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Now is the time of rather minor updates rather then major ones, but i want to set it up straight before i take it apart again and finish the frame up.

After burning a few bulbs (my actual output voltage is 6,4 instead of 6, too much for vintage ones) and sacrificing a LED lamp for parts i have finally made a light work. I've put a modern bulb into a NOS vintage dynamo lamp body i've got from my friend in Amsterdam around 7 years ago. It is probably temporary, since it looks too small on this bike, and even though i love it i may change it later. But at least i now have any light at all, so i am street legal :)

I've taken the bike out for a third ride, went to the distant neighborhood of my town to visit my friends, so it is now 20km more on it. I've hit the top speed of 46 kmph on it going downhill.

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During the ride i had to tense up my chain once, and then half way there i've started hearing bad brake noises while i was rolling. The noise did stop once i was braking, so i figured it is because the brake was unaligned to the wheel. When tightening the axle i felt that i've destroyed the threads on the left nut, but it was too late to return. So i've finished the ride with a bit of stress for my bike falling apart and brake failing (did i mention it was heating up quite a lot more then i consider safe?) but without any unhappy incidents :D

Once home i've immediately decided to take the wheel i was using off and leave it for some non-electric project. Luckily the Nuvinci N380 hub i've ordered earlier have already came a few days ago. Since i only have money for good deals not for bad ones, i managed to buy it pretty cheaply from some warehouse who had old stock of complete new wheels with this hub. So i went ahead and decided to put the whole wheel in now for a test. It is 28" wheel, i am using 28x2.0 Continental tire with it. I am also upgrading it from no brake to roller brake using a special Nuvinci brake adapter tool i've bought from US a couple of month ago.

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That's just amazing with those hubs that you can simply swap the brake adapter from roller to disc or to none for using with v-brakes! Not like with Shimano, when you actually need to buy a different model hub and even some parts are not interchangeable. Pity they don't have a coaster version though, but it won't work for the e-bike well anyway i am afraid. Unlike this beautiful BR-IM81 roller brake i am planning to use :)

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The heating issues should be gone now with such a huge radiator. Here is the BR-IM41 i used to run before for comparison.

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Another thing i've managed is the tensioning bolts. Since i don't have a lathe i've decided instead of cutting them down to drill and tap holes in the end of M10 bolts and insert some M6 ones in. Not perfectly straight and aligned obviously, but after some sanding they do the job well enough! And they definitely look better then my previous attempt to carefully cut one down with just basic tools. Of course if i wanted them well done i could invest a lot of my time and hand craft perfect bolts, file them and polish, but i am not a perfectionist and i just stick with the faster way :)

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That's how the bike looks now. I still need to put an extra washer on top of the brake in order for the dropout not to block the cable nut from activating the brake. And also to connect the shifter and shifting cables. You can totally see the 28" wheel is a bit too much for it, but it will do for the sake of tests. Once ive tried the transmission and brakes i can basically call it mostly finished and move on to frame refinement, cable guiding, little details like rear lights and display placement, painting and pre-final assembly.

[ATTACH=full]178216[/ATTACH]


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