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"Thinking Outside the Four-Wheeled Box" ebikes.ca |
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"Thinking Outside the Four-Wheeled Box" ebikes.ca |
It's November, and we're all hoping that you've all recovered from hallowe'en shenanigans and are starting to plan your over-winter electric bicycle build projects. There's nothing quite like rainy days to huddle in the garage and start building a rocking bike for next year. And for us, it's a time to buckle down a bit and focus on original R&D projects for next season too.
We've had lots of wonderful feedback about the 1000 lumen Lumenator light since releasing it last year. But some occasional complaints are that it is too bright to use in areas dense with people, and also that the button could sometimes be hard to push. We've addressed both of these with the new multimode Lumenator, which uses a remote button that lets you turn the the light on and off without taking your hand of the grip, and also lets you cycle through multiple brightness modes.
The first production batch is in final assembly stages and should be available on Nov 21st. They are available to buy on the store site and we've reduced the price of the standard Lumenator too!
It's rare that we get involved with anything political, but then again it's rare that a city is blessed to have a visionary mayor who knows how to deliver on a cycling promise and is willing to shake up the infrastructure to accomodate it. Since starting off with the Burrard Bridge experiment in 2009 to the Hornby and Dunsmuir separated bike lanes, bicycle ridership has increased significantly in the city due to the decisive leadership of Gregor Robertson. And this with the planners still largely unaware of how big of a role electric bicycles will play in the near future to take cycling to even greater masses.
We give Gregor Robertson and the Vision slate a big endorsement in the upcoming Nov 19th municipal election, and we hope that those similarly affected will take the time out to vote. The stakes are rather high with the main challenger threatening to undo much of the progress recently made.
Margot, who has done an amazing job being on the front lines of all of our sales and orders for the past 2 years, is leaving in January for a 6 months volunteer position with a non-profit in Uganda. We would like to thank her for her tireless work making ebikes.ca a friendly place to order from and wish her all the best on her trip.
We are in the midst of a beta release of a CA version that has a variable pulse width (PPM) output instead of a voltage output, allowing it to drive ebikes running with R/C equipment. In a nutshell, you can use a conventional ebike throttle to feed into the CA, and the CA will then drive the RC speed controller with the required 1-2mS servo signal, eliminating the need for servo tester boxes and other 3rd party hardware. Additional details on this endless-sphere thread. We will do another run of beta R/C boards in early September, and have a special page here for ordering.
Thanks to the tireless work of Michael Vass over the previous month, our online simulator has now been fully flushed out as originally intended to model not just hub motors but the complete vehicles as well. Additional upgrades include numeric data readout, vertical cursor bar, range prediction, thermal burn-out time, improved custom parts entry, system compare options, selectable graph lines, and much more.
4 months after ordering them we finally received our shipment of the latest Crystalyte motors, giving more power and proper disk brake compatibility to our Direct Drive motor options. These are described in detail here, along with associated problems people have had to date. We've also received a stock of sensorless Crystalyte controllers modified with proper CA-DP compatibility, allowing power to the hub motor without the need for hall signals. Unlike previous sensorless controllers, these can effectively start from a standstill. Our direct drive kits page has been revamped accordingly to make it easier to build up your ideal customized DIY kit.
It's been a struggle but we have finally succeeded in getting our supply of Infineon based motor controllers modified appropriately to operate with a universal input voltage range. The 20 and 35A models have a 19V cutoff with regen up to 58V, and hence work fine from 24V to 48V packs. Meanwhile the 25 and 40A models with IRFB4110 mosfets work with 36V to 72V batteries, with a 26V cutoff and regen all the way to 88V. No more need to change resistors around to work with different pack voltages. Additional details explained on the controllers page which has recently been revamped.
We've also received a new delivery of twist and half-twist throttles that have a built in momentary push button. We have these wired and terminated such that the button leads simply plug into the ebrake input of our Infineon motor controllers, so that people can use the button to engage regen and not need to change over their brake levers. Handy.
One of the projects Justin completed in time for the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire was a 3 speed geared unicycle based on the Sturney Archer S3X fix gear internal hub. This was initially done as a proof-of-concept device, but has since proven to be eminently rideable as well. The full build pictures can be seen on the unicyclist forum. The next step in the process is combining this multi-speed pedal gearing with the electric unicycle hub of 2010 and create the ultimate one-wheeled commuter.
Those following business and economics will be aware that China has restricted export quotas on the materials used to make rare-earth magnets, which has caused price increases of 6 fold on Neodymium since the start of this year. That is great news in that rare earth mines all over the world can now open and produce these materials with much better environmental and health standards. However, it does mean that the magnets used in ebike motors are about 3 times as expensive as they used to be, which causes a 50-70% rise in the cost of direct drive hub motors and a somewhat lower rise in the cost of geared motors.
We still have the old prices listed for our remaining 9C motor stock, but as soon as the next shipment arrives in 2 weeks then expect the price on these and the associated 9C based direct drive kits to go up accordingly.
In case people are worried we have fallen off the map with no news updates since February, rest assured this is not the case. Rather things have been so busy setting up our new shop space that there has been little time left for posting on the website. We'll try to summarize all that has gone on with one big update at last (and then get back to work):
We've traditionally been heavily involved activities around June, from the VEVA Electrafest to Car Free Days to Velopalooza and assorted Bike Month events. Unfortunately we've had to bow out of participating in all of these this year. But there is one new event coming to town that we are most excited about and will be a big part of. Vancouver is hosting its very own Maker Faire! We missed travelling down to the San Francisco event in May but will take part in the Vancouver event in a big way. Locals should definitely make a point of coming out to see creative DIY projects of all kinds on display.
Just a heads up that since the announcement of potential strikes at Canada Post last week, we have been automatically upgrading all Canada Post / USPS orders to Fedex ground service for shipments in North America. We will still continue to honor the Canada Post price as quoted on our website for these orders. For overseas shipments, it means we can no longer safely send packages via standard airmail, and customers will have to pay for the Fedex International Priority service instead or wait for the strike to wind down.
We're happy to announce Evan Sandercock, a 15 year old ebike enthusiast from Alberta, as the winner of our Grin Tech logo contest from last winter. His idea of a smiling electrical plug was simple and effectively captured the essence of what we do. After several months of additional doodling and consultation with a professional designer we have shaped it into the logo shown here. Congratulations to Evan who gets $1000 in ebikes.ca store credit, we can't wait to see the projects you do with it.
Those who've followed us over the past 6 years will remember that at various times we've carried multitudes of batteries from many manufacturers in all different voltages, chemistries, and form factors. This has lead to a wealth of firsthand battery experience, sometimes rewarding but mostly filled with hair pulling frustration.
We've decided for this year to simplify things (cut our losses) and just carry 3 battery choices from eZee that have proven dependable so far. The 36V 9Ah LiFePO4 as a standard option, a 36V 14Ah Samnsung LiMn pack for extra range, and 48V 10Ah Samsung LiMn for extra speed. All of these batteries in the same compact eZee flat pack enclosure casing. It's a tight form factor that we like, and there are several rack mounting options to facility secure attachment to the bicycle.
We have purchased a new spoke machine and die set specifically for cutting straight 13 gauge spokes, in order to offer better compatibility with existing ebike spokes that are typically 13g (2.3mm). These are now our standard custom spoke offering (instead of the butted 13/14 Phil Wood spokes we sold before), with Belgium made Sapim stainless steel spokes available in either silver of black oxide. These are a serious improvement over the chinese 13g spokes that Nine Continent use in their wheel builds, and for those wanting a rugged wheel we recommend having the hub relaced.
We had an experimental batch of universal front eZee hub motors made up with 144 spoke holes in the flange. Our idea was that they could be laced into 36 hole rims by using every 4th hole, 48 hole rims by using every 3rd hole, or the common 32 hole rims by alternating spokes every 4th and 5th hole. Or if you have LOTS of time on your hands, they could be laced into the 144 hole chopper rims for a real snazzy wheel. In the past we have only sold eZee motors built into wheels as part of complete kits, but these units are an opportunity for those wanting to purchase just the geared hub motor only, ready to be laced into your custom project. They are available on our eZee store page with both the standard (26") and fast (20") winding options.
The original small screen Cycle Analyst has now been formally discontinued in lieu of exclusively making the Large Screen units. It has been an interesting run for 5 years but the process of machining and retrofitting an off-the-shelf enclosure box to make it hold our circuitry and work on a bike handlebar has run its course. The large screen unit with our custom molded enclosure is better in nearly all regards, and because of the high demand we've been able to drop the price to match what the small screen sold for.
We also changed the standard CA board layout in May with a new regulator that allows the standard CA to operate all the way down to 10V. That makes it now compatible with the many 12V battery systems people may want to monitor (marine, solar, backup, etc.)
At the other end we have also been listening to the performance electric motorbike crowd that keeps demanding dangerously higher and higher voltages. We have increased the standard upper voltage range to 150V instead of 100V, and now offer a high voltage upgrade option that goes all the way to 350V instead of 200V. The chart below summarizes the difference between the Revision11 and previous boards:
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We've had occasional feedback that the backlight on the Cycle Analyst can affect night vision for some people when riding in the dark. In order to accommodate those with this sensitivity, we've had the large screen LCD modules retooled to include two sets of LEDs. The standard white LED is connected by default and produces a nice and brightly backlit display. But if that is too much, then a small solder jumper to the pad labeled 'R' will illuminate a dimmer red backlight instead. This still lights up the screen at night, but with a red light that doesn't dilate the pupils.
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The firmware for our data logging device has been updated to include two additional analog input lines (0-5V). This means that in addition to the CA data and GPS data, the CycleAnalogger can also record signals for logging other vehicle parameters, such as throttle voltage or motor temperature. A simple configuration file allows the device to directly record temperature from an inexpensive thermistor probe. Details on installing the firmware and using the voltage input lines are included here.
Since going live with the large screen Cycle Analyst earlier this year we've been overwhelmed with the demand and have had a hard time keeping our production and supply chain up. As a result, we've been frequently run out of stock and dealer orders have faced longer than normal lead times. Please accept our apologies for this as we tool up to handle the higher production volumes.
The venerable 400 and 5300 motor series that got so many enthusiasts started on ebikes has now been formally discontinued by Crystalyte (about time some would say!). The good news is that Crystalyte is now producing a new HS/HT motor series that is based on the same efficient motor construction style as Nine Continent, but with much better mechanical fit for bicycle and disk brake compatibility. For a more complete summary of the improvements see the postings on the Endless Sphere thread here.
