Chopper E-Trike - PAS? Wider front forks for disk brake?

[OzGeeksGarage]

Hi all,

My 20" front Smart Pie motor with disk brake has arrived for my 20" shopping trike conversion, I've hit a couple of snags fitting the front wheel, my normal curved forward & flared wider standard forks are only 90mm apart inside for the axle and even if I bent them out enough the disk brake rotor will foul and I'd still have to add a mounting bracket for the disk brake caliper.

The obvious solution seems to be to buy a new pair of 100-105mm wide straight front forks so I went down to the local bike shops and they had nothing wide enough.

Anybody found anything off the shelf that a Smart pie fits straight into with disk brake mount, I'm wanting a bit of chopper look too and straight 20" forks would probably foul on the frame turning so thinking 24"-26" straight forks, with suspension if possible.

Anyone found anything off the shelf?

Also another issue is because I have dual rear brakes, my dual cable rear handbrake lever has a parking brake lock but doesn't have a electic brake switch of course, I don't suppose anyone has seen any such animal or a converter to split a single cable to operate dual brakes

[Morgen 3Eman]

Hi

I have nothing for your front problem.  Regarding your brakes,  maybe you can have the rear brakes just the way they are, and only use the front brake lever  to initiate regen and braking. 

Personally, I did not like the regen braking effect on brake modulation, and wound up disconnecting it on my trike. 

TTFN,
Dennis   

[OzGeeksGarage]

Thanks, that's pretty much the plan currently, I'll see how that goes

[Lollandster]

Another solution to the rear break problem is a "HWBS - Hidden Wire Brake Sensor" that detects wire movement. It is an active unit and needs +5v supply so its not plug'n'play, but it shouldn't be very hard. I have never tried one so I don't know if they are reliable.

EDIT: More info about the HWBS at padelecs.co.uk

[OzGeeksGarage]

My local bike shop had similar forks on bikes in their shop but told me they never fit, I found most of the online sellers useless to get details of the forks width (if they bothered to reply), conversing with many of them 3 volleys of messages to and fro only ever got me the distance between the axel mounts, none seemed to grasp the concept of getting me the measurement of clearance between 2 parallel forks or couldn't be bothered measuring it for me just for a sale. So I'm a little disappointed with some of the simple things being the must frustrating. I just took a gamble to see what I got.

I didn't get any answers on my forks question here so I'm posting my results as a warning for any other person thinking of a front mounted Smart Pie as it seems I'm one of the few to ever try it, I found the following forks "suspension Forks TGS 083LO D6gg" on Ebay http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/160661126998?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 for $76, they give me about 1-2mm clearance for the disk brake rotor, I haven't tried fitting the caliper yet but suspect I'm going to need/make an adaptor to offset it. But at least I think I can get some progress happening again.

[GM Canada]

Those forks look exactly like the front forks on the Golden Motor Joy Ebike.



I use a set I cut offa joy Ebike for trying and testing wheels.



Actually I just mad a video using those forks. If they are the same they are incredibly strong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPxOKDIz0_A

The brand name on mine is Zoom, but I hardly think that means anything these days.

Gary

[OzGeeksGarage]

Cool stuff, that video it showed me a couple of little things I needed to know, my brake caliper seems to even fit, I may just need to shave 0.5mm off them to centre them on the disc. Just got to fit the forks to the trike and order some batteries to get it all together.
I also liked the info on Reverse as I'm planning reverse as a parking option seeing it's a trike.

[OzGeeksGarage]

Bugger, hit another snag my new front forks are 1 1/8" in the shaft, my trikes original forks are 1" centre shaft, so it's not going to fit unless I find some new forks or do a cut and shut work done grafting the smaller shaft onto the larger forks. I'm beginning to wish I'd done a rear chain drive conversion instead now :/.

[Morgen 3Eman]

Hi Oz...

Are you referring to the tube that pivots the forks in the bearings attached to the frame?

If you are, I have an unconventional solution for you.  The outer bearing races can be tapped out of the tube that is too small, and the tube swaged to a larger diameter to accept the larger outer bearing races.  I used a ball peen hammer to enlarge the tube on a trike I made for my grandkids.  Not too difficult, and it felt good to beat the daylights out of the steel....

TTFN,
Dennis

[OzGeeksGarage]

Hmm nice idea, I might go with that, thanks heaps, I;ll have to change my gooseneck to suit the new shocks too , but that's no big deal compared to the mucking around grafting a 1" shaft into 1 1/8" forks.

[Morgen 3Eman]

Hi Oz..

We are clearly being separated by a common language.. I'm afraid I may be having a wrong idea of what you are talking about.

WTF is a gooseneck on a bike? What does it have to do with shocks?

Got a picture you can point to?

TTFN,
Dennis


 

[Morgen 3Eman]

Hi OZ...

Ok. I Googled bike gooseneck, and now I know  what you're talking about.  Please forgive my ignorance, I'm really an old gear head..

TTFN,
Dennis

[Morgen 3Eman]

I remembered another possible solution for you.  I have noticed that some headset bearings that have the same outer race diameter, but fit different size tubes. 

TTFN,
Dennis

[OzGeeksGarage]

I thought of that too, I've seen ones to fit smaller forks into a bigger tube, but not sure the opposite is possible, I'm still looking, unable to find any forks that are wide enough for a SmartPie with disc brake mount & 1" shaft. Or I'm going to get my old work mates to do a welding "cut and shut" putting the old fork shaft onto the new forks.

[OzGeeksGarage]

IT LIVES!

I took it for a few runs down the road today, hooking the Laptop up to the motor and playing with the settings, probably did a km of riding, I bumped the Regenerative braking up to 100%, Acceleration to 50%, left the Amps at 45Amp & 15Amp. I also connected the Pedal Assist to see how it works, left it set to High. It seems the Pedal assist works in conjunction with the throttle just fine. The Regen braking is great, no chance of traction loss with my weight applied. Going to install a combination Voltmeter Ammeter when it arrives. It's a bit weak on gentle hills but I expected that at 24v, that's why I still got pedals, but performance on the flat is fast enough for me, I'm glad I went with 20" SmartPie instead of larger, I needed the gearing, of course I haven't filled the basket with shopping yet either so I might yet add another battery for more grunt