Going for my second build.

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Sep 16, 2018
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Friday I got my frame welded better. Not ready yet, but now it is strong enough to hold me for a test ride.
I still need to weld on it and clean it up, but that will come later.
Today I build the bike back up. Well steering, rear, seat and wheels. The rest comes later.
Coming week I will bend the steering and therefore I needed the bike to be build. This way I can see where my handlebars come and how to bend them. As that is done, I will put the rest on, like the brakes and chain for a rest ride. We'll, several to see how it goes. Then I will also test the bafang 350w mid motor.
I will mount my battery on the front. Mot the best balance, but it will be fine.

The new battery will be build, as soon as the cells are back in stock. I will then order them and build one pack. That I use to make 2 mounts, so I can ad one later.

So this coming week as it is dry, I will ride my first meters on the new build.
I will try to make photos or film it. I always forget those things.
 
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Sep 16, 2018
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Added today the handlebars.
Still need to shorten them, but I will do that as everything in on it and I know the right place for my hands.

Turning circle 4 to 4,5m. That is smaller than my previous trike.
Rols great and smooth, steering centers automatically and it all feels smooth. Only 1 thing I need to adjust so the pay is gone.
But with an other bold and shrinking the hole got the bearing, will fix that.

Trike feels a lot lighter than my previous trike.
All what I wanted to improve, looks like to be improved.

Now I am looking for all my cables. Front brakes will be no problem, but I must check if the shift cable is long enough or if I need an other one.
Chain is no problem. I have 4 of them, so I think that it is enough.
Battery mount now in the front for testing. Display will be mounted as soon as I have shortened the handlebars.

I placed the images on my Instagram. Link
 
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The build goes good. Not yet ready, but it won't take long anymore.

What I already did.
Shortened the handle bars. Still need to clean it up, but for now hood enough.
Connected the front brakes. Only need to adjust them and then they are ready.
Connected the shifter and derailleur. I adjusted them, so it is all in the right position.
Connected the gear sensor.
Mounted the display from the bafang.
Mounted the motor.

Things I need to do.
Fix the wires from the motor to the frame.
Put on the vbrake what is my parking brake.
Adjust the front brakes.
Put on the chain.

Things that change but are for now OK.
Longer shifter cable. The current one is a bit to short, so the cable isn't mounted as I wanted.
Need a longer cable for the rear brake.

I will ad lights these comming days.
I already added covers over the bolds that hold my wheels on.
Getting some steel for the fender mounts.
I will place them also soon on them.

Now I am waiting till the 18650 cells are back in stock.
Then I can build the battery, design a mount and ad the side bag mount and rear luggage rack.
 
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May 31, 2013
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The build goes good. Not yet ready, but it won't take long anymore.

What I already did.
Shortened the handle bars. Still need to clean it up, but for now hood enough.
Connected the front brakes. Only need to adjust them and then they are ready.
Connected the shifter and derailleur. I adjusted them, so it is all in the right position.
Connected the gear sensor.
Mounted the display from the bafang.
Mounted the motor.

Things I need to do.
Fix the wires from the motor to the frame.
Put on the vbrake what is my parking brake.
Adjust the front brakes.
Put on the chain.

Things that change but are for now OK.
Longer shifter cable. The current one is a bit to short, so the cable isn't mounted as I wanted.
Need a longer cable for the rear brake.

I will ad lights these comming days.
I already added covers over the bolds that hold my wheels on.
Getting some steel for the fender mounts.
I will place them also soon on them.

Now I am waiting till the 18650 cells are back in stock.
Then I can build the battery, design a mount and ad the side bag mount and rear luggage rack.
Looking really good there Emiel. :)
 
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Just placed the chain tube. Tomorrow I go further. It was to dark to work outside.

As everything goes well, than I can test ride it tomorrow.
 
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I understand there's a global shortage of 18650 batteries at the moment. Quite a few shortage stories on the vaping forums too.
 
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I understand there's a global shortage of 18650 batteries at the moment. Quite a few shortage stories on the vaping forums too.
I noticed it. I contacted the shop and they told me that it would take 8 weeks before they have them in stock again.
 
