Banged the rear wheel back into place, then tightened the snot out of the axle nuts and TorqArms. Now both wheels stay centered in the dropouts.
Went for a 33 mile round trip yesterday, was still fairly mild and windless. Kept the Assist on Level 1 and max speed set to 12mph, which in use actually cut off at 11.6mph. With trailer and DIY Igloo cooler panniers, bike weighs in around 125 pounds. I myself am around 175-180 (fully clothed in autumn attire); schlepped home around 100 pounds of supplies for a total about 400lbs. Bike still handles pretty well for the weight, though steering is not quite as easy as on my unassisted version of the same model recumbent. Think maybe the density of the hubs make them act gyroscopically, which offers stability at the expense of agility. Plus, the twin battery buckets are not particularly aero, so descending over 25mph I can really feel wind resistance shaking the bike, which is pretty unnerving lemme tell you. (Of course I could just make use of the TRP Spyke disc brakes, but what fun would that be?) Also wish the Stratus could accept tires over 1.75, the Schwalbe Marathon Plus mounted now are super grippy (and sluggish) but feel a bit undersized for the Bafangs’ and DireWolfs’ added heft.
Anyway, made it up the longest and steepest hill on the route at 10.9mph while pedaling like the dickens. Must have shaved a couple hours off my regular excursion time, not sure exactly how much because still haven’t taken the trouble to figure out how to reset the tripometers on the two Bafang displays.
Worth noting as well, the half twist throttles were easy to keep fixed in the same position; when fully opened provide an ersatz cruise control. Transition between assist and self-power pretty much unnoticeable, guess the motors kinda fade in and out softly around the cutoff speed. My only difficulty was mental, regarding the interplay between trigger shifters and throttles. Despite not having used grip shifters in years, kept finding myself twisting the throttles rather than plunging the triggers when attempting to shift gears. Fortunately the Bafangs are powerful enough that I can ride in practically any gear combo and still maintain speed, so don’t have to shift nearly as frequently as on my unassisted bikes. In any event, am confident I’ll soon get the hang of it all and will be able to run on “auto pilot.”
So at least for my use case, that being a LWB recumbent cargo bike, the dual drive system seems to have paid off. 750-1000W mid drive might have worked as well, or maybe a single, 750/1000W rear hub drive had I found a compatible one before ordering the twin 500W Bafangs. But a mid drive would have demanded the purchase of a strong new wheel set (bought the Stratus used without its wheels and seat for a sizable reduction on price + shipping) plus meant the sacrifice of the beautiful FSA Vero 50/39/30 crankset, which works surprisingly well on an electric conversion. And a single rear drive would have been less effective on wet or loose terrain, while dual drive provides more reliable traction while evening out wear somewhat between front and rear tires.
A bit more work in store, gotta drill holes in the battery buckets through which to route the power cables, which am planning to tidy. Picked up a hole saw bit for that yesterday and have 5’ of 12AWG stranded copper wire on order, as well as XP60/90 connectors so as to run the batteries and motor controllers in parallel with a single run along the top tube. Then will take all the excess harness lengths dripping from the chopper bars, wind them into a nice neat coil between the Jagwire minaret (in place of the current Rhinowalk bag there now) and fasten on a small wreath for stealth — there’s an Xmas tree arbor down the road a pace that just opened for the season. Then wrap the rest of the exposed harnesses and cables with camouflaging
blue tinsel, and apply more of the same to the seat bag in back to complete the illusion of holiday festivity. Dunno what I’ll do after New Year’s though, will cross that bridge when I come to it.
