how to build your own:
The frame should be reinforced for a heavy duty cycle truck.
Thursday, June 16, 2022
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Get Ready America!
Electric Cars will NOT save us!
Down-Size Now!!!
I am amazed that people do not understand why people will have no problems pedaling a bicycle when it comes time to live without a car. I spent years riding a heavy bike with heavy cargo and I wore out my knees because I did not have a motor. there are a lot of wise guys that can not understand what it takes to move heavy cargo up steep hills. And most people don't a clue what kind of motor to put on a bike to climb the kind of hills that I live with.
Mid-drives verses Hub motors
The worst thing is that they do not understand how much wattage it takes, end up with a wimpy motor on a wimpy bicycle and expect that they can live without a car. Well they say that lobsters will not try to get out of a hot pot until it is too hot to move, if it is slowly heated. Humans think they have plenty of time; like global heating will NOT be here for at least 40 years? The shit has already hit the fan, it will be in your face sooner than you think.
250 watts and will not work for real utility cycling. I don't care how much of a gear reduction it has, there is a limit. Under 3mph you cannot balance a bicycle. A bike fully loaded more like 5mph or more. Two motors at 750w each might be enough
The next bike I build will have the motor drive the left side of the wheel. Then I can use the pedal powered side for exercise. I do not need a motor for speed on a bicycle, only for hill climbing. So a single gear reduction will work fine. Especially if I have a Field Oriented Controller [that gives a wider range of usable RPM] If you need more power than a mid drive, get two motors with a larger battery.
Gears do not waste energy, they use a small amount of energy to turn Kinetic energy from spinning magnets into torque thrust. Hub motors waste energy as heat trying to drive heavy loads up steep hills in a high gear.
Planetary gears are stronger than smaller gears; excellent for hill climbing. And it takes up less space, best thing for a bike. My geared motor has a 6 to 1 reduction plus more on the human powered drive.
Best Mid-drive?
It is very difficult to get into the right gear to pedal along with my motor. Some people use an infinite ratio gear box that is not made strong enough for a motor that drive 450 pounds [think about it] up a 10% grade. And costs way to much.
If you think you will never need a bicycle that can drive 500 pounds up a 14% grade, you are living in denial. Gasoline will not be around much longer. Electric cars are not available now nor will they ever be affordable by the growing masses of poverty stricken proletariat.
And think about how 1 ply bicycle tires are useless for 400lbs; they wear out way too fast. 4ply Motorcycle tires are lasting me 12 time longer than bicycle tire.
All we need is a 2 or 3 speed BICYCLE planetary gear set strong enough for small motorcycles but without the overdrive.
Ravingneaux
planetary gearset animation
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Finding Parts
Cheap plastic in not good for Heavy Duty Cycle-trucks But aluminum is worse.
this is the only one I could find ready to install.
I need a heavy duty steel idler sprocket:
But this one needs to drilled out for a 16mm bearing with 5mm bolt hole.
Monday, December 27, 2021
Battery Dysfunction
The wires that come out of my battery to connect to the controller and charger, keep braking off. I thought that the excessive amounts of wire that make the silicone covered wire so flexible, also made it unbreakable. Unfortunately they do wear out. The only way to solve this problem is to use panel mount XLR sockets. So I am going to have to build my own battery pack, because the e-bike builders don't care if you battery brakes down; it makes money for them.
All they could do is tell me how it is not repairable at all and I cannot expose the BMS by removing the front panel. Which would expose more wire to work with. Only a fool [like my self] would buy a pack with wires that cannot be fixed when they brake off.
Monday, August 16, 2021
Human–electric hybrid vehicles
"Burning" any kind of fuel is not clean enough if I have to breathe the exhaust fumes.
It never ceases to amaze me that all the people I know that claim to care about doing something about their environmental foot print just will not stop burning petroleum. Some think that burning Bio-Diesel with distillates will save our butts. Or they are just waiting for electric cars to become affordable? This is another form of insanity.
These small low-powered vehicles are the only thing that can make a difference. And then only if 90% of petrol powered vehicles are eliminated very soon. And Amerika's electrical power grid must be converted to renewable fuels. So now is the time to use less electricity as well as the dirty fuels that feed the rich.
