"The Lively Monster Truck"

[millemille]

The Truck went into the LBS (Stanley Fearns in Matlock, get a big Johnny two thumbs from me...) for some TLC last week.

The Purion controller (the display and mode selector on the bars for the Bosch motor) had to be replaced as it had got damaged in a low speed spill the other week and the software got updated at the same time, now with the new Tour+ setting and also with the rear wheel size set to match the 27.5" wheel.

Also needed a new front chain ring as the SRAM OEM one was starting to get a little worn. I was forced, really, to have a sprauncy Hope ring fitted as the new SRAM one hadn't been delivered in time.



A parcel arrived from that French France containing a bash guard/skid plate for the motor - on the Sam2 there is no protection for the motor, obviously Bosch think this OK as they supply Focus as an OEM, but on some of the super steep stuff I'm riding now the motor is getting a hammering as it gets dragged on drop ins and step downs so thought it was best to try and give it some protection - which I fitted this morning.

Absolutely love the bike, performance wise it wants for nothing. The only ever so slight niggle is with the back brake and how sensitive it is pad thickness. SRAM advise changing pads when the combined thickness of pad and backing plate is below 3mm. The pads are currently at 3.6mm and the lever is at the maximum biting point adjustment outwards and it is only just off the grip when pulled on. if you put new pads in you can take most of the lever adjustment off and the biting point is spot on. But new pads are only just over 4mm thick, so it appears I can only have 0.5mm wear before the lever is stroked out. At £18 a set of pads that's quite spendy. But power and modulation are spot on so it seems churlish to be thinking of replacing them with Hope, or the like, with a wider range of adjustment.

The only thing I've got planned to do is replace the Focus OEM stem and hidden cable routing with a Renthal stem and conventional routing because it took the LBS 3 hours to replace the Purion controller due to the cable routing.

The forks are holding up ok despite the stanchion surface finish damage, I'm keeping an eye out on ebay and Pinkbike for a 2nd hand set but not in any rush

[MingtheMerciless]

Check out Uber bike pads, normally a bit cheaper and seem pretty good.

[millemille]

Check out Uber bike pads, normally a bit cheaper and seem pretty good.

I've seen a few people have problems with non OEM pads (poor/inconsistent performance or failure of the bonding between pad and backing plate) so tend to stick to OEM for peace of mind.

[MingtheMerciless]

Only a short one today as it was a bit warm for the Boy Blunder.

[millemille]

The 27.5" wheel I bought for the back to mullet the 'truck was an American Classic "Smoking Gun". Really strong, lightweight, wide rim affair. A great wheel. But the problem is American Classic went bump in 2018 and spares are an issue.

I was fitting a new cassette last week and was horrified at the state of the freehub body, it was brand new/unused when I put the wheel in a matter of a couple of months ago and now the splines are chewed to buggery and beyond. E-bike power, low gearing and big lump of a rider are not conducive to lightweight aluminium freehub's lasting it would appear. I mean, who would have thought?

After speaking to every man and their dog to try and source a replacement freehub in steel, or even aluminium if I could buy a slew of them and treat them as disposable, I had nothing.

So my thoughts turned to, initially, sourcing a replacement hub to build into the existing wheel and then latterly to a complete replacement wheel.

If I wanted a hub with a steel freehub body and which had decent spares support it appeared it was either Industry Nine or Hope.

But as I haven't won the lottery the Industry Nine Hydra hub, at a mere £460, is out of the question so it had to be the Hope Pro 4. And when you look at the cost of a complete Hope wheel vs. the cost of getting my existing wheel remade with the Hope hub it's a no brainer...

So, a complete Hope Fortus 30 W - Pro 4 rear wheel is on order and, with a fair wind and the blessing of the Gods, be here early November.

Hopefully the existing freehub will last until then, otherwise I'm back on the 29er rear wheel...

[weeksy]

Over the years my Hope wheels have been great.

[MingtheMerciless]

Never had hope rims but their hubs are bomb proof.

[millemille]

EMBN have just posted the full video of them riding Jacob's Ladder...



I shall be having words with Steve the next time I bump into him, all the while they were taking the piss out of me not once did they mention they were in Boost/Turbo!

[Couchy]

EMBN have just posted the full video of them riding Jacob's Ladder...



I shall be having words with Steve the next time I bump into him, all the while they were taking the piss out of me not once did they mention they were in Boost/Turbo!

Just watched that, gonna have to give it a go but as you know mine is stuck in turbo mode, no point buying an ebike and not using it

[millemille]

EMBN have just posted the full video of them riding Jacob's Ladder...



I shall be having words with Steve the next time I bump into him, all the while they were taking the piss out of me not once did they mention they were in Boost/Turbo!

Just watched that, gonna have to give it a go but as you know mine is stuck in turbo mode, no point buying an ebike and not using it

Next Saturday if you fancy it?

[millemille]

I've been having a nagging feeling that something was amiss with the battery or motor on the monster truck as for the month or so as I was thinking that I wasn't getting the range that I was when I first got the bike....

