My latest e-bicycle project is now up and running (very fast)

Hey I recognize those LED lights. They are originally for SUVs or pickup trucks as driving lights. I bought a set from Canadian Tire and mounted them on my scooter styled E-bike on the shock covers of my front wheel shining down on the road to light up the area in between my front wheel and where on the road the E-Bikes original incadescent headlight shines for more road visability. They are rated at 12V 1watt per light. I just installed a 48V to 12V DC to DC converter to run them, they really work well.

Kenneth
Edward
Finch

Yes I sometimes get that from other Gas Scooters as well. They wave from a distance, but when they get closer they see I am a scooter styled E-Bike then their hand goes down and they quickly speed off as if they were embarrased to be waving to an e-bike rider. I do not take offence of the practice anymore I just ignore them. I am enjoying my ride that is alot less polluting, quieter and much much less expensive to do on a daily occurance.

Kenneth
Edward
Finch

David -

Congrats on the successful build and getting good performance. Any build that works like you want it to is a great build!

I say the rest of this with great respect and with my tongue firmly in my cheek. Were you going for the most exposed wires and most tie wraps award? I didn't even know your conversion would have that many wires tied to the cross bar! Hey, don't feel bad (see opening line) and my own personal builds are much more in line with yours - the guy who did the Silver Surfer (or perhaps that was his nickname?) did an awesome job on making the thing tidy.

I know you're probably going to say "tidying it up comes next". That's what I always say too - except then I start playing with the next project and when they say "I thought you were going to tidy things up" I say "well, it works doesn't it?" You should see my Frankenstein lawnmower conversion ;-)

Again, just good-natured riffing - glad to hear you got 'er done.

All the best, John H.

On tidying up... there isn't much way to tidy up an e-bicycle build is there? It's not like you can run wires through the frame tubes to hide them out of sight. And the wires on the gizmos have a certain length which means somehow bunching them up when they're too long. But yeah it doesn't look the nicest, does it? One difference between build-your-own and a commercially built bike is that (theoretically) the commercially built bike ends up with better build quality and neatness. On the other hand none of the commercially built bikes have the attributes I'm looking for - including upright seating, feet forward, big cargo capacity, and great lights. The closest may be the Kona Ute which can be bought with an electric drive but IIRC it doesn't have the seating style I prefer. That puts me into the camp of build-my-own and then the neatness is based on how much time I want to spend neatening up the thing.

Yup, it's all about how much time you want to invest. It's just the number of tie wraps and the amount of bunched cables that had me smiling. Look at this guy's bike: http://visforvoltage.org/forum/8365-rapture-dusty-donnay - it's a self build too. So I'd say there is a lot of tidying up that can be done if one wants to do it. One relatively easy thing you could do would be either shorten the wires (cut them and re-solder the plugs) or hide all the excess in one of the battery bags. But, hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder - and I think your bike is great as-is.

I have other projects in the garage that are demanding their own attention. Such as the three wheeled motorcycle ... that thing has too much coolness to be left idle in the driveway. I'm itching to get to it next. Or maybe to do the lithium conversion of the Lectra. Or I've been talking with Richard Hatfield about building a fast motorcycle. Or I may be buying a converted VW Karman Ghia soon and want to improve the conversion. Or... uh.. how many hours in the week are there?

Yup and there's the rub! Too many projects and too few hours ;-) But, hey there are worse problems in the world, right? I vote that you do the three wheeler next ;-)

It sounds like you've got a great and very usable e-bike. Congrats again!

Yes I sometimes get that from other Gas Scooters as well. They wave from a distance, but when they get closer they see I am a scooter styled E-Bike then their hand goes down and they quickly speed off as if they were embarrased to be waving to an e-bike rider. I do not take offence of the practice anymore I just ignore them. I am enjoying my ride that is alot less polluting, quieter and much much less expensive to do on a daily occurance.

Kenneth
Edward
Finch

I was treated like one of the gang by a group of Harleys on the way to work on my e-scooter. At the stoplight they were asking about the lack of noise, muffler and licience plate. I explained that I didn't have to pay for insurance either and you would think their heads were going to explode. It would have made for nice picture, me crusing slow down Main Street in the finanical district on my scooter among a group of leather clad Harley riders.

Look great! I think you can find some small shrinkable tube to pack the wires up so that the wires do not show such busy.

i like the long wheelbase,i cant get over the zip straps ha.nice build very functional.

Hey, the fun is in getting it running. Tidying up? That's easy to put off till it's time to enter it into a show. What's that? You aren't going to enter it into a show?

Seriously, I too like the long wheelbase. I just finished my bike project...
http://bergerweb.net/electricbike
It was fun to do, and I really did want to mount my motor on an EZ Sunray, but the bike shops want too much for those semi-recumbents. Did you weld up the frame yourself?

Nice build. It looks like a very utilitarian electric cargo bike. I think building a box for the batteries and putting them behind the seat post could work nicely. Maybe hide the extra wire length in there too. It would probably have to be mounted securely enough such that it would be hard to remove easily for charging. That's what I did on my cargo bike and it's not a bother. I just have to be mindful of a convenient AC outlet if I venture out of my round trip range.

from experience, keep those zip ties loose on front fork. If you get a flat and have to do a tube change on the road your going to need plenty of slack to pull out motor power wires to get wheel off and work on tube replacement so you can be on your way.