I spent the last couple of days remaking the nimh battery packs. I have two 12volt forty ah packs hooked up with one `12v sla battery to make 36v of mixed power. I want to see how it does before I finish the nimh battery pack. It's going to be interesting for sure.

I gave up on the small weed whacker motor but I think I will get a gas motor this spring. I plan to keep my ebike though. I have a feeling that the ebike is more dependable and I could always take it to the store. I might even figure a way to ride it for exercise.

I'm not doing anything till spring. I just bought a junk bike from the thrift store to use with the emotor. It has gears which I think I want so I can run the ebike at 24 and pedal it more.

I am experimenting with a gas engine again. The experiments are with a weed whacker motor but I will most likely buy a gasoline friction drive kit. I am tired of the battery and trailer thing to be honest. I don't mind the slower speed or the short distances between chargers for the most part but frankly the cost of lightweight batteries and the charging times just make it seem as though for the most part a gas bike is better for me at least.

I know it isn't green but that's life. If you want green, make the batteries cheaper and more efficient. Which is not the same as making gasoline bikes too expensive to ride. That's the socialists idea of improvements. Don't make the new technology cheaper, instead the lefties say make the old technology more expensive through false costs.

I picked up three weed whacker motors yesterday. I took a couple of them apart so I am ready to see if I can make either of them run. If so I will begin designing my drive system. I'll let you know how that turns out.

i have decided to try another weed whacker bike. I am going tomorrow to pickup a couple of engines. I think I am going to try to adapt them to my present building techniques.

The bike is doing fine with just an on/off switch. I'm running the 24v 600watt Currie motor with a 24v sla and a 6v nimh battery for 30v. I mention the nimh as a separate battery because it makes the power surge different. More mello is the only way I can describe the difference. With Sla when you hit the on switch the bike jump like crazy. With the nimh in the circuit it just eases into the power curve. I know it sounds ridiculous but that is what happens.

Anyway it does fine. On most of the hills here the bike runs fast enough that I can't catch the freewheel. I should put a larger chain ring on the bike so that I can help more, but I just haven't felt the need just yet.

I have been painting the house lately, so I didn't get to ride the bike after the switch back to an on off switch until yesterday. The bike has noticeably more power with the on off switch. It probably is pulling a couple of more amps going uphill. It doesn't seem to be enough to damage the wiring or switch yet, so I'm going to try to ignore it for now. I have wired it with lamp cord wire, so I'm hoping that if there is a failure, it will be in the 15amp rated wire rather than the twenty amp on off switch. I would much prefer the circuit go open than closed.

I rode the bike after a day of painting and very little sleep, so I was fairly clumsy with it. I got a good feel for what would happen if I accidentally turned the switch on. Not much happened. I just turned it off again, when it tried to stand up on me. I have the simplest of all kill switches. It is just a loop of wire twisted into the positive wire from the battery. The two ends of the positive wire are taped to the bike frame, then the loop is twisted to the ends to make a solid lead. I can easily grab the loop in a melt down and pull it out of the circuit. Unless the ends of the positive wire make a circuit using the bike frame somehow the power should be killed.

I wanted to keep this bike as simple as possible, so I kept the coaster brake as the only brake. One thing I knew from the past experiments was that if I turn the motor off, the drag of the drive system on the rear wheel would bring the bike to a stop eventually. The coaster brake and the drag are very effective. in case of a broken chain, the bike goes slow enough that I could let the drag stop it or even run into the curb or something to stop it in an emergency. A front brake would be nice and I might put one on. I have plenty of room for it and bunches of them around. Lack of a brake isn't the problem, I just didn't want to fool with it at the time.

Frankly I'm still looking for a dual suspension bike to test the motor on. It really is my last test of the rhino configuration. I am still vacillating between it and a gasoline friction drive system. Pulling the trailer is a pain but it is doable of course. The trailer is the weakest link at the moment. I really need a better connection or rethink how I carry batteries.

I put the controller back on the bike and the power went way down, so I pulled it off again. I'm sorry everyone tells me you have to have a controller but it is just a waste of money for me.

Well the bike I built with the chain drive burned up. I guess it was hauling just a little too much blubber to over volt. I pushed it up the hills and coasted down for about four miles. I decided to put a coaster brake wheel and a rhino drive on the frame but then I bent the frame. From experience I know that when I bend a frame, I can never get it straight again. So I went and bought a 12 dollar trick bike a the thrift store. I had to change the wheels since they were plastic mags. The front wheel had been bent and the rear wasn't a coaster it was a one speed. I wanted a very simple low powered bike this time.

I don't even have a front brake. The rhino drive has drag on the rear wheel. If I turn the motor odd it will stop on its own eventually. Brake one is to just turn off the switch. Brake two is the coaster brake. Since the bike runs slowly it is more than enough.

I began with the bike at thirty six volts but I felt that it was just too fast for a pleasure bike. That's what I wanted to build since the fast bikes seem to die on me. I also wanted to get a little exercise, so I cut back the voltage to 24volts. It didn't have much pull that way, so I removed the controller and throttle to boost the motors output. The bike is almost full throttle all the time anyway. If I want to tool around a parking lot at dead slow, I can just pedal it.

My big experience so far with the bike was with the laid back seat. I bought that bike because it had a laid back seat post. I thought I would need it to make the pedals work. Most of the time the pedals on a kids bike are too close.

I tested it with the 36v and at the first stop sign the bike did a wheelie and ran out from under me, I barely managed to keep it under control. So I changed the seat post immediately. I found that with a standard seat post I can reach the pedals just fine. I think since it was designed as a trick bike it was built for older teens.

I will be doing more test on it today but I think I can manage with 24 volts. If not I will just add 6 more volts to it somehow. Thirty volts is ideal. I am running the bike with a 20amp house type on off lever switch. I have burned up the 15amp switches but never a 20amp. I also have a forty amp circuit breaker and a pull wire kill switch. This bike goes so slowly I can probably just lay it down in case of emergency.

I am coming to grips with the fact that is a bicycle not a motorcycle or even a moped. It has its own place in the world of transportation. At least this winter it will be a ten mile an hour wind in my face not forty on a motorcycle.

I put the chain and sprocket drive on the bike again. I did it because I am getting down to one bike and it is the easiest one to keep adjusted. There is less tinkering with it than the rhino friction drive.

I don't think it is any more efficient, but who knows it is at least close or the same as the rhino. I put it on the bike with gears. I put the special wheel on the bike which is a one speed rear sprocket. I decided to leave the derailleur so that I could make it a two speed bike by changing the front sprocket with the gear shift. The derailleur acts as a chain tensioned. The problem was the 3/16 chain would not fit the sprocket on the Currie drive wheel. My fix was to remove the 3/16 chain then run the 1/4 inch chain through the guide and derailleur. It is a tight fit and binds a little but it does work. If I change the gear slowly it will move between the two front sprockets. The smaller sprocket is easier to pedal when starting on a hill, but the big one allows me to catch the freewheel earlier on hills while riding. I can keep the throttle lower and pedal assist it some.

Anyway for right now it seems to work pretty well. I am able to get three sets of 36v/12ah batteries in the trailer so it has pretty good range I think.

One thing I learned that afternoon, water all looks alike. The secret was on the shoreline, not in the water.

We passed a restaurant and bar on the way to the recovery site. The parking lot was enclosed on the water side by a low concrete block wall. It would not have been difficult for an average guy to lift an average sized woman over the wall. I had assumed that the woman was average size.

“The woman, they fished out of here, wasn’t especially large was she?” I asked.

“Pretty average I would say,” Jane replied.

“Thanks I couldn’t for the live of me remember that part of the autopsy report.”

“They say the memory is the first to go,” she suggested.

“It isn’t.” I said with a laugh. “It’s the legs.”

I sat quietly until she said, “We should be right on top of where they found her floating. Some guys on their way fishing saw her.”

“So we are about a mile north of the restaurant,”

“Yes but there are plenty of houses with lake access around here as well.”

“I guess you are right. So where is the campground from here?”

“Two miles north west of here.”

“Why?”

“Just trying to figure out where she might have gone in.”

“She didn’t go for a swim chief, she was strangled then dumped.”

“Well that’s true enough.”

“Okay I have seen enough. It’s a little chilly on the lake.”

“Chief you are going to need long johns if you plan to go out on the lake,”

“I suppose I’ll have to put them on my list. At least the uniform coat is pretty warm.”

“Yes it is chief, but it is so damn green.”

“Not your best color?”

