HEB progress

I decided I should start calling it a Hybrid Electric Bike since I can pedal it.

Anyway, I'm down to one last thing on the HEB. Connectors for the battery. All the stuff from ebikes.ca came with Anderson Power Pole connectors. They are pretty much industry-standard for high current connections like this. I'd know stuff like this if I ever got around to mentoring for FIRST. Unfortunately for me there are VERY few places in town you can find these things. I now know several specialty electronics retailers. Since I wasn't willing to drive to southern Olathe during 8-5 office hours I just bought them online. So they're on their way and I should be able to ride late next week if I'm so inclined.

Other than the connectors I didn't have everything went very smoothly. I had to figure out a place to put the PWM controller. I was initially assuming I'd keep it in the rack trunk with the battery, but after seeing the stuff I figured out I didn't want to disconnect all the junk (computer/throttle cable/motor power connection/motor hall sensor connection) everytime I carried the battery with me. I'm planning on carrying the battery with me everytime I go to work since it's worth $500 and is easily steal-able. So I mounted it with a fabricated clamp and the water bottle connection on the seat tube. It looks extra-dorky because it has a big red power push-button on top. Aside from mounting the controller I had to mount the twist grip throttle (super-easy) and mount the computer (also super-easy). Finally, I had to route all the cables as cleanly as possible. I think it turned out all right. The battery will sit in the rack truck (with lots of extra space) and I'll just have one connection (battery/controller) to connect/disconnect when I want to take the battery with me. The rest of the expensive stuff is either bolted on (controller) or will be locked with my bike cable (hub motor).

I took the final product out for a short fully-loaded test drive. It's a real pig, but I can still pedal it. The bike really was built like a tank and came in unloaded at 30lbs... but with the rest of the gear (battery and motor and controller) it adds another 30lbs and the whole thing tips the scale at 62lbs.