Blog

Anne-Sophie has handled all of our admin and accounting for the past 3 years in addition to running the little unishop here. However, last month she took off for what will surely be the adventure of a lifetime, attempting to ride a custom-made touring unicycleacross South America, from the tip of Patagonia heading north to Santiago, Chili, and possibly beyond.

It’s no secret that there are a lot of things that can (and do) go wrong with electric bicycles. In fact, we spend considerably more time helping people troubleshoot and solve problems than we do selling or making stuff. Adam has been busy summarizing some of the more frequent issues with a series of formal troubleshooting guides that can help identify common failures and do basic repair work. Have a look, from motor hall replacement to identifying shorted controller mosfets, plus DIY connector pinout guides and crimping instructions.

While on the subject of lights, we've got a pile load of our popular rear LED lights with various cosmetic defects that have accumulated over the years. Some have residue of the silicone mold stuck to the surface, others have visible air bubbles in the casting, others have too much or not enough die in the resin, and others are the result of us playing around with new manufacturing techniques. These are all perfectly functional with a lifetime guarantee, bright but not blinding, the perfect tail light for your 24V, 48V, 72V, or even 96V ebike. We’re selling them for $20 apiece, maximum 2 per person.

We've also retooled the Cycle Lumenator lights with a new lens that provides a sharper beam focus, helping to project the light further down the road while reducing the amount of beam glare above the horizon and into oncoming traffic. Both the standard and multi-mode Lumenator lights have been updated with the new lens standard and are available now.

We acquired a large CNC milling center for our shop this summer, and now that we know how to use it a whole world of possibilities has opened up. Among the first things we tackled was a redesign of our front LED array light molds, now renamed the Grin ElectroLights. The new model is still rugged, waterproof, and capable of running from 15-100V, but now uses a proper mounting bracket rather than zip ties for attachment, looks better, and is $10 cheaper as well.

The first production batches are hot off the press, (or epoxy curing oven, to be more precise) in time for your holiday wish list.

Along with the shipment of Edgerunner bikes came a resupply of the 36V 9Ah LiFePO4 and 48V 10Ah LiMn batteries, carrier racks, and other kits (like 700c rear) that were out of stock. For the batteries, we're committed enough to this design that we have written a full spec sheet and user manual for each model, click on image for full details.

First and foremost is that 16 months after starting a project partnership with Naked Bikes, Xtracycle, and eZee, we have at last available for sale the Xtracycle Edgerunner electric utility bike.

The Edgerunner carries an impressive amount of cargo and passenger capacity with the Xtracycle longtail rear end, yet it still maintains an attractive and familiar bicycle aesthetic, and it handles like a regular bike too. The V2 eZee motor in the 20” rear wheel hides discretely under the saddle bags and provides ample hill climbing capability, while a high capacity 36V or 48V battery tucks neatly under the deck without resorting to a proprietary frame-mounted battery module.

We've been hesitant about dealing in turn-key ebikes in the past, but for us this one hits all the right marks and truly brings out the best of what an ebike can offer. We have the hub motor electric version available now in 3 different colour options, and are hard at work preparing a Stokemonkey variant with a Nuvinci rear hub for release in early 2013. They're listed here, on a new section of our store site.

This year has been a solid one for us and we want to thank all the great customers from all over the world who have made that happen. Below is a world map showing the destination of every outgoing shipment that we sent in 2012. Can you find yourself? Surprised at how many others in your city are fellow Grinners too? (The longitudinal resolution is cropped a bit to preserve anonymity).

Things have clearly come a long way from our manual pin map of 2007, and it's fascinating to see what a global phenomenon the DIY electric bike scene has grown into.

Let's keep that trend alive and healthy, as the world slowly comes to realize that ebikes are the answer to so many of our future troubles.

Open Sat Dec 22nd, 12-5pm, then Closed Dec 24th - Jan 3rd

We hope everyone gets to enjoy a great holiday too. We will be open this Saturday, Dec 22nd, from 12:00-5pm for anyone wanting to get parts for their winter build projects or get in on the Christmas specials. That will also be the last day to pick up one of the new Xtracycle Edgerunner ebikes this year. After that the shop will be closed until Jan 3rd 2013.

Did we say Christmas Specials?

In additional to the cosmetic defect rear LED lights mentioned last week, we've got a whole new stash of miscellaneous motors, batteries, controllers, lights, and Cycle Analysts which are priced to sell. Adam has compiled all of these on the endless-sphere For Sale forum where they are available first come first serve.

One thing that helps in the service and repair business is having the right tools. After going through a multitude of different crimping tools for the JST-SM connector used in all the signal wires of an ebike system, we finally found one with a precise wire-EDM cut die that does perfect crimps every time. This has been such a joy to use in our own repair work that we purchased a few case loads of them to offer to our DIY inclined customers as well, on our Misc. Parts page. It’s one item you’ll be glad to have in the tool box.

We are now offering a torque assist bundle with all of our conversion kits based on the Version3 Cycle Analyst and THUN torque sensing bottom brackets. This allows any ebike kit to have proportional torque pedal assistance, with all the assist settings fully customizable. And unlike any other PAS system it also gives you a readout of your human power output in watts, something previously only available in expensive training power meters that start at $1000. Although the Version3 Cycle Analyst firmware is still in final beta state, we are making the unit generally available now as the hardware and B19 and B20 firmware have been totally solid.

In addition we've made available a number of upgrade and repair parts for advanced users of the Cycle Analyst, such as spare shunts, cable harnesses, mounting brackets etc. all listed on the the recently updated CA store site.