“I look terrible in green. Not to mention how my legs look dangling out the bottom of that heavy parka.” I had to admit she had a point she probably looked like a chicken in the heavy parka. “Which is why I wear two set of thermals and the lightweight jacket in the winter. I just hate that parka.”

“I think the parka is going to be my best friend,” I suggested.

I got home around six that evening with the pizza in tow. I immediately put it into the frig’ since Jayjay liked it cold.

I rode the bike (with the 30v battery supply) to the mall. It did better than before with 24v. The six volt nimh battery didn't over heat and showed just a little drain. The 12v batteries came in at 13.25 which is considered full. Most likely they drained less than a volt for two miles which is pretty good. Without a controller I can get help from them all the way down to 11.5 or so without any significant damage to them. The nimh won't be a problem since they can drain lower than the sla without damage.

I have all those nimh batteries laying about. I might just make up some more of the six volt packs to keep one charged at all times. I have set the packs up so that i can pull them out of the loop and have 24 volt packs with the same batteries. The no controller bike is a lot more versatile. The nimh addition somehow eliminates the jerk when starting. I think it keeps the output of the batteries consistant. That would help with the power drain of the sla if it is true. We shall see after some more time passes.

This afternoon I made a 6v 48ah battery from some of the nimh batteries I have. I have so many if it had a meld down so be it. I tried it and it seems to work just fine. One thing the nimh batteries do is to smooth out the power curve. The bike doesn't jerk as badly when the motor hits.

I will need to do a lot more testing but it seemed to do okay.

If I switch all the batteries I have over to 24v packs, I should have enough to go anywhere in town. Each 24v 12ah pack should go five miles and I have five of them. The wright will be a monster but what I can do is to ride all day making short trips. I can rotate the packs. Two packs on the bike at a time is very doable. I will have to get up the nerve to try the marina trip one day. I will definitely need to wire in a fail safe kill switch of some kind. I think a pull link would be the best idea.

All in all for the time being, I am happy with this bike. I have to work a little but not so much that I can't go where I want so far.

Well I stripped the big bike and redid it completely yesterday. I made it 24v with no controller. I tested it last night and it was questionable. Today I rode it to the mall for my walk. It did perfectly. It even did well coming home up a major hill. I pedaled a lot but I'm not sure how much I really needed to pedal.

Funny how I have gone so far to come back to the same basic design as before. I do use the rhino drive but it is just a little more complicated that the first bikes I built. Well I'm in better condition now, so I don't mind the pedaling.

I trashed my 24v experimental bike today. I decided just to keep one bike. The bike I kept has a controller that will work at 24 or 36 volts. 24v with a controller is crap. If I build another bike ever it will be 24v no controller. I caught a ton of grief on the forum for advocating that kind of bike but it is the way to go for me anyway. Should the controller on the bike I have now go, I will convert it to 24 volts no controller in a minute.

Meanwhile I have a much faster bike in the 36 volts so I will ride and enjoy it knowing that it is best only for the speed.

I may try again to get the direct drive with skateboard wheel working. I just need a better connection to the motor.

I am a terrible welder... I put the skateboard wheel on the bike and it lasted about one block before it twisted the weld I made right off the motor. That was okay because I learned what I wanted to know by then. The skateboard wheel attached directly to the motor is a winner. In my case the weld was so bad and the attachment so out of balance that it just shook itself apart, but it will drive the bike just fine. Only if I get the thing put on correctly.

It if rains two inches in a week nothing much happens around my house. But when it rains one day enough to saturate the ground, and the it rains two inches the next day, my basement is going to flood. The basement has good natural drainage except that there were no natural gas water heaters when the house was built in 1028. When they installed the water heater in the fifties or so, the installed it too close to the ground. when I replaced it three or four years ago I had it done the same to save a few bucks. So now when it rains as I stated above, I have to stay awake to pump the water out.

There are two things i can do to eliminate the problem. I can dig a sump and put in an automatic pump. Or i can raise the water heater, The water heater is about three or four years old and won't need replacing for a few more years. The sump I can install anytime. I'm going to have to give it some thought.

it is raining again today. I have no idea what I will do today. Probably something with batteries.

I am waiting for the wheels so I began some power use tests on the drive I have. It seems that going with the lower voltage actually helps with consumption. It causes me to pedal a lot more since the speed is lower. That helps add a lot of human power to the mix.

I think i can get four of five miles on a 12ah battery pack. Two of those would give me about 8 to 10 miles. That should be enough for someone to get to work if they have any interest in these bikes. I can't see anyone going more than 10 miles on a bike.

It would also be enough to take someone to the store or the doctor's office. Again only if they are even considering a bike. The person who is not an urban dweller wouldn't even consider a bike. This is really for urban transportation.

In spite of promising my wife I would not do any more bike building, I have ordered some skateboard wheels. Small two inch ones actually. I plan to make a super inexpensive drive to see if building this design for sale is feasible. The problem is that the people the bike was intended for can't really afford much. It will be a challenge for sure to build something that they can afford.

The energy is returning slowly. I did get the drive completed yesterday. It appears to work satisfactorily. With the small 6" wheel, it will fit one most any bike I think. By keeping it down to 24v the need for complicated electronics is pretty much eliminated. Even so it is still pretty darn effective.

I have lots of tests to run on the bike for a while but this one is much simpler than my big bike. I have high hopes for it, which is usually the kiss of death for a device I build. We shall see.

I'm still sapped from the two days of non stop work on the bike. I rode it around the park to be sure it would get me home after a ride through the park. I worked just fine with the exception that it is much slower with the smaller wheel and lower voltage. I did expect that, so I'm fine with it.

The good side is that it is very safe this way. The smoother plastic wheel spins when I apply voltage at a stop. The bike only starts to move after I pedal it a couple of times. If the power should stick on, the bike would do nothing but spin. I could get it stopped. The only problem would be if the brake failed at the same time my switch melted shut. Then I could pull the wiring I left accessible. All in all its a pretty safe bike.

I plan to ride it more than the big bike, but it will never replace it for a trip to the lake or the store. This bike is purely for exercise. The big bike is more like a tiny lil motorcycle than a bicycle. The one I just finished is more like a bicycle on steroids. It still performs like a bicycle but has a little more power.

While repairing my bike, I put a smaller drive wheel on my experimental bike engine the last couple of days. It is a true six inch wheel. The other wheel was eight inches. My speed is down considerably but that is okay. I just want to be sure it will pull the big hill on the way home from the park. My wife has gone to the grocery store, so when she comes home and I get the groceries into the house, I am going to take a ride down to the part. I will either push the bike home or it will be good to go. I still haven't decided what to do about the new bike thing.

The ride this morning might help me make up my mind. But I could also use a rest from the building for a while. At least from the heavy part of it. Well I'm off to feed the pack and get my big girl out to the kennel.

I wanted a smaller drive wheel so that I could put the drive on a larger geared bike. By doing that I hope to make it easier to mount and dismount. I have managed to adapt a 6" lawnmower wheel to the drive. It should prove interesting.

Im still trying to get the bike back together. I will have to give you a play by play one day. For now just believe it is a nightmare... fun but still a nightmare.

I did ride the big bike to the hardware store today for some nuts and an all thread rod.

I pulled the motor and drive off my experimental bike today. I got in a new rear wheel and sprocket but the darn thing had the wrong sprocket. It had a 8mm I use 25sprockets/ So of course I ruined it trying to make something work. I didn't bother replacing the drive I had on the bike. I am going to just fix it the way I want as I go along. I have another bike I can ride If I want to go somewhere.

Tomorrow I'm going to piece together some kind of drive set up or order one from ebay. Then I have to find a new/used bike with gears so I am going to look for one of those tomorrow as well.

The no controller set up is pretty good on power consumption. I went about four miles today on half a volt of power. It will probably go 10 to 12 miles just the way it is. The power pack is a bunch of year old batteries.

I think I will ride the bike up to the hardware store tomorrow. I am going to pick up a foot long all thread rod. I'm going to try it as the axle for the new drive I am building.

I added a larger chain ring to the crank set. It will help me catch the freewheel sooner. It will help keep the speed up going up hill and take some stress off the motor.

The 12v switch works very well. Between the 12v setting, the 18v setting and the 24v setting I pretty much have a throttle without buying a throttle or controller. The way to do it is simple run you end ground on the battery pack to the motor's ground (black lead). then run one wire from the ground (black lead) on the front battery to the hot (red) wire on the battery you previously grounded to the motor.

Now run a wire (through a switch) to the unused positive (red) terminal on the front battery. You should use a fuse or breaker on this circuit. This will be your 24v circuit and it is the fast one. Now run a wire through another switch to the positive or red terminal on the second battery in line. This will be your 12v circuit best used for starting the bike from a stop.

