Thanks Eric and Ashley for LunaCycle!
I started with a cracked Intense Socom frame that had been hanging in the garage for the past 4 years, circa 2006. Decided I wanted to build a killer MTB eBike, and read through as much of LunaCycle and electric fatbike.com stuff as I could in Nov and early Dec of 2015. Checked out Lectric cycles stuff here in Phoenix, but wanted to do the build myself.
Mike at Burn-A-Rod did a bang up job welding the crack at the base of the seatpost, and I got the CC warmed up and started ordering. Decided to go with the 750 watt motor to keep the weight down, and since the Intense has no room on the frame for a battery, I ride with the Panasonic 48v 20ah pack (9 lbs) in a back pack.
I was lucky that my bottom bracket had long since been removed, so didn't have to deal with that. OTW, getting the Bafang on wasn't too difficult. My first build utilized the 34t RaceFace narrow/wide and a 10 speed cassette 11-36, with Zee derailleur. Had a few fun test rides, with speeds up to 30 mph. But it didn't take too long to pretzel the derailleur, and a replacement was soon trashed too. I want to know how Karl keeps his derailleurs working!?!
Back to the internet, and after a careful read of Karls experience with the NuVinci, the CC came back out and a N360 was soon on its way. Meanwhile, sick and tired of trying to get Maxxix Minions tubeless on either WTB laserdiscs or Sunline VH1 rims, I ordered a pair of Stan's Flows, internal rim width 25mm, plus a Veetire Trax Fatty 26 x 3.0 for the rear, and Surly DW 26 x 2.75 for the front. The DW is actually a wider tire than the Trax Fatty. Lots of room upfront with the Boxxer fork, but the Trax Fatty rubs a little in the back, thank goodness I've got a motor! The Nuvinci might not be the most efficient, and certainly isn't the lightest IGH, and it constantly pukes oil all over my rear rim and tire, but so far, (fingers crossed) it has held up to the rigors of my off road escapades. And like Karl G said on electric-fatbike.com, everyone should spend a day lacing their own rim, at least once in their life. I ended up switching to a RaceFace 32t up front, which I'm pretty sure is the smallest ring that will fit on the BBS02, and an 18 cog on the rear. With full suspension, you gotta have a good chain tensioner, so I went with the Paul Melvin, which works well 99% of the time. I tried a 20t on the back, but the Melvin kept locking up with that cog on bumps if I was on the throttle.
BTW, the mid-fat tires, while not as cush as the 27.5 + rides now available, are schweet on these rocky AZ trails. I'm riding tubeless, and am dialed in at 17-18 psi rear, 16 psi front. My gearing gets me up some awfully steep climbs, and the bike tops out just south of 25 mph full throttle, which I realize is not enough for most roadies/commuters, but scary fast on most local MTB trails.
I've got 277 miles on my eSocom, over the past 5 weeks, and find it hard to grab either one of my other "real mountain bikes" lately, cause this thing is too much fun! Just have to be careful to click E-Bike Ride on Strava, so I don't piss off the KOM dudes :cool:
E-lectr ON
I started with a cracked Intense Socom frame that had been hanging in the garage for the past 4 years, circa 2006. Decided I wanted to build a killer MTB eBike, and read through as much of LunaCycle and electric fatbike.com stuff as I could in Nov and early Dec of 2015. Checked out Lectric cycles stuff here in Phoenix, but wanted to do the build myself.
Mike at Burn-A-Rod did a bang up job welding the crack at the base of the seatpost, and I got the CC warmed up and started ordering. Decided to go with the 750 watt motor to keep the weight down, and since the Intense has no room on the frame for a battery, I ride with the Panasonic 48v 20ah pack (9 lbs) in a back pack.
I was lucky that my bottom bracket had long since been removed, so didn't have to deal with that. OTW, getting the Bafang on wasn't too difficult. My first build utilized the 34t RaceFace narrow/wide and a 10 speed cassette 11-36, with Zee derailleur. Had a few fun test rides, with speeds up to 30 mph. But it didn't take too long to pretzel the derailleur, and a replacement was soon trashed too. I want to know how Karl keeps his derailleurs working!?!
Back to the internet, and after a careful read of Karls experience with the NuVinci, the CC came back out and a N360 was soon on its way. Meanwhile, sick and tired of trying to get Maxxix Minions tubeless on either WTB laserdiscs or Sunline VH1 rims, I ordered a pair of Stan's Flows, internal rim width 25mm, plus a Veetire Trax Fatty 26 x 3.0 for the rear, and Surly DW 26 x 2.75 for the front. The DW is actually a wider tire than the Trax Fatty. Lots of room upfront with the Boxxer fork, but the Trax Fatty rubs a little in the back, thank goodness I've got a motor! The Nuvinci might not be the most efficient, and certainly isn't the lightest IGH, and it constantly pukes oil all over my rear rim and tire, but so far, (fingers crossed) it has held up to the rigors of my off road escapades. And like Karl G said on electric-fatbike.com, everyone should spend a day lacing their own rim, at least once in their life. I ended up switching to a RaceFace 32t up front, which I'm pretty sure is the smallest ring that will fit on the BBS02, and an 18 cog on the rear. With full suspension, you gotta have a good chain tensioner, so I went with the Paul Melvin, which works well 99% of the time. I tried a 20t on the back, but the Melvin kept locking up with that cog on bumps if I was on the throttle.
BTW, the mid-fat tires, while not as cush as the 27.5 + rides now available, are schweet on these rocky AZ trails. I'm riding tubeless, and am dialed in at 17-18 psi rear, 16 psi front. My gearing gets me up some awfully steep climbs, and the bike tops out just south of 25 mph full throttle, which I realize is not enough for most roadies/commuters, but scary fast on most local MTB trails.
I've got 277 miles on my eSocom, over the past 5 weeks, and find it hard to grab either one of my other "real mountain bikes" lately, cause this thing is too much fun! Just have to be careful to click E-Bike Ride on Strava, so I don't piss off the KOM dudes :cool:
E-lectr ON
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