We sampled these motors in January and have put them up on our simulator. We expect to receive our stock available for purchase in mid-July, and these will be the first bulk batch of sensored HS/HT 35mm motors delivered in North America, so that they will be fully backwards compatible with all the sensored motor controllers.
Infineon Controllers: After our recent shipment vanished in transit, we're still sorting out a situation. Our next batch when it does come will finally have a universal voltage range, so that the same unit can run from 24V to 72V batteries without any need to change resistors on the circuitboard.
eZee batteries: We have had good supply all year of the 3 battery types alluded to above, but the high range 36V 14Ah and standard 36V 9Ah options will be sold out soon, with only the 48V 10Ah battery option remaining. Next shipment from eZee is scheduled to arrive mid-July.
We've still been quite busy setting up all of the lab and shop space at our new building, sourcing and laying out the tools and equipment necessary to make this place into a powerhouse for ebike product development. Check the images below to see some of the progress to date.
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| Power Electronics Lab | Complete Machine Shop |
The remaining work is expected to take us until the end of summer. After that, we are finally going to put the same amount of energy into renovating our virtual online space. People sometimes think we're a bit stuck in the 90's with our simple html site that hasn't changed too much since the UBC electric bike club days. Well, we're not incompetent, it's just that our development priorities so far have always been on the nuts and bolts side. We acquired the domain ebikes.com last summer and are excited about setting that up for our more modern and up-to-date web presence later this year.
It turns out that moving our operation to a new building is a much larger undertaking than even we had imagined. In spite of everyone working around the clock and over the weekend, we're going to need at least the rest of this week before we can be up and running again and able to carry on with orders, and answer emails and phone calls. We thank everyone for their patience here while we sort through and reorganize 4 years of accumulated stuff and finalize all the systems in our space:
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In early 2007 we took the step of graduating from a garage operation to leasing a commercial property on Main Street to run this business. Starting off with two people and 400 square feet, we gradually took over adjacent rooms to make way for R&D facilities, a manufacturing workshop, storage warehouse, packing and shipping room, and a slew of new people. It's been fun adventure over the past four years, but one that has run its course. We just can't fit our ambitions or run efficiently in this awkward crumbling building.
The old bicycles and tricycle that we had stenciled into the sidewalk pavers will live on to mark this spot of Vancouver well after the building gets demolished. But we are saying our farewells to Main and taking our next big step
Starting March 1st, we will be operating from a much larger shop at the corner of 4th and Ontario, not far from the Olympic village, a multitude of bike stores, and a host of light industrial businesses. With over twice the square footage and 22 foot high ceilings we'll be able to pack in more activities and supplies in order to see this electric bicycle movement continue to flourish here and abroad. It's something we are all happy and excited about:
With less than 3 weeks to go before we move, things are pretty busy and a little bit hectic here. There is a lot of renovation and prep work to set up the new building to work for us, plus a big effort to move everything over. As far as possible, we will attempt to process all orders during this time period and avoid any shutdown delays during the move, so that things as seamless as possible for you. However, we do ask that people refrain from any RMA return shipping this way until we can post our new address. As well, there is a possibility that our phone system will be out of commission for a few days on either side of the transition, and non-critical emails may be put off for a while too.
It is getting mighty close to Holiday time. We've never experienced much of a Christmas shopping frenzy in the DIY ebike community, but in case there are one-wheeled gifts we are opening at least the Unicycle section of the store on Saturdays this December.
Then from Dec 22nd to Jan 3rd we will stay open but with reduced capacity and minimal staff. We will try to reply to all emails, but any issues that are not urgent will be handled in the first week of January.
The number geeks are going to love our latest ebike accessory - the Cycle Analogger. This compact device takes the serial data output of the CA and records it as a text file to an SD memory card for detailed post trip analysis.
It also has the facility to simultaneously record data from a GPS device to the memory card at the same time. That opens up the possibility for visual display of a trip in Google Earth, showing your energy usage at each step along the way.
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| Trip Display | Cycle Analogger | Logger w/GPS | Spec Sheet |
Both the standard ($99) and GPS models ($150) are available now. They have a built in DC-DC converter so that they can run directly from your ebike battery pack (10-100V input range). If purchased at the same time as a CA, we will pre-solder the necessary data and power wires from the Cycle Analyst so that the unit has plug-and-play connectivity. Specification Sheet is available for download here.
After a Beta run that helped us iron out a few minor issues, we are now releasing the Large Screen Cycle Analyst for general sales, both as a Direct Plug-in (or DPS) model for connecting to controllers and as a High Current / High Voltage version for the electric motorbike and scooter community.
As well, we can supply just the box and membrane switches only for those who previously purchased the large screen OEM devices with no enclosure, but who want one in their application.
Thank you immensely for all the submissions we received (over 90 in all) for the Grin Tech Logo Contest. After going through all of them many times along with our own sketches, we've narrowed things down to several concept ideas that really ring true. At this stage, we are looking to bring in the help of a design professional to assist with the larger picture of figuring how the look and feel will incorporate with the website, product literature etc. So it will be a little while yet before can announce the (likely shared) prize winners.
Thanks for all of the many submissions we've received as we try to come up with the right logo and look for the new "Grin" name. We are trying to find a clever or fun way of branding "GRIN" that we can use on all the parts that we've been making here (Cycle Analysts, Torque Arms, ebike lights, etc) as well as the many new things that are in our development pipeline.
Some people have asked for additional clarifications on what we are after, so we've put up a small Logo Contest FAQ page here. We're going on a retreat Dec 5th so try to get your ideas in before then.
We had numerous requests from people to record the talk that Justin gave on his 7 years of firsthand experience with ebike batteries. Unfortunately our video recording skills came through poorly at best, but for those willing to watch 2 hours of grainy footage to understand some of the challenges of dealing with rechargeable batteries, it all begins here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5frJlJiCS34&feature=related
Or you could follow on the endless-sphere thread.
We've also made the original slide images available as a PDF document.
Next Wednesday evening, Justin will be delivering a presentation at the monthly VEVA meeting at BCIT, called "Lead Free since 2003". This will be an informative and entertaining summary of all his experiences, lessons, and tribulations with advanced rechargeable batteries since he got involved with electric bikes seven years ago. There is a reason that so many in the EV business groan at the mention of batteries, and this presentation will show you why in all the gory details. The talk is at 7:30pm at the BCIT cafeteria, and is open to both VEVA members and the public.
The Vancouver Public Library is hosting an event on Saturday Nov 20th from 12:00 - 3:30pm that features innovating organizations as part their "One Book, One Vancouver" program. This all stems from Vancouverites choosing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as their favorite book to read. We've been invited to participate and will have a booth and demo vehicles for people to ride and learn what we believe the future has in store. Note, due to some unforseen circumstances we will no longer be able to host a booth at the innovation expo, though it will still be a great event to check out.
Since renaming our company GRIN in May, we have been struggling a bit to come up with an ideal logo to go along with it. Our little flying ebiker that serves as the ebikes.ca homepage logo (dating back to the UBC electric bike club days) is fun, but too complex. Do you think you have an idea that suits our style and image? A stylized way of writing "GRIN" with a doodle that communicates what we're into?
If so, we'll be giving away $1000 USD of store credit if someone comes up with a design that we like and decide to use. So feel free to send any sketch ideas that you have via email to logo@ebikes.ca
Back in 2005, Justin and his friend Matt Chudleigh spent a summer after university figuring out how to design and build a dedicated display meter for ebikes, with no real idea what they were getting into.
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This unit was christened the "DrainBrain", and its eventual success turned our operation into what it is now. It's time to show our appreciation to these early adopters who took a leap of faith in our technology when we were just a couple guys in a garage. So, from now until the end of November, we will be offering the new large display Cycle Analyst at 50% off to anyone who purchased and still owns an original DrainBrain from 2005/2006.
In order to get this, please send a photo of your bike setup with a "DrainBrain" running, or send a copy of your original order details, and we will get you on queue for the new Large Screen unit with enclosure for just $75. It's our way of saying thanks, things would have never happened without you. The world owes a lot to Early Adopters.
It has been well over a year in the making, but we have at last our own custom enclosure molded for the large display screen Cycle Analyst. This means regular ebikers and not just large EVs can make use of the wider screen and font size, while only taking up a bit more real estate on the handlebar than the original CA.
Some other improvements we made:
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We now have a new higher capacity battery option for both the eZee and Nine Continent kits. This 36V pack squeezes 14 Ah of capacity into the light and low-profile eZee flat enclosure box, using the same Samsung cells that have been working so well in our 48V packs. These flat packs also have an eZee double-decker carrier rack option which can be selected in lieu of the seat post clamping mountain bike rack, making it easier to carry panniers and additional cargo. We have a limited number of both on hand and coming in during the ensuing weeks, but full stock will not be until Jan 2011.
2010 has been a summer that was filled with unicycle events in Vancouver; from the popular Wednesday drop-in rides at Science World, to the Muni Weekend that saw over 50 mountain unicycle enthusiasts converge here from all over the continent, to the making and unveiling of a one-wheeled electric assist vehicle. We're committed to fostering the scene and are pleased to now carry the Schlumpf 2-speed uni-hub. This hub takes unicycle commuting to a whole new level (the level of bicycles!), allowing you to gear the unicycle up to go 50% faster at the click of a heel.
The KH model Schlumpf hubs are in stock and can be built into any unicycle frame that uses 42mm ball bearing cups.
Sometimes great products get a little bit buried in the list of parts on our store site. Last month a small group of us with ebikes were on a ferry from Saltspring Island when some other passengers started to inquire about all the wires and gadgets on the bikes. A short demo of Bruce's ebike with the VeloAmp Sound System soon turned into a full fledged dance party on the ferry deck that lasted the entire trip. Click below for footage:
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Guys, you can do this too! Bring fine high fidelity music to public spaces with all the energy stored in your ebike battery pack. Bruce has now made a webpage for his VeloAmp project with additional information and specs, and we keep them in good stock on our store accessories page. We are still looking for handlebar mount speakers that can do justice to this amplifier, but in the meantime quality house speakers do the job well.
In spite of the non-stop rain, there was a great turnout at the annual VEVA electric vehicle show on Sunday. This included a sample "Tango" which is one electric car we can get behind (unlike those tesla roadsters), a few well converted electric bikes and trikes, and even a vintage 1950's outboard motor converted to electric power. A reporter from CNN happened to show up and took some interest in the electric assist unicycle, which got featured in an iReport here. Looks like Justin set himself up for a bit of a ride next summer!
