arkcom

A pair of trikes I did for a customer. Catrike Expedition on the left and Sun EZ-3 on the right. Both are 350w.

contador

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SvvrGVE6c-...5042011249.jpg

joewey

I love the little nuclear hazard warning sign, actually I know a few casemodders and this has given me an idea...

Jwendt

Mine (I review it here)

GrooveRider

My Coast Smart Ride:





Here is what it looked like when I got it:

googlie

Here's mine and my wife's Electra Townies, with BionX kits.

pauschl

Here's my Fuji Crosstown with a Wilderness electric 36 BL kit and BOB trailer.

david1949

This is my new Oxygen E Bike bought on 9/11/2011

Trex55

Does anyone out there own a Rmartin R-10, or have you gone on a test ride? I'm interested... but would like some feed back on the Rmartin's before investing $1299...

R10_Black_2011_800x533[1].jpg

Trex55

The Rmartin has a "patented" crank motor that delivers twice the torque of similar hub motors... It looks interesting, but has it been field tested? Or is it a cheap version of the panasonic crank motor? As a big person, 6'2"/230 lbs. I think I will need a crank type motor or 1000w hub motor to get my fat azz up the hill.

tonylumps

Crankforward

Apache Thunder

I just recently finished my first bike conversion. It's not something fancy or high speed, but it gets the job done. I bike to work and the distance is around 0.5 miles to my work I think. I decided to make the trip a little easier and looked around for a e-bike kit. Now I could get a kit with a hub motor like the modern kits out there now, but they all fall out side my price range and I needed to get this built relatively quickly so I didn't have time to save up for one. So I searched eBay and found one that has an old school motor on bracket type design.

(click to enlarge)




I bought a cheap tool box and used a Drimmel to drill out holes and stuff. There is some hooks on bottom (not visible in image though) that I use to anchor it to the seat rack. It's got a pad lock on the tool box and on one of the mounts I put for it on the bottom. It probably won't deter a determined thief, but then again, he's going to have trouble lugging around the 50Ib+ tool box away as it's got 3 12Ib 12v 12ah SLA batteries in there.

I don't really leave it outside for very long anyway as I designed the whole thing to be removed from the bike relatively easily. I just unplug the motor and throttle cables, and then detach it from the seat rack and I bring it inside to charge. (the throttle cable is wired up to a modified USB cable and the wire from the box is from the the other end of a USB extension cable so I can unplug it easily) The above images were when I had the bike inside. I built the thing inside and doing it outside in the middle of winter is not really a good idea for me.

The motor drives a small BMX chain that is currently using the 16 tooth gear on my freewheel. It tops out at 17mph and averages 15-16mph if I'm fighting some wind or a small incline. (it's relatively flat where I live and I only weight only around 125Ibs so the bike doesn't have to work very hard to lug me around town. ) My bike has a speedometer on it so I know how fast it's going at all times. I might be able to improve it's speed a little by using a slightly larger freewheel as the motor might not be hitting it's top RPM yet. This is s 36v system by the way and the motor is a 36v 350watt brushed motor....I think. I don't know if it's brushed or not. I do know it's geared down in a manner similar to the motor on some of the older Currie e-bikes which also have a motor design similar to mine.

Currently I'm planning on getting a new rear rim with a longer axle with two BMX freewheels attached via an adapter. (My kit came with one but it's rather crappy and the threading on it doesn't seem to fit it's own freewheel very well....aka it's a bit loose and I can actually pull the freewheel off the adapter without unscrewing it!) Right now it works with my 6 speed freewheel, but it's having trouble keeping the chain tight as the chain seems to be getting loose after 2 or more days of riding it on average. The first time this happened the chain tried to jump to a higher gear and the chain snapped off as a result. I now make sure to keep it nice and tight and it prevents that. (not too tight though. I'm aware the chain needs a bit of slack in it. I try and make sure the chain isn't loose enough to reach a tooth on the next gear and I should then be fine)

The chain issues will be solved once I get the double BMX freewheel on there. The increased spacing and freewheel adapter should then allow me to reattach a chain to the pedals since currently I can't pedal it as the motor is using the same freewheel that my pedals would have been using.

I removed the derailler and shifter as this bike won't be set up as a multispeed anymore. It will eventually have the one speed freewheel with the second freewheel drivin by the motor.

The batteries I bought from a local store and they are made in Taiwan. Not much else I know about them other then their specs which is 12v 12ah capacity. They were a bit expensive, but they are pretty good quality. A bit heavy though so I will be saving up to get a LifePO4 pack as the bike is kinda top heavy right now. I don't have the e-brake handles attached (though I have prepared wiring for it inside the battery box where the speed controller lives as well) as I don't have problems braking since I end up letting go of the throttle anytime I brake anyway. I plan on getting a thumb throttle though and once that happens, the e-brakes will be installed then.