12v on/ 24v off = 12v slow speed
12v off/ 24v on = 24v fast speed
12v on /24v on = 18v or medium speed.

12v off /24v off = stop....\

With the new chain ring, I might not need to get a geared bike for the 24v motor. Then again I might.

I rode the 24v no controller bike this morning. I took it to the bike trail. When starting out there is a lot of slip. The motor needs to be able to slip so that it wont bog down. I tried something a little different this time.

When I got back I returned to the drawing board to wire up a 12v switch as well as the 24v switch. I can start the bike off at 12v then go to 24 after it is moving a bit. I'm not sure if there is a power loss or not. I will have to keep an eye on it.

I rode the bike path and man that thing is too rough for a trailer. I think I will just either walk it or walk at the mall it's too much. I might ride the 24v around the hood. There is a lot of exercise in this neighborhood because of the hills.

After my test ride on the 24v bike I decided that I don't need more power. It did quite well at 24v. I could use a geared bike to give a little more help to the motor sooner. It has to get pretty slow before I can do any pedaling at all. It would be better with a higher gear ratio.

I decided to rewire one of the nimh battery packs to 12v 36ah so that I could use it on the bike trail. I always used the motor on the trail at a small fraction of it's capability just to help pull the trailer along. I am going to charge the batteries a while longer then give it a try on the trail. I will probably just set the 12v up at home then switch to 24v for the ride back. It is all downhill to the path, then up hill coming home. It is the getting back part that is the killer for me.

another thing about working without a controller is that you can vary the voltage of the power pack. I am going to test the 24v bike on a ride to the mall this morning. there is a monster hill on the way home. If the bike won't climb it, I will add six volts to the pack. I can use the nimh batteries to make one 6v pack. They don't seem to be good for much so maybe I can do that at least with them. Worse that can happen is I destroy the ones I use. I don't mind that so much.

I am using the packs I have built in less high drain applications if I can. I have one set up to use with my tiny compressor. I think I will build a light with one this winter. I have some batteries I use with strobe lights on my cameras. I can build power packs for them as well.

I rode the very small single speed coaster brake bike around the park this evening. It came back in very good shape and was easy to move along with the pedals. I am going to be actively searching for a multi speed bike. Preferably a steel frame mountain bike.

The simple no controller construction makes this drive system ideal for the DIY builder. At one point it went a little too fast and it is only 24v. It was scary at 36v.

The trailer humiliated me but it didn't beat me in the end. I took it back to old school to square it. I just used a board that I knew was square for the bed. I bolted one side axle hanger to it. The rest I just custom fitted. You have to support both sides of the wheel when you use bike wheels for the trailer.

I spent under $3 for the wheels. All the metal I used was just laying around the shop. Even with everything from stock the trailer might have cost me 25 bucks to build.

I rode the bike with 24v no controller and it did just fine on the test track. There are a few more things that will get changed before I give it a real world try. Right now I have it on a custom bike with a coaster brake rear wheel. It works just fine for the 36v full power model, but for this assist model, I need a mountain bike with at least six speeds.

I'm going to keep an eye out at the thrift store and on craigs list. I have a new drive wheel coming in from some guy off ebay. It is supposed to be the smaller one. I think that will work best for a full sized bike.

I tested the bike with no controller and 24v and a switch. It is very old school but it still works as i remember it. I can make this work just fine with the rhino. It would not work with much else. The rhino's drive wheel slips when the wheel can't move the load. ie my fat ass. So it doesn't draw all the current and start a fire as it would do if it was just sitting there trying to turn.

I have the 36v rhino camo bike I am riding to the lake when I want to go there. Sounds like a longer ride than it is. Its a little over three miles each way, But it will use up the batteries because there are wicked hills all the way out and back.

So todays project was to build a strong but light weight trailer to do that I needed bike wheels. I bought a 16" bike from the thrift shop for $2.68... yes that's right. I worked all day to get the trailer set up but it Isn't square still. I am going back to old school and use a board as the bed to square it. I just have to get to the hardware store for a board. Something light weight. Probably a thin plywood sheet.

Or maybe I'll continue trying to square the metal frame.

yesterday during my morning ride I lost the trailer. It also tore out the wiring. I am pretty sure the controller was damaged. I couldn't make it work. There doesn't seem to be the connection between the power pack and the controller. No click when I hooked it up. I am trying to run it now with the power pack wired to a switch and then straight to the motor. I would love to be able to run the bike that way, I hate controllers.

I'll let you know if I find a configuration that works.

I rode the larger desert camo bike to the late today. It has a power pack of 6 12v 12ah batteries set up as 36v 24ah.. The bike ran the up and down hill part with no problem but it did show a pretty good size drop in current. I'm wondering if a larger battery combo is called for. Since it worked alright I won't be changing anything right now.

What i did this morning before heading for the trail was to reinvent the small light weight trailer I build for the small bike I had earlier. It is made from 12 inch bike tires and light weight plywood and light weight steel L shaped braces. I cut down the number of batteries i use and off I went. It worked much better. I was quite happy with the way it worked actually. I'm not sure just what I will do with the nimh batteries but I will work out something I'm sure.

I have decided to build the ultimate rhino drive bike. I bought a new rear wheel assembly with the small wheel on ebay last night. Once it arrives I know that I will have to buy a new sprocket for it. The sprocket needs to be at least 72teeth more would be better. If I can find eighty with that bolt pattern I will pick it up instead.

Then I am going to buy a 1000 watt 24v motor. I saw one last night with the right bolt pattern for my style mount for about 70 bucks delivered. I probably won't buy it for a few months. The rhino drives I have now will do most anything I want them to do, but I just want one ultimate drive.

While I am waiting for the parts to come together for the ultimate rhino bike, I am going to work on my trailers. The one with the bike 20" bike tires pulls super. but it is really big. The bed has to be 2ft long and that makes it look like a boat trailer.

My second trailer is made with scooter wheels and it is really, really heavy. I think I am going to see if I can build one with smaller bicycle tires that is stable and lighter.

Other than that I need to ride my desert camo bike to the lake when the temperature is little better. In the mean time I need to feed the dogs and get a move on.

by the way I'll try to remember to keep you in the loop on the new build... here is the drive wheel
You need to copy and paste it for some reasong it won't hot link...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300464413970&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I switched the 6" wheel for the 8" one. The wheel did not turn freely it seems. I was just enough to run the battery down and also drag the bikes performance. Anyway I am back to the two 8" wheels.

I did get the second bike painted before the rain set in. I now have a desert camouflage and a jungle camouflage one. I'm all set now I guess.

I did have to buy a new mini compressor today. Last night I was working on the bike and turned the wheel with the compressor still attached. Jerked the hose right of it.

I rode the bike with the 6" drive wheel and it isn't the best bike I have but it is a good little bike. The wheel has no tread so it is a bike with less traction. Also the smaller wheel runs faster but with less torgue. In other words it is find on more or less flat surfaces and small inclines but on the long steep inclines prepare to workout.

Also it goes through some power. With the amount of slip because of the smooth tread and small size of the drive wheel, I'm not sure that the 350 watt motor would do as well. I might give that a try someday.

I recalculated the number of batteries I need to make a pack at least thirty amp hours strong. It came out to eight more amp hours. With the number of amp hours I have in the pack now, it came to another eight amp hours at 36v needed. I have a 12v 15 amp hour battery I use to power my compressor now. I can reconfigure that to 36v 5ah so I need 35v 3ah to complete the pack. At least to the point of minimum full service, I think. I count each string of aa batteries as 1ah so I need 9 strings of ten or ninety batteries. I ordered them last night. It will be a month at least before they arrive but that's okay.

Im going to add them to the aa pack I have now. It will make the pack 20ah minimum. Most likely it will be a little over that since the strings claim to be about 2800mh or 2.8 ah. I figure they are about half that or 1.4 or so ah.

They claim that the c cells ore 9000 mh but I figure them more at 4ah. So I honestly won't know what the ah of the pack is when I get it finished. I know I have way too many battery packs, but my desire is to have enough to ride the bike for several short trips per day. keeping one pack on the charger all the time.

I forgot to make the photo but I did learn a couple of things last night and this morning. First of all I can plug two nimh and one sla to the same battery charger and not burn up the nimh. the amps must go down significantly because I charged for hours yesterday and did no harm and couldn't get the sla pack charged till I disconnected the nimh packs.

