Tighten a loose freewheel on the trail

 I have had bicycle freewheels come loose while riding, many times and on multiple bikes.  Here is a video showing it.

You start to hear and feel a knock, worse in some gears that others.  As it progresses, it may struggle when changing gears.  If you let is continue, it will come apart and leave your stranded.  

Maybe I am the only one that seems to have this problem but I doubt it.  The first time this happened I was out in the desert up a long hill.  I felt it happening but did not stop to check into it.  It finally got so bad the freewheel came apart and locked so there was no ratchet action anymore and the pedals just followed the wheel.  It made for a long trip home.  My bike was under warranty so I got a whole new rear wheel assembly.  The new one did the same thing.  This time I caught it early.  Normally you need to take the wheel off and use a special spanner for this.  I only had some basic tools I carry on the bike.  I finally used a Philips screwdriver and some ingenuity to tighten it back up without taking anything apart.    

Here is a photo showing the freewheel off the bike so you can see how to place the screwdriver.

There are small holes for the spanner. Push the Philips screwdriver into that hole at a bit of an angle. Since the bike will be assembled on the trail, there are only a few areas where you can even see this part of the freewheel.  Generally in the slot where the axle bolts to the frame.  While pushing in hard on the screwdriver, rotate the wheel in the forward travel direction.  This will cause the whole freewheel to move with the wheel but since you are holding the freewheel nut with the screwdriver it will stop against the frame and tighten the nut.  Since you have the leverage of the whole wheel diameter, the weak point of this is keeping that screwdriver held tight into the nut hole.  You can help this by holding the screwdriver at a bit of angle.  Hard to explain in words but it works well.  

The freewheel bearing preload is set with shims, not a specific torque, so you really can't overtighten it, especially since the screwdriver approach does not give enough grip to overtighten it.  

SEMA 2022

 

Like last year, I attended SEMA 2022 for the Friday Experience.  This is a great opportunity open to the public.  Also like last year, I wanted to see what the industry is embracing going forward with the rapid change to electrification going on at the OEMs.  

When I entered the Las Vegas Convention Center, the line was very long.  It was at a different place than last year making the comparison a bit harder but it sure seemed like more people this year.  

This years SEMA Electrified was much larger than last years. In addition, there were manufacturers of EV components and kits all over the show.  Below are some photos of several EV systems and components I found at the show.

A Porsche 911 specific kit.

There were many other EV conversion suppliers here.  There were also many EV conversions on display around the show.

Absent was any hybrid conversion parts or kits.  A person could of course use many of the components such and controllers, batteries, chargers, etc., in a hybrid system but what is missing and needed are hybrid motors.  In my opinion this is a gap.  Of course there are many people interested in full-EV conversion which is a niche market itself but there is another niche for hybrids that is mostly unserved.  From what I can tell, Vonnen has this market to itself at the moment.  The Vonnen system is not available as a kit and it is priced very high, well out of reach of most.  

As I wrote years ago, I believe there is room for aftermarket performance hybridization kits.  SEMA would be the place to find this and I saw nothing.  However, the expansion of EV components and kits are paving the way for hybrids as well.  

Obviously SEMA is a huge show with tons of other performance systems, tools, shop equipment, and other suppliers that offer components and services to shops.  There is also a huge display of all kinds of exotics contraptions that take up the whole convention center parking lot.

This is not just a photo angle thing.  The bumper was actually the height of my head standing straight up.

I saw several similar to this.  A mini monster truck.  This one had a supercharged GM LS V8 in it, as I think most did.  

Notice the smoke coming from the top right in the photo above.  That was a drift area where they were shredding tires all day long.  

New Ford Broncos were very popular at the show.  Many selling components and kits and others doing major modifications like this one above.  

Biking Websites

 I enjoy mountain biking, especially off-road mountain biking.  Over the years I have found some handy websites for mountain biking.

First of all I use a Garmin smartwatch to track my rides.  I had a Vivoactive 3 first, then upgraded to a fenix 6X Pro Solar.  I use Garmin Connect and Garmin Explore website the most since they have the most detail for a Garmin user.  Since my rides take me outside of cellular coverage, I also have a Garmin InReach Messenger to track and stay connected.  Garmin has done a fantastic job with these devices.

Here are some other website I discovered and use:

• Strava.  This is a social biking website.  It sync's with Garmin well so my rides tracked with Garmin Connect also post to Strava.
• Trailforks.  This site is a place to find and share routes.  
• PinBike.  This includes classified ads for bike stuff.

Rurui XT10 Gear upgrades

 

I ride mostly off road which includes steep hills, loamy sand and gravel, and technical trails.  The original gearing on this bike seemed more pavement focused and the gear ratios were too tight, and too geared for high speeds for me.  The original gearing had a 52 tooth chainring up front and a 28-24-22-20-18-16-14 freewheel. First gear was far too high for steep hills and technical stuff. 