I'd been doing some research and had come across the fact that Bosch are required, by European law, to partition off a portion of the battery that is not accessible to the motor so that once the motor has run out of battery power the battery will still power any lights (and an "e-shifter") that are hooked up to it for 2 hours. So if you end up running out of go somewhere in the middle of nowhere at night you can still pedal back safely and legally and able to change gear.

I'd been talking to the technician at the LBS about this and whether this could be turned off or turned down and he said it was news to him that such a thing existed but it was, in his expert opinion, irrelevant as all decent full suspension e-mtb's he'd worked on have the option to power lights from the main battery turned off at the factory and it requires a change in the settings in the controller software to power lights on them.

But when I checked on my bike, if you hold the "+" key on the purion controller down for a few seconds a headlamp icon appears on the screen.

That'd be the new purion controller fitted about a month ago.

The new purion controller that has the lights option enabled by default from Bosch. And the power consumption for the lights, which is adjustable between a maximum and minimum, set to the maximum by default from Bosch.

So right now about 10% of the battery capacity is partitioned off and not available to power the motor....hence the reduced range since the purion was fitted.

That's getting tuned off next week by the LBS.

Anyone who's got a Bosch e-mtb, worth checking whether you've got the lights enabled in the software and if you don't use lights then get it turned of smartish!

[MingtheMerciless]

Good find!

[millemille]

I had been planning on posting a whole load of photos from.this weekend's riding but it's been a total washout: yesterday at Black Rocks didn't even get started as when I tried to stick a few psi in the back tyre the valve disintegrated and today in the high peak didn't go ahead as the weather made it unsafe to drive up to the start, let alone be riding up there...

The battery is now back to giving full range and the rear cassette being fixed to the rear wheel so the chain is constantly spinning and gears can be changed when freewheeling is awesome.

[millemille]

After not even 2 months of Peak District rocks clanging off it the motor bash guard is now fucked...



...3mm aluminium just isn't man enough.

So I'm pricing up 3mm grade 5 titanium sheet with a view to copying the design of the aluminium one, with one or two tweaks, on to Ti.

If nothing else, the sparks as rocks clang off it will be epic!

[weeksy]

oooooh. The one on the wifes is plastic but seems to hold up really well.

[millemille]

oooooh. The one on the wifes is plastic but seems to hold up really well.

I would suggest a few rides down some of the rocky descents up here will soon change that.

I'm on the 3rd battery cover - the black plastic panel on the underside of the downtube - because of rocks getting kicked up by the front wheel and I'm looking at making a cover from 2mm titanium sheet to protect the battery as well...

[weeksy]

oooooh. The one on the wifes is plastic but seems to hold up really well.

I would suggest a few rides down some of the rocky descents up here will soon change that.

I'm on the 3rd battery cover - the black plastic panel on the underside of the downtube - because of rocks getting kicked up by the front wheel and I'm looking at making a cover from 2mm titanium sheet to protect the battery as well...

Well i did a day... but can't see me ever riding it again.

It's not actually turned a wheel since that day we did in the Peak.

[millemille]

oooooh. The one on the wifes is plastic but seems to hold up really well.

I would suggest a few rides down some of the rocky descents up here will soon change that.

I'm on the 3rd battery cover - the black plastic panel on the underside of the downtube - because of rocks getting kicked up by the front wheel and I'm looking at making a cover from 2mm titanium sheet to protect the battery as well...

Well i did a day... but can't see me ever riding it again.

It's not actually turned a wheel since that day we did in the Peak.

Id' say get it sold, sharpish! Emtb's are still in short supply and will be for some time so are commanding good money....

[weeksy]

I would suggest a few rides down some of the rocky descents up here will soon change that.

I'm on the 3rd battery cover - the black plastic panel on the underside of the downtube - because of rocks getting kicked up by the front wheel and I'm looking at making a cover from 2mm titanium sheet to protect the battery as well...

Well i did a day... but can't see me ever riding it again.

It's not actually turned a wheel since that day we did in the Peak.

Id' say get it sold, sharpish! Emtb's are still in short supply and will be for some time so are commanding good money....

She's doesn't want to sell it. I don't care what it does lol

[millemille]

The truck's been off the road for a few weeks now.

Hope rear wheel now fitted. Good quality but by fuck is it heavy compared to the American Classic wheel that was on there.

Renthal stem bought to replace the integrated cable routing Focus branded stem; while the design is nice and makes for a very clean looking front of the bike the massive ball ache is the all the cables, hoses and wires are routed through the top headset bearing and into the frame. So a headset bearing change - which the bike needs - takes 3 hours longer than normal. Only fly in the ointment is the cable guide inserts for the frame - which are currently filled with blanking plugs - are not due in until the new year.

There is a bigger ball ache to fix with the motor. The bash guard mentioned previously mounts on some of the motor bolts and the impacts on the bash guard have resulted in one of the motor bolts getting bent and jamming in place. To get the bash guard off the bolt head had to be drilled and linished off....



..it'll need a nut welding on to the remains of the bolt and carefully winding out.

The bash guard I'm making will be mounted on elastomers somehow to prevent a reoccurrence of this...