Machine Shop, Recumbent Bicycling

DIY e-Bike Conversions & Solid Modeling: Presentation

I’ll be talking about e-bikes and the solid modeling required to hang a Bafang motor and battery on your favorite bike for the Poughkeepsie Chapter of the ACM at 1930 EDT this evening:

Bafang Battery Mount - Show view
Bafang Battery Mount – Show view

It’s a Zoom meeting, so (in the unlikely event you have nothing better to do) you could actually “attend”. The ACM meeting description and the Meetup announcement will get you there.

A PDF of the presentation slides (remember slides?) includes copious linkies to sources / blog posts / distractions:

ACM – eBike Conversion and Solid Modeling – Ed Nisley 2021-10-18Download

If you’re only in it for the geometry, the OpenSCAD source code lives slumbers in a pair of GitHub Gists:

Tour Easy

Terry Symmetry

Enjoy …

8 thoughts on “DIY e-Bike Conversions & Solid Modeling: Presentation”

  1. So I’m puzzled by the restriction of “You can operate these devices on highways with a posted speed limit of 30 MPH or less.” Does that mean you can’t operate them on a road where the posted speed limit is over 30mph, even if you are chugging along at just 15mph? And does “highway” mean something different than “road”?

    1. As I read it, e-bikes are any bike with an electric motor, whether it’s operating or not, and may not use any “high speed” road. Simplifies enforcement, I suppose.

      I think a “highway” connects two places / towns / whatever, as opposed to a “road” doodling around the countryside, so they’re typically owned by the county or state. Which means you can ride inside a town, but you can’t get to the next one, and you can’t get to a town from the countryside.

      You just know the law was written specifically to look good without changing the situation on the ground. The fact that it’s totally ignored in practice suggests it’s intended for selective enforcement or as a pile-on charge atop other offenses.

      Much ebike. So scofflaw.

      1. So I think that means you can’t legally ride your e-bike on Rt 376, correct? You’re forever trapped to the length of your driveway!

        1. By and large, that’s the limit of her excursions.

          She could walk the bike across the road to ride up and down and up and down Sheldon, but that would get very old very fast.

          Tends to breed cynicism concerning the legislative process, it does.

      1. I also intended to catch it, alas 0:30 to 3:30 (or somesuch) slot in local time made it easy to forget. Youtube seems to do a good job as live sessions trickle down to was-live videos soon after

  3. Pingback: Bafang Battery Charge Port: Autopsy – The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

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