It never rains, but it pours. Maybe you need to help a few more old ladies across the road, or build up your karma account by redecorating their houses for them. I just sent some more money to the Bali orphans. Maybe that's why my CA and Thun sensor went straight through with no charges. Anyway keep up the good work. We're all learning from your problems.
Lol. It's been a catalogue of challenges and set-backs at every step with this one, d8veh, hasn't it. I could not get battery dimensions from BMS without importing and "sucking and seeing" what turned up I had not choice but to take a punt, hope for the best and see what came. That's a risky path to follow, one that I was unhappy with but saw no alternative, and I'm certainly paying a high price for taking those risks.
Have to say after experiences of recent weeks I do like dealing with Germanic-type suppliers who give meticulous info on every dimension on datasheets from the beginning rather than the talking things up as you go approach. In the end with the latter, unless you are very flexible and skilled (which I'm not - and have never pretended to be), you wind up with big headaches and solutions which do not sit comfortably against your key specifications.
One thing I've confirmed is that for me, a big battery and controller tucked away in the triangle is the only option I'd consider and the only inflexible criterion in a bike build - given behind-seatpost options don't work on converting regular frames. If I want to go riding with no panniers/rack bag,no kit, no security stuff and just a Camelbak on my back I'd still likely be better off with a road bike than an eBike. So without being able to properly accommodate all that stuff and leave me free to ride unencumbered, the end game doesn't really deliver as a means of transporting me to go do the things I want/need to do and back again, which is what the bike is for.
I'd start from there with the dimensions of what was compatible, my own new knowledge of how big things are (like voltage converters, connectors, etc) and then select a battery and controller option that fitted. Preferably a smaller more efficient one. That would determine which motor I could then look at.
Also I'd build the box first before fitting the kit to make sure it worked, and limit choices to products you can check specs for before buying them. For my nature, this is the logical way of going about a project. The other way is way out of my comfort zone and leaps of faith at every turn. Some find that half the fun - maybe I would too (a bit) with lots of disposable cash not really caring how much I threw at it, but I find it more worrying and stressful than enjoyable especially with weeks on end waiting for stuff to come before you can see what you're dealing with.
Someone somewhere is giving me a very hard time over this DIY bike malarky. Part of me thinks maybe this bike is not meant to be for me, for some reason. There are times when you keep pushing uphill and it comes crashing down about your head that you are not meant to be going down certain paths at all, and perhaps ought not to have embarked on them - or need to learn from them and move on.
I've been willing to walk away many times and haven't held on to a fixation on keeping the bike at any stage. I do like it as a MTB well enough, though - so if all else fails, worst comes to worst, may put it back how it was and ride it as and when I can get a lift somewhere I want to go.
Life will not be so good until I get a car again - but in the end that's probably what I need to focus on saving up for a few months to finance and stick with maybe a regular bike that I can drive to where I want to ride once I do. Trying my very best with what I have in all the circumstances, but if the limits fall short of the minimum targets then as the months drag on it may be easier just to live without. I don't regret exploring this route - would never know whether it was worth the outcome without doing it.
Have not given up on it yet - will give it one last push to see what I can achieve, but am quite willing to accept the experience and insight as what I've effectively got for the financial outlay, and treat it like having done an unplanned mini-course. Plus skills I may as some point be able to transfer into other things I do. Will just mean I'll have to save harder for motoring down the line - I don't think eBikes can be a permanent substitute without a great deal of limitations.
Karma-wise, I've helped enough old ladies across the road and given freely to those less fortunate than myself to last most peoples' lifetimes over the years. I've also learned that what you give out you most certainly cannot expect to get back - so what I do give goes with no expectations. Very often in fact the more you do for others the worse you get in return.
Good news - got my CA. I'll take a look a bit later. It's a lovely evening still, so out again for a ride on the Kalkhoff... on the same routes as usual with no excessively long steep hills
... onwards and upwards !
