Designing a vehicle is like any other problem. We need to break it down into a few steps:
- understand the problem, and determine some key requirements to solve it
- learn about the tools at our disposal
- figure out how to put it all together
So I have broken what used to be one page into several.
- “Theory” gives an overview of the forces on a vehicle and lets you determine how powerful your motor and batteries will need to be. Don’t worry, I use mathematics sparingly, and the equation is really straightforward.
- The next sections ground us in reality. Numbers are great, but the markets only give you a handful of tools to reach those numbers. Motor and battery types, as well as other bicycle parts, only exist in certain configurations. Once you know what’s out there, you can start to formulate how your vehicle will happen.
- “Planning” describes how I planned my electric bike once I’d amassed enough knowledge to get started. Actually, I pretty much had it right from the start, but I did have some interesting ideas along the way.
- “The Controller” describes the motor controller I built. The stock ebike controllers out there, at the time I started working on this bike, were not very highly regarded. So I built my own. It was not a process for the faint of heart. If you still don’t feel like just buying one, read this and maybe it won’t be as painful for you.
- “The Build.” This is empty for now, as I’m currently stripping existing bicycles in preparation for the actual building, which I expect to start in December.
- Resources lists some resources I have drawn on.
- Contributions lists the people who made a real difference in this project.