Blog

We're happy to announce Evan Sandercock, a 15 year old ebike enthusiast from Alberta, as the winner of our Grin Tech logo contest from last winter. His idea of a smiling electrical plug was simple and effectively captured the essence of what we do. After several months of additional doodling and consultation with a professional designer we have shaped it into the logo shown here. Congratulations to Evan who gets $1000 in ebikes.ca store credit, we can't wait to see the projects you do with it.

It turns out that moving our operation to a new building is a much larger undertaking than even we had imagined. In spite of everyone working around the clock and over the weekend, we're going to need at least the rest of this week before we can be up and running again and able to carry on with orders, and answer emails and phone calls. We thank everyone for their patience here while we sort through and reorganize 4 years of accumulated stuff and finalize all the systems in our space:

In early 2007 we took the step of graduating from a garage operation to leasing a commercial property on Main Street to run this business. Starting off with two people and 400 square feet, we gradually took over adjacent rooms to make way for R&D facilities, a manufacturing workshop, storage warehouse, packing and shipping room, and a slew of new people. It's been fun adventure over the past four years, but one that has run its course. We just can't fit our ambitions or run efficiently in this awkward crumbling building.

The old bicycles and tricycle that we had stenciled into the sidewalk pavers will live on to mark this spot of Vancouver well after the building gets demolished. But we are saying our farewells to Main and taking our next big step

... And Moving to a New Building in False Creek

Starting March 1st, we will be operating from a much larger shop at the corner of 4th and Ontario, not far from the Olympic village, a multitude of bike stores, and a host of light industrial businesses. With over twice the square footage and 22 foot high ceilings we'll be able to pack in more activities and supplies in order to see this electric bicycle movement continue to flourish here and abroad. It's something we are all happy and excited about:

What this means for you

With less than 3 weeks to go before we move, things are pretty busy and a little bit hectic here. There is a lot of renovation and prep work to set up the new building to work for us, plus a big effort to move everything over. As far as possible, we will attempt to process all orders during this time period and avoid any shutdown delays during the move, so that things as seamless as possible for you. However, we do ask that people refrain from any RMA return shipping this way until we can post our new address. As well, there is a possibility that our phone system will be out of commission for a few days on either side of the transition, and non-critical emails may be put off for a while too.

One of the projects Justin completed in time for the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire was a 3 speed geared unicycle based on the Sturney Archer S3X fix gear internal hub. This was initially done as a proof-of-concept device, but has since proven to be eminently rideable as well. The full build pictures can be seen on the unicyclist forum. The next step in the process is combining this multi-speed pedal gearing with the electric unicycle hub of 2010 and create the ultimate one-wheeled commuter.

We've also received a new delivery of twist and half-twist throttles that have a built in momentary push button. We have these wired and terminated such that the button leads simply plug into the ebrake input of our Infineon motor controllers, so that people can use the button to engage regen and not need to change over their brake levers. Handy. 

It's been a struggle but we have finally succeeded in getting our supply of Infineon based motor controllers modified appropriately to operate with a universal input voltage range. The 20 and 35A models have a 19V cutoff with regen up to 58V, and hence work fine from 24V to 48V packs. Meanwhile the 25 and 40A models with IRFB4110 mosfets work with 36V to 72V batteries, with a 26V cutoff and regen all the way to 88V. No more need to change resistors around to work with different pack voltages. Additional details explained on the controllers page which has recently been revamped. 

4 months after ordering them we finally received our shipment of the latest Crystalyte motors, giving more power and proper disk brake compatibility to our Direct Drive motor options. These are described in detail here, along with associated problems people have had to date. We've also received a stock of sensorless Crystalyte controllers modified with proper CA-DP compatibility, allowing power to the hub motor without the need for hall signals. Unlike previous sensorless controllers, these can effectively start from a standstill. Our direct drive kits page has been revamped accordingly to make it easier to build up your ideal customized DIY kit. 

Thanks to the tireless work of Michael Vass over the previous month, our

We are in the midst of a beta release of a CA version that has a variable pulse width (PPM) output instead of a voltage output, allowing it to drive ebikes running with R/C equipment. In a nutshell, you can use a conventional ebike throttle to feed into the CA, and the CA will then drive the RC speed controller with the required 1-2mS servo signal, eliminating the need for servo tester boxes and other 3rd party hardware. Additional details on this endless-sphere thread. We will do another run of beta R/C boards in early September, and have a special page here for ordering.

It is getting mighty close to Holiday time. We've never experienced much of a Christmas shopping frenzy in the DIY ebike community, but in case there are one-wheeled gifts we are opening at least the Unicycle section of the store on Saturdays this December.

Then from Dec 22nd to Jan 3rd we will stay open but with reduced capacity and minimal staff. We will try to reply to all emails, but any issues that are not urgent will be handled in the first week of January.