OMG…First (Franken)ride!

Hell yeah!

I got the bike back from GPSports on friday.  Actually, it was ready earlier than that, but i wasn’t able to get back to the shop to pick it up until friday.

Batteries and frame (and working brakes!) after coming home from the shop.

Bike with the new LEAF in the background! All Electric baby!

After getting it home, i decided to get a test (aka frankenride…which is were the important parts are installed, but it doesn’t look good and things may move).  It didn’t take that long since the wiring harness is pretty easy to setup.

I attached all of the lights and the license plate on saturday night, and was able to take it for a test ride today!

Here’s a video…

As for first thoughts, (other than “hell yeah!”) I thought i was having a voltage sag issue, but actually, i think it may be an issue with the LVC timeout on the MiniBMS. I think the LVC is tripping very quickly (almost instantaneously) when the voltage sags on the cells.

I talked to dimitri (maker of the MiniBMS) and he said the trim-pot should be configured so that it takes 4-5 seconds. I should probably get a voltage meter or hookup the CellLogs that i have to ensure that this is the case.

The other thought is that the motor is fairly noisy, especially when accelerating. Back in January of 2010, i sent to visit Mark at EnerTrac, and got to ride his Lifan. I remember the motor being somewhat noisy, but i had forgotten about that. It’s still more quiet than a gas engine, but it’s louder than expected/remembered. There may be some loose parts on my frame that contribute to this, so maybe when i get the whole thing built for real, some of the noise will go away.

Thanks for reading!