Electric Portuguese Chopper

You do VERY NICE work. Seriously, guy, I'd love to see what you'd do with a properly equipped shop and a reasonable budget. If you are looking for work, put together your build log and pics from all along the way, and put it on some CD's. Then go to every custom bike shop in reach and ask them to just look at your work.

I'll bet you get some offers of a job.
 
aleluia, até que enfim uma construção tuga por aqui!

tambem ando aqui a pesquisar para uma construção tuga, mas o mal é que cá em portugal, peças, motores e salvados de biclas tá muita mal e de guito então nem se fala. No canada sem duvida ta-se melhor (para peças - é muito frio para o meu gosto! ;-) ).

Desculpa lá agoirar mas se o motor hub que tens não é superior a 500w de potencia, acho melhor pores ai uns bons pedais pois vais precisar. Com um etek ou mars sem duvida ficava no ponto mas são motores carotes e precisam de muito sumo (baterias e das boas).

Diz-se por cá que a necessidade aguça o engenho, e vendo já o que construiste com simples ferramentas, de certeza que vais conseguir levar o projecto a bom porto e em grande estilo.

para inspiração aconselho-te 2 link's :

www.ratrodbikes.com (restauro e decoração de biclas)

www.endless-sphere.com/forums (biclas electricas para todos os gostos - vê a parte das non-hub motor electric bikes - e malta é muito prestativa)

Desejo-te melhor sorte para emprego, digo-te já que por cá a malta licenciada ta a emigrar para Inglaterra, Irlanda, etc pois isto ta foda aqui, e o pior está para vir.
 
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You do VERY NICE work. Seriously, guy, I'd love to see what you'd do with a properly equipped shop and a reasonable budget. If you are looking for work, put together your build log and pics from all along the way, and put it on some CD's. Then go to every custom bike shop in reach and ask them to just look at your work.

I'll bet you get some offers of a job.

Thanks SimpleSimon

@ sjacome
Sorry :devilish:
I can speak portuguese very well, but I can't read or write :devilish:
I came here when I was 6, so I never got a chance to go to school there.

Thanks for the links thou. I started a thread on Endless-sphere about this, but no one was interested.

I will check out the bikes on ratrodbikes, looks like a good site.
 
I made a rear spoiler for the back.

Frame 13.jpg
Frame 14.jpg
Frame 16.jpg

As you can see from the pics above i also welded the supports for the kick stand and trailer hitch.
I just used pieces off of scrap bikes.

Frame 17.jpg

I want the trailer hitch to be centered (roughly) with the rear axle, so when the trailer is doing the pushing
theres no up or down pull, if you know what i mean.
(the trailer will have a motor, to help push the chopper along when needed)
 
The kickstand and hitch

The reason I did it this way is because when I have the trailer on, I want it (the trailer) to push straight and not with an arm to the side. (I didn't want to get any kind of twisting)

So I had to make the hitch in the center of the bike,
Plus I needed a kickstand, so I decided to make it one unit.

I'm sure there are better ways to do this ( I'm open for suggestions) but this is the only one I came up with.

Kickstand position

Kickstand 01.jpg
Kickstand 02.jpg

Trailer position
Kickstand 03.jpg
Kickstand 04.jpg
Kickstand 05.jpg

Tucked away (sort of) position
Kickstand 06.jpg

I'm holding it in trailer position with 2 3/8's bolts.
Kickstand 07.jpg

I thought about just using sliding pins to keep it in position, but i thought that it wouldn't be tight enough ( a lot of movement and noise while pulling trailer).

I can thread the bolts in by hand then use a wrench to tighten it from coming loose. ( I'm in no hurry to go anywhere)
it ends up being solid with no movement.

I am going to use a caster like this on the trailer side.
Hitch 01.jpg

So here i just welded a 7/8's nut.
Hitch 02.jpg
 
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I was trying to figure out where to put the peddles,
I'm using the bottom bracket off the stingray, I cut the sprocket that was on there and welded a smaller one.