Then there are the naysayers that claim that you must have massive power to drive two adults and 50lbs of cargo around town. That is all crap. A 40 amp hour battery pack for a 4 or 5 HP motor maybe needed and the idiot politicians won't want to let you use that much power on a vehicle classified as a bicycle. But you can sue the GD Bureaucrats if you use very low 20mph gear ratios and electronic speed limiting controllers connect to Pedal Assist Sensors [crank speed sensor]. Accelerators give you more power when needed but Cops can't very well arrest you if you can't drive your vehicle over 20mph on flat land, even if you do have two or three times the legal power limit. And if you have a large enough battery pack you don't really need more than one or two gear ratios.
Custom Motorcycle vehicles take more than just larger tires and a larger frame; they have to be able to drive at least 45mph without falling apart. And they would need to be tested by the motor-vehicle department. Building a power-assisted pedal-powered vehicle can be licensed before you put a motor on it.
Sunday, July 4, 2021
Get used to it America
The rich republicans are only 30% now and they are still blocking the environmental progress that the other 70% of us want. Petroleum corporations have so much money that they can spew their lying rhetoric so ubiquitously that too many people believe it. All they have to now is keep whining about how the election was stolen from them and keep pumping out the lies.
Thursday, April 15, 2021
It's up to you now
rethinking energy
The future of transportation
Autonomous electric cars will ubiquitous before 2030. Most commuters will be using Uber Taxi Autonomous electric vehicles just because it will be so-much cheaper than owning a personal car.
There are many more things that will change, like the way things are made. Bill Gates' new book points it all out in detail. The American democracy experiment will fail for sure if too many people believe the doomsday rhetoric spewed out by the corporate imperialists.
Autonomous electric Disruption of transportation ~ Tony Seba
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b3ttqYDwF0
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Motorized Bicycle Trailers
electrically activated disc brakes
How
else can you put very strong brakes on a trailer without attaching
cables? The more I think of building one of these super trailers, the
harder it gets. I would rather have one of the flat beds trikes above
with hydraulic disc brakes and motorcycle tires. and a large gear
reduction to keep the speed down to a legal amount.
This
could turn into a popular way to haul heavy cargo up steep hills. You
could build one large enough to haul 600lbs with a regular bicycle easily.
I would use one large motor with one large gear reduction not made for speed. Attach it to the center of a simple rear axle. Slow riding will not make the single axle jump around as it would with speed. And finally you will need to adjust the gear ratio after using it long enough to know what you need.
I would then attach the controller to a Pedal Assist Sensor [with the three speed selector functional to help control the speed of the motor], on your bike so you do not need an accelerator which could make the trailer bump against your bike. And you don't really need expensive lithium-ion batteries because you will use this only when you need to haul something heavy.
I would use 2.25"x 16" inch 4 ply motorcycle tires {mounted on 406mm 1.25" wide} BMX rims, because they do not create more rolling resistance until you have a lot of weight on them. And by then you will be using your motor.
I hate bicycle tires they are not made for hauling heavy cargo. And even if you could technically use them, they're only single ply; a misery to change a puncture when loaded with cargo. Don't waste your money.
Axles for HD Trailers
Don't use bicycle bearings on trailers to handle more than 300lbs. Pillow block bearings are the best; two on each axle thick enough to not bend [0.786" or 13/16th" or 20mm is what was used for this trike hub]. Look for Delta trike hubs and axles. It is better to over engineer it than have it break down because you expected people to use a petroleum powered pickup truck. People are going to be using these things for heavier loads than you think. Most people are living in denial that living without gasoline will be far harder that anyone knows.
And remember that 3ft wide is the maximum for bicycle equipment. Motorcycle wheels and tires are very much stronger than anything made for bicycles.
pedal assist sensor
Friday, January 22, 2021
Off Road Survival e-bike
I like the idea of using gasoline and electric motors, but not if you MUST have the gasoline to run the electric motors. Best to save the gasoline to charge the batteries when there is no sunlight. Carry flexible solar voltaic panels rolled up with a foldable frame work.
I have been thinking more about what it would really take for a bike that can be driven from city to off road mountains. There are at least a couple that use gasoline, but you can't keep gasoline for very long without it turning to varnish. [If you know of a way, let me know.]
