Kona Blast elationebike conversion

In chapter twelve I left you with the Blast a block from heaven due to chain adjustment issues. As usual what I expected to be a quick and easy completion to a part of the evolution of the Blast was not. The half link showed up on Saturday afternoon so I went ahead and slipped it on. The chain was still a bit looser than I would have liked but on the stand when running it through the gears both with and without power went without a hitch. So off for a test ride.

Riding season is finally close to getting seriously underway here and I'm still waiting on Allan to send the new items to test. I've stated before that I need less top end and more climbing assistance so I was thinking. It's a rainy Saturday, so outside chores are on hold. All the inside stuff is caught up so why not do an experiment on the Blast with the motor gearing. My thought was that a lower assist gearing might get the motor more in it's sweet spot and help pull the hills. How to go about it? Whatever has to be reverseable should my logic be off and I put myself on a $40 budget.

Well Allan has made it public.

New elationebike items coming soon!

I spent an hour doing this last Saturday, pushed the preview button and it went off to cyber heaven. Just my luck I didn't save and all was lost. I will attempt to reconstruct this chapter but I don't think it will be quite the same. Here goes....

Took the early part of the day to get the wire routing finished. No matter how I clocked them, the throttle and horn controls just wouldn't go around these integrated brake and shifter controls. So I just left them short and over the top. I'll work them out after I upgrade the shifters. The brake cut out switches also had 3 wires instead of the usual 2 and rather than figure out how to integrate them using a Magura 2 wire switch and custom bracket I took off the works. Just unplugged from the controller and removed them.

The bars and recabling weren't finished until Saturday. As usual what appears a minor change causes more things to deal with. In this case both mechanical and ebike kit related. First the mechanical, the Shimano pod Rapid fire shifters I took off the straight riser bars were not compatible with the Albatross bars. Problem being the cable fitting angle coming out pointed away from the bars meaning the cables would not route properly, would have shot out wider than the bars before making the turn, unacceptable.

The good weather and my curiosity got the better of me and I just had to give the Blast a test after getting the motor mounted and the drive chain sized. Went out and attached the throttle, slapped on the battery and put the rest of the controls in a plastic shopping bag hung from the handlebars. Figured I should try it before I took it in to get the new Albatross bars installed and fitted with cabling. Man, it was quite an enjoyable experience to finally try it under power.

What a miserable couple of weeks here in Seattle. Snow, wind storms, ice, more snow, this really is not safe cycling weather. Glad I've not gotten the Blast blasting or I might have tried something stupid like ice riding. The good news is that the V saddle clamp was a winner. Received it a few days or so ago but with the afore mentioned weather just getting to work and such took most of my free time, but Saturday I finally got back after the Blast.

Santa was good to me, no coal, instead an Old Man Mountain Red River rack and some Rivendell spec Nitto Albatross bars. Both will make top quality additions to the Blast....sweet! Thanks Santa.

Then back to reality. It's been a long week of waiting for ordered parts. In addition to the clamps for the ebike project I'm waiting for a burner switch for the cook top and a new dash board for the better half's car, oh yeah those don't count here, oops. None will arrive until next week sometime.

It has certainly been a memorable week or so. Hurricane type windstorm, the holidays and an ultra busy time at work. All have limited the time I could devote to the project at hand. Then again stepping away for a bit allowed me to get a fresh perspective and whittle away at the issues list.

Check out my proposed solutions,

A quick list of issues follows:

I. Down tube angle does not match angle of motor mount.

Solution: add a .25 inch spacer between motor mount and chain stays. This spaces the mount and allows attachment without bending the bracket.