I tacked it on here to see how it looks and i'm thinking of leaving it there.
Peddles 01.jpg
Peddles 03.jpg

I wanted to move it in closer to the frame (so it wouldn't stick out so much) but i can't because of the sprocket.

I set the seat off of the stingray on there to see which one looks better,
but i think the one i made might look better on this bike.
Seat 07.jpg
 
Bobo
Very nice build so far. Very Very nice. How are you keeping everything straight as you are welding it together? Are you useing a jig ? You said you are useing galvanized tubeing for the frame. How are you welding it ? It almost looks like solder in some spots ? Tig, Mig ??? I hope you welded that GAL. tubeing outside because the gas that comes off GAL. tubeing is DEADLY! Turns young lungs into old lungs in a heart beat if it doesn't put you in a box. Keep up the good work and keep us posted...POPS
 
Bobo
Very nice build so far. Very Very nice. How are you keeping everything straight as you are welding it together? Are you useing a jig ? You said you are useing galvanized tubeing for the frame. How are you welding it ? It almost looks like solder in some spots ? Tig, Mig ??? I hope you welded that GAL. tubeing outside because the gas that comes off GAL. tubeing is DEADLY! Turns young lungs into old lungs in a heart beat if it doesn't put you in a box. Keep up the good work and keep us posted...POPS

I don't have a jig, everything is being put together by eye and straight rulers.

I'm using a flux mig welder,
I couldn't afford a gas mig so I bought a flux core welder.

Last summer I came across a (free) broken 18 volt pocket bike so I tried to build a chopper with the motor.
I didn't have a welder at the time so I bought a can of fibreglass resin and some fibreglass cloth, and with some pieces off of bmx bikes I built this bike

lowrider.jpg

I hooked up 2 sla batteries to it, the bike rode, but it had no guts. (motor was weak)
but I liked the idea of having an electric chopper :D, I just had to build a better one.

So I saved some money to buy a mig welder to make this one.

Yes, I do have to take the bike outside to weld, and I grind the tube first before welding.

(This was taken when i took it out to weld the forks and see how they fit.)

Frame 07.jpg

the reason it looks like solder is because I grind the welds down to smoothen them out, I don't want the welds to show, so I grind, them then I apply some spot putty.

Thanks
 
Opening the motor

I didn't like the gauge of the motor wires,
so I opened the motor to change them and at the same time check the brushes.

I started by removing the cover on the wire side.
I removed the brake drum and the cover screws and then tapped with a screw driver the sides of the cover.

I had to wedge some pieces of wood in between the cover and hub as it lifted slowly, something was tight in there, later i found out it was just the bearing (the way it sits nice and tight in there)

Motor 02.jpg

I was VERY surprised on how this motor was so clean when the cover came off.
(I was expecting all kinds of brush dust)

Motor 03.jpg

And the brushes are in great shape

Motor 04.jpg

I didn't have any thicker wire gauge that i was able to fit in the hub.
So I cut the wires that were already there in half and doubled them up,
Then I put some heat shrink on them and fed them back through the axle.

Motor 06.jpg

On assembly I put a small bead of gasket silicone on the cover.

Motor 07.jpg

When I went to remove the screws that hold the wires down to double them up, I found that they were loose (the screws)
I can see how something like this can drive someone crazy trying to figure out why the motor cuts out (bad connection inside the motor)

I also extended the rear drop outs.
Because of the tire being bigger then the one that came with the motor, it was almost rubbing at the front (only had about 1/4 inch clearness)
I didn't want to run into problems later by moving the wheel to far back so I extended it (drop outs) by 1"

RdropOuts 01.jpg

Then I primered some of the welds (I don't like welds showing to much) and added some auto spot putty

RdropOuts 03.jpg

As soon as the snow clears up outside a bit I'll take some pics of how the bike looks so far.
I don't have enough room inside to get a complete pic of the bike right now.
 
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