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Printing a temparery rear light mount now and soldering the wires for the rear light.
Chain is on it and only need put the rear light on and connect the last cable.
So I will ride my bike tonight.
 
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
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I am just back from my first test ride with my new trike. There are many positive things and a few negative things where I need to work on. But overall the trike is an big improvement over my first trike.

To begin with the negative things. Well not really negative things, just things I need to change or setup.
The seat needs to be adjusted a tiny bit. But I expected that and will test it more till I found the right position. That is why I made it adjustable.
Breaks need to be setup. But also no problem
Steering needs to be fixed better.
Chain tubes need to be fixed better.
Those things are just setup things.

One thing I noticed that is an other problem, are the pedals. The previous ones where better for normal shoes. But I can swap them if needed. I ride most of the time with my bmx shoes, so I don't see it as a real problem. The pedals are also a bit lower to the ground. This makes that I need to raise my feed by speed bumps.

Now positive part.
Even with my jeans and army boots, it rides smooth. Tomorrow I will ride with my other clothes and shoes, so it rides better.
The trike keeps straight as I don't hold the steering. Steering is something I need to get used to, but it goes good. The rear suspension works great. Not for off road but it removoves rose annoying bumps. It rides with smother.
No more shaking steering as I go fast. Cornering goes good.
Shifting goes good. Way better than my other shifter did. The gear sensor does his work also good.

Tomorrow I solve the problems and ad something around my handlebars, so I have grip again and not cold metal to hold.

I had the feeling that the motor was slow, but with my jeans and shoes, I still went easily 30km/h. But it felt slow, because the trike rides that smooth.

Overal, I am very happy with my new build. It is a big improvement.
 
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With other clothes, the seat is way better.
Brakes still need to be adjusted, but as I don't forget it, I will do that tomorrow.
Steering clambs wil be replaced with the first ones I got. The ones I use now, come loose and don't clamb that well. Need to adjust them, but I think that I stay with the first ones.

New motor is doing good. I am happy with it.
Today the man that helped me, did a short test ride. He was very positive, so that was good.

The rear suspension is just great. It does what I wanted. I did today my route with all the places where I feel the rear a lot and that went well. All problems ad the rear are gone.

Here with and without covers on the wheels.



Here the images of the bike.





And the 860c display.

The nice thing is the light sensor. By say the light is off, but my front and rear light go on as it gets dark. I can set the sensativety and the brightness of the screen by day and night seperatly.
The Mont where it is on now, will be replaced by a new one.
On the other site, I will make a box with all the controls for the batteries.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
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Looking good Emiel. It's the little details like matching nipples that catch the eye. The swing arm looks like it was designed for that trike too. How many things have you got added to the top of the bars though? It looks like you could receive satellite TV with that lot!
 
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I want everything to match as much as possible.

It looks a lot, but that is because I have mounted everything closer to my and ad the ends of the swing arm.
Right motor control, display and shifter. Not a bar end anymore. This one works better for me.
Double brake for the front brakes.

Other side has rear brake, phone mount, bell, buttons for light, indicators and horn.
It will get a USB connection to charge my phone.
And afcourse the rear view mirrors that I will get.
Under the seat sits the brake to lock the rear wheel. I use a v-brake for that.

Swing arm took some time to bend. Added 2 small bends so the steering doesn't hit the bar that connects the front wheels.
Also, it will be a bit shorter as soon as everything has its final place.

Going to replace the mount for the swing arm for better ones now.

Still a lot to do, but I can ride my trike around now.
 
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Adjusted the brakes and fixed the steering.
Brakes was easy to do. Steering was also easy to fix. One of the clambs was broken. I placed the first version I had on it and now it is way better.
Also removed the play of one bearing and the steering feels now a lot better. I have now something to hold on in a corner.

I love the 860c display. I connected the rear and front light to the motor and setup the light sensor. Now as it gets dark, the lights go on and the display dims to the setting I put in to it.
By day the display is bright and by night it is dimmed.
The lights went even on when I placed my bike under a roof where it is dark.

