It's too cold to work on scooters.......so.........
Feb 2, 2020 17:30:01 GMT -5
aeroxbud, Raizer, and 1 more like this
Post by bluegoatwoods on Feb 2, 2020 17:30:01 GMT -5
Among other things I've been working on e-biking my grand-daughter's manual bicycle. I can do that in the basement, at least.
A few of these photos contain captions that state things that are very obvious. It's not that I'm talking down to this community. It's just that I first shared this 'build thread' with my Mother, siblings, a few cousins and such. And they're even more 'noob' than I am at this. They won't be familiar with these components at all. I'll bet you folks are more likely to have some familiarity with them.
Unfortunately I forgot to get pics of the process of installing the PAS (pedal assist) components. This involves removing the left side crank arm, attaching a ring with some sort of sensor to the bottom bracket and adding another ring with magnets to the spindle. Then re-attach the crank arm. I ended up making an error on that, too. I'll get back to that later.
I bought this battery three or four years ago for an e-bike that I was going to build for myself. But I never did manage to make that bike work properly and gave up on it.
The battery was made for a DIY'er. It had no case of any kind. It was a batch of LiPO4 cells with a bit of electronics for balancing charge and discharge wrapped in shrink-wrap. I found that an ammo can was just right for this job. Using some 1x2 lumber as shims in the corners, the battery fits right in. It's surrounded by good, tough steel with an air gap of about 3/4 inch. It's not quite air-tight since I had to drill a hole for cable to pass through. But it's secure.
Shortly after all of this I bought my grand-daughter one of these:
I'll bet most of you have seen these before. They're really just toys meant to allow a six or seven year old to ride up and down their own block a little bit. They are just hard-tailed, hard-forked children's bicycles lacking a crank and pedal chain drive. The body panels make them look like a scooter. But they're not.
Where the bottom bracket and crank would be, there is mounted a small electric motor that drives the rear wheel via a teeny-tiny chain. Quite a pain to replace, I might add. And I've done it because those chains ain't much. Anyway........just above that is three small sealed lead-acid batteries. And above that is a small seat bucket with seat, scooter style.
Those three SLA batteries were weakening before one season was over. And they never had enough range anyway. We often take rides of 12 to 15 miles including some hills and carrying groceries. So that little scoot needed something more and this battery was just the ticket.
The ammo can battery fit in the space but it took up all the space of the original batteries plus the seat bucket. The top of the can sat just about where the seat fit originally. So I beefed up the battery tray just a bit and lined it with springs. I cut them to about 1 1/2 inches. The springs were rated at one inch compression under 50 lbs of load. I don't remember just how many springs I put in there. But it was as many as I could fit. Probably 12 to 15. Then I mounted a bicycle seat onto the top of the ammo can.
Particularly from the side it looked like some European scoot with a solo seat. It actually turned out looking good. And my grand-daughter even got some seat suspension out of the deal. The travel wasn't much. But a little is better than none. And I watched the performance. The seat would compress a bit when she sat down. But I didn't hear much......if any......bottoming out when riding. Maybe there was some. But not enough to be obvious. Being a kid, of course, she might not even notice the difference. She didn't seem to. But I sure would notice.
It really did work just fine. And she's been able to go cross-country with us. But now she's nine years old and outgrowing that tiny scooter. I managed to take it on test runs of about 50 feet or so a few times. Imagine a circus bear on a tiny little bicycle. Those are just about the right proportions. So I never got to really experience that bike. But it served her well for a few years. She has two little brothers who are not yet ready to ride themselves. But this sort of 'scoot' might just be the way we train them. For now they ride in their mother's trailer. It's getting to be a tight fit. And they raise Hell, too. But that's another story.
So the mounted bicycle seat can come off now. I just haven't bothered with that yet. And I've decided that the battery must ride in a cargo trailer. I don't want that much weight high up above her rear tire. She can be a bit reckless. No sense in degrading the handling of the bike. It'll mean that she almost can't do without the trailer. My children and she........wife, too........simply will not ride without some assistance. But that's okay. She'll have plenty of cargo to carry anyway.
When I captioned these pics the bike was still in the basement just finishing up. Today the weather was really pretty nice. I even managed to get short rides in on two scooters. I also brought this new e-bike up out of the basement and tried it out.
It's not as powerful as the bigger bikes that we grown-ups are riding. But that's fine. I don't want to give a nine year old child too much power anyway. You can picture the things that might happen.
But when my daughter and I tried the bike out in the basement under no load we found that the PAS didn't seem to work at all. A little while ago I had her lift the motor wheel up off the ground while I pedaled the bike backwards. And the PAS fired right up. So I clearly mounted the receiving ring backwards.
