Blog

We've traditionally been heavily involved activities around June, from the VEVA Electrafest to Car Free Days to Velopalooza and assorted Bike Month events. Unfortunately we've had to bow out of participating in all of these this year. But there is one new event coming to town that we are most excited about and will be a big part of. Vancouver is hosting its very own Maker Faire! We missed traveling down to the San Francisco event in May but will take part in the Vancouver event in a big way. Locals should definitely make a point of coming out to see creative DIY projects of all kinds on display.

Just a heads up that since the announcement of potential strikes at Canada Post last week, we have been automatically upgrading all Canada Post / USPS orders to Fedex ground service for shipments in North America. We will still continue to honor the Canada Post price as quoted on our website for these orders. For overseas shipments, it means we can no longer safely send packages via standard airmail, and customers will have to pay for the Fedex International Priority service instead or wait for the strike to wind down.

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.

Those who've followed us over the past 6 years will remember that at various times we've carried multitudes of batteries from many manufacturers in all different voltages, chemistries, and form factors. This has lead to a wealth of firsthand battery experience, sometimes rewarding but mostly filled with hair pulling frustration.

We've decided for this year to simplify things (cut our losses) and just carry 3 battery choices from eZee that have proven dependable so far. The 36V 9Ah LiFePO4 as a standard option, a 36V 14Ah Samnsung LiMn pack for extra range, and 48V 10Ah Samsung LiMn for extra speed. All of these batteries in the same compact eZee flat pack enclosure casing. It's a tight form factor that we like, and there are several rack mounting options to facility secure attachment to the bicycle.

We have purchased a new spoke machine and die set specifically for cutting straight 13 gauge spokes, in order to offer better compatibility with existing ebike spokes that are typically 13g (2.3mm). These are now our standard custom spoke offering (instead of the butted 13/14 Phil Wood spokes we sold before), with Belgium made Sapim stainless steel spokes available in either silver of black oxide. These are a serious improvement over the chinese 13g spokes that Nine Continent use in their wheel builds, and for those wanting a rugged wheel we recommend having the hub relaced. 

The original small screen Cycle Analyst has now been formally discontinued in lieu of exclusively making the Large Screen units. It has been an interesting run for 5 years but the process of machining and retrofitting an off-the-shelf enclosure box to make it hold our circuitry and work on a bike handlebar has run its course. The large screen unit with our custom molded enclosure is better in nearly all regards, and because of the high demand we've been able to drop the price to match what the small screen sold for.

Use your Cycle Analyst with 12V Batteries


We also changed the standard CA board layout in May with a new regulator that allows the standard CA to operate all the way down to 10V. That makes it now compatible with the many 12V battery systems people may want to monitor (marine, solar, backup, etc.)

And use it up to 350V too!

At the other end we have also been listening to the performance electric motorbike crowd that keeps demanding dangerously higher and higher voltages. We have increased the standard upper voltage range to 150V instead of 100V, and now offer a high voltage upgrade option that goes all the way to 350V instead of 200V. The differences between the Revision11 and previous boards are summarized below:



Rev 10 and Earlier PCBs
Minimum Voltage - 15V
Maximum Voltage - 100V
High Voltage Upgrade - 200V

Rev 11 PCB
Minimum Voltage - 10V
Maximum Voltage - 150V
High Voltage Upgrade - 350V (400V survival)

We've had occasional feedback that the backlight on the Cycle Analyst can affect night vision for some people when riding in the dark. In order to accommodate those with this sensitivity, we've had the large screen LCD modules retooled to include two sets of LEDs. The standard white LED is connected by default and produces a nice and brightly backlit display. But if that is too much, then a small solder jumper to the pad labeled 'R' will illuminate a dimmer red backlight instead. This still lights up the screen at night, but with a red light that doesn't dilate the pupils.

The firmware for our data logging device has been updated to include two additional analog input lines (0-5V). This means that in addition to the CA data and GPS data, the CycleAnalogger can also record signals for logging other vehicle parameters, such as throttle voltage or motor temperature. A simple configuration file allows the device to directly record temperature from an inexpensive thermistor probe. Details on installing the firmware and using the voltage input lines are included here. 

Since going live with the large screen Cycle Analyst earlier this year we've been overwhelmed with the demand and have had a hard time keeping our production and supply chain up. As a result, we've been frequently run out of stock and dealer orders have faced longer than normal lead times. Please accept our apologies for this as we tool up to handle the higher production volumes.

We had an experimental batch of universal front eZee hub motors made up with 144 spoke holes in the flange. Our idea was that they could be laced into 36 hole rims by using every 4th hole, 48 hole rims by using every 3rd hole, or the common 32 hole rims by alternating spokes every 4th and 5th hole. Or if you have LOTS of time on your hands, they could be laced into the 144 hole chopper rims for a real snazzy wheel.In the past we have only sold eZee motors built into wheels as part of complete kits, but these units are an opportunity for those wanting to purchase just the geared hub motor only, ready to be laced into your custom project. They are available on our eZee store page with both the standard (26") and fast (20") winding options.