slefain
slefain UltimaDork
4/3/23 5:24 p.m.

Business across the street tossed this to the curb last night:




Seems to be a Vivi MT20: https://viviebikes.com/products/vivi-mt20-step-through-folding-electric-cruiser-bike

Front fork is tweaked hard:


No key, missing front wheel. Battery is in in but without the key you can't remove it. Trying to decide if I try and fix it, or strip it for parts to use on a future project.

Oapfu
Oapfu Reader
4/3/23 10:33 p.m.

Nice score!  FWIW, the battery lock may be surprisingly easy to pick.

Apexcarver
Apexcarver UltimaDork
4/4/23 2:04 a.m.

If it were me, ride on electrically propelled cooler. 

slefain
slefain UltimaDork
4/4/23 10:35 a.m.

Mucked about with it a little more last night. I'll try picking the lock before I drill it. The battery charging port looks a lot like the one for my escooter, so maybe I'll try it. If I can get the bike to power on that makes a big difference in how I proceed. If it won't power up, I'll just part it out.

If it was a mid-mount motor I'd have already yanked it apart and started working on mounting to a go kart frame.

Grtechguy
Grtechguy MegaDork
4/4/23 7:28 p.m.

Ebay air fork for $100 and ride it?

slefain
slefain UltimaDork
5/29/23 2:00 p.m.

It's alive!!!!

Today I pried the battery off it and hotwired the ignition switch. The motor still works!!!

Now to un-pretzel the front fork...somehow.

slefain
slefain UltimaDork
5/29/23 3:26 p.m.


 

Back in business!! I took two floor jack handles, shoved them in the forks, and made a wish. It isn't perfectly straight but it works. I snagged a 20" wheel from a surplus BMX bike and took a test ride. It works! It has a throttle like a motorcycle, or you just pedal and it assists. No idea what ot do with it now.

the_machina
the_machina Reader
5/30/23 2:47 p.m.

I wouldn't trust those forks now that you've bent them back. Way cheaper to pay for a new fork than for dental work.

slefain
slefain UltimaDork
5/31/23 6:24 p.m.

In reply to the_machina :

True. I'll keep an eye out for a parts bike. I need a proper front wheel too. The BMX wheel doesn't have provisions for a brake disc, and this thing needs all the braking it can get.

problemaddict
problemaddict HalfDork
6/9/23 11:54 p.m.

Google the following:

Ebike controller shunt mod

slefain
slefain UltimaDork
8/1/23 9:33 a.m.

I've now put maybe 30 miles on the bike and I have to say I'm really enjoying it. I tweaked the back brakes to have almost no slack, to the point I can lock it up (but don't). I blew out the rear tube so it now has a heavy-duty tube in it. Took it to the beach and used it like a second car. My family went to the beach in the car in the morning, I stayed at the house to work until noon. then I biked to the beach to meet up with them. Worked great.

Current plan is to keep an eye out for a used front wheel and buy a new fork once I research the specs. Otherwise it has been a solid little bike.

slefain
slefain UltimaDork
8/26/24 10:03 a.m.

UPDATE!!!

After a bunch of research and some tinkering I have fixed my front wheel and brakes issue. BEHOLD!!

 

 

I bought a kind of beat up 20" Raleigh Rowdy kids mountain bike from a neighbor for $40. Looked like this one:


My ebike fork is 1-1/8" threaded, the Raleigh is 1-1/8" threadless. So I mixed up all the components into an abomination that works. The only real modification of the Raleigh fork was driving the star nut further down the tube so I could slip my ebike stem down into it.

Rode it 10 miles yesterday and didn't die!

Brakes work great and my stock ebike headlight even bolted back in place. The ride is MUCH smoother with a working shocked fork.

This morning I switched off the speed limiter (just put it in max assist mode and hold down the + and - buttons at the same time). Now I'm researching swapping out the crank set to a larger diameter. Stock is 33 or so teeth and I'm looking at a 46 tooth gear. My legs are going like a cartoon while trying to keep up with my wife on her normal bike, so the larger crank gear plus the delimited speed should let me keep up with her a lot better on the flat areas. We bike mostly on converted "rail to trail" paved paths so there are long stretches of loafing along at high speeds.

I'm also keeping my eye out for a 21-speed ebike just in case I find a good deal. But until then the Frankenbike project continues!

slefain
slefain UltimaDork
9/12/24 10:40 a.m.

Update (for both the people who found this project interesting)

So I bought a new crank set: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHP4K86N

46 tooth gear with slightly longer cranks. Pulled off the old gear/crank assembly and put on the new one:

Hmm, that's when I learned that there are different kinds of bike chains. My ebike used a 3/32" chain and my new sprocket uses a 1/8" chain. To test my theory I grabbed two old chains from parts bikes and spliced them into a janky temp chain:

Yay it fits! I played with the chain length until I got the rigth link count (122 for anyone searching this later). But I had another problem:

The new crankset is WAY further outboard than the original. The chain deflection was pretty bad. Luckily the crank gear is just bolted to the crank spider, to so I moved it to the inside and gained maybe 2mm. Not enough though.

So I ordered a set of cheap spacers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CBRNLV8B



Bingo!

slefain
slefain UltimaDork
9/12/24 10:48 a.m.

Now I just needed a new chain: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BNFZ7CG

Shout out to whoever invented the "missing link" style chain link:

This thing right here is stupid simple yet amazing. Since I'm running a technically wider chain the 3-piece quick link I used on the test chain was smacking the derailleur gear cage. No such problem with this 2-piece quick link.

I've only put a mile on it so far but cruising speed is WAY better now. I have to mess with the derailleur a bit more as I can't quite get it into 1st gear, but 2nd is fine for climbing hills with just pedal power. My hope is that with the higher gear ratio I'll be able to pedal at a steady 12-15mph along side my wife and only need to use the electric assist on tough hills. Before I was having to use the motor to keep up with her on flat ground because I was "spun out" by the low gearing. It was like running 4.56s on the highway with no overdrive.

Keeping track I'm now just under $100 in on the bike, with most of that being spent in the last month. Not bad.

stuart in mn
stuart in mn MegaDork
9/16/24 3:30 p.m.

I think I would have gone for a late 1960s/early 1970s chopper style fork.  Not me in the picture, but this was the hot setup when I was 13 years old. smiley

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