01 July 2014

"Budget" Liberator

In the beginning of 2014 Klaus put together one very simple Liberator. First picture of some of its components was firstly shown on Liberator facebook page “Särtsuratas” last summer:
 In January it already looked more like a bicycle:
In the beginning of April, "Budget" Liberator was finished. It has Bafang/8FUN 350W 36V motor and 10 Ah 36V battery. Max speed is appr. 40km/h and max range is 60km. Bicycle is pretty light and thanks to that very easy to drive without electricity too.


 

26 June 2014

Behind new suspension design

Idea was to achieve maximum with minimal energy and material consumption. It’s more economical and ecological to design details that are interchangeable. With that there’s saving in time and material. Unfortunately it’s hard to make all details like that, but you always have to give your best, like we did.
With openings and fixing solutions we tried to foresee possible future solutions. Both suspension and frame are similar in that - LEGO is the keyword. You design and calculate a bit longer and try to think everything through, to have more opportunities with fewer problems and remakes later.
Most of the outer parts of suspension are interchangeable between right and left side. You could also use either smooth or “waffle” side outside, depending on your preference. Or, you can simply just turn them around whenever you like, it doesn’t influence performance of suspension system.
We have installed Bafang / 8FUN BBS mid-drive motors to traditional bicycles, tricycles and Liberators for a year now and we like those kits. So we designed front fork and stem in the way, that they hide all the wiring and connectors of the kit, to give Liberator cleaner look. This design is useful with other motors and kits too.
Design of rear suspension cleaned rear of the frame and gives more spacious look to it. At the same time making rear wheel look more futuristic. It’s also perfect base to design different racks and fenders to give Liberator even more personal and unique look.
As we all like varieties and change, it’s much nicer and sensible to update and improve your existing bike, then buy a new one. Little Blue is a good example of that. With new suspension, we have travelled nearly a 1000 km in less then a month with Little Blue and we just love the performance of new suspension.

18 June 2014

We wanted to upgrade Liberator’s front and rear suspension, so at the end of 2013 lot, and I mean A LOT of time was spent behind screen and final drawings were ready in middle of December:

As you can’t mount drawings to Liberator, process of finding proper maker continued. But to see how the system works, we made one rear test set and how it worked, you can see in this video:
New suspension test

Time went by and finally parts arrived in middle of May:
By the end of May Little Blue was first Liberator to have new suspension installed. You could even say, that Little Blue got its makeover. Beside new and improved suspension, Little Blue got new Bafang BBS02 48V mid-drive motor, 30Ah battery, new tires, saddle and handlebar. Pictures of building process:
 


Although new suspension doesn’t look as old-school as first version, but it performs better and gives Liberator more modern look. All components work very well and we are satisfied with result. Freshly rebuilt Little Blue first time out in the sun:





Couple pictures of first rides:


Blog's updates

We hope, that from now on there will be more news and updates in blog and questions and discussions are welcome. Last post was in January, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any progress with Liberator. First update will follow this post soon.

29 January 2014

Der Hammer

New Project. Construction has begun, and I hope to get ready for 2014 -2015 . The new concept of the battery bus, ultra capacitors, pedal generator, and much more. Hypothetical mileage 400 +. 2x MAC (BMC) tuned engine. and much much more:







06 August 2013

how to bend the frame!

6h failure  and then 15 min the actual production. 8 frame completed!