I need to get used to the motor. With the thongshen you get assistance depending on the input you give. The more you give, the more you get. With the bafang it is the opposite. As I go 20km/h and I give more power myself, the motor gives less power. As I just pedal ad the same speed but with less power, the motor gives more power. I can see it ad the display.
I was riding 25k/h and my watt output was going from 0 to 40w depending my input.
When I am ad speed, this is no problem, but by accelerating, I can give less power myself and the motor will do the rest. Now I give power and with the other motor I feel that I get assist, where I now feel less assist as I do that.
For now, I prefer on that part more the thongshen but I didn't ride a lot with it yet, so I give it some time.
Advantage of it, is that the motor uses less as I am and my cruising speed. Ad that moment, I don't really need an assist and this motor goes to 0, where my other motor, still keeps giving some support.
 
Joined
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I use the way the Bafang is set up to let the electronics dictate how much power I put in myself and how much the motor will add. In each setting the motor will assist up to an certain rpm. It's unfortunatly a tad higher than I like to pedal for longer distances, but it's a worthy goal to achive.
 
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I need to play with the bafang. It isn't setup right for me yet.
Also looking ad different geering.
For on the flat, it is great but for in the mountains, I will switch to the other derailleur with my other rear wheel.

Cells arrived, so I am looking on how and where the side bags will be mounted, where the battery fits and how to mount it.

One other thing I will change, is the rear suspension. I have now a 165mm long shock dampener with 750lbs spring.
This will change to the 150mm long shock with a 550lbs spring.
Later I will upgrade it to air shocks, but for now, this will be fine.
I measured the rear wrong with the spring.
With the other shock I correct that.

Also using the rear brake lever from my first build. It is more compact. Maybe I do the same on the other side.
I don't know if I ad the throttle, but I will get mirrors.

Need to do more, but battery and side bag mounts will come first.
 
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Did 2 things today.
Tightened the rear and removed the play that there was.
Bike rides even better especially in corners.

Secknf thing I did, was charging my spot welder and spit welded 10 rows of 6 cells.
First made them togheter so it was easier and gives a bit of strength.
Next stem is isolating each group and put them togheter.
I can put them togheter now, but I am going for a bit more isolation.
 
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Battery is almost ready.
Need to reconnect the plus cable, the minus cable and the cabls for charging and discharging.
I connected them to test the bms and it is great. I am happy that I hit a smart bms with a box for connecting it to the pc. I can setup some settings in the app, but on the pc, you can calibrate the cells and change much more. I used it for the calibration.
I can see all the 10 cells and see how much capacity goes in and out, how much amp the bcharger the battery charges and much more.
You can setup when it must balance the cells and much more.

Tomorrow I will finish the build and start on a design for the mount on the bike.
I give the battery the same connector as I have on my other battery. This way I can also connect it to my other bike.

I have black head shrink and black ductape. With the black cables it becomes an all black battery.
I will hold it on the frame with 2 red straps for the red accent.

End of the month I probably order again the same cells to build the second one.
 
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My trike starts to change color because of the weather, so I need to work faster to get it ready for the powder coat.

Made an scetch for the battery mount and I think that I will start making the base parts this week. It isn't much work to make, but I need to measure it out good.
It are 2 pieces of 40x20 with a plate on it and that is it, but I need to clear the rear.

As that is done, I start with the side bags.
After that the rear mounts for the bags, fender mounts, shorten and finish the front and fix all electronics and the lights.

Does not look to be much work, but I don't know how I will do my rear bag mounts yet.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
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You'll need to be specific with your powder coater as to where you don't want the coating. Powder coating is very thick and it'll cripple any tolerances. Part screw an old bolt into any thread holes before you take it and be prepared to get it off a few places to get things back together. Dispite the potential problems it's a far superior way to colour a frame though.
 
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Sep 16, 2018
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I know, I need to tape off surten parts or put plugs in, to keep it open.
I will also get some paint in the same collor, to paint those parts where I can't powder coat. But the man where I sometimes work with on my trike, let's a lot of his builds powder coat. So he knows how to kerp it all free, so the holes stay good.

Front where the pedals are mounted, need also spray clean. The part that slides over it, will else not fit, so I will paint that separately.
 
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