The electric bike show hosted in conjunction with eatART's Power the VAG event brought together a great collection of people and ebikes, including the famous Luke (liveforphysics) who came up from Washington state with his 14kW RC rocket bike. See his postings on the ES forum. Huge thanks to Melisa who showed up just in time to be our celebrity judge and event photographer. See her Flickr page for photo summary, list of prize winners, and funny commentary.
After evaluating samples in June, we received our first shipment of disk brake compatible Nine Continent hub motors earlier this summer. The rear motors now have a flat side covers with an integrated 44mm bolt pattern for a disk rotor on the left, and have their spoke flanges shifted to the right as well for a more centered wheel that requires less dishing. They've even squeezed an ISO disk mount on the front motors too, with a flat profile left side cover that leaves just enough room for a disk and a skinny (< 14mm) caliper.
More details can be seen here: and we've prepared the front and rear mechanical drawings as well.
We had a large delivery of these disk motors in July, but they have mostly sold out with the exception of front 20" 2805 and 26" 2806 wheels. Next shipment is due to arrive around Sept 18th, including a fresh stock of rear hubs in the 5, 6, and 7 turn windings.
On Sept 6th a small team of UBC engineering students stepped out of a converted Volkswagon bug arrived in Halifax, having just completed the first Canadian coast-to-coast treck in a pure electric car. As with Justin's ebike trip in 2008, they did this in real style with minimal funding and no support vehicle, charging up along the way with existing grid infrastructure, and proving that youthful determination can achieve feats that coorporate giants can only dream of. Congratulations to Ricky and crew. See their blog postings here.
The image on the left shows the LiFePO4 battery pack on the bug when they stopped by our shop briefly before the departure.
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| Pete Chaloner (err Cindy) | Redboy by Scott Bellinger | Crazybike by Michael Elliott | Urban Transporter |
Earlier this year we worked with eZee to produce a 48V option of their convenient flat rack mounted lithium pack, and are glad to now have a large quantity available and in stock now. The 48V 8Ah lithium battery is made from 3C rated Samsung cells and is a mere 3.3kg in weight, with a 25A output current capability. Sourcing reliable 48V packs has been an unexpected challenge for us over the past several years, but our testing on this one so far gives a lot of confidence. Discharge profile is shown in the graph at right.
We're excited about the homemade electric bike show coming up this Sunday, including some people coming in from way out of town to show their system. Setup at the Vancouver Art Gallery happens at 11am, with the prizes awarded at 2 o'clock, and plenty of time to hang out with neat people right until the event ends at 7pm.
For those who want to bring a bike to show, don't be intimidated! Anything that you have made which you are proud of we would love to have on display, and there are lots of prizes to give out. The registration details are here.
Momentum Magazine asked us to do a small piece about the electric bicycle community for their online content related to different bicycle sub-cultures. We decided to explore where the North American side of this movement has come from with a bit of historic perspective that may be overlooked. A big thank you to Felicio Sadalla, Joshua Goldberg, Morgan Giddings, Barrie Wilkinson, Stéphane Melançon, and Coffee Luke for taking considerable time to share their stories.
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Unfortunately there were issues getting all of the images to a standard for the published piece, so we put all the intended pictures that were to accompany the text in the table above.
At the start of July, we will be required to charge the full 12% HST tax on our ebike kits as opposed the the 5% GST only that was charged before, as electric bicycles were exempted from provincial tax. Local residents considering a purchase soon may want to factor this into consideration.
Although the tax break on electric bikes was nice, we understand that it's simpler and more fair to just have the same sales tax apply to everything rather than a complex set of exceptions. Our only real beef is that gasoline for vehicles was one of the very few things made exempt from the extra 7%, of all items that deserve to have a consumption tax gas should be first on the list.
The winner of our June 15th Cycle Analyst Giveaway prize goes to Kristin Rule of Australia. She is about to leave on a solo promotional tour of her new album, with her Cello strapped to a Yuba Mundo cargo bike and a little help from an electric assist "Watt-Bot" trailer made by her partner Andy. The rig and the ride are both genius and a perfect example of how electric assist, cargo bikes, and a bit of inspired craziness can fuse into fascinating pursuits that wouldn't have previously been possible. Read Kristin's full description of her setup and her ambitions here.
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The only thing missing on her bike is a Cycle Analyst to replace the analog voltage and amp meters strapped to the frame, and that Kristin is on its way. It's hard to imagine a more deserving case. Congratulations and safe travels.
Finally, we wanted to say what a great time we had with the Car-Free festival this past weekend. We had no idea that one railing installed in the middle of the road to practice unicycling could be so popular. Thanks to everyone who showed up with their ebikes and unicycles and helped to make a fun, interactive, and educational event, and to all the Car-Free Vancouver volunteers who work hard to make this happen over the full 17 block stretch.
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Our end of May Cycle Analyst Giveaway goes to a local guy this time, Richard Johns in Vancouver. We've seen Richard come in to our shop several times over the years with his ever evolving concept of an all around utility bike. It started initially from a Cyclone conversion with a custom battery and motor mount setup, and has grown to include a full fiber glass fairing with child seat, waterproof trunk bins, removable rain shield and even a towable trailer for the kids. Richard's blog details his experience and philosophies on the project and does a good job of highlighting the many features that electric assist makes possible.
Justin's experiments with an electric assist unicycle first shown at the Maker Faire in May have been pretty successful. For those curious about this project, you can see a detailed build description on the endless-sphere forum and some of the ride experience on unicyclists.com. At this point, we are toying with doing a small manufacturing run of a couple dozen units if there is enough interest out there for early adopters of a hubmotor based electric uni conversion kit. If this gets you excited, then please fill out our form to sign up for the electric uni email notification list.
We have additional details for the electric bike show we are hosting in partnership with the event eatART Powers the VAG 2010. We'll be awarding prizes for 6 different categories, so if you have an interesting electric bike you've built then please indicate your intent to come by registering online.
There is always a lot of bike and ebike activity happening in Vancouver come June. Many have already taken place but here is just a short list of some other coming events to check out:
We've had numerous customers use our Crystalyte 400 series project motor axles to build unique and innovative vehicles. Most of the time these involved supporting the hub from one side only, so we decided to have Crystalyte make us a batch of motors explicitly for this very purpose. We now have a stock of ready to go 405 and 406 hubs with a solid 3/4" thick axle and disk brake mount for the range of homebrew electric Trike, Quad, and Trailer projects. As well, we've replenished our supply of the powerful and disk compatible 5303 and 5304 hub motors for those looking for high-power setups.
As of May 4th, we formally changed our business identity from "The Renaissance Bicycle Company" to "Grin Technologies Ltd."
This was in part because we were frequently mistaken for a bicycle shop, but mostly because we wanted a name that better reflects the increasing amount of Electric Vehicle technology development in which we are actively involved. Our goal is to spread the EVGrin far and wide through the design, manufacture, and distribution of cutting edge ebike components.
You can still refer to us as ebikes.ca too, but the things that we make (Cycle Analysts, Torque Arms, DC-DC Converters, Lighting Systems and no doubt more to come) will be sold under the Grin brand. Our Vancouver store front will be called the "Grin Cyclery", so if we ever do get a sign, that's what you'd be on the look out for.
Name changes are always a little weird, at first, but hopefully this is something you can all embrace with us.
We have new phone numbers too in order to better manage the increasing call volume to our shop. The primary phone line has changed to (604) 569-0902, while the old number (604) 288-7316 will continue to be active for shipping & receiving. In addition, our engineering and manufacturing wing has its own line (604) 569-0903.
As hinted at last month, we are now in production with our Cycle Lumenator ebike light, taking our integrated DC-DC lighting systems to a new level. With four of the best Cree XPG-R4 LEDs driven at 750 mA, we're up in the 1000 Lumen brightness levels, shining more light on your path than most of the premium $300-600 systems sold at bike shops. The wide input voltage range is compatible with any power source from 15V to 100V, AC or DC, to run directly off your ebike battery pack with no separate voltage converter required.
The price is $185 USD for a single unit, or $299 for a Dual lamp (giving 2000 Lumens total). We also offer this as an Upgrade to the Cycle Analyst if you purchase the two together. In that case, we will attach a short DC power cable that comes out of the CA and plugs directly into your Cycle Lumenator light, so it gets powered from the CA with no additional wiring down the frame. Clean and tidy with minimal cable clutter.
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The recipient of the great Cycle Analyst giveaway for May 15th goes out to Adam Mercier, an 18 year old student in Western France. Adam has been scheming to build an electric vehicle that is rain and weather proof so it can be more useful as a car alternative in the wet city of Brest. He started off with concept sketches of a somewhat futuristic trike, formalized this through 3-D computer modeling in Solidworks, and then got in touch with an communal workshop run by retired naval yard workers to learn all the welding and machining skills to build it.
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Says Adam "I have a cheap watt-meter, but it miss a lot of the features of the CA, like avg watts or speedometer. It would be the perfect tool for me to gather data about my trike, and find the best set-up for my drivetrain for max efficiency. But as a student I'm not as rich as I want to be!"
Well, at the rate you are going you will be rich soon. The build thread for his project is posted here, with the frame already mostly complete. Good luck finishing this by summer time, congratulations, and we're always happy to see a CA getting put to good use. Next prize will be given away May 31st, send your submissions to ca.giveaway@ebikes.ca
Coming up is the Victoria Day long weekend, and Justin and some crew will be heading down to the Maker Faire just south of San Francisco, with a few home-made gadgets for people to ride. As a result, the shop will be closed Saturday, May 22nd, but will be open again as usual the following Tuesday. Any ebike enthusiasts in or around the area should check it out, as there are lots of inspiring DIY projects being showcased and a number of characters from the endless-sphere forum will be there too.
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Two years ago our side-by-side sociable tandem ebike took off all around the fairgrounds with a mind of its own. Unfortunately it's too big to take on the train down this time around, so we'll be brining mostly single-wheeled vehicles which are more compact.
