Bird A-Frame Max45 conversion

Revamping of a salvaged Bird A-Frame on Marketplace that had water damage. I had my eyes on a Gates drive aluminium bike for a while and the release of the Single Speed AllAxle Max45 was the perfect timing for an all year long build! I still managed to sell what was still functionning of the OG Bafang system, so the bike cost me 5$!

The Build

For the plug and play part, I went with the Phaserunner v6, Max45 AllAxle Single Speed SLW, the new 72V/15Ah triangular battery (thanks again Justin for the support with the Satiator force start was indeed the solution with that BMS) and the Superharness with a 600C screen. Only downside I have is the long removal process and the rubbing noise of the triangular pack. I checked in SolidWorks if a DP5/DP7 pack would fit on the OEM water bottle M5 screws without any success (see the screenshow below). I'm happy that they released the new 80A 72V pack which suits my build way more!

Coming from Apollo and custom scooters, I really like having a dedicated stick for throttle, another one for regen and both brake levers on the digital line only for motor cutoff.

There was already plenty of space in the frame for the original cabling so other than the part that goes to the stem as well as the battery, everything is hidden. The bright headlight needed a bit of "Dremeling" to fit in the original plastic enclosure embedded in the frame. Rear light is still in the work 3D printing will be needed to fit it properly.

You will see that with proper thermal conduction and no airflow around the Phaserunner makes easily a 2kW setup even when it's 29°C outside!

Hiding things as much as possible

Now, the fun part. I really wanted to keep the A-Frame clean and that big tubular frame made it impossible to fit a Reention battery as mentioned before, but at least, there's a lot of empty space for the original electrical system which is perfect for all my cabling.

I asked Grin if it's ok to have a limited airflow around the controller and they confirmed that the main colling is by conduction through the metal base. I then started by removing all the original 18650 cells with the BMS from the original enclosure, so I had a nice empty shell and a cavity to mount the Phaserunner. I then machined an aluminium plate, tapped some M3 holes in the frame and mounted the controller with thermal gap pads.

I also opened the battery enclosure so it can be easily popped off using the original key without unplugging a single cable. It provides a certain amount of weather protection, but other than the sleek design, I guess it's also tampered proof!