My first ride in 7? months

[morphix]

Thanks to d8veh I was able to ride my eMezzo again today.. it's been a while..7 months! I had an amazing evening riding all over the place..through the countryside and around a huge lake near my house.. it was exhilarating! You really enjoy it when you haven't rode for ages!

Surprisingly, perhaps I because grinning like an idiot I got stopped by several people (a single older woman and then later a couple) who were interested in the bike (they had never heard of pedelecs and were mighty impressed when i told them no license or insurance/tax was needed! They were like.."seriously? Where can we get them?!"

I had a few problems with the bike though.. the power stops and starts, and seems to take a while to start (have to pedal and then hit throttle a few times, before the power kicks in)..but other times it will work from a standing start. I checked all the connections to motor thinking perhaps a loose connection to sensors, but seemed fine. Once it's running it usually stays running, but if you cut power..it can be tempramental about starting again (throttle totally unresponsive until about 4 or 5 pushes)

The other thing is, the gears are totally *shagged* and kept dropping into 6th gear, even when I manually put the chain on 9th.. In 6th gear I couldn't possibly keep with the motor flat out, it was like pedalling air! The gear shift is totally broken! So it looks like I'll have to replace the gears. I'd like to keep it original, so if anyone knows where I can get the original gears for a Mezzo d9, do tell ;-) I only need a new shift and cable.

I don't yet have a pedal sensor and have to rely on throttle. I've still got a lot of work to do on the bike, but it's finding the time! I miss my old LCD console on the old bike, and being able to set power-levels on pedal sensor etc.. hopefully when I get the speedict wired up and figured out, I'll regain a lot of that functionality on my HTC Smartphone (which I yet to find a secure way of mounting!)

No pics unfortunately, but I'll take it out again tomorrow when its lighter and take some.

Thanks again d8veh, for a memorable evening made possible by your efforts!!

Paul

 

[Clockwise]

If it has been a few months then my guess would be it just needs a clean and maybe adjustment. This video shows a very clean and probably brand new bike but it should be just the same maybe with some rust, if you are lucky then adjusting the cable should fix it but if you are more unlucky then the it will be rusted up a little but either come loose with some force or wd-40 or whatever you use for freeing up rusty bits.

[video=youtube;2j1gSwhsVN8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j1gSwhsVN8[/video]

If it was a front gear then I would say it was fit for the bin, front derailures are fit for the bin out of the box tho lol

 

[jackhandy]

Best of luck with the speedict, Paul:

I could never get the damn thing to work properly as anything other than a display; gps was non-existant & it refused to download reliably to either Samsung or Htc phones or tablets.

Let us know if you have better luck.

 

[morphix]

Best of luck with the speedict, Paul:

I could never get the damn thing to work properly as anything other than a display; gps was non-existant & it refused to download reliably to either Samsung or Htc phones or tablets.

Let us know if you have better luck.

Ah that doesn't sound good :-( I have an HTC EVO 3D. I will report back as soon as I'm able to try it.

If it doesn't work, I may try and to have a go at writing something on my Raspi little computer with Python language and use a Bluetooth dongle to try and send data to Android and build a basic app.

 

[morphix]

Pictures of the eMezzo

I took the bike out again this morning for an early ride (power still holding out well) and took some photos..

All in all, I'm pleased with how this build is going.. the bike is powerful but functional, and easy to ride without power with its excellent smooth gears and range (when they work!).

The bike is a quite a bit heavier than I imagined with the rack bag and battery/electronics on, but once I improve the writing, I'll be able to just unclip and unplug the rack back off quickly, and so making it easier and to fold and 3-4kg lighter carry. (you can't fold the Mezzo with a rack bag on).

The only problem is that the conversion may possibly have compromised the Mezzo's neat fold due to the back wheel drop out having to be stretched a bit and so the wheels may not line up fully to the catch. A smaller motor probably would have been a more sensible choice in hindsight, rather than the BMS 350W to maintain the fold integrity.

Note: that's the small rack bag pictured.. the bike came with two..the full size rack bag is about 2-3x as high and can store a lot more besides the battery and electronics..it would be possible to fit 3 batteries in there, or some shopping. Plus both the small and large rack bags slide on and off the rack securely, have nice detachable shoulder straps for ease of carrying ;-)

 

[morphix]

Here you can see the broken gear shift, it broke from using brute force to get it on/off:

I tried glueing it with superglue but it wasn't very strong. Maybe some other metal glue would fix it.

 

[morphix]

Another problem

I noticed a kind of "drag/pulling" both yesterday and today when going full throttle..

I don't know what is causing this, any ideas? It feels as though the bike does little stalls, as though the power is not smooth and consistent. I wondered if it might be the brake heads needing adjusting or the gearing.. sometimes it will go fine on a straight road.. other times, you get this intermittent slightly jolting power drop/sudden boost..

 

[peerjay56]

Here you can see the broken gear shift, it broke from using brute force to get it on/off:

I tried glueing it with superglue but it wasn't very strong. Maybe some other metal glue would fix it.

That will be difficult with glue, because it appears to be under tension. Would it be possible to make use of cable ties? There seems to be a couple of flat 'ledges' either side of the display part. Certainly something that pulls it together, to counter the tension.

 

[morphix]

Best of luck with the speedict, Paul:

I could never get the damn thing to work properly as anything other than a display; gps was non-existant & it refused to download reliably to either Samsung or Htc phones or tablets.

Let us know if you have better luck.

Ok will do, that doesn't sound too promising. And I know from experience Bluetooth (in its present incarnation even BT 3.0) is not too reliable as a communication interface/for data transfer, unless the devices are VERY close.

I just got the very latest (modest bluetooth headset in the world, the Motorola Elite Sliver) with a massive 30 foot range (3x that of most standard 10feet range)... and the data is not reliable, connection speed varies even when I'm sitting infront of my phone I get complaints from callers.. the more you move around with bluetooth I've noticed (even just holding the phone) particularly when running or moving at speed, the more the connection suffers.. this makes me question whether Speedict and BT is a wise/safe choice for what is after all controlling the controller with features like speed/cruise control etc.

Now that BMS has finally the LCD console controllers in stock the whole Speedict thing could be a mute subject. They can allow you to monitor power, switch between throttle/PAS and choose PAS levels, show speed, distance and journey time etc just like a bicycle computer.. Sure Speedict it smarter because does a lot more than the LCD console in terms of recording trips, fine tuning and optimising throttle speed/PAS based on routes or fitness goals etc), but lots of Android Sat Nav apps will now do much of the same (without any wiring or fiddle around, and arguable more reliably without BT). You can certainly measure speed, journey routes etc via free apps like Marvick which I find very accurate and useful.

I still think there's a possibly a Raspi could be hooked up to a controller and an Android handset (either via BT or hardwired via USB perhaps). The coding could be done with Phyton on the Raspi, with some basic electronic I/O interface to control throttle/PAS and monitor speed, and even switch indicator lights/sound horn via handset freeing up handlebar space!

Writing a slick Android app interface to control the raspi might be challenging, but it's not too difficult with Android developer communities/helper apps widely available. Another interesting possibility is the new Android watches which communicate with handsets via BT and create some interesting. I have a couple of these I got cheap from States to play.

As always, it's a case of having the time to experiment and play with these gadgets ;-) Probably fitting an LCD console and controller is the quicker, easier and more reliable way to go.. I certainly miss having mine from my old bike..