This is just a simple photograph to show you that homemade ebikes don't have to be techy or weird looking in any way. Mark Stephens, our trusty electrical guy, recently put this conversion together over the span of several weeks for his girlfriend Natalie's birthday. It's a vintage Raleigh ladies bike with an original 3-speed Sturney Archer hub in the back. Mark painted a front Nine Continent motor for a perfect colour match, rebuilt both hubs into aluminum rims, added white side-wall tires, and even installed switches inside the original brake levers to activate regen and assist the old side pull brakes for stopping. Fenders are original. The controller is tucked into the eZee battery bag and out of sight. And Natalie, "she loves it". No kidding!
Being well lit and seeing the road is especially important with the higher speeds on an ebike. Every now and then we get customers sending us pictures of crazy lit up contraptions, that not only keep them safe on the road, they also make us and I'm sure everyone on the streets smile a little too. We've decided to have a small promotional contest, with the best looking nighttime bicycle shot winning the first production unit of our next series of super bright ebike lights.
What's that super bright ebike light? It's been some time that we've been working on a new lighting series using the very best CREE XP-G high power LEDs. Our current prototypes have cracked over 1000 lumens of output, consume just 9.5 Watts of power and run off any input from 18V up to 100V, AC or DC. We are just gearing up for production and have the target release date for May 15th, and would like to give away the first one off the production line, to you perhaps. So send us your creatively lit-up bike pictures to info@ebikes.ca and you may end up with one very bright beacon to add to your lighting mix.
The submissions for our Cycle Analyst giveaway contest keep getting more and more interesting. For our April 30th winner, we decided to give the prize to Pascal Chollet for his BikeProof.ch solar bike adventure project, which he plans to ride from Switzerland all the way to Tibet. This is a fully engineered tricycle that uses 3 of our eZee hub motor kits and has a roof canopy containing a 220 watt solar panel. It can climb mountains and run off its own steam, and goes a long way to showing just what is possible in the realm of sustainable transportation. Pascal has a well documented website for his project, with many images and videos of the build. Bravo Pascal!
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The next CA giveaway Prize will be decided on May 15th. Previous submissions will continue to carry forward, and any one with an ebike project that they'd like to enter the contest with, please send your conversion details and a bit of background to: ca.giveaway@ebikes.ca
Our good friends at eatART have their 2nd annual fundraiser and energy awareness event taking place at the Vancouver Art Gallery on June 27th "eatART Powers the VAG 2010" (or here for the facebook page). This will include bicycle powered sound systems and numerous other projects that highlight energy awareness and consumption through creative and interactive engineering art projects.
To add to the fun, we thought it is a great occasion to bring together all of the handy ebike project builders in the region and throw the first homemade ebike design contest. This will be a chance to showcase to the public just how accessible, practical, and awesome an electric bike can be for reducing your overall energy footprint. We will have the exact contest categories, judging criteria, and a submission form prepared at the start of June. However, we are putting the word out now so that if you've had some pet project underway or on the to-do list, there is now a little extra incentive to get it rolling with a firm deadline on the calendar. Entering the competition will be free, and prizes will be plentiful.
There is tons and tons of stuff that goes on behind the scenes here which is pretty slow to percolate onto the webpage, but every now and then we get to something. We have just added our own battery discharge test data for all of the 36V packs that we offer on our site, from data collected over the past year with our own in-house computer controlled automated testing apparatus. This should help people better understand the differences in discharge profile and behaviour from the various chemistry and 'C' rate options. The specs for the individual packs can be seen from the table below:
8AH NiCad |
eZee LiFe |
9Ah LiMn |
10Ah LiPoly |
14Ah LiPoly |
Triang. LiFe |
 10A Curves Compared |
We have also combined all of the 10A curves from each of the different chemistries and super imposed them on a single plot in the graph on the left. In this way, you can see side by side how they all stack up at different points in the discharge. |
At the end of last week we received and unpacked our spring 2010 sea shipment from Nine Continent. We decided in this order to try out their larger 273mm diameter motor series, hoping to find something comparable to the beefy and robust Crystalyte 5300 hubs for those needing maximum torque. What we received is a motor that has almost exactly the same performance specs as the Crystalyte 5304, but with 1/3rd less weight. This motor series uses narrower 16mm magnets, but this is offset by a much larger internal rotor diameter, producing a hub that's about 10% heavier and 10% more powerful than our Nine Continent 2800 series. We have named this the 1606 hub (16mm magnets, 6 turn winding) and have both a front and a single speed rear option available on our motors store page. We have modeled it for the simulator too.
It is well suited for scooter and cruiser bike projects, but is not as good a compatibility fit for mountain bikes as the Crystalyte 530X hubs which have an integrated disk rotor attachment and can accommodate a 7 speed freewheel.
As well, we have stocked up substantially in the faster wind 2806 and 2805 hub motors, and have now listed these as _FAST options for our Nine Continent kits. With the 2806 in a 26" rim, or the 2805 in a 20" rim, it is possible to reach 40 kph (25 mph) cruising speeds when using the standard and readily available 36V battery packs. There is no need to run at 48V just to achieve this performance.
It's not a fun job, but at least we now have solution to the regen overvoltage issue with our Infineon motor controllers. We have several hundred replacement Infineon chips that are programmed correctly, and now have to open up each controller and them remove and resolder a new Infineon chip to the PCB. We have now resumed sales of the controllers and Nine Continent kits as we carry on with this process, but it will probably be another 2 weeks until we have sufficient stockpile of fixed controllers to send out replacements for all those in the field.
Bruce Lau has brought out the first revision of the ebike audio amplifier (VeloAMP) originally released last fall. It has now been slimmed down to half the original enclosure thickness, while still maintaining the full 100 watts of stereo output power, 24-72V input voltage, a volume knob, speaker terminals, and an indicator LED. It looks slick, and delivers volumes. These units are in stock again for those wanting to play with loud and high quality sound systems on their ebikes.
Our next Cycle Analyst prize goes out to Peter Wagner in Switzerland for his cruiser bike that demonstrates a remarkable level of craftsmanship. Fitting a battery nicely in the triangular frame area of a regular diamond frame bike is challenging enough, so it takes a special kind of dedication to fit this around the curved tubes of a classic beach cruiser, with a shaped sheet metal enclosure and quick release mounting mechanism. In addition to the superbly clean build, he also modified weak elements of a cruiser bike to better suit a fast electric assist, including thru-axle front suspension forks with disk brakes. You can read a full documentation of his project construction here.
We've just become aware of a firmware problem that exists in all of our current stock of Infineon motor controllers which can present a safety risk. Normally there is a high voltage regen cutout that prevents any regenerative current from flowing as soon as the pack reaches 58V. This is incredibly important, not so much to prevent overcharging of batteries, but to protect the controller and electronics against voltage spikes that can occur when the battery pack is disconnected. With no battery attached, the regen current has no place to flow and rapidly charges up the controller capacitors until something gives. Unfortunately, somewhere in the communication efforts to try and make a more easily 72V compliant controller, this protection was eliminated from our recent batch with 100V components. As a result, if you ride the bike without the battery, or your pack becomes disconnected while riding, then there is a risk of frying the controller mosfets.
At the moment, we have suspended sales of the controllers and the Nine Continent kits until we get this sorted and have the controller boards reprogrammed. For those that already have our Infineon in the field, this issue only applies if you received it in the last 2 months, and the Low Voltage Cutoff on your controller label shows 27V. If it shows 20V, then you are OK. We will be contacting those who have the newer controllers in order to work out getting replacements delivered. In the meantime, keep your battery attached!
We have numerous Phylion lithium manganese batteries from 2009 that are delivering on our test station more like 8-8.5 Ah instead of the 9-9.5 Ah that we normally expect. In some cases it is just a small cell balancing issue, while in other instances it is more of an intrinsic cell capacity problem. However, with so much we want to do this year, we don't have the time to go through and try and tweak all of these batteries. So instead we are offering these packs in pairs at a great combo price of $795 CAD or $750 USD for those who want an extra range kit at a good deal. You'll get two lithium battery packs and bags that can hang on either side of your rear rack, a 2A battery charger, and a 'Y' splitter cable that will let you combine the two batteries into a single controller. The combined capacity is about 17 Ah, good for a solid 60+km range, and with the current shared between the pair of packs, it is OK to run this battery combo with high current 35A or 40A controllers.
We had lots of interesting submissions for the Cycle Analyst giveaway prize, so thanks to all those who gave it a shot. Picking a winner was not easy, but in the end we chose an electric tadpole trike project by Andrew Thomas in Toronto. He built this almost entirely from scratch using industrial aluminum railing parts and spare bicycle components. The setup is fully suspended, and features a pedal trailer that hitches on the back for his son ride as a converted tandem. It's powered from a DC hub motor on the rear and has a full fairing for winter riding.
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Next prize will be decided on April 15th, so please keep the submissions coming to ca.giveaway@ebikes.ca We will carry forwards previous entries that didn't win.
We are looking to hire someone full-time to join our 7-person team at the sales and reception end of our operation. Ideally this is a person who shares our passion about ebikes, and is familiar enough with the technology that they can help guide and support people to choosing the right components to work for them. Before getting TOO excited, it is a tough job that will require working Saturdays and being great at managing a deluge of phone calls, email orders, and walk-in visitors, sometimes all at once. Computer skills, good work ethic, and likability are a must. Lots of other skills are an asset too, as working in small business means wearing many hats. If this sounds like you, or someone you know, then spread the work and feel free to send a resume and cover letter our way at resume@ebikes.ca .
We receive many emails from people sharing us photos of their ebike projects, and quite often these are exceptional pieces of craftsmanship or creative ingenuity, or just humorous pieces that make us all laugh. We'd like to give our support to those out there in the community who are helping reshape how we think about getting around in the 21st century, those who are taking ebike parts and exploring outside the box.
So starting this month, we will be giving away a free Cycle Analyst every 2 weeks to the most interesting and unique ebike contraption that is submitted to us. It must be an original project that is mostly built up (so no concept drawings), and we'd like to hear your story behind it as well. Send your submissions by email to ca.giveaway@ebikes.ca , including photos of you and your homemade electric ride, and a little info about why you think you deserve the prize.
Note, there was a typo in the address field the first 24 hrs that this was up, our apologies! If you sent an email and it bounced please resend to correct spelling above.
We're going to kick things off with Art Burns, from Seaforth Ontario who has been riding ebikes for several years since suffering an vision impairment in an accident. He had two scooter ebikes, but neither had the range for his planned Ontario to BC trip this summer. So the solution, he had Golectric hack one in half, convert it to a trailer, and load it high and low with batteries!