I've read up a little on Texas law and as far as I can tell my e-bike is road legal. (Texas doesn't have a pedal assist requirement that I know of and my bike doesn't go faster then 20mph)

Not that I would have legal issues anyway. My bike looks like a normal bike from a distance aside from the tool box on back which I already had someone mistake for a "lunch box" at my work place. I work at a local Wal-Mart and bring it to the back during work to keep it out of the weather and one customer thought the tool box on back was my lunch box...lol

EDIT:

Well I discovered something interesting. It appears I was only running the bike at maybe 75% of it's actual peak power. There are two small black wires with connectors on them that fit each other. I assumed they had to be connected for it to power on. But before I left for lunch from work, I decided to run the bike with those two wired disconnected. Now it seems the bike has more kick to it and I've seen it push 18mph+ in the short test run I gave it. (the torque was starting to work the right side nut lose on the rear wheel causing issues with the chain alignment so I couldn't go for too long). I've retightend the right side nut and will work on getting more tension on the chain as I think it's a bit too loose right now. When I was hitting the 18mph mark the motor was sort of making a hopping noise with a noticeable jittering of the speed of the bike but only when hitting a speed past 18mph. It's hard to describe but it sounds like the chain might be the cause. I may try and record a sound clip of it when I get the time to see if any of you more experienced bikers might know what it might be.

powell

Rmartin R10 battery is mounted so high that it makes this ebike pretty unstable if not scary especially while mounting or during turns.
Luggage rack is for luggage
it the worst place to mount battery.
And it is so lazy way to place battery on ebike without making real effort to rebuilt pack to fit in triangle of frame

Apache Thunder

The triangle area inside of the frame is reserved for my bike lock. Nothing else will be placed there. As I said earlier I'm planning on changing it to a LifePO4 battery which will make the the unstable issues disappear making most of your response irrelevant.

There's a reason I put it there. It's the only place I can put it. I may opt for a saddle pack for the batteries if I don't end up getting the LifePO4 sometime soon. But it would complicate the install as it would end up having to be separate from the battery box I use now. The front handle bars has basket mount but won't handle the weight of the batteries very well and I plan to keep that for lugging around groceries and misc other things I may need to carry with me.

I need everything to be in one location. The stability issue is not that bad. I simply slow down when taking turns. I'm not stupid.

It was designed this way to be a quick and cheap build. I don't have thousands of dollars to just toss into a website and get a mail order ebike or build the whole thing with the expensive Lithium batteries in one go. I had to build something quick and would work while I save up for better batteries. Once I do get the LifePo4s I may redesign it a bit but likely since it's working for me well enough now I might not bother.

I also lack all the fancy hardware and know how needed to build a custom box like that beyond basic drilling holes and stuff. I don't have access to power tools so I cant just take some wood and cut some down into a box either. (that and SLA batteries would NOT fit in the triangle zone of the bike anyway....did you even bother to read on what kind of batteries I'm using?)

Sorry if my bike isn't as pretty as yours. So please don't call me Lazy.

powell

It is not about look, pretty or not.
I don't call YOU anything, where?
You cannot cheat laws of physics. Hight center of gravity means what it means.
Say it is easy way to mount battery, in a sense it is lazy way
all those cheap brands use this way.
You must agree that on Martin it is radiclously high and to the seat post on the top of it.

Apache Thunder

Calling it "lazy way" is the same as calling me lazy. That's the problem I'm having with your post. Also what is "martin"?

Your post is full of broken grammar and spelling errors and overall negativity. I also did not say I'm trying to cheat laws of physics either....your posts are making less sense the more I read them so I'm done here. It's clear I'll just get trolled from now on so I'll just leave.

david1949

This is the new Oxygen e bike that i bought new in November only been out on it 3 times. Weather very bad here in N Ireland so wont be out on it till the new year again

Scaliboy62

I posted more info & better pictures of my build in the " Introductions section " . Here's my new build about 2 weeks old.
Schwinn protocol dual suspension mountain bike.
Conhis 36 v 500 watt E-bay kit.
Bixnet { Bix power ** 36 volt 9 AH battery .
I've got 100 miles on her so far, pushes my 215 lb. body to about 19 MPH's top speed { according to Cateye computer ** without peddling. My longest Jaunt 10 + miles total so far, I think I should get 15 plus miles total range each charge..

richirich1113

This is my E-bike, Crystalyte controller and motor with 52v lipo's.

Scaliboy62

What's the speed & range on that badboy ?

richirich1113

I've been able to hit 40mph for short bursts on flat ground. My general riding is 32-35mph for 15miles and another 5miles at 25-30mph then the batts are pretty drained. It has 3 power levels #1=22mph #2=32mph #3=35+mph
My longest ride is across town to my college which is the 15miles round trip averaging 32-35mph so its not bad, if i could only keep it in power range 1 or 2 id go alot farther, but thats no fun. LOL

Scaliboy62

Thanks for the reply, Thats pretty impressive she must have cost a few bucks to build a bike that performs like that.
My issue with building a bike that does more then 20 MPh's is here on long Island, NY is the law is fuzzy & I figure if I keep it under 20 I wont be inviting any issues with " The Man ", LOL.. all I need is some over zealous cop confiscating my $ 1100- E-Bike.
I wish I got a battery with more Amp Hours though as I would like a little more range.

liberator

https://liberatorbike.blogspot.com/

jayhawk12

Nice bikes! I sure like Sianelle's trike-- Mine's not as fancy but it goes pretty well with an 800 watt, 48 volt motor. It's my grocery getter. I've built 3 regular bicycles with 350 watt motors but this one's been a keeper.

Mabman

@ Liberator. Very cool project. Keep up the obviously good work.