Examples of how much we've advanced in just 10 years

[apac]

I've been DIYing since 2009. I was unfit and had a nice hardtail stumpjumper that I wasn't riding. I looked into electric motors and started researching Chinese manufacturers. At the time there was a small diy scene in the States but nothing in the U.K and things were basic. It was still common to use lead acid batteries though both NiCad and Lithium were breaking through Into the diy scene. If you wanted a decent battery back then it was either pay a fortune for a brick shaped lithium from China, or build your own out of RC Lipo pouches by connecting together in parallel and series.
The only mid-drive motor units available were either in grandma's bike or were chain driven. 99% of motors were hubs, either direct drive with no moving parts or reduction geared With nylon cogs.

Here are a few builds I did showing the progression of the scene. I seemed to have lost the photos of a few but I'm sure you'll get the idea. The more recent ones have included battery packs I've made from 18650 cells. Back in the day, having a battery pack that would fit in the frame triangle was a dream.

6kg of battery on the rear rack?

Two wheel drive? Heavy as fook! ?

Finally full Sus, and battery in the frame... Was big move forward. Smaller hub motor but still outputting 1200w. Battery cells were 18650 cells reclaimed from old laptops. The cells were soldered together with no bms!?

small motor, battery and controller for a light bike.

Things took a leap forward in 2015. Purpose built carbon frame. MX wheels n tyres.
Russian electronics and massive high discharge battery Battery. 16,000watts of power on tap. Battery was approx 2000wh.
i made this battery pack with a spot welder.. 180 cells.

and finally, mid-drive. Chain driven. 10kw. Sounded like an effing chainsaw so I sold it?.
was fun to build the bike and electrics though.


it's funny how I have now done full circle and currently ride a Levo SL. In fact right back at the beginning of all this, all I really wanted 'in my dreams' was a bike like an SL.

Andrew.

 

[Rob Rides EMTB]

Amazing. Thanks for sharing.

 

[apac]

I had to dig deep for some of the photos. Pity I seem to have lost some other builds I did. They're probably knocking about on old memory sticks somewhere.

 

[Jimbo Vills]

Cool builds ??

 

[Animalector]

nice work I really liked the LMX until they made the Surron.. TBH the Surron is an amazing machine for the dollars. I "almost" bought one.. but instead paid the same money for a 2020 Yamaha WR250R. it goes further, faster, more reliably.. but weighs 2.5 times as much.. You win some you lose some.

Excellent builds.

 

[Zimmerframe]

All I can see is that "you was da man" ... and that's a huge amp and you managed to build a subwoofer into the rear wheel ? All driven from a Sony Walkman in the frame pouch ?

Great bit of history and evolution !!! Thanks for taking the time to share it ! ?

 

[apac]

nice work I really liked the LMX until they made the Surron.. TBH the Surron is an amazing machine for the dollars. I "almost" bought one.. but instead paid the same money for a 2020 Yamaha WR250R. it goes further, faster, more reliably.. but weighs 2.5 times as much.. You win some you lose some.

Excellent builds.

thanks maan. The LMX was a respectable 42kg. it was nicely manufactured and had beefy parts.
i did everything I could to try and dampen the sound of the front drive cog on the chain but it just stayed loud?. I was so used to riding a totally silent hub with sinewave controller that I just wasn't prepared for it. At least the Sur-ron has a reduction belt drive to dampen things down. There's also now plenty of scope for hot Rodding the Sur-Ron these days too.

 

[steve_sordy]

Impressive!

 

[apac]

Impressive!

There's been some very frustrating hours in the garage over the years. Lots of bodging and metal fabrication needed at times as nothing would ever fit properly. Learned a lot, with the biggest lesson being that most things are fixable when given time and patience and solutions often present themselves with time, though Impatience would more often than not get the better of me.

one time I got a motor so hot that it melted the glue holding the magnets on and all the magnets were loose inside the motor hub being pulled and pushed around by the electro magnetic stator. Had to crack open the motor for that one.

 

[mak]

Proper pioneer you sir, to think I've just walked into this hobby last year and handed over a piece of plastic to a shop and purchased an absolute weapon of a mass produced modern EMTB . It almost makes me feel guilty about moaning to myself about having to wash the thing

 

[Waynemarlow]

Impressive stuff, love the old hub motors, solid as rocks but not much good for off road.

I finally sucumbed to the EBike learning curve with a Scott Scale in about 2014, I thought it was the bee's knees as a bike and when I finally got my first 27.5 Yeti, decided that as it was stupidly light, what a donor. But at the time I hadn't realised that the BB bracket would need a bit of surgery to fit the BBS02. End of story was a 1200W cadence only bike, the frame was totally unsuitable for the speeds it could achieve and climbs it could handle and my only saving grace was that I was used to much faster 400cc Gasgas Enduro bikes.

Good fun though and even with a 500Wh 18650 battery, was about 17.5 kgs

 

[patdam]

respect apac. I am a little player in comparison.

My first build 8 years ago to test the BBS. still used in "city bike"

the one i made following (lot of modification on frame who is in press fit) and who helped me to play in mountain during 3 years. working always, i still using it sometime in winter when bad weather.

 

[TPEHAK]

DIY carbon fiber bike frame

 

[Animalector]

DIY carbon fiber bike frame

not really a DIY.. but cool for sure.