We're steadily ramping up an official "uni-shop" in the corner of our store. Our hope is to be the first shop in Vancouver to carry all the specialized gear for one-wheelers, and give the local unicycle community a chance to see, feel, and try out the equipment before they buy it. Anne-Sophie is around most days of the week to share her expertize.
On a similar note, we will be resuming the Wednesday evening unicycle gatherings down at Science World on March 31st, starting at 6:30pm then moving it to 7pm when the day's get longer. We had a blast doing this all of last summer, and will continue to bring our fleet of spare unis for people to try out and practice on.
Two little updates here, both mosfet related. First is that we have a new 12 mosfet 40 amp Infineon based controller that uses IRFB4110 mosfets and 100V capacitors, making it relatively easy to modify for 72V operation. They also come with regen already enabled. Secondly, we now have our eZee kit controllers available with the same IRFB4110 mosfets. So now it is possible to get an eZee kit with a controller that will run cooler and have no compatibility issues with 48V packs.
Starting on April 1st, we will expand our shop drop-in hours to 11am - 6pm, Tuesday to Friday, and 11am - 4pm on Saturdays. The Saturday opening especially should help with the many locals who difficulty getting out here to pick up parts. Just do keep in mind that we are mostly an engineering / manufacturing operation and online shop, rather than a retail outlet, so things are setup accordingly.
Time to introduce version 2.2 of the Cycle Analyst, with a few improvements. Though many commented that the 1 button interface was intuitive and clever, it did have limitations as we added more and more features to scroll through. So now there is a second 'back' button which takes you to the previous screen or down a digit, and holding this second button can get you to the setup menu at any point without restarting the device.
The version 2.2 CA also uses a membrane overlay for the buttons and the window, which is better suited to withstanding rain and elements than the previous model with a glued window and a metal push button. As well, we've now moved the wires to exit holes in the back of the box instead of grommets on the side. This permits a tidier wiring job on the bicycle. We've also included extra vent holes in the back plate that serve a) to provide ventilation so that the display window never fogs up, and b) to provide an easy means of feeding wires in and out of the device for those using advanced features such as datalogging, throttle control, etc.
We now have available the custom rear carrier for the 37V 8Ah eZee LiFePO4 battery packs. This is a seat post mounted rack, so it can be installed on full suspension mountain bikes and bikes that don't have mounting eyelets. The rack has a rail system that allows the flat battery to slide on and lock into place. And the clamping mechanism features double bolts for a really tight bind to the seat post tube, to prevent the side to side swaying that often happens when seat post carriers are used with a heavy load. This carrier is now included with the eZee LiFePO4 upgrade kit.
Both the Chinese New Year and the 2010 Olympics got underway on the same day this month. Justin was in Shanghai visiting Mr. Ching at the eZee Bike factory during the start of Spring Festival, and kicked off celebrations there with his two favorite hobbies in one, pyrotechnics and ebikes!
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Meanwhile, here in Vancouver the winter Olympic games and festivities are well underway. We're doing our best to keep the shop open and running all the while, but keep in mind that during some events we may be quite short-staffed or have our attention elsewhere. Things will be normal again starting March 2nd.
We've just gone live with a convenient web page to facilitate the process of building hub motor wheels. Our online spoke calculator has all the pertinent details for lacing common hub motors in a single place, so that you don't have to hunt down manufacturer spec sheets or make accurate measurements and deal with overly complicated programs to figure out a spoke length. Just choose your hub, choose your rim (or enter the ERD directly), and out comes the spoke size for your wheel.
We first got involved with torque arm manufacturing a little over a year ago, pioneering a 2-piece design that causes the motor torque to further seat the axle into the dropout. The designs have evolved based on testing and failure analysis, with thicker plate metal and improved geometries. In our original Universal Hose Clamp design it got to the point that the hose clamp itself would be the weak link to give way in the event of a spinout incident, so our latest version has now been released which includes double hose clamps and an elongated slot in the thick axle plate to fit a range of fork types.
We are offering a great deal on the 36V 8Ah triangular NiCad packs if you get them as the battery option with either an eZee or Nine Continent kit. For just $180 USD (or $200 CAD) you'll get a reliable battery that mounts discretely in your frame, gives 20-30 km of range, and comes with both a charger and MEC frame bag! This special will last until the end of January.
Our store this year will be open throughout the holidays, so you can continue to count on us for parts, service, and support. However, from Dec 20th to Jan 3rd, the staffing levels will be much reduced, so we'll ask that any walk-in customers let schedule with us ahead of time before dropping by.
We're pleased to have EcoSpeed's new Mountain Drive conversion package available and in stock for riders in Vancouver and the rest of Canada. Although our specialty has been with hub motor conversions, there are strong cases to be made for mid-drive units that assist through the bicycle gearing in some applications. EcoSpeed in Portland, Oregon, makes one of the most powerful and professionally engineered packages available, and so we were excited when they recently released a model that was compatible with upright mountain bikes and not just recumbents. It may be a while yet before we have them properly explained and listed on our store site, so for now email if interested.
We've begun a series of experiments to help us fully understand the nature of bicycle fork failures where the hub motor axle spins out inside the dropouts. This can be a disconcerting failure mode with conversion ebikes that is all the more relevant with the rise of both aluminum forks and more powerful hub motors in recent years. Those interested in following these tests have a look at this thread on the endless-sphere forum, where we will be posting the methods and results.
We'll be learning the bounds of what regular bicycle forks with and without torque arms can handle, and hopefully from these tests we'll be able to engineer even better torque arm designs.
Ever wanted to know how far you can push these hub motors? How accurate is the simulator when you are putting thousands rather than hundreds of watts into a hub? How long can they put out that kind of power before burning up? Well we sure did, and have recently begun posting the result of some tests to see where exactly these limits are. An interesting read for the technically inclined.
We've finally finished the complete Cycle Analyst Version 2.1 User Manual. It includes a thorough explanation of the many more advanced features that were added in this firmware update, such as serial data logging, on-the-fly current and speed limiting, using the CA as a 'current throttle', and additional details on the wiring and circuitry.
There are two new battery options for our eZee and Nine Continent kit offerings. The first is a high capacity 14Ah lithium polymer battery that is exactly the same size and even less mass than the original 10Ah eZee pack. This should be a handy upgrade option for those needing an extended 50-60km range without any weight penalty. The second is a slick 8.5Ah lithium iron phopshate (LiFePO4) battery in a flat plastic enclosure for those wanting the iron phosphate chemistry. Both come with rapid 4A aluminum chargers which can top up a pack in short order.
The entire back-end of our online hub motor simulator has been revamped to properly model the effects of motor winding inductance. Although neglibible with the low pole count Crystalyte motors, the winding inductance has a significant effect on the performance of geared motors and high pole count direct drive hubs like Nine Continent series, so our simulator now gives a much more accurate portrayal of these. While we were at it, we characterized and added several new motors to the simulator, such as our new 2805 NC hub, the fast 20" eZee hub, as well as the BMC V2 and MAC geared motors.
Anyone who has been on a kilowatt-hour or Critical Mass bike ride in Vancouver over the past 8 months has probably heard and appreciated the fine high fidelity music and thumping bass coming from amongst the crowd. That's been the productive output of Bruce Lau, who built a performance 100 watt amp to run off his ebike battery pack. Now you too can turn heads and make people on the streets smile with an ebike sound system that rivals that of pimped cars. Bruce has made a few extras and we have them listed on our store site. They are hand-made in Vancouver, and ready to spread joy all over the world.
Back in 2006 we were the first to bring fast winding 404 and 405 Crystalyte hub motors to the scene; in 2008 we had eZee make a high rpm motor for their 20" kits, last fall we had Nine Continent do a faster 6 turn winding of their 205 hub for us, and now in our most recent shipment we have taken this a step further with a 5 turn winding Nine Continent motor, which we'll call the 2805. This gives us a 20" wheel option that has the capability of doing 25mph or 40kph speeds with a standard 36V battery pack. The advantage of fast motors with a lower winding count is that they provide a path to achieve good speed performance without going to high voltage 72V battery arrangements, which is a frequent source of problems especially when people series connect BMS protected lithium batteries.
As well, the rear motors in this shipment have all been laced with the heads on the left side of the hub flange and are properly dished out of the box, so our earlier caveat about wheel dishing is no longer a problem.
Our Infineon-based motor controllers now includes all of the changes we sought to make this a great universal controller option. We have an integrated rocker switch for ON/OFF power control, a forwards/reverse connector so that it is compatible with the eZee hub motors, and an ebrake cutoff connector that can enable regenerative braking with a small modification to the circuitboard. The current limit on the 6 mosfet version with the high performance IRFB4030 mosfets has been increased to 25 amps. That of the larger 12 mosfet version is still 35 amps. These items are in stock and are plug in compatible with all of our Crystalyte, eZee, and Nine Continent motors.
This is just a reminder as days get shorter that we have a range of lighting accessories designed to run right off your ebike battery pack. These have been getting high acclaim from all who have purchased them. In particular, the Dual Halogen kit provides either 10W or 20W of bright illumination, and with a traditional warm colour spectrum that gets a lot more notice on the road than bluish HID and LED lights. For those who just want power sipping, our 0.5W and 1W bombproof LED front and rear array lights will work up to 100V, can be seen for miles, and have built in waterproof button and memory.
They also work great for lighting up Hallowe'en pumpkins!
We're pleased to offer a Fedex express shipping option for all of our international orders. This means a 2-day delivery time to most places in the world. We are still working on integrating this with our web checkout. That should be sorted soon but in the meantime we are happy to email a quote.
After some development time we are pleased to make available a Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery option in a triangular form factor. The layout is similar to that used in our frame mounted 36V NiCad batteries, only it is lighter weight (4.7 kg) and higher in capacity (10 Ah). These particular packs are made with low impedance 'F' size cells rated for 5C discharge in a 12S 2P arrangement. The overall pack has an internal resistance of just 130 mOhm, half the resistance of other 10Ah ebike batteries, which means less voltage sag under load and no problems delivering up to 40 amps of continuous current. Click the graphs at the right to see the complete performance details.
This finally means that we have a battery pack that can be recommended for higher power systems using the 35 and 40A motor controllers.
Vancouver is one of the birthplaces of mountain unicycling and has a large unicycle community, yet has always lacked a shop that specializes in them. We want to fix that and are ready to open up a small unicycle corner in our store, the preliminary website for which is here. You might wonder what unicycles have to do with ebikes. Well, not much, yet, though we're equally passionate about both.
