Blog

The e-brake lever is a device designed to cut power from the motor controller as soon as someone squeezes on the brakes. It's a sensible safety idea, but we stopped carrying them several years ago because the quality of the actual brake levers was so poor that in several cases the lever arm itself failed, leaving the rider without an operable hand brake. Well we now have a decent quality all-aluminum e-brake lever for the eZee kits. It plugs into the 4-pin PAS connector and effectively disables the throttle power when you are squeezing the brakes. It could be easily adapted to other controller systems as well. The switch mechanism is a magnetic reed device mounted outside the housing, normally open, which closes contact and the levers are pulled.

It turns out that trying to include a waterproof on/off button in our fully epoxy potted bike lights posed some interesting challenges. But few thing will phase us, and after a lot of work we've managed to sort through all the challenges and are re-introducing the button LED lights by the end of this week. The rear light is now slightly larger and brighter with 8 LEDs, and both the front and rear lights feature onboard memory as well. When the light is powered off, it remembers what mode it was in (on, off, or flashing) and returns to that state when power is re-applied. Pressing the button then cycles through each of the modes.

Our spring 2009 shipment of Nine Continent motors was unpacked this week and includes a few new items. In addition to replenishing the stock of front 20" wheels, we have also added to the mix:

• 26" hub motors with the higher-rpm 6-turn winding (what we call the 2806 hub)
• 20" rear hub motor with 6-turn winding
• 700c rear motors with the 7 turn winding

Our stock of Crystalyte products is generally low and the next shipment will not be arriving until late June. This shipment and all future ones will contain exclusively the Crystalyte disk compatible hub motors, so front and rear 5300 series, and rear 400 series wheels. The non-disk motors will be discontinued. As well, we will no longer be carrying the Crystalyte immediate start controllers, in either 20A or the higher power 35 and 48A devices. The Crysatlyte DC hub motor has also been discontinued, but we will continue offering the DC motor controller since it finds many applications with other motors.

This coming Wednesday at 7:30pm, Justin will be giving the first full length talk about the coast to coast electric bicycle trip he completed last summer. The format will be a mix of video and slide show, compiled from the 23,000 pictures that were taken once a minute from the handlebar camera on his bike. It will cover the trials of touring by electric bicycle and the fascinating people encountered and places explored. Anyone interested to hear more should check it out and learn about VEVA as well. The event is held at the SE1 cafeteria building at BCIT in Burnaby. Be sure to print the map or make good notes because the exact building can be confusing to find on the BCIT campus.



Also, the March kilowatt-hour ebike ride was another blast, with a turnout of 14 riders who all biked out together for drinks on Granville Island.

The remaining bugs in the V2.1 Cycle Analyst code appear to have all been fixed, so we are now releasing this in a special form for electric vehicle enthusiasts. CycleAnalyst 2.1, with datalogging serial output, is available OEM style in a 200V high current board with an extra large display screen and no enclosure. It is ideal for installing behind the dashboard of electric cars, scooters, motorcycles, and other larger EV's that can benefit from a much bigger display size. More information will be coming soon but check out the CA page for preliminary details.

We have 5V 10 watt, 6V 10 watt, and 12V 20 watt DC-DC converters in production now. These devices allow you to run powerful 3rd party headlamps, sound systems, and other electronic gadgets from your main electric bicycle battery. Like our ebike LED lights, these DC-DC converter units are simple, rugged, compact, and waterproof. They are engineered around the specific needs of electric bicycles, are made in Canada, and we guarantee them for life. More information will be posted in the coming week on our Lighting page.

The eZee kits are well thought out and include a spacer washer, which helps the hub motor fit in bicycle dropouts fit for quick release. We now have an open 'C' spacer washer made up from 3/16" stainless that can provide this same functionality to our other hub motors that are installed on front forks which have a recessed cavity and 'lawyer lip' for quick release nuts. With the open 'C' shape, it is possible to slide this over axles that have wires and connectors coming out the end. As well, we have redesigned the torque arm plate slightly, increasing the thickness to 3/16" for greater strength.

There is a shelving unit in our hallway with an increasing amount of ebike stuff accumulating on it as a result of our activities. This includes sample parts from companies that we decided not to follow through with, battery packs that didn't meet our QC needs or which were used by our demo bikes, various used ebike components that have been returned to us but are still functional, and a number of connectors and cable assemblies that we don't really have use for. These could be perfect for the DIY project person and they are all listed at take 'em away prices for customers coming by to visit our shop.

Although we've been pretty sold on hub motors for the vast majority of conversions, there is a case to be made for mid-drive systems especially in the application of load and cargo hauling applications. That is where the Stokemonkey system from Clevercycles has been a natural match. It is designed to install around the Xtracycle attachment which adds a whole new realm of utility to your bicycle. And unlike most other mid-drives which have a loud and whining gear noise to put up with, the Stokemonkey using the familiar low-rpm Crystalyte motors is completely silent. We have a limited number of Stokemonkey setups that will be listed on our kits page, and will be offering the Xtracycle and accessories in the near future too.