My long weekend ride on the Tidalforce S-750C (for Crystalyte motor)

I took my newly configured Tidalforce S-750C bike out for a long ride on Saturday. It was a lovely day and I had worked on the bike Friday evening. I had to hook everything up including my old Bosch Fat Pack cells configured for a 2S3P configuration for 74V 6Ah. This motor rocks in a big way. Fast and fairly quiet, although it growled a bit at startup and lower speeds. Once you got up to around 15mph, the wind noise drowns out everything else. Top speed was 42.6mph and the range was 14.6 miles which is a great number for 6Ah of power.

It's divided into 3 parts. If you watch all three sections, You'll notice that I lost power twice. This is fairly easy to do when you have so many Anderson Powrepole connectors clipped together. If this were my final configuration, I would definitely tape all the connections together and secure the silicone wire so that it didn't try to pull the battery leads apart.

Here's a photo of the semi-final configuration of the bike with the Crystalyte HS3540 motor.

Here's part 1.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Family Portrait of Electric Bike Motors

I have the Crystalyte 3540 (I believe) motor mounted on the bike and I had my Tidalforce as well as E-bikekit motor sitting nearby so thought I'd take a picture. As you can see, the Tidalforce is massive in size compared to the two others. It is truly built like a tank. The quality of the castings is very high on the Tidalforce. In second place is the Crystalyte. It is very solidly built and similar to the Tidalforce motor, is very quiet. In 3rd place is the E-bikekit motor. It's well made, but has pressed panel side covers (I believe) and doesn't quite match up to the other two. However, it is (by far) the least expensive motor and a great entry level motor. I know because this type of motor was my first electric bike motor and I'm very fond of it. It also does amazingly well when run at higher voltages, which is surprising considering it's low cost!

Anyway, here's the picture.

Did some work last night...

I worked on my Tidalforce S-750C build last night. It doesn't look very different but,

Removed the Tidalforce console, brake levers, throttle
Installed the folding pedals
Changed the tire and tube
Installed the Thudbuster LT seatpost
Installed the ebikes.ca taillight
Mounted the controller which fits very nicely under the Topeak rack
Switched out the brake levers
Installed the thumb throttle
Installed the Mirrycle mirror
Routed the brake cables and throttle wires through the frame

Pics here:

Pix of Crystalyte 35 series motor on my Titanium S-750 frame

I'm still testing out the new motor so am trying it out on my Tidalforce S-750 frame. Here are a couple of pictures. I've simply installed the motor into the rear dropouts and tested it. I haven't actually ridden it yet. It's snowing here in Washington, DC...

Correction! Crystalyte 35 series motor versus the Tidalforce motor

Correction:

I mistakenly called my new motor a "5" series motor when in reality it is a "35" series motor. Forgive me, I must have been dreaming and wished it so! anyway, back to the show!

I put both motors side by side for a comparison shot...

Another Tidalforce bike (#6) joins the family...

Tidalforce bikes are like potato chips. You can't just have one!

I was looking to pick up another M-750 folding bike so that my wife and I can put our Tidalforce bikes in the car so that we can go for rides away from home. I decided to bid on one of the frames that "theboxwon" has been posting on eBay. The one I have now is an 18" which is the right size for me and the recent ones from "theboxwon" have been 20" models. Looking at the specs for both, the only difference between them is a small 2" extension of the seat post column on the 20" model. I have a Thudbuster LT on my 18" now and it's still not too tall for me so I am hoping that the 20" model will be fine as well.

I won the bid! Now I have TF #6 joining the family. I really do need to sell two of the S-750 models I have so that I can make some room for the M-750s.

More later,
Ambrose

Another Tidalforce S-750X joins the family

I saw a Tidalforce S-750X show up on my local Craigslist this past week and I hesitated for a bit in going to see it... What am I thinking! I called and arranged a time to meet the seller! :-)

The bike has a flat front tire but is original in every way and comes with two cream colored chargers. The seller says that he used to live on the same street as an employee of Wavecrest Labs and saw him riding his bikes in the neighborhood. He eventually broke down and bought one. His new office is only one mile from his home so he doesn't feel the need to ride his bike to work since it's not much of a workout when you're on a Tidalforce..

Here are the CL photos which are kind of blurry but the bike is in excellent shape and yes, it indeed does have the X motor. The battery does not provide the full 9A, perhaps only 2 or 3A at this point, but the price was too good to pass up. Now I just need to sell something to pay for it! :-)

More later,
Ambrose