Widewheel rear motor replacement and general update

So, back in October 2024 my Wide Wheel wouldn't go, the back motor made a lot of noise and felt almost "seized" inside. I suspected rust and I suspected in it where it was found: between the stator and the magnets). 

Keep in mind that I've had this scooter since 2019 and its seen a lot of use.

Accordingly there were lots of delays (what, with postage from China, two other motorcycles that needed work and changing tyres on the MX60 so that I still had an electric scooter), but eventually it all came together. 

Firstly, I struggled to get the wheel apart. I looked at would I repair or replace the whole thing (after quite a few goes at trying to get it apart. The price of a the price of a whole rear hub wheel ($300 of course with a tyre fitted) vs just a tyre ($50) and a set of wheel bearings ($14 for the pair).  I thought "ok, I'm willing to give it a go"; and so I decided that we had to go the hard way of cutting the tyre off.

To achieve this we (it was a two man job) used a good sharp knife, a pair of pliers to pull up what had been cut and some "penetrating oil" (spray can) to lubricate the knife as it cut. You can see the rust stain there where clearly some water (one doesn't need much) had made its way into the motor some how. I have a few ideas on that front, which I can't verify, but either way.

With the tyre off I was quickly able to remove the screws from the "right side" of the hub (sides being usually discussed from the perspective of the rider on the bike or scooter) and it came apart easily and pretty cleanly. You can then see the windings, the steel laminated metal sheets that form and hold the windings. 

The problem was rust and tiny bits of broken magnet debris. Here you can't see is how tightly the magnets around the outside of them hold that stator in, meaning that just a little bit of surface rust becomes a problem. Probably not having used it for 3 or 4 months helped that rust expand (which is what rust does).

Extracting the stator requires the left side of the hub to be supported and a strong back (and a good grip on the shaft; so put the nut back on and a couple of big washers for grip) to pull it out.  Do not pull on the wire.

The outside of the stator had some surface rust as well as the magnets. I used an abrasive bit on my cordless drill (also with very sparing use of penetrating oil) to clean up the outer of the stator and the inner of the magnet area.

Do pay attention to the wires and don't abrade / clean anything off the sides (there wasn't anything anyway).

You can see (blackened area to the right) that one of the magnets has had some of itself smashed off (by the build up of stuff that was in there) and its a hell scape in there if any bits break off because they'll be kept in dangerous places by the magnetic fields.

From there I decided to replace the bearings too, they tapped out nicely with a socket and the new ones tapped in cleanly too.

I thought that before ordering a tyre I'd check that nothing was wrong, inserted the stator and closed the wheel up gently.

So with everything prepared I re-fitted the motor (without the tyre) so back on the scoot and "test fire it" to see if it still worked.

All went perfectly.

However I want to take the time to reiterate a few things that are unexpected to those inexperienced in working with this type of motors. 

1. just as the stator resisted being removed, it is strongly attracted to the hub, so care and strength is required when inserting the stator into the half with the magnets as it will suddenly and strongly get pulled into place. Be prepared for this and have a good grip and make sure the wheel side is held for this.
2. you MUST leave clearance under that wheel side for the axle to protrude through.

When my tyre arrived some other things became apparent

1. its a real tight fit and I should have used lubricant 
2. you really need some long screws of the right type to insert into the holes in the steel frame to accurately line up with the screws that you'll replace
3. some sort of clamp system (big G clamps will do the trick) to pull the two sides together
4. some large washers to form a stack to keep the shaft pulled snugly against the other side and prevent it from moving back up

I didn't do 4 above and somehow my friend who was helping decided to use a spanner on the axle and turn it; and the stator had slid up ... 

This quick movement (he's used to the oil drilling industry and heavy machinery) and ruined my motor. As the stator spun and the wheel half hub dragged on the wires that go to the hall sensors (a critical component in a brushless motor) and totally fucked those delicate connections.

Sigh ... so lesson here is "don't work like a gorilla, work like a watchmaker with electromechanical things."

I have tried to get the hall sensors out, but they are glued in and thus I'll never know what they are (to order replacements) or indeed be able to get new ones in.

The motor is now toast :'-(

By this time, when I went back to Ali I found that rear motors were not available (and they are physically different to the front).

The entire project sat in the shed until a few weeks back when I found another 2019 Wide Wheel in Facebook market place with a stuffed battery (seriously it was only good for 2km) for $200 and I decided to buy that to get a rear wheel.

However when I got the scoot I found that it was almost totally new, with very little apparent wear (well, the rims were bashed on the edges, because people don't know how to corner on) and so I decided to transplant my battery into it instead of just moving the wheel to my scoot.

The scoot had been put into ludicrous mode (explaining why the battery was stuffed) and almost none of the usual pre-ride prep work had been done (please see this article and its linked ones). Indeed the owner had done the classic 1980's bicycle brake cable adjustment which is both wrong and dangerous (see this article for how to properly adjust the standard calliper). 

