Hardware’s in the House!

It seems like ages ago that we closed the books on our last revision of hardware and started designing many updates for the next version of Elevate. In reality, that started only a few months back, around November 2020.

Everyone on our engineering team has significant experience doing this kind of thing, so there’s a reasonable degree of confidence in our work. With the modeling software we’re using we gain confidence in the basics such as the helical gears meshing together with the right clearances, or shaft mounts in the housing being in just the right position. Yet even these are features you can never be sure of until you start to put everything together.

Since the boxed parts started to trickle in from the manufacturers, it’s been all hands on deck! Discreet periods of assembly and adjustment merged into a continuous flow in our workshop throughout May and June, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the way it’s all coming together.

The geartrain has arrived. This comprises gears, bearings, shafts, and more. We’ve assembled it, it spins nicely, and to our geeky eyes it has serious visual appeal!

The Bimotal custom motor is in. This looks so cool in its unassembled form. We’re really excited about this motor, and would love to show you pictures, but it’s staying under wraps for now. Thorough testing is underway, but we are already excited that it is much quieter than our previous iterations and we’re on track to compete with the best mid-drives available.

Enclosures and housings are here. The main part is black anodized aluminum, while other parts are plastic. These have come out very well. Sleek says it all.
Our quick-connects may be a small, peripheral feature, but in everyday use these make a huge difference. With these, mounting and dismounting the motor is a breeze. Finished in stainless steel and black, they definitely meet our style standard.

We hustled to assemble the first complete drive unit with new hardware, and not far down the road is our custom Bimotal bottle-sized battery. This should be here in a few weeks, and it goes without saying we can hardly wait.

Meanwhile, we have some more motors to assemble.
Paul Skilbeck is Bimotal’s blog editor.
All photos: Jason Roesslein.
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