My thinking on the hybrid packs seems to be right on. The bike will drain the sla pack down to where it won't put out the amps the controller is calling for before it goes into the nimh pack. If I can get the nimh pack up to the point that it will run the bike adequately as an assist power, then I should have something. At the 24amps more or less that it works at now, the bike will pull itself long a flat road but needs a lot of help on a hill, but still it will make it up the hill with my fat ass still on the seat. So that is an improvement. I ordered enough batteries to add eight more amps to the pack. Mathematically it should be enough. Also if the bike is running at about 25amps it would run about like it does on the pack as it is now. I added 5more amps to the controller and got a really nice performing bike so the 8amp addition might be enough. It will be a few weeks before I can test it.

I rode the bike on the trail this morning after my last post. It actually did quite well. It did require a little pedal to get it home but I think that was actually just me wanting to keep the speed up.

When I got back we went to the store in my wife's car. While at Walmart, I bought two cans of paint. I had a little black paint so with the dark brown and the tan, I had the colors necessary to do a dessert camo. So of course I did. I'll add a photo after it stops raining and I can get it outside.

Did you ever wonder what made us what we are. One of the big time shrinks said the son is father of the man. So with a little deductive reasoning we can go back to where it all began. Maybe...

I'm working on that so maybe before I die, I will understand how my life worked out the way it did. I have no regrets actually, but I would like to know why.

So let me start by saying I never took life to seriously. For years I thought it was a consequence of my forced Asian vacation, but now I wonder. Maybe it wasn't that at all. I had a friend who went through the exact same things I did, and he turned out totally differently.

For instance I have been married five time he did it only once. I had a lot of different jobs over the years. I think he had many less job changes.

I think it was a stress factor learning that everyone doesn't get to live a full life. I took it to mean that I should do everything I could while I was still alive. Jim made the most of what came his way without looking for more.

So what was the real factors that made me who I am. I have no idea. Less you think I am doing a woe is me here, let me assure you I am quite satisfied with how my life is going to end and all that I did with the time I had. I just wonder what things would have needed to happen to make me like my brothers for instance.

Was I over indulged as a child. Is that why I seemed to always want more. Not more money but more experiences. I did manage to avoid the really harmful things like drugs, but I did a lot of things I didn't need to do. I did them just because the opportunity was there. I always looked for the easy way out. At least I did until recently. These days I am more of a solid citizen. I guess that's why I am looking into why I wasn't always. I look back and see all the foolish things i did and wonder why.

I rode one of the bikes this morning and found that the battery pack I threw together had a bad cell in it. I struggled to get it home but I did manage. Then I picked up some parts and switched out the drive wheel. Went from about a 10inch wheel to one about six inches. The new one has a smaller sprocket so it runs faster but has very little torque. Still I think I like it.

I have another battery pack on order. When it arrives I should be good to go back to the lake without too awful much pedaling to do. I have decided that I don't mind doing some. I need it as a matter of fact. I just don't want to bust a gut doing it.

I rode my bike three times today. Once on the trail with the newest one and it ate the power up. I think the problem was the chain was too tight. I'm going to try it tomorrow. I rode the good rhino and it did very well both times. power wise that is. The mixed batteries seems to work very well. I will try them on a trip to the late one day this week. I might do it tomorrow or not.

I spent all day searching for electronic gremlins. I have no idea if I got them or not but the bike ran for a mile and I packed it away. Hope tomorrow I get to ride instead of just build.

Im charging batteries now. I might be at that all night.

I am determined to use the nimh as a add on pack to the sla. If they burn up so be it. I can't find any other good use for them

sometimes my stupidity amazes even me. I changed out the motor on the chain drive bike that I thought I had burned up. I then tried several battery packs and couldn't make the new one work either. I went back tracing current in the new motor and controller. Finally I figured it out.

Of all things, the battery charger was lying to me. The green light stayed on because there was a broken wire. So I was trying to ride with a depleted battery pack. When I found that I realized that the drive system had not been destroyed after all. Of course I found it after I had changed the drive. I have the whole drive complete sitting on the floor of the shop. I think I will keep it until I come across a full suspension bike cheap. Meantime I am charging batteries and getting ready to test the bikes with lower power and less heat. I guess I can use more exercise anyway.

I got bored so I assembled and mounted the rhino drive. I will probably make some changes later but it's ready to go. Well after I hook up the motor leads. However I am thinking about changing it to the lower amp controller to keep the heat down. I am going to five that some more thought tonight and tomorrow.

Well it appears that there was a meltdown after all. The chain driven bike just got hard to ride when I headed for the lake. When I got home I found it was pretty much dragging too much to be effective. I removed it and in the process of building another rhino drive for the bike.

The rhino I have now has a controller capable of going either 24 or 36b so tomorrow, after I finish the bike I'm working on, I am going to try a 24v power supply with the bike I have ready. If I can make it work okay, I am going to set the one from the build I am doing now to run at 36v but with 25 amps which will cut down some on the heat im sure.

We shall see what it does.

So its the morning after the big meltdown. It didn't really seem to do any damage, so today I'm going to ride it on the trail before I make any decisions. However I have always said when I piggy back those battery packs (mixed nimh and sla) the power band is different. I might put on the 25 limiting amp controller and piggy back the power source and see how the motor runs that way. I need things to occupy me anyway.

I was a little surprised to see that the power pack was still high in voltage after over a five mile use on the 12ah sla, even up and down hills. My test track is two miles of short steep hills and a long gradual one. There are a lot worse hills around town but those tend to give me a good indication of how the bike is going to perform.

Anyway today I will test the battery controller combos I expect.

Pretty sure I figured it out. The breaker didn't blow the motor over heated. I have had that happen once before with an off brand 500watt motor run at over volted. I expect that I did it again with this one. I need to go down later and make sure it will still rev up. Something about running it on the edge of pedaling caused it to overheat. I expect it was too many amps flowing through it.

I can either go back to 24v or go to a lower amp controller. I have both laying around. I think it will have slightly more balls at 36v 25amp so tomorrow I will change it out and see what happens.

I don't know exactly how I did it but I did. I hooked up a 12ah sla 36v pack today then piggy backed a 12ah more or less ah nimh 36v pack. I took off and I usually seem to get a little more power before it sags but today it ran five an a half miles and just quit. I figured that it was a case of the nimh prevented the sag until it just it the low voltage point. I push and pulled the bike home a half mile home then did some checking. The batteries have almost no voltage drop.

The bike stopped running because it overheated. It still had a huge power reserve and it ran once it cooled off. I have a circuit breaker in line so that's what tripped. I'm going to be doing a lot more testing of these battery packs before I draw any conclusions but this was the first time I had any overheating and also its the best the power usage has been as well.

The heat probably is the 36v through the 24v motor.

I took the rhino to the lake for breakfast on the patio. It was really quiet today not a single boat on the lake. However in looking across the lake we spotted the fire department dive team arrive. It looked as though the would be practice diving. It was too far away to see anything so we just left after we finished breakfast.

The bike did great. When I got back I worked on the chain drive bike. I put a bigger front end on the bike so the pedals had more ground clearance. Then I put on a bigger chain ring so I can help the bike up the hills a little better. I had to lengthen then shorten the chain to make it fit, but now it is a little better. The main thing is the bike isn't wonkie when I pedal assist. Before it was all over the road because the chain ring was too small.

I am still working on battery stuff. I would like to add a seat to my battery trailer to carry a grand kid not and then but my wife won't hear of it.

thanks for the encouragement Doc, but I'm no expert. I learn from my mistakes and lately most of them come from listening to other people. Not all the advice I get is bad. I get some really great advice.

In spite of all the negativity, I keep plugging away at the nimh battery pack. I have made it from aa and c cells meant for toys. If they draw current one to one, then I am approaching the critical mass. The would be the point where they would run the bike. The problem is I just don't believe these batteries have the guts of the lead acid ones. I can get to the point where the bike runs good, but can I ever get to the point that it runs as if it were running hot (right off the charger) lead acid ones.

All the guy who swear by the lithium batteries either can't or won't answer that. Does this new battery technology have the balls of the lead acid. It if is going to whimp along, even if it does the max the bike can do, then maybe I wouldn't really want it anyway. I like the feel of that surge when I kick the lead acid in he ass.

My wife and I were going to the store this morning so I rode to the bike trail just before we left... Big big mistake. School has started and the road were full of housewives in nightgown driving their babies to school. It was pretty awful.

The ride itself was fun but the trip down and back was pretty hairy. The bike and trailer performed flawlessly. I think I have figured out the best configuration for the rhino drive. I need a frame for a 24" bike with gears. I need to remove the rear wheel and replace it with a 20" coaster brake wheel.

