Blog

Shipping small parts from our shop in Canada to American destinations has always been a tad expensive, so we’re experimenting with using Amazon as a fulfillment warehouse better serve US customers. Currently all three of our torque arms are available now, with free shipping for amazon prime subscribers:

And if it works out well we’re start hosting other small Grin Tech items like our ebike lights and DC-DC converters too. 

The last few weeks we’ve been in the midst of a full inventory transition with some of our product lines, and we apologize to those who’ve had difficulty getting all their kit parts together. This is all wrapping up and there is good news to speak of for those who have been patient.

Grinfineon Controller: Proportional Regenerative Braking.

All of our motor controllers are now running a newer control chip with a customized firmware for proportional regen. We’ve done this in a way that requires no extra hardware. If you have a V3 Cycle Analyst, the regen control is mapped to the otherwise unused 0.0 to 0.8V throttle signal range, giving you full control of the braking force and regen current through the Cycle Analyst. Without a V3 CA, you can use a regular ebrake lever to activate regen, and then use the throttle to modulate the intensity.

We’ve also improved the LED behavior so that you can tell if the controller is operating in sensored or sensorless modes while running, and tidied up the total connector bundle. At the moment, the 20A and 25A controllers are all available with this firmware. The larger 35A and 40A controllers are still in the midst of firmware testing and revisions, but should be available shortly.

eZee 5 LED Console

The latest shipment of eZee kits also includes a simpler 5-LED console for those who don’t require the full details of a Cycle Analyst. This device has been customized for full compatibility with any controller that has a CA plug, whether from an eZee kit or not, and it includes a DC power plug for running front headlights too.

The top row of LEDs show the approximate battery voltage, while the bottom row of LEDs is controlled via the up/down buttons to set the ebike power level via current limiting, much like with a V2 Cycle Analyst.  With the 25A eZee controllers, 1 LED = 5 amps, 2 LEDs = 10 amps, etc.

Batteries

All our recent stock of higher capacity eZee batteries are using Japanese Sony V3 cells as standard. While the Samsungs have worked reliably, their cycle life at higher discharge currents left a little to be desired and we’re hoping the highly regarded Sony cells yield better longevity. 

For those who found 10Ah wasn't quite enough, but 20Ah excessive, we've also got the Allcell batteries stocked in a 48V 13Ah pack with power cells, and in 35V 15Ah with regular energy cells. 

We’ve got our first software releases completed for the V3 Cycle Analyst, allowing you to set, load, and save all of the advanced CA settings through a computer connection, rather than working via the 2 button interface. This makes it easier to share preconfigured setup configurations and restore defaults just as easily. It also provides acess to OEM features such as masking out certain setup menu screens.

Windows and Linux Versions are available to download from our CA3 Information Page.  This requires you are updated to the V3 Prelim6 firmware. 

On the software front, we’re also making progress on a program to take information saved from the Cycle Analogger device and view all your trip data as 2-D and 3-D graphs.  The AnaloggerToKMZ program takes both the GPS and CA data files and creates a .kmz file which opens up directly inside Google Earth.

 You can use the “view elevation profile” feature to compare any two of the CA datasets side by side.

 Currently we have a preliminary windows release available for download here.  

The Right Side Drive (RSD) Stokemonkey Cycle Stoker system has been refined after months of pilot testing, retooled for the new 2014 Edgerunner frames, and is now available as an independent conversion kit. 

Some of the great features include:

• V3 CA with built in pedal torque sensing through the clampset, for proportional torque assistance and human power readout
• Patterson 2 speed crank with custom 39T chainring, both freewheels and provides a 62T equivalent front gear letting you pedal along at high speeds even with the small 20" rear wheel.
• All cables lengths sized for a perfect fit on both the large and small 2014 Edgerunner frames, with all wires routed on the downtube for a clean install.
• Works both with rugged internal hubs (like the Nuvinci) and regular derailleur gear systems.

The installation of this kit is a bit more involved than hub motor setups since it requires bottom bracket tools for the Patterson Crankset, but shouldn’t intimidate the mechanically inclined.  At the moment the kit is only sized for the Xtracycle Edgerunner frame, adapting to other bikes could be tricky but we are working next on a Yuba Mundo package.

Those wanting to purchase a complete Edgerunner with the RSD Stokemonkey Cycle Stoker installed can do so from Clever Cycles in Portland, and the G&O Family Cyclery in Seattle.  We also have a limited number of Black and Mocha Edgerunners with the Nuvinci hub available with this freewheeling conversion on our Edgerunner store site. 

Among many website improvement tweaks, we’ve added an additional “performance as configured” data at the bottom of each conversion kit checkout page, which updates automatically as you choose different motors, controllers,and wheel size options in the kit builder:

This provides a glimpse of the expected kit performance with both 36V and 48V batteries without having to separately build your setup on the simulator. So you can at a glance see the unloaded speeds along with the motor thrust, and have this update in real time depending on your motor and/or controller choice. 

