Extreme Hill Climber Fat Tire MTB Project.

[commuter ebikes]

I am working on this project almost every day, but all that I have accomplished is finishing about half of the five harnesses that I am making. I put my torque plates on a diet (by trimming off a few ounces of excess SS) and I took those to the powder coater. Each of my four bikes has a set of torque plates as well as a spare set, so I had to do this for 16 torque plates.

The powder coater has had my frames and parts for almost 3 months, and they said that they will be ready soon. It takes longer because I use matte black. If I used gloss black, it would be a faster turnaround.

I got a flat the other night, bent rotor mounting bolts another night and I am doing some work for other people, so I can't always work on these "mountain" bikes. Once I finish the harnesses and get the large amount of stuff from the busy powder coater, I will be ready to assemble both bikes. Work is also keeping me very busy six days a week.

I have been purchasing a lot of connectors and soldering equipment.

[commuter ebikes]

Here are before and after pictures of the trimming of the torque plate. Right now I have all 16 of my torque plates at the powder coater. I can't ride the bike without torque plates, so I have no bike to ride until the powder coater finishes!

[commuter ebikes]

After over three months, the powder coater has finally finished. They charged $575 to powder coat all of the parts on the bench in the picture below:

[commuter ebikes]

What you see there is two Design Logic frames with 170mm dropouts, two heat sinks (also serve as controller mounts), 16 torque plates (a pair for each of my four bikes), axle nuts, modified White Industries freewheel removal tools, parts for a Surly Singleator that used to be silver and four steel derailleur hangers.

One of the frames has sand in it left over from the sand blasting process, so I will blow that out with an air compressor before I treat the frames with Frame Prep (the 4130 Chromoly steel frames got an acid bath after the sandblasting).

I have to figure out which torque plates fit on each bike because they are all hand fitted (and very tightly, at that). The approximately .005" of powder coat will cause all of these torque plates to be too tight once again, so they will all have to be filed a little.

I have been very busy collecting all of the parts, tools and materials (e.g. thread locking compound), and I am only waiting on two cotter pins and two spare Vee Snowshoe 2XL tires, but these are all on their way.

I have been doing so much soldering and changing all of the connectors over to JST. A lot of the connectors were those cheap white ones that a lot of people hate. Here are the 3 conductor 3-speed switch cables and 6 conductor Ignition+, E-brake (regen) and temp sensor cables that run from the front to rear of the bike. In addition to these, the CA wire (not shown) runs from the front to rear of the bike. I made 5 of each multiconductor cable because I have four bikes, all with the same electrical components, plus a spare for each type of cable. It is a key requirement of my project that all of the wiring is identical on all of my bikes, and that any harness can be used on any bike. I expect to reap some troubleshooting benefits from this plan, and I only have to stock a few types of spares.

[commuter ebikes]

I use precrimped JST connectors which come in arbitrary colors (arbitrary beyond black and red). I used colored heat shrink tubing to change the color of the wire so that the color of the wire matches the color of the wire on the electrical component.

I settled on 3:1 heat shrink tubing with adhesive. I soldered at between 700-725 degrees F.

[commuter ebikes]

Along the way, I invested in a truing stand, crown race setting tool, BB threading tool and headset press so I won't be going to the LBS this time. I have all of the wheels laced and trued.

I have had these bikes assembled before, so I know that I will need no rotor spacing. Both of these frames before had the rear tire rubbing on the drive side a little using Surly Lou (4.80" wide) tires. I dished the wheels over to the non-drive side as much as I could, but I may need to grind off the knobbies (on the drive side) on all of my Surly Bud and Lou tires until I use them up (they last about 1000 miles each). I won't accept any more tire rubbing on the frame, so I will have to remain open minded to running 4.70" or even 4.60" wide tires, even if it means selling my used Surly tires.

I will run Vee Snowshoe 2XL tires in the front in a Surly Ice Cream truck fork which I had powder coated, also in matte black, about six months ago. I hope that the 2XL will clear the frame! The 2XL has a 1" greater diameter. Here is an old photo of the same frame with a Moonlander fork and a Surly Bud in front. It looks like I have an inch to play with there in order to clear the downtube.

[calfee20]

That bike looks great. To bad you have to clutter it up with batteries. What kind of pedals do you use?

[commuter ebikes]

That is a picture of the original prototype bike. It lived a whole life as a second prototype after that picture.

That motor, entire brake system and shifting system, adjustable stem, etc. are now in the hands of other forum members. You have the front wheel! Someone else has the fork and chain ring. The pedals are 9/16" Nyla-Pro Black Ops, UPC 0 72774 41761 2. I never clip in.

[commuter ebikes]

I have my other two bikes taken apart now, as well, because they can't be ridden without torque plates (and axle nuts). I was getting all of the wire colors to match, putting in JST connectors everywhere, getting the Anderson PP75 motor wire housing colors to match, new tire, new brake pads, touching up the paint, deep cleaning and fixing bent rotor bolts. The rotor bolts bent because I failed to use thread locking compound.

After getting the sand out of the newly powder coated frame and treating it with Frame Prep, I should probably put those bikes back together first. While my torque plates were at the powder coater (about two weeks, I kept bringing them more parts), I had to borrow my wife's minivan to go to work. That was ridiculous; I need to ride a bike as often as possible because I don't like automobiles.

I will post pictures of the action. I wonder what difficulties lie ahead. I definitely look forward to problems because they are usually a learning experience.

[commuter ebikes]

I wanted to get a label maker in order to mark my wires, but I am broke now. The wires on the controller were labeled by Edward Lyen, and the wires in the front are obvious because you can see them emanating from the component. An exception to this would be the multifunction switch. I guess I will make a wiring diagram on paper.

[Green Werks]

CEB that is a great looking bike
very nice job on everything keep on keeping on
GW

[commuter ebikes]

I got one bike together in time to ride it to work and post some pictures of the action. Seen below (in random order) are the dropouts filed for the larger 16mm Cromotor axle, trimmed and powder coated torque plates, heat shrink tubing on motor wires (covering XT150 bullet connectors) and my testing setup before final assembly. I also managed to blow the sand out of the new frame (not pictured).

[commuter ebikes]

I spent the morning getting halfway through converting a used (1075 miles) Vee Snowshoe 2XL to a tire liner. I cut off the knobbies (see photo) with a paring knife and used a large die grinder with a rasp to smooth where the knobbies were. It takes about five hours to do the complete conversion, but the tire liner will last for decades. Here is a photo of the worn tire and knobbies after the paring knife but before the die grinder. later, I will cut off the tire bead and cut the tire perpindicular to the circumference so that it will fit in nicely between the tube and new tire.

[commuter ebikes]

I spent another 3 hours using the large die grinder with a rasp fitting to smooth down the knobbies. This is a messy process, with the fine black dust going everywhere. Definitely something to do in the driveway as opposed to the shop. The tire is very thin; it cut easily with tin snips.

[Alan B]

Quite a project!

[commuter ebikes]

See you tomorrow!

[commuter ebikes]

Here is a picture of some bent M5 rotor bolts. They are SS. My rotor spacing is 16.5mm. I replaced them with Grade 12.9 which have a socket head.

[commuter ebikes]

Here is a picture of both sides of one of the two matching 2015 Design Logic Da Phat frames that I am using for this project. It has been freshly (re)powder coated. This 4130 Chromoly steel frame is built to fit 4.80" wide 26" tires which generally have a diameter of 30.5" at 30 psi. I treated them with Frame Prep.