A heads up to everyone that we will be closed for a short summer break starting at the at the end of this week right through to the Labour Day weekend. So last day for order shipments to go out will be Friday, August 28th, and they won't resume again until Tuesday, Sept 8th. We will able to respond to emails during this period, but there will be no one at our physical shop and the online store will be temporarily de-activated as well. Hope that everyone is able to get out and enjoy the last weeks of summer.
Just a short note that the Nine Continent kit sales are on again with the infineon motor controllers. More product announcements and details by the end of this week.
One common problem with the rear hub motor maintenance is that people can't remove their freewheel, since the rear motor axles are too large to fit through the opening in the removal tool. We've now got a large supply of custom removal tools that were made up with a 14mm bore all the way through so that they will slide right over the large 14mm threads on the rear axles.
We've finished designing and testing an even tidier universal torque arm to offer for front hub motor installations. This model is made to screw into fender eyelets rather than being secured to the fork with a hose clamp. It too uses thick 3/16" stainless steel plate to restrain against axle rotation and can accomodate both 12mm and 14mm axles. We will still continue offering the hose-clamp variety for those with forks that don't have fender eyelets.
Friday July 10th is the next kWhr ride, departing from the downtown library at 6pm. Last week we had a delightful beach barbeque with a perfect sunset, musical entertainment, and a well illuminated return trip after dark.
On saturday night there is a chance to view the first ever bicycle-in movie screening featuring a short film "The Cat Returns". This will be hosted by our good friend Bruce Lau who has built a collapsible 14 foot screen that straps to his ebike; and the projector, sound system, and lighting for the show are all powered from circuits Bruce made that run off his ebike battery pack.
If you are up for doing something unique this saturday then pack your blanket, some popcorn, and come join us. We will be meeting up at our store (4570 Main St.) at 8:30pm, and then riding en masse to an undisclosed public lot where the stage will get setup for an outdoors movie theater.
As of June 2009 we have now standardized all of the hall connectors on our motors and motor controllers to the plastic style (SM series from JST) and pin-out used in the eZee kits. We've discontinued the so called mini-XLR format used on the Crystalyte system because of complications sourcing this connector for other vendors, and we want all the ebike parts we supply to be interchangeable whenever possible. The latest shipment of Crystalyte disk compatible hub motors which we have in stock now uses this flat plastic connector from JST, as does the latest batch of rear Nine Continent motors. We plan to embrace this connector pinout as a standard for all hub motors and controllers that we carry going forwards.
Aug 2nd Controller Status Update: We now have the infineon immediate start controllers available in both 20 and 35A models to use with both the Nine Continent and Crystalyte hub motors.
As many people have noticed, we don't currently have any stock of immediate start Crystalyte motor controllers, whether in the 20A or the higher current 35 and 48A models. We have been working on sourcing a higher end replacement of these for quite a while and hoped to have something comparable to offer by now, but several unexpected setbacks including parts shipments getting lost in transit have held things back. If everything goes well at this point we are expecting to have them available before the end of July. Until then, we don't have much to offer for 'complete package' systems other than the eZee kits.
Although we initially had the eZee controllers modified and advertised as being 48V capable, there have been enough failures at this point that we are going to back down and only suggest them for 36V operation. Under heavy load conditions at 48V, such as going up a long steep hill full throttle, there is a possibility of a mosfet frying. This didn't happen in our original 48V testing as we were using 8AH NiCad packs which would sag to about 43V at 20A currents. But the trend recently has been for "48V" 16 cell LiFePO4 batteries (more properly called 52V packs), and these deliver a higher voltage to the controller under load which can more easily put it over the edge.
For customers currently running their eZee kits at 48V, we recommend using a Cycle Analyst to limit the current draw to 15 amps max. When we receive the new controllers alluded to in the previous paragraph and have validated their robustness at 48V, then we give the option of exchanging these for the eZee controllers so that you have the 48V capability originally implied.
June is bicycle month in Vancouver and this year is off to a rocking start with one of the warmest and sunniest summer weather systems we've had in ages. The bike paths are overflowing with happy riders and new commuters, and tons of bicycle themed events are taking place around town:
The last three kWhr electric bicycle rides have been great fun, with upwards 14-18 people showing up for longer trips along the water and winding up for drinks and food at the Jericho Sailing Club. This June it's going to be extra special with a bunch of us bringing portable barbeques and finishing the ride with a full fledged summer picnic on the beach. So come all and help make it the largest group ebike ride yet, leaving 6pm on June 12th at the Vancouver Public Library, and bring barbeque food if you got it.
The annual car-free festival has grown by leaps and bounds since a few visionaries first opened up commercial drive to the walking public several years ago. Last year we participated with a "Car Free Vehicle Show" on a section of Main Street to good effect, introducing a lot of people to the car free transportation possibilities that exist with electric assist bicycles and tricycles. Our cargo trike was a huge success ferrying people up and down the road all day long. This year we'll be bringing our fleet and also a whole pile of unicycles too, always something new to try. The road closure has expanded to cover Main Street all the way to King Edwards. We'll likely be stationed around 18th and Main.
If you've ever wondered what it's like to be surrounded on all sides by cyclists as far as the eye can see, then show up at the Vancouver Art Gallery on the last Friday of June. This ride caps off June, Bike Month, with a bang.
Finally, last night (June 2nd) was the grand opening of a new exhibit at the Museum of Vancouver called "Velo City, Vancouver and the Bicycle Revolution". The purpose of the show is to tell the often overlooked stories of the various bicycle cultures here and how they are shaping up to redefine our city life. Among the many items on display, from the land speed record Diablo, to the freak bikes, to courier fixies, BMX's, and trials bikes, is the weathered and dirty but still working semi-recumbent Xtracycle conversion that traveled 7100km across Canada last summer! Thanks to all the people who contributed to purchasing the Big Dummy frame and who by so doing encouraged keeping this bike in tact. Less than a year later it is already in a museum as a piece of history.
The exhibit runs for three months until the end of September and is well worth checking out.
The Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association's annual EV show is happening this coming Saturday at the Burnaby Sports Field. This is a free event for the public to check out all kinds electric cars, scooters, skateboards, and bicycles, ranging from commercial booths to home-made conversions. There is a small track for you to test ride the various contraptions and lots of people to meet.
If things are looking quiet on our homepage front for a while, it's usually because there is a lot going on behind the scenes. This is no exception, so we'll start off by bringing attention to many of the smaller things that have been added to the shop:
The Cycle Analyst firmware version 2.1 is now officially released through the entire line of CA products. For most users there is little material difference, the trip amp-hours and distance can now go up to 1999 Ah or Km respectively, instead of 199, and the #poles variable for CA-DP devices now goes up to 99 instead of just 14 poles. But for those who like to tinker, there are extra pads now used for datalogging and external control of the speed or current limit, as explained on the first announcement last year. For those who are in and out familiar with microchip programming, the hex code is available for download here.
On the subject of Cycle Analysts and data logging, we now have a cable assembly prepared that enables you to record the data coming off a CA into your computer or laptop through the standard USB port. This device requires soldering to the Gnd and Tx pads on the Cycle Analyst circuitboard. It includes a built in serial -> USB converter, so it will show up as a COM port on your computer and the data can be viewed and logged with hyperterminal or any other standard terminal program.
It seems that a lot of people who were purchasing the high current Cycle Analyst models did not already have a shunt on hand, so we are now carrying a large 0.25 mOhm shunt that is suitable for 200-300 amps of continuous current and up to 600 amps peak, which will cover a wide range of large EV applications. This part is listed on our accessories store page.
We have also sourced a great metal enclosed 12V halogen light series that mates perfectly with our DC-DC converters. So for those who want more brightness than the LED lights, these halogen lights with a 12V DC-DC will command more than just a presence on the road. We have both 5W and 10W bulb options available, and will be releasing a dual light in the near future that will give up to 20W of illumination.
There is finally an answer to those who have been turned off the rear conversion kits because it meant downgrading from a 9 speed shifter system to 7 or 8 speeds in order to accommodate a screw-on freewheel. The company which produces our 11 tooth 7 and 8 speed freewheels now makes a 9 speed version as well, which we have in stock with an 11-32 tooth gear range. It is of course a bit wider than the 7 speed freewheels, so most installations will require spacers on the axle and some spreading of the dropouts.
The e-brake lever is a device designed to cut power from the motor controller as soon as someone squeezes on the brakes. It's a sensible safety idea, but we stopped carrying them several years ago because the quality of the actual brake levers was so poor that in several cases the lever arm itself failed, leaving the rider without an operable hand brake. Well we now have a decent quality all-aluminum e-brake lever for the eZee kits. It plugs into the 4-pin PAS connector and effectively disables the throttle power when you are squeezing the brakes. It could be easily adapted to other controller systems as well. The switch mechanism is a magnetic reed device mounted outside the housing, normally open, which closes contact and the levers are pulled.
It turns out that trying to include a waterproof on/off button in our fully epoxy potted bike lights posed some interesting challenges. But few thing will phase us, and after a lot of work we've managed to sort through all the challenges and are re-introducing the button LED lights by the end of this week. The rear light is now slightly larger and brighter with 8 LEDs, and both the front and rear lights feature onboard memory as well. When the light is powered off, it remembers what mode it was in (on, off, or flashing) and returns to that state when power is re-applied. Pressing the button then cycles through each of the modes.
Our spring 2009 shipment of Nine Continent motors was unpacked this week and includes a few new items. In addition to replenishing the stock of front 20" wheels, we have also added to the mix:
The 2806 front motor in a 26" rim is a good combination for people who want to go faster while still sticking to a 36V battery system. The rear motors are here by popular request. The axle spacing is 135mm and works fine with a 5 or 6 speed freewheel. 7 speed or higher requires additional spacers on the right and slight spreading of your dropouts. They have a threaded side cover on the left to accommodate a screw-on disc rotor. The rims are centered on the hub rather than dished, so the wheel is offset about 1cm to the left as supplied. They'll be available through our website some time next week.
Our stock of Crystalyte products is generally low and the next shipment will not be arriving until late June. This shipment and all future ones will contain exclusively the Crystalyte disk compatible hub motors, so front and rear 5300 series, and rear 400 series wheels. The non-disk motors will be discontinued. As well, we will no longer be carrying the Crystalyte immediate start controllers, in either 20A or the higher power 35 and 48A devices. The Crysatlyte DC hub motor has also been discontinued, but we will continue offering the DC motor controller since it finds many applications with other motors.
