IF Reach - The perfect commuter bike

[cwah]

Hello guys,

I had my Pacific If Reach this afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised by this bike. There is no drag at all and run quite fast even without motor:

We took the train together

 

[cwah]

Then we went to Burger king

He didn't take too much place next to me

We've even been to Tesco together!!

And no, people were just staring at my bike. But everywhere they let me in. Tesco guards and seller didn't say anything. Same at burger king. It was soooo nice not having to park the bike!!

 

[cwah]

Now, the problem...

The rear dropout is 120mm...

I going to use the Ezee kit. I can either spread the aluminium rear fork of few mm... or just have a single gear freewheel.

Not sure how to do that. Any idea?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

It was a struggle to get the Ezee motor in my 130mm drop-outs. There's not much give in a 20" wheel frame compared with a 26" one. I doubt that you'll be able to pedal fast enough with a single speed. Sorry to appear to be a bit negative: It's a nice bike but I think it's not going to be easy to get what you want. How wide are the front drop-outs?

 

[cwah]

It seems to be 100mm dropout on the front wheel.

But I really prefer the rear wheel. I could only have the smallest ratio freewheel because I usually never change speed. The bike would be lighter and I can change speed on my crankset anyway.

Is there something such as 3 speeds freewheels? It would also fit.

 

[shemozzle999]

It was a struggle to get the Ezee motor in my 130mm drop-outs. There's not much give in a 20" wheel frame compared with a 26" one. I doubt that you'll be able to pedal fast enough with a single speed. Sorry to appear to be a bit negative: It's a nice bike but I think it's not going to be easy to get what you want. How wide are the front drop-outs?

Maybe an alternative way out for you as d8veh is thinking, this in the front:

Hangzhou outrider technology Co.,Ltd.

together with the bottle battery:

Hangzhou outrider technology Co.,Ltd.

Depends on the size of the front drop-out.

 

[cwah]

I'm really not too kind of front wheel motor. It's too visible (and no wheelies )

Bending aluminium of 5 mm each side would that be THAT problematic?

Or any single speed (or 3 speeds) freewheel you would recommand?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I'm really not too kind of front wheel motor. It's too visible (and no wheelies )

Bending aluminium of 5 mm each side would that be THAT problematic?

Or any single speed (or 3 speeds) freewheel you would recommand?

I could spring mine the extra 5mm, but when I tried to add a 2mm washer, I just couldn't pull it apart enough. You can try it with your tape measure: You might be stronger than me.

A 5 or 6 speed will be narrow enough, but your wheel might be off centre, which will suit a Cute motor. I don't know about a BPM, but for one of those you'll need to make the drop-out slots much larger. Have you got enough meat around them to do that? The BPM's shaft is the same diameter as the Ezee, but the Ezee ones are milled narrower to fit the width of the drop-outs

It's not clear in the photo. Are the front drop-outs like a normal bike or are they something special?

 

[cwah]

Do you mean I'd need 5mm+2mm washer each side? For a total of 14 mm wider dropout?

The dropout slot seems to be 11mm wide. The shaft is probably around 9 mm wide:

Does that work with the Ezee?

The front wheel dropout seems to be standard:

Why is it a problem if the wheel is offcentre? Would that make the bike less stable?

 

[cwah]

Hey, I was thinking, why not get a very small freewheel such as 3 speed so I can add multiple washers on each side until the wheel is perfectly aligned? (in centre)

 

[Cyclezee]

The following link from Flecc's website shows how he expanded the rear forks of his single speed Quando to accept a multi sprocket Freewheel. As Tony says, "This is not for the faint hearted" and I am not suggesting you try this with your lovely new bike CWAH. qcreation

I might well be losing a sale here, but I don't want to read a thread about a brand new IF Reach with broken frame. This needs careful thought and maybe some lateral thinking.

 

[cwah]

I don't understand. Can you explain why it's not possible to add a single speed freewheel to the ezee motor? Everything should be simpler then isn't it?

 

[Cyclezee]

I don't understand. Can you explain why it's not possible to add a single speed freewheel to the ezee motor? Everything should be simpler then isn't it?