The smaller wheel will do two things. It will make getting on and off the bike a thousand times easier and it will open up the rear bike frame cross bar to be used to mount the rhino drive. If I leave the dérailleur, I think I can use the front chain ring changer. If so I will have a three speed pedal assist system.

It would be ideal to have the drive hinge mounted with hinge tension bars. If I had that I could just loosen the bolts on the side tension mounts and swing the motor off the wheel in case I needed to pedal it home. Since my batteries are on a trailer I could just drop the trailer somewhere safe and come back for it in the car. I think the next version will have those features.

I wonder why it is that men think they need to keep looking for bigger and better stuff. It must be in our genes. Somebody throw me a life raft before I drown in my own gene pool.

I rode the rebuilt rhino drive to the lake just now. It ran better than the chain drive and came home with power left in the double battery pack that I have to have for the chain drive as well. It pulls the hills much better than the chain drive.

Don't get me wrong the chain drive with the 36v power supply and heavy duty controller is a fine bike. I am sure those who have that motor with the 26" wheel and gears have a better performing bike than mine. But my bike as it sits now is not nearly as good a drive system as the rhino.

I built the chain drive because I listened to a bunch of experts on a forum and their generic advice. Friction drive is the least efficient of all drives, they said. Well I'm here to tell you that is not always true. Some friction drive might be but the rhino drive is a better drive than my chain drive. My hub motor is pure crap so I make no judgments on it.

The current incarnation has the rhino motor on top of a 12 speed rear wheel. I can gear it down to creep along the bike trail for some calorie burning or wind it up in high and even then I can barely assist it on the steepest of hills. It just runs that good.

The trailer I built with the twenty inch wheels has finally gotten it's act together. The side mount is the way to go with them. When they are mounted in the center the get wonkie on me. For some reason the oscillation of the trailer makes the bike very unstable back there. I'm sure it oscillates on the side as well but the bike is hardly effected at all. I can not explain it except that the side mount is right beside the axle. Maybe that has something to do with it.

I rode the bike trail this morning on the rhino drive bike. I also used the new twenty inch wheeled trailer. The combo does pretty darn good. It did so well that I came home to redesign the battery packs so that I could carry both sla packs on the new trailers, should I decide to go to the lake on it. I think it might be a high energy consumption bike though.

The bike and drive themselves are heavy, that might make a difference in the performance. It does pull the hills just fine though, so who knows. It was my first real world test of it. The bike requires a minor amount of right compensation but it isn't wonkie like it was before. The side mount trailer is the way to go. The center mount is truly wonkie. Why that is I have no idea.

It took about five hours but the rhino bike is back together and appears to be in reasonable shape. I rode it and it performed better than I expected so I'm ready to run it on the trail tomorrow. I swear that is the best homemade design I have ever seen even if I did build the first one without any plans at all. I'm proud of the design.

I also redid a small light trailer to carry along on the trail ride. I need it for stability and to carry the battery pack. The big heavy trailer I built all last week, should be good for parts at least.

I worked on the push trailer today for a while. I got it to run a couple of times then decided that I didn't like it enough to keep it. I really want to take tomorrow and rebuild the rhino drive bike. I think I will work on getting it right and making sure it requires little to no effort to keep it right.

I took a ride out to the lake this morning on my chain driven ebike. It's the one I built from parts from a mongoose electric 20" inch. I like it pretty well but frankly it needs to be at least a three speed. I think I can accomplish that by finding a 21 speed bike then removing the rear wheel but leaving all the dérailleur and crank changing parts in place. I should be able to change the gears using just the front three cranks that way.

I have it geared down so much that I have to wait until the bike is almost stopped to begin pedal assisting it.

Today I overheated a scooter motor. It is the first one that I have ever had do that. It wasn't a currie motor but a clone. I had it over volted yes and probably too many amps running through it as well, but whatever the reason, it was smoking and slipping instead of pulling.

I had been smelling something overheating for a while but it smelled like plastic so I assumed that it was the new plastic type duct tape. It probably is for the best. I am upgrading the push trailer to 20" wheels and the motor to a 600 watt currie motor with clutch. The motor that I overheated had no clutch.

I did have to order a near rear sprocket and chain break, so it will be a few days before I have it finished. The sprocket is reasonably small so the trailer is going to be more about speed than torque, but this is the system that can go on any bike so it should allow for good gearing of the bike to help it along.

I found that I miss that gear change on the ebike that I run with the curried geared bike motor. If I ever run across one of those Izip rear wheels with the six speeds I'm going to switch it out.

I can only imagine how riding in a hot air balloon must feel. I can remember how it was when I rode in a small bell helicopter after I got home from Vietnam. In Nam I never noticed anything except looking down on the jungle. On that bell chopper I noticed everything because compared to a huey it was a toy.

The thing I remember most was the sense that I wasn't really going up, but that the ground was falling away from me. It was really strange. I took the ride to make a picture of a cemetery for the owners.

Today I am going to the bike trail to ride a little with the new pusher trailer. I have redesigned that hitch three times now. this is the closest I have gotten to one with a serious control with just a little fishtailing. We shall see what happens.

thats the best offer I have had ........ever..

I rode the pusher bike this afternoon. I think I have the tilt and swing pretty much under control, but it doesn't ride like a bike I think it rides more like a trike. The small weight shifts I make riding a bike to handle minor balance changes are impossible with the pusher. So I think it will take a little getting used to.

well about the ugly welds, I wore out a light weight grinder in about a year. I bought a heavy duty angle grinder this time. So I can pretty much clean the welds up, so that the blobs of metal don't interfere with movements.

I have become the neighborhood bike fixer. It's kind of cool but I do worry that the kids parents might misunderstand. Still a kid with a bike that he can't ride is sad. I do it so that my wife is around or other kids so that there is no question. Too much evil in this world.

I can remember when I was in photo school. One of the assignments was to go to the park to make pictures of kids on the jungle gyms and swings. I would bet a hundred bucks that isn't an assignment any more. Maybe in high school but not grown up education.

Now that I have the trailer working, I want to see about the best size and look for it. I would kind of like it to look like a civil war caisson sort of thing. That won't happen with this propulsion system. If I ever build one using my axle motor mount I could do that. Those actually are the best motors and mounts for this project.

Hot air balloon now I am jealous.... I rode out to the lake today just to see if I could. It was a great ride and the battery pack I put together last night seemed to do quite well.

The darn thing will be charging all day though I expect. Since one pack is 12ah and one is 17ah I am going to check the 12 hour pack earlier if I can remember. I really am enjoying the playing with the darn thing.

Oh yeah I met a gentleman on the bike trail the other day. He saw some of my piss poor welding and gave me a tip. His tip worked like gangbusters. My welds actually hold now. The still look like hell but that is okay. I just want them to stay together.

Thanks Doc, but I honestly didn't know I needed them since I had no idea they made them that large. I have seen huge wing nuts used to tie spare tires down but never gave it a thought for a trailer.

I am still trying to find a way to allow a little swing and tilt without the bike fishtailing. I did some welding last night just before dark. I couldn't see a thing. I expect that I will have to do it again today. Man getting old is a bitch.

I have decided that a trailer full of sla is the power supply I am most comfortable with. Those things will take a hell of a lot of abuse and still perform. I know they are heavy and their power ratio isn't great but they seem to work for me as long as I keep them up. I do need to find me a 36v charger that will charge at more than one amp though. I have some twelve amp maintainers that I like for balancing batteries but to charge after a ride I like the 36v if it had about 3 or 4 amp input. I think that spread out over several batteries in the back is not so much to over charge them.

I was in home depot yesterday to get some duct tape and wiring stuff. While there I found some wing nuts. I had no idea they made a 3/8" wing nut. It should make hooking the trailer a lot easier since it is hard to get a wrench into the trailer hitch area.

Just something new I learned. I do a lot of new thing learning since I started to build bikes. I think I am going to tray taking the trailer to the park, dropping it an then seeing how far I can ride the bike along the trail. Since there is nothing on the bike itself, it should be pretty easy to pedal. The trail is more or less flat, but only a ride can tell how flat it really is. I might try that soon.

I went back to the trailer. The friction drive worked just fine but I would have had to strip the electronics from the pusher to get it back to where it used to be. I wasn't quite finished with the pusher yet.

Doc the problem with the trailer seems to be in the hitch. For the bike to handle normaly the trailer has to swing and tilt. And a pull trailer does that very well, the problem comes in when the trailer is powered I think. It it pushes the bike even a little while out of line the rear of the bike takes off and it all begins to fishtail.

