying to myself new items when the old ones are working.

I have my wire cutters, shrink wrap, zap straps, torch, Velcro, wrench, screw drivers, pump, I'm ready to go!






I have to: 

• Balance the tires, get the bead on correctly, etc. Stuff I never really had to care about to much when I drove just a mountain bike. You can see the left (front one) looks a bit lopsided;
• Swap out the break disks from small plates to the larger ones;
• Re-align the disk breaks cupplers;
• Strip out almost all the wires from the frame;
• Splice the new motor into the old controller;
• Re-adjusted the rear de-railer;
• Move the controller to the front;
• Re-programme the controller for the new motor (learning cycles)

Lessons Learned:

So much stuff so little time.  I tried to squeeze the time to rebuilt this bike in the middle of doing a pile of other events, such as being an MC for a fundraiser, Ambassador for a gaming convention, spending time with my kids and wife.

No more rear tire...

So here is my bike, with no rear tire on it.  I've used a chair to keep the back end propped up until the replacement tire comes in. It's a lot lighter with out the hub motor on the back end, I was actually surprised.

The bike looks SO naked!

The new rear should fit on nicely, with very little modifications.  The controller will have to be moved at some point.  I've been looking for something smaller to case this in, like a small electrical box but in the mean time I've picked up some 35mm Muffler U clamps that I'm going to drill into the bottom of the casing and mount it to the front area.  There is no reason why this box is this big, other then it was designed to sit and look nice on the rear wheel basket. 

I could just take the controller out of the box and place it in the front bag but I think that wouldn't be a good option in the long hauls.  That controller can heat up a significant amount.  In the mean time, the bike is in the shed.. *sniff*

I've received a FedEx tracking number and it's estimated to delivered to my door by this coming Wednesday! So close...

Weight Balance

I came the conclusion that I should do a little bit of math before I get my new hub motor.  And that's when it dawned on me the weight differences between my front tire and back tire.  The front has never popped a tire, and that's due to the weight difference between the front and the rear tire.  Once I weighted the rear hub motor, I suddenly realized how much pressure I'm putting on the back tire.  Moving the motor to the front just seems like that much better of an idea! 

Bike = 25 pounds

1 = 10 pounds

2=1 pound

3=125 pounds

Rider= 300 pounds

Still want to put a Black Floyd tire on the rear. This tire is thicker then the spider tire treads I'm currently using and is designed for paved roads.  My biggest issue is that the only available Black Floyd tires I can find are the ones with the TAN walls, which unless I replace both my tires, won't look that great.  I'm still going to hold off until Spring comes around.

Also, with the hub motor being pushed to the front, I'll now have a basic front and rear tire available to make this a non-motor "fat bike".  I really can't wait to go biking again! Looking back at a previous post remind me of what I am missing!

Ride to Work

Warranty and Reconfiguration

1=Battery, 2= Controller, 3=Hub motor

With the demise of my rear motor, I've contacted the company I got it from and they will replace my rear motor hub motor, due to it not being installed correctly.

I've requested that the replacement motor come in the form of a front wheel. With me and my leg strength causing the motor to go and combined with the electric motor, the back end gets way to much torque.  Off balancing to the front tire shares the work load and offloads some of the rear weight to the front.

My second ebike was a front motor and I loved it. Promised myself I would never have a rear motor again and well.. here I am deal with some rear motor issues.

I'm really looking forward to getting this back up and running.  I truly miss biking in to work and home again.  My brother has lent me his standard mountain bike, which I've driven around the block a few times, tuned up, etc.. but it isn't the same.  My plan is to use the mountain bike, so I don't loose my biking legs.  Which after my first ride around the area, realized I had already loss some of my leg strength.

All I have to pay, is the shipping.  Which I am not sure how much that will be! 

Spider thread is junk!

So after using these "spider tires" I've come to the conclusion they are junk for urban driving.  The smallest rock, thumb tack, etc.. goes right through the tire wall.  The rubber is so soft after driving 10 minutes my thumb nail could dig a hole in it.  So I'm in the process of taking these off and leaving them for winter or I might sell them to someone who likes these tires.

I've ordered a replacement tires that are higher quality.  Lets see how that works out.

Lessons Learned: 

• You get what you pay for.

Bad wire day

So driving to work, I took a sharp and hard turn to miss a runner, who was running the opposite side of the path way on a 45 angle turn and avoiding hitting her.  But my rear tire decided that would be an excellent time to come loose.  My tire right side came loose and brought my bike to a instant standstill with out using my breaks.  

My wires took all my weight and wrapped around the bolt to stop the bike.  Some wires got shredded, which means my bike is out of commission until I fix it.  I need to open the hub motor with some special tools and re-attach the wires to the halo effects sensors.  I think I'm in for a world of hurt!

Shredded wires

I've been thinking that I might just buy another motor and replace this one.  But before I jump to that, I want to make sure it's working right..  If I order a replacement motor now, I could be driving in 2 weeks.  

And me not biking to work and back from work is making me irritable..  I want to bike.

I wish I had ANOTHER bike just to keep myself going in the mean time. 

Helmet!

I really can't understand why SO many people take the chance and drive with no helmet. It's not rocket science to put one on and make it comfortable.

I feel naked with out my helmet and nor would I drive with out it.  Now, since I have almost no hair (partially on purpose) my sweat comes down fast, so I have to wear a cloth skull cap.  Helps a lot with keeping the sweat out of my eye's.

In Ontario and Quebec, there is a rule that mandates all kids under 16 years of age to have to wear a helmet with any bike and all people driving an electric bike has to wear one also.

I've seen a helmet save more then one skull in my time and I've seen some skulls caved in, due to the lack of a helmet.  So why are SO many people still driving with out a helmet...



Lessons Learned: 

• Always wear a helmet!

Every day is leg day

I bike to work and bike back from work and my legs are getting much stronger.  By how much, I have no idea but now I think it's time I start to review what can be done for my upper body.  

Wish I knew more people that ride to work and see what they do.  I've gone down this path before where I start working on one area and then suddenly I'm doing so much stuff to get better, such as colon blower, work outs, eating piles vegetables and then suddenly crash.  Everything stops.

Lessons Learned: 

• Bike is a great cardio work out
• Find the balance between enjoying the ride and working out

I can't stop..

When I decided I needed to have dual disk breaks, I have a feeling that going hydrolic may not have been the exact course of action.  The pressure changes very easily, based on my elevation, climate etc..  So after 3500km my break pads gave up.  I'm not sure what the average span of break pads are but the replacements cost me $25

Reviewing the scoring of the pads, I can tell that my bikes rear breaks are misaligned. I'm sure that most of this was not from breaking but from coasting.  I've taken the screws off my rear breaks and just put the rear breaks on the disk, reviewed it's resting position and figured out how many washers I needed to place to space it to that location.  I have no idea if that's how to align your breaks but it's logical.

Now to see if I got it right or if I drive and feel like my breaks are on constantly.  I might ditch the hydrolic breaks all together and go for a cable based system, which I can adjust a little easier then putting fluid in.

Lessons Learned:

• Have spare break pads, there are SO many different styles out there, finding the correct ones can be a bit of a challenge.