On the Installation

Okay, following the instructions on the Cyclone Taiwan site, I managed to get my crank arms off and attempt to get my bottom bracket out. Well, I say attempt because the bike is over 10 years old and apparently some rust or something had gotten into the threads over the years. It was locked tight. I tried for 4 something hours alternating between breacher bar and wrench to wrench with hammer, nothing worked. And, yes, I was turning it the right direction smart Aleck. So off to the bike shop I go, for a measly $30 they are taking the bottom bracket out, replacing it and moving my pedals over to the new cranks. Unfortunately I won't have it back until Friday. They don't tell you about all the hidden costs involved in this kind of endeavor.

Speaking of hidden costs, you have to add approximately 4 chain links to your chain. If you don't have said links you must buy a WHOLE NEW CHAIN. That was another $15 for a low end chain, plus $6 for more chain lube. Oh, and don't get me started on the bracket mount. The one they sent me didn't have holes in the right places for the bolts to go through, I had to drill my own. That took an hour and and 2 charged drill batteries to accomplish (hour includes charge time). Before I figured out I had to drill the holes I spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out how to put the bracket together. I still wasn't 100% sure I had it right when I finished drilling but figured it would all come together. It wasn't until I was browsing the Cyclone USA miscellaneous parts page that I found an assembled bracket picture that wasn't on a bike. The below pictures are the assembly process, notice the philips head bolt in the lower right in the first pic? That's important. The holes I drilled are in rectangular piece on the far left(the two on the ends) turns out I only needed to add one hole, but two won't hurt anything.




The power system is pretty straight forward. Battery red goes to motor red, battery black goes to motor black. I however, wanted a more versatile system. Plus I had to add my fuse holder in and such. I couldn't find anything about fuses on Cyclone Taiwan's site but the USA store said to put one in and I always prefer to put a fuse in than not. No use burning out my electronics when I could burn out a $1 fuse. Sadly I needed a fuse rated at least to 40 amps and AutoZone, Home Depot, Fry's Electronics AND the 2 radioshacks I went to only had fuse holders rated up to 30 amps. For those that don't know, if you buy a holder rated for 30 amps and you try to run a fuse with 40 amps going through it you will burn up your fuse holder, it's a mess so don't try it. So I ended up going to my favorite electronics chop shop here in San Diego.....INDUSTRIAL LIQUIDATORS. 30 seconds after I walk in the door I tell the clerk what I'm looking for, he leads me to a stand around the counter and bingo, fuse holder rated to 80 amps 120 volts. Way overkill for what I'm using it for but with these things, overkill is good. The fuses are only $1 a piece and if you can't tell how much the fuse holder was from the picture I can't help you.

The holder is that big black tube and I think it was supposed to come with a spring to make contact with the fuse like in battery flashlights. It did not so I had to use the knowledge I gained from this instructable to make my own. Mine was a greatly scaled down spring made by wrapping about 3 feet of stripped 22awg solid core wire around a zebra mechanical pencil tube. It worked and saved me a couple of bucks. As you can imagine a multimeter is essential for this, it allowed me to check my connection BEFORE plugging it in. This was the cheapest one I could find. Radioshack wanted $20 for a similar model.

The power connectors I got from Fry's electronics for about $3, they were designed for a 18awg wire to be crimped around it but I made it work with my beefy 12awg wire by soldering it straight to the connector. No pics of the soldering but there are plenty of youtube vids about how to do it. The reason I went with these connectors is so that I have a connector very close to the battery so I can take it with me to class. It also provides a quick and painless way of quickly disconnecting the battery as the connector that goes in the motor is very stiff to remove as well as being in an inconvenient spot.

Speaking of the motor connector, I added about 3 feet to the wires that are included with the kit, this allows me to have plenty of slack in case I need to move the battery or run the wires to a different location. These were soldered on and you can see them below. The two wires are the same color so you can imagine me triple checking them before I finished. Had I switched them my motor controller would have blown faster than you can imagine when I plugged it in.



The motor comes with 4 Allen key bolts holding the planetary gear box onto the motor shaft. If you are going with a build that puts the motor in FRONT of your crankset, you can just leave the motor as is and mount it. I need to mount it BEHIND my crankset. In order for the chain to run smoothly you have to replace one of the allen key bolts with the included chain guide. The positioning depends on the rotation of your motor. If the kit has a clockwise spinning motor, like mine, you have to mount the guide in the upper left hand bolt hole. If you get a counter-clockwise motor, it has to go in the lower left hand bolt hole. Also a good thing to note at this point is that the wires should go DOWN, this helps prevent rainwater and such getting into your motor. Now of course there is only one TRUE way of checking motor rotation. That's right, PLUG IT IN. I think this is a good time to test the electronics too, don't you?