When I built the bobtail pusher I didn't have the problem but it was almost impossible to make a right turn. However balance of the bike wasn't an issue since the trailer was always in line with the rear wheel. When the bike leaned the rear wheel leaned. With the two wheel trailer such is not the case.

I have tried several hitch designs and now it is getting closer. The latest incarnation of the hitch is a three point hitch. The main connection more or less lines up with the rear wheel of the bike. then there are two secondary connections from each corner of the trailer to a point farther up the hitch. The hitch is actually a frame that encloses the rear bike wheel. So far it allows for some lean of the bike, which helps with control. It does not allow for very much swing which seems to help. I'm going to keep testing it to see if I can just get used to the way it handles.

I build this one from a ebike I bought off craigs list but they would be easier to build from a 16" bike using both wheels and just weld a #25 sprocket over the bike sprocket so that you could take advantage of the freewheel already in place. I have a couple of motors and mounts that attach to the bile axle and that would work great. It's how I build the bobtail pushers.

I pulled the trailer off the bike and went back with my friction drive unit. I was never able to tame that trailer. I might go back to it or do something else with it but I just don't know right now.

another day

I redid the trailer connection to the bike and it does much better. I piggy backed a 12 ah nimh battery pack onto the sla pack I have and it did nothing detectable with the meter. Since it did draw down amps they are going somewhere so I'm going to keep fooling around with them.

Tomorrow I am going to ride the bike down the bike trail if the weather cooperates.

I finished the complete power assist trailer build today. Actually it's a lot like victory in Iraq it is finished but I'm sure a lot of adjustments will be required. I has everything mounted in the trailer. The only thing that runs to the bike is the throttle. I will eventually add a emergency kill switch as well.

I rode the bike. The trailer has to be secured so that it is rigid. Which makes it a lot like a tricycle. You aren't going to have a lot of maneuverability but it is possible to ride it quite comfortably. I plan to take it trail riding as soon as I test the battery pack tomorrow. I have a reading for two miles with just the sla pack. I want to add a nimh pack as well and read the battery results.

at least I'm getting closer to having the bike trailer running. It is actually running fine. The problem is in the tracking. If I get it a hundred percent stable it is impossible to turn or maneuver. However if I leave it loose it is like a death trap. It causes the rear end of the bike to shimmy dangerously. I am about at the compromise point now. The trailer itself does it's job quite well it seems.

I tried everything with that craigs list bike. It is just too hinky, so I decided to junk it for parts. Then I decided to use them to build a pusher trailer. I am going to build it capable of being self contained with just a throttle on the bike. I doubt that I will rig it that way, but it will be an option. I have the trailer built but I am modifying it. It is going to end up being a bob trailer with it's own sidecar. for the batteries. the drive wheel will be in line with the rear bike wheel and the side wheel will stick out on the traffic side. I will call it the suicide trailer since most likely an auto will hit the sidecar while trying to pass me in the middle of oncoming traffic.

I have made a heck of a lot of small corrections to the bike, it was in awful shape. I can ride it pedaling but the bike is very unstable with the trailer. I am trying to remount the trailer. Instead of the side mount, I'm going to try to mount it from the seat post. I have no idea if it will help or not. But I am afraid of the bike without some kind of stability.

I keep finding little things on the new bike to fix but it is a nice fast little bike even at 16" wheels. Kicking it up to 36v is the reason I'm sure. My issue now is control. The bike is not stable. I hope it was the trailer I built to pull the batteries. I have redone the tongue so maybe that will help who knows

I bought an ebike today. I was looking over craigs list and saw one in my town. It was a trail bike. The guy tried to tell me put a new battery in it and it will take right off. I didn't believe him for a minute. I paid 25 bucks for it. I converted it from 24v to 36v with a new controller. I couldn't get the old one to work. I wouldn't have a 24v bike anyway. Tomorrow I will try it out with a light load in the trailer from the rhino. I took it apart because it was an energy hog.

I am going to build a light weight trailer tomorrow for the new bike, if it seems to do okay with those little 16" wheels. I noticed that some of the new factory ebikes have them so I'm not too concerned. Jacking it up to 36v should help out some as well. I'll give it a test tomorrow and let you know.

I also had to put a new brake handle on the bike. It had seen some rough times. Still the frame is big so it should do okay.

I piggy backed the new 12ah set with the old 17ah set and tossed in a nimh 12ah set for good measure. Then I headed for the lake. I have never been able to to do that without dragging home at the end but not today. Today it sailed through it with battery power to spare. I did it on the chain drive bike. I tried the rhino this afternoon on the bike trail and found that I had misadjusted it again, I need to test it a few times before I head out that far. Also I need a light weight trailer for it. The one I have is too heavy I think. I think tomorrow I will ride it to home depot and look for some light weight materials.

The batteries arrived and I got them wired and setup to go. Now I just need them to get charged overnight, then I'm going to load up three sets and take off for the lake. I am going to ride nice and slowly but I'm definitely going to the lake.

I tried out the rhino after all the repairs and got terrible range. I had the tension too tight I"m pretty sure so I redid the supports and tomorrow I might get a chance to check it out. If not for sure next week sometime they will be finished with the trail I'm told.

I have a new set of sla batteries on ups truck now. When they arrive I have to wire them up in a pack then charge them over night I suppose. I have yet to decide how to use them. I will have to just wing it I suppose.

the local bike trail I try to ride it everyday.. copy and paste http://img265.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=pict0002ga.jpg

I met a man on the bike trail today. He was riding a pedal bike. We started to talk and I had him stop by the house. I gave him a motor to get him started on an ebike... diy of course. He has the skill set and the desire, so I expect to see him humming along any time now.

I spent the morning rebuilding then re=re-building my rhino bike. It seems to be doing okay at the moment, so I am charging batteries and taking the afternoon off. I might ride a little later but no more work on bikes for today. At least that is the plan for now.

I finally got the trail ride thing right.I put a big sla battery pack on the trailer attached to a 12 speed rhino and off I went. I crawl along the three miles while I pedal about 50% of the time. When I pedal I leave the motor pulling just enough to compensate for the trailer and the hills. In other words I am riding a stationary bike in effect. The pull is almost ways the same. Instead of a smelly gym I get fresh air and great things to occupy my mind. Walking was boring this isn't at all.

I tried to drop the trailer filled with batteries and then ride the rhino drive bike down the bike trail.... Bad bad idea. I was choking in less than a hundred yards. There is more drag on the bike than I would have thought. It really is a terrible idea to do the trail with no power. I think I'll just ride around doing pedal assist for a while. Not even bother with the trail. Just ride in the neighborhood.

I got really bored today. I had to rework my nimh battery test project so I did that all morning. Now I am waiting for batteries to charge so that I can test them. In the mean time I got really, really bored so I turned my 6year old grandson's 15" bike into a ghetto chopper.

I added larger handlebars, a more comfortable seat, a 20" front fork and wheel complete with brake. he will have to be a little careful with it but no other kids is going to have one like it for sure. My real computer is down or I would make a picture of it for the blog. I will when I get the computer working again.

Today I took the bike to the lake. I hooked up both sets of batteries and off I went. I was shocked when I got almost home and found the bike dying. I got it home and checked the drain. The nimh drained the least so that was good. Of my three sla batteries one was much lower than the other two. I screwed up and reversed the changer for a few minutes last week on that battery. I guess it is pretty much gone. I rode the bike again after about three hours of charging and that battery was again way lower then the others. Enough so that it concerns me to take it out again until I get it fixed. Since I have all those nimh batteries I might just replace it with a similar amount of those things. I might as well they aren't good for anything else.

I think I am going to do that then replace the whole thing later.

I did a couple of test rides on the bike with the coaster hub used as a drive wheel. It works at least as well as the rhino except that is much much noisier. It isnt going to bother me but it might the people around me. Even so it still needs a stronger controller. I don't want to get too much more though since I really do want to pedal and increase the range by staying close to the minimum amp draw controller.

I was at the friction drive bike again this afternoon. I got the motor with the bicycle hub for a drive wheel onto the bike. I even took time to fix the kickstand that won't hold the bike up.

Now I have to see what the drive will do. It has to go faster than it did before. How that will transmit to torque or hill climbing remains to be seen. I could always rewire it without the controller just to see how it would run at 36v with a big time controller on it. I just really don't want to do that since the sudden torque of the motor when it is hit with 36 volts it will rattle your teeth.