This coming Wednesday at 7:30pm, Justin will be giving the first full length talk about the coast to coast electric bicycle trip he completed last summer. The format will be a mix of video and slide show, compiled from the 23,000 pictures that were taken once a minute from the handlebar camera on his bike. It will cover the trials of touring by electric bicycle and the fascinating people encountered and places explored. Anyone interested to hear more should check it out and learn about VEVA as well. The event is held at the SE1 cafeteria building at BCIT in Burnaby. Be sure to print the map or make good notes because the exact building can be confusing to find on the BCIT campus.
Also, the March kilowatt-hour ebike ride was another blast, with a turnout of 14 riders who all biked out together for drinks on Granville Island.
The remaining bugs in the V2.1 Cycle Analyst code appear to have all been fixed, so we are now releasing this in a special form for electric vehicle enthusiasts. CycleAnalyst 2.1, with datalogging serial output, is available OEM style in a 200V high current board with an extra large display screen and no enclosure. It is ideal for installing behind the dashboard of electric cars, scooters, motorcycles, and other larger EV's that can benefit from a much bigger display size. More information will be coming soon but check out the CA page for preliminary details.
We have 5V 10 watt, 6V 10 watt, and 12V 20 watt DC-DC converters in production now. These devices allow you to run powerful 3rd party headlamps, sound systems, and other electronic gadgets from your main electric bicycle battery. Like our ebike LED lights, these DC-DC converter units are simple, rugged, compact, and waterproof. They are engineered around the specific needs of electric bicycles, are made in Canada, and we guarantee them for life. More information will be posted in the coming week on our Lighting page.
The eZee kits are well thought out and include a spacer washer which helps the hub motor fit in bicycle dropouts fit for quick release. We now have an open 'C' spacer washer made up from 3/16" stainless that can provide this same functionality to our other hub motors that are installed on front forks which have a recessed cavity and 'lawyer lip' for quick release nuts. With the open 'C' shape, it is possible to slide this over axles that have wires and connectors coming out the end. As well, we have redesigned the torque arm plate slightly, increasing the thickness to 3/16" for greater strength.
There is a shelving unit in our hallway with an increasing amount of ebike stuff accumulating on it as a result of our activities. This includes sample parts from companies that we decided not to follow through with, battery packs that didn't meet our QC needs or which were used by our demo bikes, various used ebike components that have been returned to us but are still functional, and a number of connectors and cable assemblies that we don't really have use for. These could be perfect for the DIY project person and they are all listed at take 'em away prices for customers coming by to visit our shop.
Although we've been pretty sold on hub motors for the vast majority of conversions, there is a case to be made for mid-drive systems especially in the application of load and cargo hauling applications. That is where the Stokemonkey system from Clevercycles has been a natural match. It is designed to install around the Xtracycle attachment which adds a whole new realm of utility to your bicycle. And unlike most other mid-drives which have a loud and whining gear noise to put up with, the Stokemonkey using the familiar low-rpm Crystalyte motors is completely silent. We have a limited number of Stokemonkey setups that will be listed on our kits page, and will be offering the Xtracycle and accessories in the near future too.
Our latest shipment from Crystalyte included a few goodies to make note of. First is that we received a number of 72V pedal first controllers with a 30 amp current limit using the IRFB4110 mosfets. For the first time this means that we have a sensorless controller option for people wanting to run the large 5300 series hub motors, and for those who want to drive the Nine Continent and 400 series motors to higher power levels than is possible with 20 amps.
Secondly is that Crystalyte has sorted out both disk brake compatibility and waterproofing issues in the latest samples of motors. The rear disk motors are now available with an side cover that has an integrated 44mm bolt pattern for attaching disc rotors, the days of screw-on non standard discs are over. As well, there is a rubber sealing ring surrounding the axle entry to the side cover, and the wire entry slot is filled with a sealant. We have a small number of front and rear disk 5304 Crystalyte hub motors available, as well as spare 5300 series side cover plates for those who want to adapt a regular rear to the disc version.
Finally, the Project Motors which we had Crystalyte make a couple years ago ended up getting used in several interesting vehicles that required single sided axle support. Rather than ordering separate project motors for each winding type, this time we had a custom set of project motor axles manufactured, and with our press we can swap the axle out of any 400 series hub motor we have stock and replace it with one of these.
Our online store site has evolved quite a bit from when it was just an html table of a dozen items and prices a few years ago. We have been hard at work on the latest revision, which includes a more browseable layout for all our parts, a search field, a full featured cart system with no popups, and best of all an automatic shipping calculator that gives instant freight quotes to most destinations in the world. We are trying to make purchasing conversion parts as straightforward as possibe, so check it out and give us your feedback.
The summer season seems to be just around the corner here in Vancouver. The decent turn-out at the last Kilowatt Hour ebike ride organized by Steven Luscher is sure sign that people are packing in their winter projects and are ready to head outdoors on their bicycles. So come out to the next ride on Friday, March 13th, we'll make it a big one to bring on 2009. As well, the Wednesday following the ride, March 18th, Justin will be giving a full length video/slide show presentation of his cross-canada trip at the VEVA meeting. More details on both these events will be posted as the dates approach.
But don't get too excited, a job is just a job right? We are looking for someone with excellent customer skills, some sales experience, and an understanding of administrative duties. See our posting on Craigslist.
Fresh and shiny and right off the boat, we now have a rear version of the eZee conversion kit in stock and ready to ship. This has all the great features of the front eZee: light weight, high torque, internal gears, and disk brake, but comes in a rear wheel with a standard 135mm dropout spacing and room for a 7 or 8 speed freewheel. Other improvements include a thick 14mm axle that is more resistant to spinout, a polished metal finish, and stainless steel axle nuts for extra resilience.
We hope that everyone has a fine holiday season. It may be cold outside, but with a heated garage and good supply of parts, there is no better time than the winter holidays to start working on your next ebike project. Thanks to everyone for a great year.
The Canadian dollar has lost nearly 1/4 of its value since the start of the year. We've held off adjusting the CAD prices for quite some time in hopes that this would normalize again, but it hasn't and we can't hold off any longer, so be forewarned that when we re-open in 2009 the Canadian prices on some of our inventory will go up by approximately 12-15%. In the spirit of good times though, we'll let the low Canadian dollar prices continue to apply for this last week so anyone who has been considering a purchase before the prices rise can do so.
In development for over a year and thoroughly field tested on the cross-canada ebike ride, the waterproof LED bicycle lights with wide ranging input voltage are now in early production and are available from our shop. These rugged and bright LED lights were designed from the ground up for the requirements of electric bicycles. The efficient DC-DC input will work directly with any ebike battery voltage, whether you are running a 24V, 36V, or even 72V system.
We have designed a universal stainless steel torque arm which we are having manufactured by a local metal shop here in Vancouver. These will slide over both 12mm and 14mm axles, and the two piece design will adapt to virtually any fork style or dropout angle. Although not strictly required, a torque arm does reduce the likelyhood of an axle spinout and is particularly useful with higher torque motors that use small 12mm axles such as the Nine Continent hubs.
We are pleased to be part of the BC Scrapit program, which encourages people to retire old and fuel inefficient vehicles in exchange for a greener transportation choice. As an incentive to get rid of your old car, you'll be rewarded with a credit of $1300 CAD to go toward the purchase of an an ebike from participating stores. This is almost exactly the price of an eZee kit, a Crysatlyte 500 series setup, or (almost) a pair of Nine Continent kits to convert two bicycles. Please check the Scrapit Program Website for details.
It is more than a few months late, but the full fledged Cycle Analyst V2.0 User Manual has been recently completed and is now included as a booklet with all Cycle Analyst shipments. Many of the advanced setup features are explained for the first time, so even seasoned Cycle Analyst users may glean something useful from reading it. The document is available for download here.
We have received and tested the updated CPU chips for the aluminum Nexcell NiMH/NiCad chargers. These chips have a higher upper voltage threshold that allows the cells to properly come into balance at the end of the charging cycle. If you have one of the chargers from us with 3-LEDs, then we recommend upgrading to the newer microchip, especially if you are using it with a NiCad battery pack. There is a socket on the circuitboard for this part so no soldering or special tools are required for the replacement. Replacement Guide
As well, we are also pleased to introduce a line of econonimcal 1.8 amp NiCad/NiMH chargers. For people who don't need the fast charge time of the 3A aluminum units, these plastic units offer a lighter weight and more affordable charging option.
In order to simplify the ordering process for more common items, we have now made several conversion kits and accessories available through a paypal checkout system with a buy-it-now button. There is no need to wait for email confirmations and shipping quotes, and you'll get the instant gratification of sending us money right away. This option is available for eZee kits, Nine Continent Kits, and Crystalyte DC motor kit, as well as our whole line of Cycle Analyst devices.
The cart system is still in place for more complicated and customized orders involving the many Crystalyte components and battery options.
These are rough financial times for many people, so we felt like making life a little easier for those who are contemplating an electric bicycle conversion project this winter. We are now offering free shipping anywhere in North America for the eZee conversion kits. This promotion will be last until the end of November, so treat yourself to an early Christmas present.
The November 2008 Crystalyte Shipment has been unpacked and the new items added to our store site. This includes a large number of 5300 series hub motors as well as rear 400 series motors. The inventory listings are all up to date and current.
We mentioned last week that the switched capacitor balancing BMS circuits had arrived and were testing out well. The graph below shows a case in point. This battery pack started off delivering only 7.7 Amp-hours at the time that we inserted the new BMS. After each charge and discharge cycle after that, the capacity improved from one discharge to the next until finally leveling off at a full 11.6 A-h.
For those who hung on to their LiFePO4 battery packs and have replacement BMS circuits on the way, we have produced a brief instruction guide on how to go about opening the pack and wiring in the replacement.
Since the summer of 2007, Steven Luscher has been organizing a monthly meetup for electric bicycle riders at the Vancouver Central Library. This last ride in October was by far the largest to date, and we hope to see this event continue flourish as the electric bicycle community expands as well. The video below shows a time-lapse journey of this trip from us leaving our store on Main Street to the final photoshoot just after dark.
The next meetup will be on November 14th, and word is out that it may be more of a social and culinary gathering than a large ebike ride. We'll see, and we hope to see many of you there too.