Changing the chainring was simple.  I bought a 44 tooth chainring.  I swapped that out and it immediately helped but I did of course loose top speed.

I chose a Drift Maniac 11-34 freewheel with wider gear ratios than original 14-28.

Changing the freewheel on this bike is a challenge.  The axle nut is too big for even this special tool: https://www.area13ebikes.com/products/bafang-750-watt-freewheel-removal-tool-made-in-usa-by-bolton-labs, which I did buy for this job.

The connector is too big for the nut to go over and the nut is too big for the tool to go over.  I had the motor apart to see of there was an easy way to remove the wiring but no, it is all soldered in.  I did not want to hack the wiring up so I needed a better way.  I finally decided to get a larger fitting to replace the nut and slot it so the nut can be installed without having to go over the electrical connector.  Having a slotted nut is not great as it is much weaker this way so I found an item made for something different and modified it for my needs.  Here is what I used: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T18ZKH1?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details.  

Not ideal as stainless is softer than I wanted, and it needed significant modification to work for what I needed here.  I had to drill out the unthreaded end, reduce its diameter a bit (grinding), and slot it to fit over the wire.  Having a slot in a nut like this weakens it substantially but this is far thicker and longer than the nut it had.  Just to make it stronger, I bought a 7/8" shaft collar from Tractor Supply that goes over the special slotted nut to clamp it down which both locks it to the axle and eliminates the weakness caused by the slot.  I also had to grind flats on the new nut so I could tighten it on the axle.  The result, crude as it is, looks like this.

I was able to get plenty of torque on it, similar to the original nut.  The collar then locks it in place and strengthens the nut.  Now I can easily remove these to swap out freewheels.  Here is what the gear ratio comparison looks like, Opt1 being the new gearing.

Torque in this chart is just the ratio from original, 1st gear having 144% of original 1st gear torque for instance.  The speeds are derived from my "typical" pedaling cadence (estimated).  The lower 3 gears give more torque and less speed than original.  The upper 3 gears give higher speeds than the original.  This give a much wider ratio between the low and high gears.

My first ride with this new setup was much better at climbing hills.  In the more difficult stuff, I could power through in first gear now where I could not before.  At times I started having traction problems now where I would spin the real wheel.  I ordered a more aggressive rear tire as mine was worn and had a damaged sidewall as well.  After searching through all the options, I ended up with a Zol Montagna (available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFMHLHJ).  

I have been on many rides since these modifications and the bike is much better suited to my off-road focused riding now.  Since this freewheel has wider ratios, it still works great for higher speeds on pavement too (actually can go a bit faster than before).   I have considered other mods like switching to a cassette style rear gear, going to a 9-speed, etc., but for now I am pretty happy with it.  I use that low first gear quite often off-road when climbing hills or in real loamy conditions and it makes a world of difference.  In super tight situations I can ride it in 1st without motor power and it is so much more useful than before.  

  

Rurui XT10 700 mile update

 A few things have changed since my last update.  The issue where the motor would cut out intermittently got worse.  I contacted Rurui support and after many emails, photos, and videos, and tests, they sent me a new display and controller.  

After I replaced these 2 items, and fixed some damaged motor wires, the bike performs far better. The controller appears to be a later version. I immediately noticed a big power gain especially in PAS 1.  It used to top out at about 11mph in PAS 1 and not it is more like 13.5mph.  The biggest difference is the power everywhere, and that it sustains that power even on long hills.  I have now taken it on about 5 rides, including long hills in loamy terrain, steep hills, and some paved trails with long climbs.  It performs so much better now.  It no longer surges or cuts out like it had done since I bought it.  

Upgrades since my last post

I replaced the 52 tooth chainring with a 44 tooth.  This give me better low speed performance for off-road.  It translates to about 18% more torque (and lower speed) from my pedaling.  Of course this is a trade-off with top speed which is also reduced 18% but I ride mostly off-road and don't need the higher speeds.  Now with the improved motor performance, and this addition climbing torque, I can climb hills I never could before.  

I also bought a wider range freewheel but you can't replace it without removing the motor wiring.  The axle nut is too large for the freewheel or freewheel tool to go over and the nut threads are too small for the motor connector to go through.  It appears I will need to unsolder the wires from the motor, or cut and modify the wiring so I can take this apart.  

I heave searched the net for a solution but what I found so far have been mostly people hacking the harness apart and band-aiding it back.  Yuk.  

I had to replace the rear brake pads from all the long hill descents I make on a regular basis.  Here is where regenerative braking would really help.  Just riding the brakes down long hills is hard on them.