Snake Pie.

[Leslie]

I am halfway through my last conversion..  Tie up some loose ends so-to-say.



Its a black Diamondback, dual suspension, dual disk brake MTB. Believe it or not, is is half steel, and half aluminum frame.  The rear part is of the frame and drop outs that is made of steel and the front part of the frame is Alloy.  Perfect for my rear MP.

It was good to get two kits.  Having the extra bike is good if one breaks down on its work day it is always easy to give aid to the person that is having problems,

More to come building a rack for this.  It needs to handle 12 kgs, 5.4lbs.

Any suggestions?

[Leslie]

More to come building a rack for this.  It needs to handle 12 kgs, 5.4lbs.

Any suggestions?

No takers?

The seat pole is made from light aluminum.  To me, not going to take a rack on it.

Here is a start.

So I got some old handle bars and cut the end off it and made a stem insert. I banged the pipe as far as I could into the seat stem.  The handle bar pipe made a snug fit.  Then I found another pipe that fit into the two posts.  Both solid black steel.

So what I have made is a three layered seat post.  The two layers do not extend up to the seat.  I miss out buy 3 inches.  But I wont be having any issues attaching a battery pack with high tensile bolts through the three layer seat post and frame.

[MonkeyMagic]

Hi Les

I'd suggest considering mounting in the middle of the frame, how high is your pack?
My bike has a similar frame and the battery suits perfectly mid-frame, the bike become it's best when I mounted it there.

I drilled a hole through my frame and bolted a battery mount to it using a long thread. The thing is rock solid and the weight feels very central. Not sure if I can stress how much better it is than having weight behind you. Having an aluminum main frame section, you might want to use big pipe saddle clips instead, bolted to a plate.

Plus you will thank yourself a ton for leaving all the rear for storage options. You can use your rack to cart something other than a battery

[Andrew]

I'm surprised that there are not many options out there for frame mounted battery packs, it seems the most sensible place for a pack for low centre of gravity and balance.  pity there is not much space in your frame ifound this on ebay being sold by an american ebike retailer..... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Electric-Bike-Frame-Battery-Bag-Rear-Triangle-Mount-/310269651907?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483d832bc3

there are other options too... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Electric-Bike-Frame-Battery-Bag-Forward-Triangle-Mount-/290498499867?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a30f551b


Andrew

P.S I finally have my PIE on the road but will be out of the country for a few days, so hopefully a review and some photos will appear next week. 

[GM Canada]

I am halfway through my last conversion..  Tie up some loose ends so-to-say.



Its a black Diamondback, dual suspension, dual disk brake MTB. Believe it or not, is is half steel, and half aluminum frame.  The rear part is of the frame and drop outs that is made of steel and the front part of the frame is Alloy.  Perfect for my rear MP.

It was good to get two kits.  Having the extra bike is good if one breaks down on its work day it is always easy to give aid to the person that is having problems,

More to come building a rack for this.  It needs to handle 12 kgs, 5.4lbs.

Any suggestions?

Holy Smokes, How did I miss this? What an awesome looking bike! Who makes it and where did you get it?


Gary

[Sundsvall]

Really a great looking bike, Leslie. Suspension is underestimated on a regular bike and almost a must on an e-bike. If I can sell my Dark Lady I’ll buy me a new winter bike with full suspension and build a dual drive.

The battery packs that I’ve found are not suitable for this kind of bike and will most likely be rebuilt to fit the frame. It shouldn’t be that hard to build a battery pack long and narrow and mount it under the frame, just in front of the pedals. The benefits would be a good weight balance, short cables and a slender look. I haven’t calculated on this though, so it may be impossible to fit all the battery capacity on this spot only but I for sure would give it a try.

Peter

[Leslie]

Well I took the plunge.  When I gave up the plan thing started to fall together..  I drilled into the frame at two point and installed two beams that run off attached to the top bar of the frame and attaches through the frame and triple thick seat post and join two more beams that allow the wheel to go up in between during bumpy rides..

Its certainly strong enough.  But I had to replace the MONO shock spring with a thicker type and screw it tight to stop the wheel bottoming out under the pack.

From the moment I sat the ping 20ah pack on top I knew this was the right thing. without even fastening the pack to the new rack I have just invented seemed to do everything I needed.

Before this was just an average mountain bike, now ebike with an extended 12kg weight put on the frame and the suspension now behaves like I am 95kg not my current 75kg.  So I wont be flying off 9ft drop offs.  But the ride should be nice.

Gary its a Diamondback recoil half steel half alloy frame.  For a standard GM batt it should be good for the average weight and sized person.  A little smaller than my old black bike.

I Needed to mess around with the rear disc, piston and the pie.  A few washers and a rubber gasket under the disk finished it good.

My camera is broken but I will borrow the daughters camera and show soon.

[Leslie]

Here is a pic.

I am using silly zinc bolts here and soon they will be replaced by high tensile quality.  At least where the bolt goes through the seat post and frame.

So even if I add another bolt along the frame and fasten it tight the three pipe seat post acts a a strong point to the frame that contains the seat post.


This meas one size must fit all as I can not adjust the height with this design.



