July , 2022
G62 (1000W) Fatbike Motors
Hey everyone we hope that you are all having a fantastic summer in between the various sweltering heat waves. We had some controller QC and supply hiccups starting this season that kept our noses to the grindstone. But things are mostly sorted out, with lots of good news to share:
G62 Hubs
Inventory keeps on trickling in, and an order from Bafang that we placed last October finally arrived this week. This includes their most powerful Fatbike motor, the G62, which will brought in to replace the G60 fatbike hubs.
The larger G62 motor has an wider motor stator and thick gear assembly to handle significant torque levels, and uses the higher amperage L1019 connector with a side-axle cable exit. This hub can seriously haul, especially with our Frankenrunner controllers at 90 phase amps, operating in a power domain we don't usually expect from Bafang. Torque arms are a must.
For fatbike projects needing a rear hub motor, this is the model to beat. We've got them available as ready-to-roll kits with downtube batteries, DIY kits with 3rd party batteries, and as bare hubs too, for both 170-175mm dropouts and 190-195mm dropouts. We also have spare gear assemblies for those who want to try welding the clutch and using them in regen capacity.
Here are the engineering drawings and 3D models.
They will be up on our motor simulator in the coming week.
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LiGo Wrap-up
We've had to fully discontinue production of our original LiGo battery modules after an impressive 8 year run. Key semiconducter chips used on our BMS circuit were simply no longer available for doing another batch. The last of our LiGo+ batteries are being potted in the coming weeks and all have been presold.
But despair not, we have a next generation LiGo module up our sleeves that we've been working on for many months. We're calling this the LiGo 10X, and are moving rapidly through the design and testing phase with a goal to be release ready by the end of the year.
At one point we applied for a grant to help speed things along. We didn't get the grant, but it forced us to make a short video pitch above summarizing the improvements.
Recent Videos Recap
We've published quite a few videos lately. This includes a new series on retrofitting parts onto factory ebikes. It's a line of questioning that we get asked about with increasing frequency but we struggle finding the time to explain things to people. So we hope that a a growing video series can help with that. So far we've got parts 1 and 2 released as we do some 3rd party hacks on a Radrunner fatbike.
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We've also got an update on the 32 foot electric sailboat conversion Belle Ami, with Part 3 being filmed this weekend:
We were recently blessed with another visit from Mark Havran on his (for real now) round the world ebike trip:
And earlier had a bit of fun bringing a vintage dirtsurfer back to life in electric mode:
We've got a solid lineup of technical, informative, and interesting videos in our pipeline. Youtube's suggestion algorithms suck, but if you subscribe to our channel there's at least a small chance they'll give a heads up about new releases.Â