I'm not saying it is not possible to use a single speed Freewheel, but for the reason Dave gave in the 4th post of this thread, "I doubt that you'll be able to pedal fast enough with a single speed."

 

[cwah]

That's fine. I prefer not being able to peddle fast enough rather than taking the risk to break my frame.

All I need is maybe a single or 3 speed freewheel? And maybe add washers on the left or right side in order to align the motor with the frame.

I can still increase the size of my chainset to pedal faster anyway.

 

[catsnapper]

The axle controls the OLD of the hub, it's 135mm (or whatever) if you have an S/S or multi freewheel on it.

The BPM hub which is well offset with 135mm spacing, looks like it might have been designed for a 126mm dropout with a S/S freewheel. By extending the drive side of the axle it takes a multi-freewheel and give a 135mm OLD.
I've fitted a BPM to a vintage frame with a 126mm dropout by having the drive side axle modded to give the correct OLD and using a WI freewheel. Gearing will then be a compromise to suit your riding style.
I've never had to file a dropout to take a BPM unit, although a Kona Ute was close. Dave has obviously met the problem on several occasions.

I'd be very reluctant to spread the dropouts from 120 to 135mm. They would be a long way from parallel, tightening hub bolts onto them to pull them in is not a good idea, especially with the torque from a BPM or Ezee motor.

Alan

 

[cwah]

Thanks Catsnapper. What is the OLD of the hub? And what is an S/S freewheel?

Also, why not just get a smaller freewheel such as a 3 speeds one so it would fit a 120 mm dropout?

 

[catsnapper]

OLD is outer locknut dimension - the width of dropout needed for the hub. If the OLD is 135mm it's not changed by the width of freewheel. Single, 3spd, 6 spd, it would not change the OLD or the dropout width needed, it would still be 135mm.
You would need the axle changed or modified, the point I made in my previous post.

Alan

 

[rog_london]

That's the curious thing about engineering. The less you know, the easier it appears to be!

The logical extrapolated conclusion is that if you're a manager you tend to think engineers are overpaid labourers...

Rog.

 

[flecc]

I deliberately parted two joints on my Quando frame to aid the rear frame expansion, and also reshaped the frame to bring the dropouts back to parallel, then re-welded the joints. From what I can see of your Reach frame it's not suited to this treatment and I don't think you should attempt the 15 mm expansion.

The 20" wheel eZee Quando originally had a single speed freewheel on it's powerful motor, giving a gear of just under 70". Coupled with the powerful eZee motor that would be ok for me to climb a 14% hill easily, while being able to keep up with the motor to 15 mph at a high 85 cadence.

With your chainring shift at the front as well, a single speed freewheel is certainly practical, but you may need to use a wider than usual chain or grind the freewheel teeth thinner.

P.S. You asked above if an offset rim is a problem. So long as you can achieve correct rim brake adjustment, no it's not. Some bikes are even designed that way, the Burrows 8freight being a notable example with the whole rear wheel tracking well to one side of the front, though that does have a long wheelbase.
.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I've just measured all the hubs that I have and I can confirm that all of them have an axle 10mm across the flats. I can't explain why I've had to do so much filing to get them to fit: Some of it was to get the axle far enough into the drop-out because of the larger diameter. They all have an axle diameter of 12mm apart from the Ezee, which is 13mm.

As far as I can measure, the Ezee motor has 130mm between the shoulders, which is how much you'd have to stretch the frame to. The only way to get less is by dismantling the motor and getting someone to turn back the shoulders on a lathe.

The Cute motor has a removable bush, so you can reduce the with. The BPM has a nut on the disk side that could be thinned down to save about 5mm.

I've done some rough calculations for pedalling speed:
14/52 gives about 15.5mph at a cadence of 70 and 20mph at 90
13/52...................16.6..........................................21.5...........
11/52...................19.7...........................................25.3............

13T is the smallest single speed that I've seen, so, to go at the speeds you want, you'll need to get a 60T chain-wheel and probably have to abandon the front dérailleur. Cwah, do you know what your comfortable cadence is?