Ebikes with 20ah packs and clunky MP's are not really a pedal bike and I like sitting back for the ride.   Plus we have a 16yo who is a little shorter that may ride it,

So sinking this rather robust piece of metal seat post thing deep into the seat post hole clamping it, and bolting it tight I have.problem with.

The alloy square beams are thick, like 2.5 or 3mm thick. I can sit on the rack and pedal around.  Way strong enough.

[Leslie]

Here is the clearance I have left myself.



Not too much at all.  It would of been fine without the pack.  I underestimated the packs effect on the suspension and even having the added clearance of spreading the beams I had to change the spring and tighten it.


I think the level of suspension will be good at speeds along a bumpy road but around the street pedaling off the gutter is a little weird.  

The balance is better than the other old bike as the pack sits in front of the axles pivot point, Right up behind the seat isnt too bad behind our trim behinds.


The actual battery sits inside an almost perfect fit drink cooler with lots of tape and spongy around it.  I also have a security cable that surrounds the battery inside the cooler.

Funny story,

I wanted to remove the battery from the cooler to see if I could save space.  Well I pulled my sharp knife out, and after 15 mins of hacking at mega layers of stretchty taps and around hidden plates of aluminum, even "I" knew where these hidden plates were, I gave up.  I was just trying to remove the security cord.

It was just easier to put another three two rolls over it, and accommodate the size of this pack. I took advantage of being able to lock the pack to wheel, to bike, to a lamp post with this one installed cable,

[MonkeyMagic]

hey mate looks tough as!

is that the camera angle, or is your rear wheel 'hangin' to the left'

[Leslie]

Its both camera angle and bike angle.  Its sort of lean down on one side with the ass pointing out.

It's leaning against a wall.  

Finding a decent stand is proving annoying and this didnt come with a stand.  I tried a kick stand and it isnt long enough.  I may have to weld some long legs on my kick stand.

I think I may get another inch and a half  clearance between the rack and wheel if I move the suspension secure pin back and inch.

[Leslie]

Well I fixed up a stand.

I used a new kick stand that was too short and cut the legs off and left 2 stumps. I welded a piece of thick pipe over the stumps to the legs base.



Then I shoved some foil into the pipe holes to make a spacer and stuffed the legs I cut off back into the pipes, and I added foil until the bike stood straight.  I then arc welded; the base, to pipes, to legs solid.

The result is a stand that is much stronger then the original. The bike stands on the back wheel with front wheel about a proud 50 mm in the air off the ground.  I can comfortably sit on the bike with feet off the ground when the bke is up on the stand and the legs do not spread what-so-ever.

I must take a picture of this truly amazing bike stand with me sitting on the bike with my full weight


However the modification blues has struck again.  The kick stand just rubs against the chain in the up position.  SO I now have to put a weld spot on some part so it doesnt sit in its full poistion.. I can get a better spring for it.

Monkey youre right. The rack does lean to one side.  The problem is one of the beam has hole too high on one side and too low on the other,

The lagrer problem is even if I loosen all the bolts set it straight and hold it there when I do the bolts back up, the rack goes rock solid back to this position and will not budge.  Maybe a good sign at least that the rack is reliable to the fact the rack wont move about.

I just have to drill a long hole in a single beam and drop the high side to meet the low side.  It isnt that much and can be fixed.

A lot of things will become much easier to do now I have the stand working enough to stop the thing from falling over.

Ebike 101 should state, A sufficient bike stand should be installed before any other device, but the problem is that you don't know how to stand a bike without the other devices being installed.

Its a catch-22 situation,  In old SLA days and with motors where the wires come straight out the end of the axle, a good stand was critical to avoid an absolute disaster.

[Leslie]

Ok the structural part of the stand is over thank god.  I need to just paint it.

I stopped the chain from rubbing on one of the legs  And the bike has been sitting on it for over 24 hours.

Awesome Ebike stand it is.  So much tinkering on the Snake Pie has become a pleasure and not a task since the stand  is doing a really top rater job.

Out of everything Ive used to date this is the best.

[GM Canada]

Stand looks great Leslie! Once you go into production ill take 2 dozen!

Gary

[Leslie]

Ok I straightened the rack by flipping one side of the beams around.  I drilled the beams clamped together so to match they needed to go on the right way.

I replaced all the bolts with high tensile types.  So the pack weights around 12kg with all the bits used to get it onto the bike.

I can easily sit on the pack and rack and ride about and if feels strong and safe, so the rack can take over 80kgs weight if I want it to.

I should be able to get 3 *20ah packs going on this rack if I need.

   



I ordered an Ecrazyman 72v 40 amp controller with LVC omitted and I will make my Snake pie Compatible up to 76v hot and about 64v nominal.

Then I have the choice of adding 20ah worth cells in series.  I am hoping for a top speed of 48kph and maybe a tad higher at 40 amps.

As for the BMS I havent order one yet but I have made a dual darlington pair protype single cell shunt type with a variable resistor to tune the knee to the first gate.

I have good optimism that this might do the job of bleeding the cells up to 1 amp per cell with a nice sharp knee and give enough current to shut off a 3v relay to the charger input.