It’s nothing terribly exotic. The only real mechanical difference against a typical road bike is that the main chain-ring can spin independently of the pedals on a ratchet mechanism, which allows the little motor in front of the bottom bracket to spin the chain-ring without spinning the pedals. Everything excluding the cranks is just an off-the-shelf drive-train, and you can pedal it normally.
I noticed this in my research, but it looks like these drive-trains might be specific to Shimano e-bike motors. I’m more looking for something I can retrofit generically. Do you know of any Shimano e-bike capable cassettes/derailleurs that aren’t motor-specific?
I’ve being using offline location tracking using a different app for some time now. This looked like a pretty elegant alternative, so I decided to give it a shot!
The app looks great, and very well thought through. The automation features really appeal to me (disabling tracking at home, automatically changing profiles, etc.)
One thing I wish it had was the ability to associate vehicles with trips (potentially, automatically, based on Bluetooth connections or other triggers). I like to track the category for each of my trips (car, bike, train, walk), as well as the specific vehicle (when applicable).
I haven’t tested too much yet, but it looks like you already have pretty robust trip tracking. It would be awesome if I could create a list of vehicles with types, and select a vehicle when starting a trip, or have it automatically set when connecting to a Bluetooth device.
In any case, this app looks great, and I appreciate the effort you’re putting into an open source project like this.
Thanks for the write up! I sort of figured an IGH/belt-drive would involve this sort of complexity. It’s an aluminum frame with quick release axles, which complicates things even further. At that rate, it seems to me like a new bike would be the better option.
A local bike shop took a look at the bike, and was surprised to hear about the problem. They said they’ve never seen anything quite like it, even considering the motor. Their best guess was that the chain-line isn’t great, and that could be causing the chain snapping issue in lower gears. The cassette wear can probably be chalked up to it being a $20 cassette.
I think right now, my plan is to try a larger offset on the chain-ring to improve the chain-line. If that doesn’t improve things, I’m looking into maybe installing a 5-speed cassette with a thicker chain. This option looks promising, but I’m not 100% sure it will work with my bike: https://www.cycmotor.com/product-page/heavy-duty-drivetrain