2018 MOAR Bike and upgrades.

My MOAR e-bike.  I think I received it the first week of March 2018.  I of course wanted to put it together and go ride it but we were leaving for a month in Argentina and Chile with the majority of time in Patagonia.

Here is a picture of me with the new bike all put together and ready for the first ride.

Since MOAR was a Kickstarter crowd funding campaign I knew that  there would always be issues with something and this was true with the bike.

Since my first ebike build was a 48V 1000W unit that totally kicks ass, I decided to get the 500W with a larger battery.  I knew this would be an easy build and should be one of the first ones complete which it was.  Keep it simple and you won't have as many issues.  It's not the fastest but I don't care I want reliability and didn't want it to look like an ebike which are super easy to spot.

Yes I wanted it last year but the bike was being improved on a weekly basis and for the good.    I could tell that Ken the CEO (or owner) was being very thorough about design and testing but then started adding more colors, more motor options and a bunch of other things and I could see the scope creep coming.This isn't what you should do on your first crowd funding campaign but I'm not the one in charge so I just chilled since I already had an ebike that I built a few years ago.  Here are my 2 bikes.

Even after receiving my bike I knew there would probably be a few issues and I had to go over all the bolts to be sure they were tight, the front fender is held on pretty lame with a couple of zip ties and the back fender flops around so I drilled a few holes in the fender and ziptied it to the back rack and now it doesn't move.

It's not pretty but does the job and you can't really see it anyway so I don't care.  I'm into function not glamour.  Another issue I had was the tiny zip ties that were used on the machine.  They kept breaking and one allowed the wire to rub on the tire which I didn't like so I replaced a few of those. You can see the broken tie and the wire hanging a little in the top of the photo.

I also added a mirror to the bike bar end that I had on one of my bikes

After riding the bike to work a few times I didn't like how tall my lunch pack and other crap were on the back battery. I am not flexible so getting on and off and lifting my leg much higher was a pain in the ass.  You can see how high the bag comes up.

Since I live in the Pacific North WET of the US I knew I'd get caught in some sort of crappy weather which is why I ordered the fenders.  Well they will do in a pinch but are semi useless so to the design lab I went.  I am an engineer at Boeing but also own a sign shop which is what I'd rather be doing.  Here is a simple solution to help keep the crap off of the components and you can get the supplies on any street corner, especially after an election. (LOL)  There are tons of these 18"x 24" coroplast signs that people think they can just litter up our neighborhoods well NO take those shitty signs down.  I picked up a few and made some "additional" fenders for my bike.  Yeah it's not "pretty" but as you know I don't care.   Here is a piece from a sign I used for the front.

I cut it to size then painted it flat black.  After I did that I put a few holes in it with a soldering gun and zip tied it to the front shock.

Then I went to work on the back.  I just don't want rain, mud, and other crap to get on the joints, electrical wires and components if I don't have to which will make it wear prematurely.  These simple pieces can be replaced anytime since there are an abundance of signs available - LOL

So here is the back fender area.  I have not completely finished but this keeps the majority of crud off the wires and upper linkage.

It's really not to noticeable but does the job.  Now back to the carrying my lunch and other tools, etc. issue.  I'm a long distance motorcyclist from WAY back!  My current bike is a 1999 BMW R1100RT 

I found some front saddle bag type bags for an ATV that I thought I might use on my motorcycle but it just did'n't work out but then they turned out GREAT for the bike.  I only needed a bungee cord to loop over the top and through some loops on the bags and presto, problem solved.  Here is a shot with some small bungee cords which I replaced with a thick one that went over the top and made it sturdy so neither bag would hit the tires or spokes.

So there you have it for now.  I only have about 200 miles on the bike because I have been enjoying recovery from shoulder surgery this summer.  I hope to ride later this fall after I get the ok from the Doc an Physical Therapy folks.  

Happy riding.