Well, I was able to get my hands on some Moon-drives , and I decided to make a powerful, all-season trail-runner. I live in Colorado US and I’d like to head out to the mountains, have some fun and piss off some mountain bikers. So far, I think I’m heading in the right direction
The description is pretty much all summed up in the topic title. I used one of my long AT decks for the build. You can check that deck out and learn all about it here https://tomiboiesk8.com/long-at-carver/. I used light-weight fiberglass reinforcement so that the deck will have some flex. I weigh 175 lbs and the heavy-weight reinforcement is a little stiff for me. Between the flex and the fatty tires, the ride should be pretty cush.
The Flipsky 63100 motors are a perfect fit for the set-up. The motor shaft needed to be shortened. I used my favorite tool, an angle grinder, to get the job done. I have to say that if there is anything that will make you look at belt-drives with a whole new favor, it’s assembling gear-drives. What a headache Especially for the first time.
I’ll most likely be putting bindings on the deck after I get every thing sorted. I picked up a Kweld and need to figure out how to use it, but I’ll be working on that this week and hopefully making a battery pack for the build very soon. Very soon. Happy riding friends. Keep safe
The integrated 12s4p P42A is absolutely perfect. If this were mine, I would make some mounting points for a bolt on top mount battery to get that extendo-range for long rides.
I came up doing street skate and such, so I’m pretty nimble on a deck without bindings. Regardless, I do intend to mount bindings after I give some thought to placing them.
Yeah, adding an extra layer of bamboo and/or adding fiberglass both increase strength and stiffness, but in different ways. One does it from the inside, the other from the outside. Fiberglass is nice because it is lightweight for the amount of strength that it adds. Also, adding fiberglass to a rubbery deck will give it an energetic, snappy flex. Adding another layer of bamboo makes the deck stiffer and heavier, but is sometimes necessary for chubby riders, or if someone wants a particularly stiff board.
I’m hoping to finish this one up today. For shits I made an active cooling-system with a small, battery-operated, aquarium pump. It might be worthless, but if it vibrates enough to make it feel like I’m riding with a combustion engine on-board, I’m putting an X in the W column
She’s running. I used 30mm x 0.2mm nickel strip and a Kweld to put the battery together. My welds aren’t pretty yet, but the Kweld definitely makes much better welds than my old Sunko spot-welder.
I made a 3D printed housing for my on/off button and charging jack that I mounted in the middle of the deck. I used a thick TPU gasket to get the housing to fit flush to the deck to keep water out.
I didn’t want to cut a big hole for a heatsink, so I made an active cooling system as an experiment. I hid a small air-pump inside of the 3D printed housing. A small tube runs from the pump to the ESC and hits it with 3/4 of a gallon of air per minute. There is probably about a pint of open space inside the deck with all of the electronics, so the air cycles 6 times per minute. That’s not too bad. I don’t really need the pump right now because it’s cold out so I installed an on/off button. I powered it through the second PPM plug. It makes some noise, but I can’t hear it when I ride. The pump can move some air. If I stand on the deck while wearing no pants, the boys can feel the breeze
I installed a nipple for a grease gun on my gear-drives where the grease port is. Now I can just pump Aeroshell 22 in with a gun. It’s a neat and easy way to top off your gear grease. With thick grease like Aeroshell it’s way easier than using a syringe.
I put in some work to make this deck water resistant. The top-side compartment helps. In addition, when I fit the lid, I use a little petroleum jelly to help it slip in and out, but it also helps to make a seal. I’m hoping a little snow and slush on the deck top won’t cause problems. I’m trying to find or make a cover for the power button. It’s probably most vulnerable to water damage.
The weather sucks, but I did get a test ride in. The moon-drives are super quiet, especially for straight gears. The 9 inch MBS tires have great traction, and I like the extra shock absorption. Also, I’m very happy with contour and size of the deck. I’m 5’8" and I’ve got some room to move around with 30 inches from bend to bend. The nose and tail are 30 degrees. The width of the foot-bed is 9 3/4 inches which fits my size 12s nicely. The flex is spot on for me. There is slight flex thought the center of the deck and the nose and tail have good compression which gives the deck some energy and dampening.
That’s pretty much it for this one. Now it’s time to put some miles on her
I have to grease my CNC with a gun… I just put two and two together. I have some 3Ds drives that are a bitch to maintain. These are going to be a breeze.
Some quick reviews on some of the toys I’m playing with here. Everyone knows that the Moon-drives are dank. I have some feedback comparing Moon’s straight-cut gear-drives vs. 3Ds helical-drives. I love my 3Ds drives, but the Moon-drives are more quiet. Moon’s gears are also really beefy. Honestly, I don’t even think it’s necessary to go helical with Moon-drives.
The Flipsky 140kv 63100s are performing well. They’ve been covered with slush and mud and all is well. My gearing is 1:4 and I have a lot of torque. I’ve made it up to 35 mph and there wasmor ein the tank. So far so good
The 3ds drives bleed grease really easily so you need to add grease regularly and there aren’t grease ports. So you have to remove the wheel and 10 bolts to add grease.
The grease port on the moon-drives makes that part easy. Other than that they are more compact than belt drives and you don’t have to worry about debris getting stuck in the belt. The down-side is the expense compared to belt-drives. I’m not certain they’re worth the additional expense, unless you really like cool toys.
, and I decided to make a powerful, all-season trail-runner. I live in Colorado US and I’d like to head out to the mountains, have some fun and piss off some mountain bikers. So far, I think I’m heading in the right direction 
Especially for the first time.