Now I fastened it on using about a dozen drops of super glue. So I hope I can get it off without destroying it. On the other hand, my grand-daughter is not likely to pay any attention to the PAS anyway. So I guess I could just neutralize it if I can't actually fix it.
A few of these photos contain captions that state things that are very obvious. It's not that I'm talking down to this community. It's just that I first shared this 'build thread' with my Mother, siblings, a few cousins and such. And they're even more 'noob' than I am at this. They won't be familiar with these components at all. I'll bet you folks are more likely to have some familiarity with them.
Unfortunately I forgot to get pics of the process of installing the PAS (pedal assist) components. This involves removing the left side crank arm, attaching a ring with some sort of sensor to the bottom bracket and adding another ring with magnets to the spindle. Then re-attach the crank arm. I ended up making an error on that, too. I'll get back to that later.
I bought this battery three or four years ago for an e-bike that I was going to build for myself. But I never did manage to make that bike work properly and gave up on it.
The battery was made for a DIY'er. It had no case of any kind. It was a batch of LiPO4 cells with a bit of electronics for balancing charge and discharge wrapped in shrink-wrap. I found that an ammo can was just right for this job. Using some 1x2 lumber as shims in the corners, the battery fits right in. It's surrounded by good, tough steel with an air gap of about 3/4 inch. It's not quite air-tight since I had to drill a hole for cable to pass through. But it's secure.
Shortly after all of this I bought my grand-daughter one of these:
I'll bet most of you have seen these before. They're really just toys meant to allow a six or seven year old to ride up and down their own block a little bit. They are just hard-tailed, hard-forked children's bicycles lacking a crank and pedal chain drive. The body panels make them look like a scooter. But they're not.
Where the bottom bracket and crank would be, there is mounted a small electric motor that drives the rear wheel via a teeny-tiny chain. Quite a pain to replace, I might add. And I've done it because those chains ain't much. Anyway........just above that is three small sealed lead-acid batteries. And above that is a small seat bucket with seat, scooter style.
Those three SLA batteries were weakening before one season was over. And they never had enough range anyway. We often take rides of 12 to 15 miles including some hills and carrying groceries. So that little scoot needed something more and this battery was just the ticket.
The ammo can battery fit in the space but it took up all the space of the original batteries plus the seat bucket. The top of the can sat just about where the seat fit originally. So I beefed up the battery tray just a bit and lined it with springs. I cut them to about 1 1/2 inches. The springs were rated at one inch compression under 50 lbs of load. I don't remember just how many springs I put in there. But it was as many as I could fit. Probably 12 to 15. Then I mounted a bicycle seat onto the top of the ammo can.
Particularly from the side it looked like some European scoot with a solo seat. It actually turned out looking good. And my grand-daughter even got some seat suspension out of the deal. The travel wasn't much. But a little is better than none. And I watched the performance. The seat would compress a bit when she sat down. But I didn't hear much......if any......bottoming out when riding. Maybe there was some. But not enough to be obvious. Being a kid, of course, she might not even notice the difference. She didn't seem to. But I sure would notice.
It really did work just fine. And she's been able to go cross-country with us. But now she's nine years old and outgrowing that tiny scooter. I managed to take it on test runs of about 50 feet or so a few times. Imagine a circus bear on a tiny little bicycle. Those are just about the right proportions. So I never got to really experience that bike. But it served her well for a few years. She has two little brothers who are not yet ready to ride themselves. But this sort of 'scoot' might just be the way we train them. For now they ride in their mother's trailer. It's getting to be a tight fit. And they raise Hell, too. But that's another story.
So the mounted bicycle seat can come off now. I just haven't bothered with that yet. And I've decided that the battery must ride in a cargo trailer. I don't want that much weight high up above her rear tire. She can be a bit reckless. No sense in degrading the handling of the bike. It'll mean that she almost can't do without the trailer. My children and she........wife, too........simply will not ride without some assistance. But that's okay. She'll have plenty of cargo to carry anyway.
When I captioned these pics the bike was still in the basement just finishing up. Today the weather was really pretty nice. I even managed to get short rides in on two scooters. I also brought this new e-bike up out of the basement and tried it out.
It's not as powerful as the bigger bikes that we grown-ups are riding. But that's fine. I don't want to give a nine year old child too much power anyway. You can picture the things that might happen.
But when my daughter and I tried the bike out in the basement under no load we found that the PAS didn't seem to work at all. A little while ago I had her lift the motor wheel up off the ground while I pedaled the bike backwards. And the PAS fired right up. So I clearly mounted the receiving ring backwards.
Now I fastened it on using about a dozen drops of super glue. So I hope I can get it off without destroying it. On the other hand, my grand-daughter is not likely to pay any attention to the PAS anyway. So I guess I could just neutralize it if I can't actually fix it.
