Things are moving along!
There are so many pieces to the puzzle when you are building something from scratch, and in our case a fairly involved piece of equipment. When operating on a small scale you have to be creative and patient. Often times it is difficult to source parts, or get them machined when dealing in small quantities rendering the prototyping process that much more challenging. Needless to say there have been some delays in our progress. The last couple of weeks however, we've been putting the pieces of the puzzle together and now the first of 10 motors is installed on a bike.
For my test bike, I chose a Salsa Fargo. I opted to replace the stock dirt drop bars with Jones Loop bars for multi-position comfort and control. A rigid 29er is a super versatile bike, confident and comfortable on the vast network of dirt roads we have in Southern Oregon, and capable on single track as well. I'm looking forward to riding this bike on reconnaissance rides, being able to explore the faint two-track that might not be on the map, knowing I can ride longer and not be totally spent if that road or trail dead ends at the bottom of a drainage.
Drive side shot of the prototype motor kit.
Non-drive side view of motor, controller, and battery.
The first couple rides were short but I was rather impressed wit the performance and how quiet it is. It feels very intuitive, as if you're just riding really strong or perhaps there is a generous tailwind at your back. I'm looking forward to reporting back when we have some sense of the range. Time to go ride it some more!