Well it has been quite a long wait but we have finally received the proper cell balancing battery management circuits for the Iron Phosphate battery packs. For any customers who purchased a 24V, 36V, or 48V LiFePO4 battery from us, please send us an email and we will ship you a new BMS circuit that will bring all the cells back into balance, restoring the full capacity from the pack. These BMS circuits are also less prone to tripping from the capacitor inrush current when plugged into the larger motor controllers.
After a decent beta run, we are now shipping the conversion kits based around the Nine Continent hub motor and a Crystalyte sensorless 20A controller. The main lesson we have learned is that because of the higher torque output and the lack of an extended keyway on the axle, these hub motors are more prone to axle spinout than the Crystalyte 400 series. So extra precaution during installation is required, and we will have matching torque arms to offer with the kits in the near future.
Our ebike conversion workshop earlier this summer was a great success, with approximately a dozen people attending, two ebikes fully converted, and a lot of knowledge spread around. We would like to repeat this workshop in November and are sending out feelers to gauge the amount of interest there would be at this time of year. The only difference is that last time we were able to offer the workshop for free, while this time we would have to collect a small participation fee to account for the rental of the shop space from the Pedal Depot. If you think you would participate, please send us an email to workshop@ebikes.ca
We have found a bit of a flaw with all the newer 3-LED Nexcell NiMH/NiCad battery chargers. These chargers use a programmable mircochip for controlling the charging process, but the overvoltage cutoff point was set too low to fully top up and balance Nickle Cadmium battery packs. The image from our testing station below clearly shows the difference between using the old and the new chargers:
The newer chargers terminate early at 61V rather than waiting for either a significant temperature rise or voltage drop that occures when the cells are allowed to overcharge slightly. This means the cells don't get a chance to balance out and causes a greater likelyhood of cell reversals developing over time. It's not a critically serious issue, but we have had more than the regular percentage of batteries coming back to us for which this was identified as the source of the problem. If you have a 3-LED charger and NiCad battery, we should have replacement microchips available soon for upgrading the charger parameters.
Come join us to make the October Kilowatt-Hour bike ride the largest one yet! This monthly event has been going on for over a year now and offers electric bike riders in Vancouver a chance to meet up together and go for a social group ride around the city. The meetup starts at 6pm at the downtown library, details are here:
And if you haven't seen it yet, this will be your chance to see and maybe even ride the trans-continental ebike that is now reassembled and rolling again.
This coming Tuesday, Oct 14th, is the end of Canadian thanksgiving as well as voting day in our federal elections, and for us to fulfill these national responsibilities the store will be closed from regular resale activity. We'll be open again as usual on Wednesday from 12-6pm.
Well he did it. 59 days, 7100 km, and 2700 amp-hours later, Justin finally arrived in the city of Halifax on the east coast of Canada on sunday night, to the wet and windy welcome of Hurricane Kyle. Total electricity bill: $8.57
He has been keeping up to date stories from the adventure on the endless-sphere thread, where some final thoughts on the trip and many photos are posted.
Justin's train is scheduled to arrive back in Vancouver sometime during the day on Oct 7th. There has been considerable interest in having a bit of a welcome back gathering and we would like to book a reservation at the Foundation on Main St. and 7th ave to celebrate. If you would like to join us, please help by sending an RSVP to rsvp@ebikes.ca so we can plan accordingly. The party would likely start around 8.30pm.
We are now carrying a new '2800 series' of ebike hub motor from Nine Continent. These hubs are of the recent generation of motor design coming out of China, and have noticeably greater power and efficiency for a similar weight and lower cost than the 400 series from Crystalyte. There is a fast 2806 winding for 20" motors, and a 2807 winding for 26" and 700c wheels. At the moment, these are only available for local pickup, in a kit that includes the Crystalyte sensorless motor controller, throttle, and Cycle Analyst.
For a performance comparisons, have a look at these motors with our online simulator.
Unfortunately, after several weeks of testing we have decided to return the batch of auto-ranging 24V-48V NiCad/NiMH chargers to the manufacturer due to several vulnerabilities that can cause them to fail. In order to meet the shortage of suitable chargers to go with our NiCad battery packs, we have a new batch of the High Power brand 3 amp charging units available.
Justin has crossed into the Eastern Time Zone on his trans-canadian electric bicycle trip. He's in Thunderbay, Ontario, having had his first real setback. He still doesn't have his act together to get a real blog for this journey yet, but you can read about the exploits from the Endless Sphere's thread where he'll be continuing to make regular updates.
- Justin crossed the border into Saskatchewan on Thursday night. Two provinces down, a tad over $2.00 consumed from the energy budget, and another 4800 km remaining. He will be in Regina on Sunday and is keen to find out if there are any electric bicycle enthusiasts in that area. If you are one or know one, send us an email to info@ebikes.ca
To clarify the situation, this Sunday Aug 16th at midnight will be the last day this summer that we will accept new orders from our store, shipping all of the existing orders and clearing up any outstanding business. After that we will do some long overdue housekeeping and reorganization.
There are many things you'll be able to look forwards to when the shop re-opens on Sept 3rd:
Q. What if something breaks down, I need a new part ASAP...
A. We will continue and try to give over the top email support, so relax, no one is off Vacationing on a beach in Bermuda. However, our telephone lines will not be monitored during this period, so please direct everything to our email.
On Friday Justin crossed his first provincial border to enter Alberta on his cross-Canada electric bike journey. The trip statistics to date are shown in the image above, and things are looking more-or-less on track to make it to Halifax within the $10 energy budget.
He is currently staying in Calgary for a few days to catch up on a several things, and is planning to leave on Tuesday at 5:30 from the Power-In-Motion store at the Eau-Claire Market. Anyone wanting to participate in a small group ebike ride out of the city is welcome to join in.
A massive thank you needs to go out to Zev and Alison who have been shouldering the demanding task of running our shop during the busiest season of the year. At some point later this August the shop will be closing down for a 2 week period to give everyone a chance to take time off and recover. We will post the actual dates shortly.
Update: Dates of closure are August 17th - September 3rd.
Shipping will be completed before full shutdown so if you are waiting for your ebike parts, the shutdown will not impact their arrival. We won't be able to accept new orders during the closure by email or through our online store and will reopen on September 4th.
There was an unfortunate issue that affected a number of the motor controllers that came with the recent batch of eZee conversion kits. Due to a low tolerance thermistor, some of the controllers were prone to entering an erroneous thermal shutdown after a short while of use even when the controllers were not actually overheating. This problem would be especially acute for people running at 48V. It has been fully resolved with the controller manufacturer. If you purchased an eZee kit and had a controller that shut down and entered a state of flashing 2 times, then 3 times, please let us know. We will have a replacement controller shipped out right away.
At the time we decided to sell the 12Ah LiFePO4 battery packs this spring we made mention that there was a possibility that even though there were balanced and delivering capacity when we shipped them, that there was a chance that over time the packs would come unbalanced. Well it turns out that even though a number of the packs have been performing well, there are indeed quite a few that are gradually going down in available capacity because of inadequate cell balancing from the BMS circuit. We have been working very hard to try and get an improved replacement BMS circuit for these packs, and it looks like that will finally be coming toward the end of August.
How much energy does it take to get transported from one side of Canada to the other? We'll find out soon enough. Justin is currently in Victoria and is about to set off on a trans-Canada trip by electric bicycle. With over a kilowatt hour of lithium batteries, some fast chargers, and an Xtracycle-come-semi-recumbent bike, he's leaving equipped to do it fast and in comfort. The plan is to make it to Halifax, in about 6 week's time, monitoring the electric power consumed along the way with a goal doing the whole trip with less than ten dollars worth of electricity.
Not only will this be a great opportunity to showcase the energy efficiency of electric bikes compared to almost all other modes, it will also be a chance to meet up with you, the ebike enthusiasts all over this country. There are just so many interesting people to see and stories to hear about these very early stages of electric bicycle adoption, and Justin hopes to meet up with as many of you as he can along the way, (especially if you'll spare an outlet for a few hours!).
For more information, see the following discussion thread on the endless-sphere forum:
As a follow-on to our recent build your own ebike workshop, Renaissance is offering mini-workshops at our shop on Main Street on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from July 24th until August 15th. We have an experienced bike mechanic, James, here on-site to help guide you through the process of converting your bike. We also recognize that there number of people out there who are putting significant mileage on their ebikes, and that with the additional weight and speed this causes some bicycle parts to wear down quite fast. So if you need guidance on adjusting spoke tension, truing a wheel, tweaking your brakes and such, James is the man to show you how it's done. For more information and to book a time, contact us at info@ebikes.ca.
Many people are forever cynical about politics, but this past year the provincial government of BC has taken three actions which are enormously positive to our cause. Firstly, they have instituted the first carbon tax of its kind in North America, putting a long overdue price on CO2 emissions. Secondly, in April they eliminated sales tax on electric bicycles and ebike parts to encourage their sale as a viable green transportation choice. And thirdly, just this past week, they handed out $100 cheques to every citizen in BC to encourage us to make investements that will reduce our environmental footprint. Well, for most people who commute by car or diesel transit there is no single better way to slash your CO2 emissions than to travel by ebike. From now until the end of June, we will match Gordon Campbell's $100 green cheque for anyone in BC who purchases a complete (motor + controller + battery) electric bicycle setup from us. That's $200 total savings for your first ebike conversion.
Note, we were delighted by the amount of interest that our local customers had in this promotion, but the offer has now expired.
There is still space available to participate in our first ever electric bicycle conversion course, happening this Wednesday, June 25th at 6pm. This will be a great opportunity for people who want to convert their bike to electric assist but aren't entirely confident about doing the installation all alone. We will step you through the process of fitting all the conversion components on the bicycle, from the hub motor to the battery pack to the controller and throttle wiring. You will end up with properly installed and dependable setup that has a tidy wiring job. Best of all, this first course is free. For more details, see our upcoming events page.
Justin will be giving a presentation on various aspects of ebike technlogy at the monthly VEVA meeting. Topics will include regen motor controllers, ebike lighting systems, and lithium battery management circuits. For more information including directions and a map please see the VEVA homepage.
Homepage of the Pedal-Electric Revolution? Someday soon I hope. In the meantime, I'll try to make this the most informative and content-rich ebike site on the web. There's the scent of change in the air, and if you've made it here you've probably smelt it too. The site is here to encourage you, whether an avid inventor or average joe, to take on electric bicycle and other Personal Electric Vehicle projects.
So read on, get inspired, ride a PEV and become a pioneer and trailblazer in an area that has been stagnant for so long, human transportation. The timing couldn't be better, and the planet couldn't need it more.
