Alriiiiiiiight so, since my last post here I’ve been in crisis mode due to both my friends’ housing/family situations imploding simultaneously, so our plans to split an apartment moved up from “sometime in the future idk” to “right fucking now”. Took a hot minute, but everyone’s safe & happy now, and I finally got my own little room in NJ, with all my tools and supplies set up at a nice little work station. Behold, the second or third finest furniture that money can buy at IKEA:
So! The build is back on, and it’s coming right on the heels of TEF1 Atlantic announcing it’s location also in NJ, so I’ve got a 2 month deadline to build and shake down this board.
Coming back to the project with fresh eyes, I’m seeing that there’s a couple clearance problems with the trucks and the 6" cyclones that I could solve by just chopping bits of the deck off, but I know I won’t be happy with the results because:
- The enclosure ground clearance is 75mm at center and 25mm at full lean (which is actually plenty, but - )
- The standing platform is 50mm above the axle, same as my commuter, so I know it’s going to be a bear to turn at high speed
- The front wheels bite the deck pretty bad at full lean
- The hangers bite the nose and tail of the deck due to the drop-thru mounting
So a good and proper solution is really going to involve lifting the axles, dropping the deck, extending the nose and tail, and top mounting the trucks. I want to raise everything by 25mm and drop the deck back down by 40mm, so I’m prescribing a dose of 8" nova tires and laser cut steel drop brackets. 90% of patients report a 47" wheelbase with 35/15 angles and 33 degrees of lean within 2 weeks:
I started setting up the chain drive components I’ve been sitting on, starting with laser cut stainless sprockets glued to 6900 flange bearings and a printed spacer:
Custom mounts and MBS clamps:
The setup will be 14:50T #25 chain, I’m thinking that gearing for 45mph is the way to go for the TEF1 track.
I also got the enclosure glued together, with the aluminum plate painted up nice and pretty:
Which means the remaining items are the battery build and the drop brackets. Stretch goals are a simple relocation of the legstick to gain back a little standing platform, seeing if I can mount my steering damper, and to print some footstops that do normal footstop things, but also act as stops for my heels and toes to prevent me from sliding around. I’m going to avoid using a binding if possible, don’t wanna risk another crash like the one I had at Electrify expo.