Well our first real blog post on the new website should interest many people here. After a year in development we're ready to launch a new DC-DC converter series with USB outputs to help accessorize your ebike.  The first of these is a 15 watt Dual converter, which runs off 24V-72V packs and has full 2A and 1A output ports.  These DC-DC adapters will enable you to turn your ebike battery into a rapid charge station for your phone/tablet/gps/bike light or other gadget.  

The power adapters are rugged, waterproof, made in Canada, and easily plug in to a Cycle Analyst's power port or Anderson tap. There is an embedded LED current gauge that shows how many amps are flowing on each USB port so you can be sure when a device is charging or fully charged. And the output is fully isolated from your ebike battery so there is no risk of shock, ground loops, or electrical interference.

The first production batch is in our curing oven and will be available from the DC-DC converter section of our website. 

After a few false starts over the past several years we’re finally going live with an updated web layout and back-end for ebikes.ca, ( in case you didn’t notice!)

... 2004	... 2008	... 2014!

We hope with this new organization that it is faster and easier to find relevant information from the maze that was our website. Our goal was not to lose any info in the migration, and more importantly make it much easier to keep publishing new and interesting stuff.

The online store site in particular should be more convenient to navigate. You’ll notice that we’ve added a “specifications” tab with key technical details on the different parts. So for instance you can sort the list of hub motors by their motor kV constant, by their rim size, or by their weight, to hone in on the most suitable one for your project. 

Other things to note:

• Account and Logins: It is now possible to register an account with us so that you don’t need to re-input address and other info each time you need to get something. You can of course checkout as a guest, but with an account you will be able to look at what you got on previous orders, check shipment status and tracking numbers etc.
• Credit Card Payments: We can take credit card payments directly by secure checkout now without needing a Paypal account or a phone-in of the details.
• Online Tools: The popular ebike simulator and spoke calculator are in the “tools” tab on the top, and we hope add a few more useful ebike related tools to this list over the course of the year.
• Kit Bundles: Most of the conversion kits we’ve now made available in two types,  a) a basic option with throttle control and a V2 CA, or b) an  advanced PAS kit with a V3 Cycle Analyst and your choice of torque or PAS sensors for pedalec control. We hope that this simplifies the process of getting comprehensive set of compatible parts for your build.  

While a lot of the written content has been updated and made fresh, there are still some info sections that are still circa. 2006-ish and works in progress. So naturally, we’re working on them. In the meantime please let us know about any issues/glitches by email.  

After giving radio interviews this week on CBC's radio Canada and On the Coast, our Anne-Sophie is gearing up for a full slide-show presentation of her 4600km unicycle journey across south America this Saturday evening at the Rio Theater. It's part of the Vancouver Mountain Film Festival and seats are still available for this and many other tales of adventure if you're looking for something to do on this first-ever family day long weekend.

Some Web Maintenance

Several people have noticed that our website has been occasionally unavailable in the past 24-48 hours. We are making a number of changes to the back-end with some updates resulting in a bit of downtime. So rest assured that everything is OK here and we are looking forwards to having some nice improvements to show for all this work fairly soon.

For those who've been waiting, the remaining production batch of 72V capable 40A infineon controllers arrived last week and is in great supply. We hope everyone had a good holiday and have just a few small things to mention to start the year:

More PAS Sensor Mount Options

The split-disk PAS magnet rings have been a great convenience for those installing pedal assist systems on DIY ebikes without needing to take the crank off, but they only work with square taper bottom bracket spindles. For those with external bearing bottom brackets using ISIS or other splined standard, we now have a magnet ring option from King Meter that attaches directly to your small chainring instead. This works with 64mm 4-bolt and 74mm 5 bolt inner spiders, and comes with the universal CA3 compatible PAS pickup.

LED Rear Lights

We're now making the popular 8LED rear ebike lights available preterminated with a DC power jack, so that they are plug-and-play compatible with our Anderson Powerpole Tap. This makes wiring up your rear lights almost as easy as the front lights (which just plug into the Cycle Analyst). We will continue to offer the non-terminated version for those who want their lights hard-wired and/or who want to take advantage of the 3rd signal wire to control the flash mode.

Stokemonkey Install Tools

This isn't much, but we have both crank puller and chain breaker tools available for those installing a Stokemonkey drive on their cargo bike. We'll soon have large gear pullers for opening hub motors, and some other ebike specific repair and install hardware available.

Tidy Wiring Kit

There are a few tricks to making a DIY ebike looks as neat and professional as a turn-key ebike, and most of them center around wire and cable management. With proper use of spiral wrap (to bundle cables together), Velcro sleeves (to cover and protect connectors), and zip ties to secure it all to the frame, you can turn a rats nest frankenproject into a pretty clean machine. We've put together a 'WireRouteKit' to help people straighten their mess.

These items are listed on the Wiring Accessories section of our store site, and we will have them listed with the conversion kits shortly.