There is still a lot of misinformation about lithium-ion batterys out there. Like “they do not last long” (very wrong, it depends on how the pack is built.) And a silent “field oriented” controller will give much better hill climbing power by automating the phase advance process so that the motor is driven at optimal timing; giving more thrust when needed. https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65031&hilit=phaserunner#p976242
To build a pack that will last longer you must think about what stresses batteries. Making them run cool is essential; that requires having a large enough C rate (more cells in parallel). The right way is to build a pack is to design in much more Amp hours than you actually need. Like I need twice the amp-hours my pack has just to get to town and back with out pedaling. And when hauling a total combined weight of 450lbs or more pedaling is useless. So I need at least 3 times my packs 700Wh capacity to keep my battery pack cool. 2100Wh and more like 2400kWh, yet even more would make them last even longer.
Samsung 29E cells are the longest lasting Lithium-ion 18650 cells but a little unpopular with speed bikers that can't handle any extra weight. The pack of 240 cells I am working on will be only about 8” deep by 9”x10”. Lithium Iron Phosphate [LiFePO4] will last even longer but you will need many more of them to get the Watt hours needed.
And if I were to drive up mountains and haul twice the weight, I may start wishing for gasoline. But good design will solve that problem; get a medium sized battery at first then after testing the bike fully loaded with a Cycle Analyst meter to know how many amp-hours-per-mile is needed, you can build a much larger pack. My largest Watt hours per mile use per trip was up to 75Wh/m recently, but usually never goes over 57Wh/m with my smallish 1500w at 52v nominal motor [3000w at 72 volts]. And you will need more like 6000watts for that much weight on steep terrain. Get a controller for each motor, with heat sensor so you don't burnout the Brushless motors. Two motors are better than one, especial if you must use hub motors set in wheels; because a wheel is like a higher gear ratio than you can build with a separate motor. Even if the hub motors can work at a slower speed.
You will need to calculate as many variables as you can; like what your lowest gear ratio should be, having two different low ratios would be a big help. Big 3 to 4” wide motorcycle tires and plenty of rack room to pack every thing all in one trip. You may need to get off the logging roads. So a short bike with a heavy duty trailer will be needed. And flexible roll-up solar panels with charge controller will be needed.
Knobby tires are not good for the road because they are nail magnets. I once got a large nail right through the middle of my MTB tire. But you will need traction off road. Forget about turning an old bicycle into one of these vehicles. You need to start from scratch and use motorcycle tubes and parts. Like stainless steel not aluminum rims and all airplane steel tubing. Don't build it like some kind of race machine, heavy duty tubing is needed. And extra low motorcycle gears. Better to crawl than to burnout your motor. If the tires will not stand up without air they are not thick enough. The first time I used my 4 ply front tire, it was flat down to 7.5psi And I did not even notice it. It was nice soft ride but I was able to go to the food bank and bring home about 40lbs of food [total combined weight of at least 400lbs] so a round profile steel belted 4ply would be the thinnest tire to use. And large spoon shaped tire irons are the best thing for removal of tires. Don't even try bicycle tire irons.
Only a few small tools are needed to build a bicycle [besides a welder]
I need some one to build a frame that will hold a large battery pack in the center of the frame so it won't bounce around. But I still need a usable crank with chain drive and large box rack on the front and rear. And the rear should have a 16" rim 2.75" to 3"wide motorcycle tire with 2.25" on the front. The rear rim should be a steel motorcycle rim, while the front could use an aluminum BMX rim. Although I am not sure there is any point in using an expensive bicycle rim. High tech metals seem absurdly over priced unless you are a weight weeny. And there are too many people brainwashed by the bicycle industry; resulting in people thinking they should build cargo bikes with one inch tires to lower the rolling resistance. Even though they will wear-out 10 times faster than a 4 ply motorcycle tire. A tire made for large amounts of weight will ride higher on the tarmac than a tire made for light weight, even at a higher PSI.
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Four Wheel CycleTruck
DIY Backyard engineering an Ackerman steering assembly you can learn a lot just by trial and error. Like:
The seat is tilted forward a bit to apply more pressure to the pedals.
Negative trail was needed to keep the wheels steady. See the photo.
The jack shaft needs to drive both sides so it won't pull one side the steering harder than the other. Put a cassette on the right side of both drive wheels with a support on the right side of the right side wheel. See “Light Foot” delta trikes.
The wheel on the inside of the turn will be pulled by the jack-shaft while the wheel on the out side of the turn will be pulled faster than the inside wheel and therefore freewheel ahead.
But if you want the shaft to drive the wheel on the outside of the turn for better traction, you would need a differential so that one side of the axle not turn faster than the other.
