Blog

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.

We're currently running the first small-scale production run of EdgeRunner cargo bikes featuring a freewheeling right side drive Stokemonkey setup (Renamed Cycle Stoker in 2014and are open to sales to early adopters. Priority will be to customers local in BC, although keen technically minded folks elsewhere are free to apply too.

This bike has all the benefits of the original Stokemonkey for cargo and passenger hauling, with the further bonuses of:

• 1) Integrated torque sensing proportional pedal assist, via strain sensors and a V3 Cycle Analyst
• 2) Single right side chain with freewheeling crankset, so the motor can run independent of the pedals.

Combined with the Nuvini CVT hub on the back, the result is a seamless mid-drive system that can change gears on the fly and under load. The introductory price of the complete bike without battery is $3295, with any of the 36V and 48V battery options being well suitable.

The Twist Battery Rail we made for the electric EdgeRunner bikes has been updated to work both with the original ER frames, the new 2014 frames, and the Big Dummy frames as well. With this rail you can fit the flat eZee battery on the seatstays and for a tidy look under the deck, and we're making them available as a stand alone item on our site.

We sold out of the original eZee hub motor EdgeRunner bikes some time ago with the exception of the Mocha colour of which there are 4 remaining. The geared hub motor option is simple with plenty of torque, but we need the floor space and are offering a special on these last Mocha coloured ebikes at 20% off.

Want to integrate all the advanced V3 Cycle Analyst features with an older controller that only has a V2 CA style plug? We're now making a simple CA V3 Adapter Module that splits out the 6-pin CA3 plug into separate throttle, ebrake and CA connectors. This not only enables the Cycle Analyst to run your throttle directly, it also allows the CA control regenerative braking whenever the CA's throttle output drops below 0.5V.

The 15% discount on GRIN products for people who didn't go out shopping on Black Friday is still going until the end of this weekend, right up until we get to the shop on Monday morning.