KINEKT Seatposts allow you to stay in the saddle over more terrain, maintaining a more consistent connection to your bike while isolating you from bumps and vibrations. Your body, bike, and surface create a linked system of moving parts. Excess movement throughout this system causes discomfort at delicate points of contact between rider and bike – you know what we’re talking about!
The Raiders Trike, now 5 years old, is still performing yeoman duty hauling groceries and cargo every week. The recent closure of the only nearby market, made me create a backup for the Raiders Trike. Not wanting to go through the tedious process of modifying a frame, I decided to create an illegal trike, using a front wheel hub motor. The result is the Red Devil MotorTrikele, as the attached pictures.
Since CA eBike no longer sells hub motors, I bought a Dongdian 350w, geared, 27.5’’ wheel motor from China. The battery is your nude Frog Pack from 5 years ago, still pumping out juice. The frame is a stock Motobecane NT5, with only the front and rear dropouts opened for the larger axles. The rear axle is made from genuine, high-quality, Ace Hardware parts. The basket made with some nice cardboard and then glassed. Since the Motobecane was bright red on black, I wanted a red logo on the rear, but in keeping with the Raiders Trike. The local sign shop made me a nice Red Devil sticker.
There is no chain, so I planned to use the PAS for an alternate throttle, whenever the fuzz showed up. In fact, this worked great. When I returned from my 2nd test ride, I stopped in front of my front gate. As I got off the trike, I accidentally kicked the pedals, which with no resistance, spun around and the PAS caused the bike to leap forward into the closed gate. Fortunately, nothing bad happened. I realized at once that an evil event like this could only be caused by the Red Devil.
I disabled the PAS and gave up plans for an imitation trike. The pedal crank arms were set to the same angle, causing the pedals to hang at their lowest point. This turned out to be surprisingly low, due to the 20” rear wheels. Riding to the Post Office, while on the sidewalk, I came to a driveway, which high-centered the pedals, throwing my legs in the air, but I stayed in the saddle (some idle teenagers seemed to think this was amusing). Naturally, I immediately thought of painting over the Red Devil, but on further reflection, realized this could make matters worse. Removing the Red Devil was not possible, as I had applied the sticker before the black paint had cured, and it appeared that some type of molecular bonding had occurred.
Using some baling wire, I tied the cranks up forward, which gave a nice motorcycle position. The hub motor has an excellent electric whine, making the motorcycle effect even more perfect. Riding on a deserted road, I reached the exciting speed of 17.2 mph and then my cap blew off. Damn that Red Devil!
With things going from bad to worse, I was at wits end. Then I remembered my handicapped neighbor, who drives one of those medically approved chairs with 3 tiny wheels. I know he takes a nap in the afternoon. With a heat gun and a putty knife, I could remove his medically approved sticker and… Damn that Red Devil!
Have some fun every day.
Jerry…
You may also want to check out Micah’s Ebike School.
A definitive resource for all things EBIKE related.
This year Bafang had a large presence at the Expo and your’s truly had some good conversations with their tech representatives. They still build the best mid drive system in China with little competition but they are still trying to figure out how or what to do about customer service and their image. That is a job California Ebike has been engaged in since they started making the mid drive product. They also are concerned about how the tariffs are going to impact their sales in the US.
Here is a photo I couldn’t resist taking of a real fun looking cargo bike at one of the vendor booths.
Paul Lynch, AKA “Cell Man” , owner of EM3ev was on hand this year in Reno, Nevada for the Interbike Expo. He was showing off his latest creations for which he is famous in the Ebike business, Lithium batteries. We have worked with Paul for a number of years now and marvel at how he is driven to excel, building the best battery packs in the business. He is always improving his battery packs and utilizes the latest technology available to give his customers the most troublefree experience that is followed up with the best customer service. He is featured on this post because he exemplifies the type of partner we love to work with.
Note: In the photo above, Mary Merschat, is resting in the Mac Motor booth on the right seated in the chair. Mary is the one who takes good care of our customers at California Ebike.
We recently completed 2 Terra Trike Rovers for Carl and MJ from Redding, CA (pictured above). Both bikes were fitted with BBS02B 750 watt and Hailong3 48v-17.5Ah battery packs. We also installed a gear sensor on Carl’s bike since he is running an 8 speed Sturmey Archer IGH. MJ is running a Nuvinci IGH and did not require a gear sensor. Both bikes retained their “parking” brakes and used Hidden Wire Brake sensors.
Carl and MJ are so looking forward to going on those longer rides now that their bikes can assist them with the help that they need. They wanted to share this wonderful ride with others looking for a great outing. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/sundial-bridge-to-shasta-dam
We are so sorry for Carl and MJ. About a week after they got their ebike conversions, and were beginning to really enjoy their new rides, all Hell broke loose in Redding. It appears that most of the beautiful trail going to Lake Shasta was consumed by fire.
A new tool to help extract those hard to get to 8mm bearings which support the ends of the motor rotor on the BBS01/02 and BBSHD. This tool will be on the website shortly. For anyone who has tried to replace these bearings will know they are next to impossible without the proper tool since they are both in a blind hole recess. Watch for this tool in the “Tools” section of the website.
Gates Carbon Drive has publish a new manual of specs for use with the Bafang Max drive motor.For purpose built bikes.
Photo credit: Electric Bike Report
Thanks to James Dennis of Indianapolis for keeping us updated. A note to readers: this section relating to the Bafang product has since been removed from the original copy indicating there may be some unresolved issue with this information. We decided to go ahead and publish so the reader can at least glean useful information from it. click here to download GatesBafang Specs
I recently got acquainted with Anne & Mike Poe of Hiking Biking Adventures as they are in the process of moving to Slovenia. Anne needed a couple of batteries sent ahead to be ready when she and Mike arrive in June. If you check out their HBA website you will find they are real pro’s in the endeavor of writing and describing their adventures. Their guidebooks give you wonderful detail and descriptions of their own experiences so you may discover the same wonderful trails armed with very helpful insights.
As the Ebike rider base continues to expand there are more and more people discovering the enjoyment of riding an Ebike. Not only the avid bike riders but many others want to get more exercise and rediscover the great outdoors. They are finding the adventures that Anne & Mike describe in their guidebooks once again doable. Having this information readily available for the new explorers is very exciting and much needed.
Thank you Anne & Mike, we will continue to follow you with your new discoveries!