And using scrap parts is so much cheaper than paying for machine work. Machine shops charge a huge amount of money. And Bicycle specialists charge even more, like $16,000 for a special custom designed bike. So there are a lot of people that just work on it until they get it right and do not worry about how it looks. But having a gas shielded arch welder would help.
You can burn oil onto metal for a cheap paint job.
Racks are the most important part:
http://commutercycling.blogspot.com/2014/11/racks-are-most-important-part.html
Leaning trike Design:
http://commutercycling.blogspot.com/2013/12/leaning-cargo-trike-design.html
Engineering a three wheeled vehicle:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Engineering-A-3-Wheel-Vehicle-Chassis/
Light Foot cycletruck
with hub motor
Trailers and Building them
bicycle builders on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/
electric motorcycle builds
Saturday, July 4, 2020
The Future Of Transportation
Most people are obfuscated about what to do to change their lifestyle to keep from destroying our environmental life support system. These people are totally brainwashed by capitalism. Some have turned to anarchistic Nihilism because they believe the Reagan-deistic clandestine subversive rhetoric that claims government is inherently corrupt just because the alternative is to share the excessive wealth stolen from the earth by the capitalist system. Are we lost to stupidity?
To all of you whinny people that think you can't stop burning gasoline; I say BULLSHIT ! Any one that believes the passive aggressive self defeating Republican rhetoric like “ it is not possible for a woman with five children to go to the food store without a car” is brainwashed by fear mongering that they heard on National Petroleum Radio [NPR]. Avoiding change is like banging your head against a brick wall. The sooner people change their life style the easier it will be.
Who will pay for the change in transportation and other things? Every one will pay for your inaction, and far more than action now. Getting rid of petroleum powered vehicles will be to every ones advantage. People that refuse to change are self centered sociopaths. Even those that refuse use LED light bulbs in their houses are mentally ill.
If the under class keeps listening to the republican fear mongering rhetoric, there will never be anything but suffering. The facts are that people are going to have to learn to work together without pumping the money up to the top of the capitalist pyramid. There will be community work projects and co-operatives to solve all the problems of the climate crisis, like transportation and energy. Or there will be chaos and poverty for all [except the oligarchy]. Make a choice.
The
Covid 19 virus pandemic showed us a lot about how petroleum powered
vehicles produce greenhouse gasses. The air was 30% cleaner after
only 6 weeks of non-driving. And now the price of oil has gone down
so much that one OPEC country had to raise the petrol taxes; they
didn't want to tax the rich.
A
farm to market electric truck will be the most important project. Yet
farmers are allowed a truck for this purpose
that otherwise would not be legal on the road. So why not challenge
that concept and build a minimalist electric vehicle with hydraulic
brakes that can haul at least 600 to 1000lbs. Classified it as a 3ft
wide tractor so that slow speed is not a problem.
I
can see a time coming when people will be rioting in the streets
every day and burning petroleum powered cars. And probably even big
expensive electric cars, because these will be owned only by the
money oligarchy and their submissive cohorts. And don't think that
their secret police will stop it.
If
the psychopath in the white house is reinstated I will have to blow
by brains out, I can't stand it anymore. It took me several years on
a sub poverty income to build the kind of vehicle I need to live
without a petroleum powered vehicle. So if you don't get started
learning now, you can just suffer the consequences.
Even bicycles will be autonomous if you believe Google's video, but they could apply your brakes and make you fall over. And they will be taking away your drivers licenses because humans are much more dangerous that robots.
The price of oil crashed this year and I pray that it will stay non-profitable for the imperial fascist corporations.
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Folding e-Bikes?
For
a short ride to the bus stop and short rides to the shop or office,
all you need is a single speed bike with 16” or 20” tires. The
smaller the drive wheel, the lower the gear is, but try to find one
with room for 2.25” wide tires. And use a simple voltmeter on the
accelorator, a lot cheaper than a fancy CycleAnalyst. There is a MINI
CYCLONE mid-drive kit
that I want to install on a single speed folding bike. But a 2000
watt direct drive hub motor could work on suach a light weight bike
as long as you don't need to climb steep hills with cargo. Just be
aware that hub motors weight a lot more than mid-drives.
It
would be good to build a folding mini electric motorbike simular to
this
one,
With room for 2.25” x 20” OD [16” rim] motorcycle tires. I
believe all bikes should be made Heavy Duty no matter how small.
How
to make Mini Electric Motorcycle at home DIY PROJECT
single speed:
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