I should know something tomorrow. I kind of look forward to learning something new from all this experimenting. So many guys my age just sit down and do nothing physical when they retire. It keep life interesting and fresh to constantly try new things.

I am half way through switching my rhyno drive. I built one using the hub of a coaster brake wheel as a drive wheel. It might look a little better at least. Cut the size of the wheel over the bike wheel. We shall see.

Today I went to my special bike shop, thrift store of course, they had an alum suspension bike, I almost bought it but since it was alum I wanted to think about it a while. I came home and did some experimenting with my Ebike. I replaced my hard front forks with suspension ones. First I tried 24" inch but my wheel is in pretty bad shape so I switched to the more substantial twenty inch suspension fortks and a good solid wheel. I have no idea why I took the suspension fork off because I really do like it. I also found that I like the 24inch front wheel. It makes a good weight shift for me. I can also ride it with the seat lower making the bike feel more stable. Thats a bigger issue with me every day it seems.

So I have decided exactly what kind of bike I want to build with. The perfect bike for me to use as a platform for the parts I am now using.

I need:

A fifteen speed 24" mountain bike. Yes I know my rear wheel is a 20" inch one speed but I figure I can leave the dérailleur on the bike and set it for the sprocket I have on the one speed wheel. Then I can use the three front sprockets to give me a three speed bike. It shouldn't be hard to do at all.

It has to be a steel frame of some kinds since I need to weld on a piece of steel to hold the brake mechanism for the smaller wheel. I also have to weld on a plate to bold the motor to for stability. And finally I have to attach a trailer hitch of some sort. All of those are doable they will just require some thought. Now all I need is a little patience till the perfect bike frame comes along. In the meantime I have a perfectly good bike and soon with have a fifty ah battery pack on the bike. That I will have to test for months. 17ah are sla 32(approximately ) are nimh.

Today I went to my special bike shop, thrift store of course, they had and alum suspension bike, I almost bought it but since it was alum I wanted to think about it a while. I came home and did some experimenting with my Ebike. I replaced my hard front forks with suspension ones. First I tried 24" inch but my wheel is in pretty bad shape so I switched ot the more substantial twenty inch suspension fortks and a good solid wheel. I have no idea why I took the suspension fork off because I really do like it. I also found that I like the 24inch front wheel. It makes a good weight shift for me. I can also ride it with the seat lower making the bike feel more stable. Thats a bigger issue with me every day it seems.

So I have decided exactly what kind of bike I want to build with. The perfect bike for me to use as a platform for the parts I am now using.

I need:

A fifteen speed 24" mountain bike. Yes I know my rear wheel is a 20" inch one speed but I figure I can leave the dérailleur on the bike and set it for the sprocket I have on the one speed wheel. Then I can use the three front sprockets to give me a three speed bike. It shouldn't be hard to do at all.

It has to be a steel frame of some kinds since I need to weld on a piece of steel to hold the brake mechanism for the smaller wheel. I also have to weld on a plate to bold the motor to for stability. And finally I have to attach a trailer hitch of some sort. All of those are doable they will just require some thought. Now all I need is a little patience till the perfect bike frame comes along. In the meantime I have a perfectly good bike and soon with have a fifty ah battery pack on the bike. That I will have to test for months. 17ah are sla 32(approximately ) are nimh.

since I've used the chain drive all I have been doing is testing stuff. Well that is until this morning. This morning I needed gas for the lawn mower, so I rode it to the service station. It wasn't far but there is a wicked hill on the way down and then on the way back. It is one of the test of how a bike performs. With the 25 amp 36v controller it was a challenge. With the 30amp controller it rolls eight up it like a little mountain goat. I felt so good about it that I tackled the very steep grade of my driveway and it did just fine. This bike seems to be a winner alright. Yesterdays test of the combined battery pack seemed to go very well. So all in all, I think the bike's motor and battery system are very good. My one complaint is the suspension system I need to find a full suspension frame to move everything to. I'll just keep an eye on the thrift shop and craigs list and eventually one will come along.

I have built rebuilt and redesigned the battery pack a doZen times. I have more cells on the way but they are not going to make the battery strong enough. I would have to double the size and I'm just not going to do it. What I am going to do is to run it piggy back with my sla pack again. With the added cells it should really do well like that. We will see.

the wild hair

I got a stupid idea to try to build a 30v battery pack for my new chain drive bike. I spent all morning setting some twelve volt nimh packs to six volts. When I got it to run I decided that it didn't have enough power so i'm back to the drawing board.

today im working on the batteries again. I have them wired into the sla circuit replacing one of the batteries. I am trying to find out how many batteries it takes to run the bike. When I can add a battery that will run flawlessly with the sla I think I will have the right amount of amps. But then who knows.

It looks as though the pack needs approx 26 strings of AA nimh batteries. That is 260 cells per battery. Or about 150 per battery. Not much cheaper than a set of lith that you don't have to build. So I wouldn't recommend this to anyone else.

I'm going to do make some changes to the friction drive bike today. I'm going to put a larger motor on the drive with the small controller. It should give me a bike that will climb the hills with a little help. Of course we shall see.

By the way I have been the member of a bike forum on the web for some time. I was there when I built the china kit bikes, that was a move from my first ebikes, I was there when I began building bikes with alternate gasoline engines. I even helped to start the first diy section of that forum. When I moved back to Ebikes there was almost no activity in that part of the forum, now it is thriving. But now I realize that I'm tired of it. It has gone from a bunch of guys sharing information and trying new things to a bunch of fucking experts with their gauges and a nice dose of attitude. So if you want to know what I'm doing, you will have to come here.

I'm off to feed the dogs, put Dixie in her kennel, and Roxie, the house dog, out to do her thing. Then I will probably need to unload the groceries before I can upgrade the motor and downgrade the controller.

Building these bikes must be a lot like a woman deciding what to wear. what top and what bottom.

I switched out the controller. I put the big one back on the chain drive. I am going to put the small one with a bigger motor onto the larger bike tomorrow.

I put the low amp controller on the bike to get more range. Then I accepted that I had to pedal assist the bike. I put on a small chain ring so that I wouldn't have to pump so hard to get the bike started or climb hills. It all works fine on small inclines or short steep inclines, but it is a bear on long steep inclines. I actually had to pull over to catch my breath on one today. I think I didn't let the bike set the pace. I was trying to force it to go the speed I wanted not the speed it wanted to go. The bike workout is more fun than the walking around the mall so I'm going to stay at it.


I am also going to build the rhino again with the big motor and the big controller. I want at least one bike that I can jump on and run to the store for a box of nuts and bolts. But I'm also going to keep this one as is. I want to be able to ride it for at least a small workout. Actually I probably should put the big controller back on this bike and the small on a rhino with a 500 watt motor. It would most likely give me an equally good workout. I think I might just do that over the weekend.

tiny chainring..

I found a 6" chain ring no doubt off a 16" bike. I put it one the chain drive bicycle. I tested it and it picks up the pedal much later. It is easier to be the bike moving but not much for helping with the speed. It should be better on those hills that seem to be giving me a problem this morning. I have no idea how it will effect the range. I got about eight miles on the charge this morning and it still had something to give. How this will work I don't know. It should cut the range a little since the pedal assist will be starting later. We shall see.

I rode my ebike to test the range of the lower powered bike. I got almost double the milage on the charge that I had been getting with the high priced spread. Yes there is some work involved but it isn't too hard. I might try to ease it a little but I'm not sure just how I would do that and still keep the range I want.

On another note I think I am going to go down now and put together a hybrid battery pack for a short ride just to test it again.,

As promised, I took the bike down to the shopping center. It did okay... I think I need to learn how to pedal assist. I keep trying to get the speed up to the motor speed on level ground and it just ain't going to happen. I think I need to let the motor do more of the assisting. I feel like, if I let the speed bleed off enough, I will be able to just pedal it like I was on a level surface. I will have to check it out on my next ride.

I have also been working on my battery pack. I started this because I wanted a battery pack so that I was able to replace a couple of pieces without a major effort or outlay of cash. I lost sight of that and was trying to save pennies again. I now have decided that, when a battery over heats for any reason, it is probably best to check the cells inside the damaged string and toss any that show any signs of wrapper deterioration. I have been trying to repair them with vinyl tape but they seem to fail again anyway, so I'm just going to toss them from now on.

I figured I needed a minimum of 20 strings to make a 25amp discharge battery. So I put together one 20 string battery and I have 14 strings ready for the next one. I am supposed to have another 14 strings on the way so that will give me enough plus a few extra to make repairs with or to add more ah for range.

Tomorrow is another day/.

