Le Toy II electric street bike

[johnrobholmes]

I have been working with electric bikes for about two years now, and have a new favorite build (aren't they all favorites?). The dirty component list:

24 Bikes "Le Toy II" street/trials frame
2003 Marzocchi Z1 Dirt Jumper fork
Profile cranks
Thompson stem
Hayes Stroker 8" front brake
XTR rear V brakes
9 Continent hub motor
12s 10ah Zippy lipo
Castle HV110 with 800uf added capacitance
Servo tester
Magura 5k POT throttle
Handbuilt front wheel Marzocchi hub/Salsa Delgado rim/DT spokes


Here she is in "stock" form

 

[johnrobholmes]

She goes about 27mph on the flats and gets to top speed in a hurry. Range is around 15 miles with zero pedaling, about 12 if I ride hard and stand up a lot. It is quite the fun ride, but a bit hard to bunnyhop compared to a normal bike.

 

[bluegoatwoods]

It's a fine looking bike and 15 miles with no pedaling is very reasonable range.

 

[johnrobholmes]

Thank you sir


I think I am going to add some umph to the build. The frame and fork is stout as all getout so I am beefing up the wheels and changing the power plant.

I laced a 17" motorcycle rim into a Marzocchi 20mm front hub with 10ga stainless motorcycle spokes. Tire is a Shinko 17x2.5 DOT rated dual sport. After riding it and loving the stability, I think I may do the same for the rear and convert this to a divorced drivetrain. I also have some slick DOT rated tires that are 2 lbs lighter than the shinkos (also DOT rated). This particular wheel is earmarked for another build, but I figure I can test it out on this guy for a while.

Who am I kidding, it is here to stay. I already ordered a fatty single speed hub for the rear to lace up to match. Now do I get a 16" or 17" rim for the back

 

[AussieJester]

Nice build nick looks familiar

KiM

 

[johnrobholmes]

I have been putting a good many miles on this bike, using about 700 to 800 watt/hours per day on my commuting days. Then I like to joyride and go to friends houses on top of this

I laced up a PUMA motor into a Rhyno Lite rim, and have been running it for a few weeks now. It runs very solid on 12s lipo with the HV110 controller, but with an old firmware it lost sync because of the high motor inductance. A firmware upgrade fixed the issue, Castle was already aware of it.

I decided to use a Shenzen Sucteam controller and put 72v on the motor. It climbed like a goat and ran very stout for a few days. Then I hit a pothole on power going over 30mph downhill. It broke all three gears as the wheel unloaded and reloaded on the backside of the hole. Not a good hubmotor for 72v.


So the 9c wheel is back on the bike, but relaced into a black Rhyno like rim with better spokes. It is pokey at first compared to the PUMA, since it has a higher resistance and inertia. But, the middle range power is very nice as a PM motor should be. Top speed seems to be the same as the PUMA, but hill climbing slower if I start the hill slow. I MAY relace the hub again with a drive side outbound radial lace. This will bring the dish better and lower drive side tension, making the wheel balanced and laterally stable.



I am going to weld up a rack for the batteries and weld some tabs to the frame so that a divorced driveline can mount. On future frame builds I will weld bearing cups so that jackshafts will be integrated in the frame. There will be adjustment mechanisms or tensioners involved. That is the next build however...

 

[johnrobholmes]

I remounted my batteries and controller onto a rear rack to clean up the frame and play around.


The added rear weight bias makes it handle horribly.
The rear skips over bumps and is unpredictable in rough cornering.
The front unweights and skips when turning
It also takes longer to lean from one direction to another. (seems odd since the center of mass should be similar to old position, maybe even more centralized)
It is harder to park at racks, since it is topheavy.
With the reduced front weight it wheelies a bit too easy now.


I will be making a rack to hold the batteries around the top tube, very similar to a motorcycle gas tank. This thing handles like a bag of runny **** now. I can't jump down stairs like this either. I figured this would happen, but I didn't think it would handle so badly with the weight change.

crappy phone pic

 

[AussieJester]

I think moving the batteries towards the middle is going to help but not solve the handling problems, I freakin LOVE that front rim you have laced in good luck bending that out of shape haha...one lined up for the rear also or is it not possible with the hub motor?
Im not familar with this 'DOT' rating business we have no such thing here in OZ...is the tire (on the front) thats DOT rated meant for bicycle or light motorcycle use? I would very much like to follow suit with the rim/tire/spoke combo on my new buid did you buy this rim online or from LBS? it just looks badass tuff unbreakable and having had a massive off from front tire failure before im somewhat paranoid about front wheels now :-S

Hope the re-organisation of weight gets you the handling your after anywayz John...

KiM

 

[johnrobholmes]

When I had the batteries tucked in the frame it handled great. I will be remounting them like they were.


DOT is department of transportation. Vehicles need DOT spec tires, or they are not street legal. Ebikes have no such restriction, but mopeds and scooters do. I got them because they were beefy and would not shred up like bike tires do. Just a few hundred miles on my rear bike tire and it is showing wear. I should get thousands out of the DOT tire. It is a dual sport tire designed for a bike that weighs 300 or 400lbs. It may not have the grip that a bike tire has, but I can deal with a bit slower cornering speed.


I won't be lacing up a hubmotor into one of those rims, just because I would lose too much speed. I have a single speed 135mm OLD rear hub that is delegated for the task, but I will have to use a divorced driveline. Not sure if I will do that to this bike, or save it for another bike.

I got the rim from OEMcycle. I had to call up and get the rim, since the webstore selects rims based on model instead of rim spec. Only available in 28 and 32 hole versions, but 32 hole mtb hubs are easy enough to find. I got the spokes custom cut, don't remember the place.

 

[AussieJester]

I got the rim from OEMcycle. I had to call up and get the rim, since the webstore selects rims based on model instead of rim spec. Only available in 28 and 32 hole versions, but 32 hole mtb hubs are easy enough to find. I got the spokes custom cut, don't remember the place.

Appologies i scrolled up and checked previous pics of battery placement, when you said "very similar to a motorcycle gas tank" i assumed ontop of the top bar, lowering the weight down will definitely be a big improvement ;-)

Cheers for the info on the tires/rims...i shall checkout the site you mention and also hit up some moped/scooter sites also...They definitely look the part MUST have hehee...OH..spokes...you would of had to drill out the stock bicycle hub holes to suit larger gauge spokes? This doesn't make the hub too much 'weaker' does it? like, there is still adequate "meat" on the hub so the spokes wont 'pul' out and break the hub?


Thanks again mate ;-)

KiM