I may never bother to pedal again ;-)

[gw8izr]

So my kit arrived from Woosh today as promised. Its a 48v mid drive that is now pretty much 'on' my Marin Eldrige grade MTB.

Its 'on' enough to have had a quick ride round on it but there is still a fair bit to do. The BB is offset about 5mm so I had to spend an hour on the lathe making a spacer to put the chainline right but I kind of anticipated that.

To do list will have to involve making a couple of spacers and I reckon a small grove is needed in the motor fixing block to clear the rear shifter cable it only rubs on it a fraction so relieving the block will be better than changing the route.

Front mech is removed and I might stick with a single front ring but if so it needs to be a bit smaller than the one supplied so again.. on the to do list.

So whats it like.... well blimey its great, quiet and plenty power.

I think I made a mistake with the rack battery cos the weight distribution feels odd at the back and I'd hoped to bracket the camera stuff and tripod to the carrier but I think the photo gear is still going to end up in my backpack which is a nuisance. Maybe I will have a think about that when I've ridden it more than a couple of miles. I also think the rack frame is a hopeless fit on my bike and will need a bit of sorting. The rear stays are sort of S shaped so they dont line up at all with the rack, nothing that can't be done fairly easily with a few bits of aluminium.

Photo's if anyone cares will be along when the cables aren't just wrapped round the tubes ;-)

Paul.

 

[Nealh]

Yes show us pics.

 

[gw8izr]

So rather than continue to clutter up somebody else’s post on rack battery matters I thought I’d better continue here.

The temporary arrangement that I’d used to attach the battery rack to the frame meant that it ended up to the rear of the axle and probably 3 inches above the tire, that meant the weight was very high and the bike felt quite unstable. Today I made some small aluminium brackets that allowed the rack to fit very close to the seat tube and only An inch and a half above the tire, even pushing the bike around the workshop it feels far better.

So I went outside, here on Anglesey it’s currently blowing a southwesterly at 70 mph and horizontal rain ..... I noticed the wheelie bin was now at the bottom of my field so I went back inside and put the kettle on!

Paul

 

[gw8izr]

A bit less temporary, not quite finished but getting closer.

Just stop raining and blowing!

 

[Nealh]

For better handling move the battery rack as low as you can get it above the wheel/tyre.

 

[gw8izr]

For better handling move the battery rack as low as you can get it above the wheel/tyre.

I need to get the mudguards on first and then it can be adjusted finally but to be honest it’s fine as it is, certainly better than it was

 

[gw8izr]

well it certainly isnt as clean now, today I put another 15 miles on it. I'm circa 14st and averagely fit and managed a comfortable 15mph over that route. Its a heavy steel frame with fat knobly tyres so any concerns I had about the motor lacking power are gone now.

Makes mental note, warmer gloves would have been better than track mitts.

It was all brought to an end by a hawthorne clipping and the inevitable hiss of defeat.

So the green slime did its stuff after a few minutes and after just 25,693 cycles of my micro pump I was under way again. I did say to myself that the co2 pump on the back of Ellens bike would have been slightly more use on the back of mine.

 

[gw8izr]

20 miles today which dropped the batter indicator by two bars, I suspect tomorrow will be the first (second really) charge up so it will be interesting to see how far I get.

No drama so far and thankfully my inguinal hernia hasn’t noticed the increase in exercise efforts.

I had to wash it.......

 

[gw8izr]

I get back from a ride looking like I’ve been pot holing.

Absolutely no major issues so far.



Eagle eyed ones may notice the bits of Karimat jammed into the rack frame to stop the battery rattling, I’ll do something more elegant than that now I know it works.

Battery capacity is great, this is 50 miles into the second charge. The indicator drops quite quickly once it drops one bar but I’d estimate dragging my fat ass round on these knobbly tyres 60 + miles should be possible.

 

[gw8izr]

not much more to add to this thread now, I just completed 60 miles on the second charge and to be honest I hooned about a bit to flatten the battery so I could get it on charge again. It would have done another five miles I reckon but there we go.

Fitted some Marathon plus tyres today and at long last mudguards. As expected the tyres have made a big difference. Also fashioned a mud flap out of a Walls ice cream container and life is a bit more comfortable on the filthy country roads here.

Now in another thread someone was saying that they wouldn't use tyre slime. I've been using it for donkeys years and its got me home countless times - he was concerned about the tyres after the slime has deployed so I took some pictures of the tyre and tube where a big hawthorne had done its stuff. Suffice to say that I'm not intending to ever stop using my slime ;-)

 

[gw8izr]

Today’s little training circuit involved about a mile on the flat with a massive tail wind, I managed to sustain just short of 40 miles an hour for a little while which means my knackered old legs can still spin for a few minutes at 130 rpm. But in reality the gears are far too tall on this bike now, at speed and high cadence I was bouncing about on the front suspension which isn’t very sensible at my time of life. So I’m going to stick the 32 on the front and see how it goes.

When I had to come back the other way into the now significant headwind I certainly needed the motor to keep the pace up

 

[gw8izr]

I’m not sure that people realise the self-sacrifice that we have to go to to find the raw materials needed……


A whole pack!

 

[D C]

Nicely made and impressive attention to detail keeping the lettering layout straight.
Dave.

 

[gw8izr]

Nicely made and impressive attention to detail keeping the lettering layout straight.
Dave.

It’s part of my sponsorship deal that I have with Walls ice cream

Apparently a fat old bloke on a bike hits their market sector.

 

[D C]

It’s part of my sponsorship deal that I have with Walls ice cream

In that case I'm going to make mine out of a Balvenie Doublewood label.

 

[gw8izr]

Retirement is hard going, today I had to decide between fish and chips or steak pudding and chips. Decisions decisions decisions ......

 

[D C]

You've got an electric bike to get you home, have both.