Trip the mall

I rode the bike with the smaller controller to the mall for my walk this morning. The ride down was mostly downhill so it was okay. The ride back however was a different story. I had to climb one wicked hill in traffic so I chose to ride a different route home.

The hill was more wicked but it was without any traffic at all. I worked my butt off getting up that hill. The motor did not seem to be any help at all. it is true that it was a very, very challenging hill so I want to try another one more realistic. that is my project for a few minutes from now. I left the house with the batteries hot off the charger. When I came home after a two mile ride they were reading 13.24 which is still almost full power. It ran the two miles on surplus charge only so that part seems to be an improvement.

I'm going to ride down to the shopping center. It has a big hill on the way home but there is no way to avoid all the hills on a ride so now I will see what the bike with the small controller will do real world.

With the thirty amp controller it will run up the hill with no pedal assist needed, but I am sure this is going to require some how much is the question.

rather be lucky

It's kind of nice to find out that by accident you did something right. When I build batteries i use common kitchen foil to make the connectors. I stretch vinyl tape over the foil to add tension and some protection from wear. So last night I found I had a battery that wouldn't charge well. A battery is really a 12 volt string of smaller 12volt batteries in parallel to increase the amp hours. So when I took it apart I found a couple that had lost their connections somehow how no big thing, but I also found one that had over heated. I replaced the connection that was heated and the battery was fine. There was no other damage. Obviously the foil and vinyl tape disintegrate with heat. It is a good thing since the circuit went open before it damaged the aa cells. I still need about a hundred to a hundred and fifty aa cells to finish the battery. I have real hopes that it will work as it should.

I think I have figured out the safe way to calculate the batteries. I figure all AA batteries at 1.25 amps. I then take my controller and read the max amp output and match the number of batteries to it. I will probably give it a little extra for Kentucky windage.

With the test proving that I can mix the batteries, I could have replaced the sla one at a time as they wore out. I think I am going to just order enough to complete the pack before I mess with them again. I am almost there and my sla pack is working just fine.

new battery test.

I wired all my batteries into two 12 volt lines. I had the equivalent of 26 aa batteries per 12v unit.it should have been 60ah but also no they lied to us lol... The true ah rating on those lil bitty things is about 1.5 or less. I don't think the output per battery comes to more than 25amps. or about 1.? per aa battery. I'm at least now in a position that I can figure it out soon. More later...

stumbled onto to something maybe.

It looks as though I can co mingle batteries of different types after all. I have used one 6v nimh with 24v sla and it works pretty darn well. Then I set up 12v nimh and 24v sla and it works pretty good. I got impatient and tried it with less than a full charge I think. So I need to run that combination again tomorrow. After I test it that way I want to test it as 24v nimh and 12v sla to see how that does. I have more batteries coming I think. If so I may be able to give it a try with 24v nimh and still keep my 6v nimh pack wired up as it is. I would like to keep that 30volt pack as well as a 36v pack. I have that now but with only 12v nihm. I want to see how it all interrelates.

new approach to hybrid battery test.

I tried co mingling sla and nimh in the same pack one before and burned up the nimh batteries. I had a thought that maybe the problem was that I had the nimh way too low and the sla pack just pushed more amps through it that it could stand. So today I setup a 30v pack. two 12v sla batteries and a 5v with about 50ah rating. I ran it a mile and it didn't seem to heat up at all. I'm not sure just yet what all it will do, so I have several more tries with this configuration. Then I may try a 36pack with 12v of it being nimh.I would like to see just how far I can take this.

I did try running the bike on the pure nimh pack I have and it runs like crap. I'm not exactly sure why but it just runs awful.

build and rebuild batteries

I am working today on rebuilding the battery pack. It looks as though I lost about ten aa cells which isn't bad at all. If it had been lithium I expect that the heating would have ruined the whole pack. I don't know that to be true, but I have a feeling.

So I got a bunch of aa batteries in the mail and I am adding them to the pack today. I am going to try to build a 24v pack since I have a controller that will run either 24 or 36 volts. Im going to build it without the c cells to see how it does. I might reconfigure it for 30v as a compromise I just don't know yet.

more battery problems.

I set my bike up for a run to the marina. It seemed not to be at full power but I thought I was just paranoid. I found out quickly that I was wrong. I had to push it home. I used the dieing battery to pull the bike alone while I walked beside it. That proved to be a mistake. I had a minor melt down battery wise. I am trying to fix it tonight. More tomorrow on how that goes.

wiring gremlin

Yesterday I had wiring problems, I thought. So I rewired my battery pack and tightened everything up, Again so I thought. Today I had the old stutter step on my second ride. One of the wires was still loose. I guess I need to really wind them down, then double nut them.

PLEASE: if you decide to buy any batteries from the hong kong merchants only buy one set, Do not buy more than the listed amount ie double or triple the order even though they offer it. These are the most incompetent dealers in the world. And that is saying something. Every time I buy multiple amounts, I get just one. It has happened twice and I have only tried three times. The last one hasn't arrived yet. I am not expecting much.

I have been trying to make a battery pack from the AA nimh batteries from ebay. It is very frustrating because I have no idea what the ah of the pack really is. I have already noticed that it is way way over rated by the sellers. It might be 50% of the listed rating or maybe even less. The other things is those batteries will only discharge 1/1 I think. In other words I will probably need 40ah worth of batteries to get a decent performance from them.

So not knowing how many ah I have and not knowing how many I need plus dealing with hong kong merchants is making me very crazy.

I rode to the mall this morning, parked the bike behind an air conditioning unit as usual. I went in and walked for about 45 minutes. When I came back a truck had parked blocking me in. Well not completely, I was able to maneuver the bike and trailer out of the space. I promise I will make a picture of the bike tomorrow.

I got the rear wheel and motor on ebay. They came from a guy who parted out several mongoose e trail bikes. The motor runs good at 36v even though it is a 24v 450 watt motor. It's a currie.

I have experimented with the frame so much now that I need to move it all to a different frame. I am hoping to run across a full suspension frame somewhere. It would be kinda nice to have one of those.

I have decided to restart my journal here. I will try to make a post each day just to keep a record of the mistakes I make.

I have built a new ebike. It is a chain drive souped up ebike. Souped up not in that it is faster than lightning, just faster than it would be if stock. It has a 26" mountain bike frame, with 20" wheels and tires. The rear wheel has two sprockets with free wheels. One is for the pedal chain and the other is for the motor chain, I pull a trailer filled with batteries. I have a set of older 17ah sla batteries and piggy backed to them is a set of nimh batteries I am building. At the moment they have about 20 ah and appear to discharge on a one to one level. I will have to get to 30 am to get the bike to run even close to an sla battery pack. I am still working on that.

Today I found a radar trailer on a residential street, so I ran the bike up to it and found that it pulls at 19mph on level ground. That isn't a lot but it is enough for me.

I also ran the batteries flat later in the day and had to push the bike home. There was enough left in them so that the bike could pull it's own weight and the batteries just not my fat ass around. So now I am changing batteries and Hope I don't do that again.

I haven't been keeping this up very well probably because I have a bike design that I am very very happy with. It is the same bike as before. The one with the scooter wheel running over the rear wheel driving it forward. The motor is the 600watt with the clutch built into the sprocket. It actually might be a free wheel I don't really know for sure.

I think the bike will do about 15 to 20 mph on a the flat surface which there is very little of here abouts. The battery pack right now is on a trailer I built. Actually it is about version 20 but this one is right. It has the same construction as a bicycle. The wheels are supported on both sides so that they are not in any stress. The weight of the SLA batteries is becoming an issue now that everything else seems to be working fine.

I have decided that I want to put a 36v 12ah battery pack on the bike. With sla that is unlikely to happen. The logistics are just too overwhelming. The lipo batteries are just too expensive for a DIY kind of guy. So what I am going to do is to build a nimh battery pack. If the cells ever arrive from china that is. I am building it from 150 aa cells. I could have built a 10ah pack from D cells. It would have been a bit more expensive that way. Once I get the cells attached and stabilized, it shouldn't make any difference which one I used.

I will try to update this after I get the pack built.

total and complete failure

The front wheel drive was a miserable failure, It was just too far out of balance. I rode it a few miles but in the end it was just too dangerous. I moved the motor back to the rear and now trying to get the thing more dependable.

The big issue now is trailer security. A flying trailer is not only likely to leave me stranded today, but also puts pressure on the wiring which left me stranded a day later. Not to mention it could easily have struck someone as it rolled along the road out of control. i think a cable tying it to the bike as a secondary safety measure is the answer. that is todays project.