So, now I have a new 2019 model Wide Wheel (as well as a bunch of spare parts still on my old one) and it feels great to be still riding one. Getting a (basically) new scooter has been interesting to see how much (not much) my scooter has aged and experience a few small differences (such as the controller seems a little different on this model).

Lastly, I've written a lot about Wide Wheel scooters, so rather than list it, everything is here (all articles).

Happy Scootering

SAMDA Tank

One thing seems to be pretty constant in the land of watches, KingWangers (and KingWang loves to watch) people are just filled with snobbery, ignorance, self deception and tribalism. The Chinese watch market is well known for some real bargains and some recent (perhaps ending) movement upwards into high end. The little SAMDA Tank is no pretentious high price watch, it cost me just AU$20 shipped. It is perhaps the very essence of what attracted me to Chinese watches in the first place.

Doing its very best to make a very low priced entry into the almost forgotten valley of the Cartier Tank or the Gruen watch for men (who don't feel they want or need the compensation of a big divers lead weight on their arm at all times) that's stylish, compact and robust. Yes, robust, I bought this little watch back in March 2024, and so I've been wearing it for about a year now. 

When it first arrived it was on a dressy little black leather strap with a deployant clasp. The blued hands are a nice touch (but on sunny days they mostly look black).

From the get go I wanted to wear it as a daily driver, so I removed that strap (because it didn't look like it'd stand up to things) and put it on an old leather strap that I've had for 5 or so years (and gets cycled through a few watches). The lug width is 20mm (as is most of my watches) and so its able to join the strap family immediately ..

You may notice between those two pictures (and about a year) that almost no marks have appeared on the watch. This is (IMO) because of the choice to reduce costs by giving the watch a chrome plating (chrome is hard so resists scratches). By not making it out of machined then polished stainless steel costs are kept down and the watch looks bright and attractive. In fact its often worn under my wrist and yet still (despite lots of keyboard and mechanical work) there are no marks.

Its my preferred watch for working on stuff (like my motorbike) because its so thin it never catches on things (when reaching into small spaces).

Its just over 7mm in thickness and its stunningly light (meaning you don't feel 'wrist fatigue' after wearing it all day). The watch itself is very light at just under 21g (won't get that without Quartz or a big budget).

The strap adds very little to this ...

Despite wearing it on sweaty summer days the back of the watch remains clean and corrosion free.

 Even the crown remains looking good (and I'd half expected that jewel to fall off)

So what's not to like?

Well, as I mentioned people in Watch Wanking poohoo anything not mechanical. Myself I'm rather agnostic and have about as many watches with Quartz movements as I do Mechanical ones. Yet because its Quartz this little light weight watch has remained within a minute of time set when I first got it, in fact it may be within 20 seconds (its hard to say as it doesn't have a second hand).

Crystal is harlex (and Wangers seem to demand Sapphire), yet still also has no visible scratches (heads popping in KingWang's empire).

Original strap wasn't to my taste, so there's that.

The style and execution of this watch is not for everyone, but for someone who wants to know the time, doesn't want to spend a lot of money and isn't a Wanger this watch may just turn your mind back to a time when men could wear an elegant and slim watch (rather than apparently needing a big bold statement) such as this one (pic stolen from the internet).

The Cartier Tank has a solid history and some famous men who liked it.

SAMDA or SANDA or something else

Lastly there is the debate about the name of the company referring to the picture of the back of the watch I see a lower case n but with a watch at "ten past ten" on the dial. 

Maybe its just like an artwork of letters and nothing more? Whatever, its at least a nice bit of whimsy from a nation (China) where language is pictographic ...

So there you go ... if you can get past your cognitive Wanger bias against Quartz, then this must surely be the low hanging fruit of value for money in reliable and functional Chinese Watches.

Win Win

FAFO

Good old FAFO ... 

Usually this is represented as a linear relationship between fucking around and the "found out" outcome; I don't think this is actually correct and the chance of death increases with the level of "fucking around" people do.

Accordingly I put this together

Eventually (when you reach a level 10 of fuck around) you actually won't find out.

listening to your inner voice

I decided that I wanted to change the (rather antique style) grips on my SR500 for something more comfortable. 

I'm pretty happy with them but unlike the older styles, the ends are "uncovered" on modern grips. This left me the task of attaching end covers for aesthetic and functional reasons. I ended up selecting these:

as (before I'd taken the grips off) I figured they'd be suitable no matter what I found (empty hollow bar end or filled in with something. As it turns out the Yamaha bars had solid steel rod inserted into the bar to assist with damping vibrations. So I had to drill and tap a thread into this.

This task was done by:

1. carefully identifying the center and then marking that with a center punch
2. drilling a small pilot hole (that was straight and con-centric to the bars)
3. successively drilling this out to the final diameter needed for the thread cutting tool
4. cutting that thread (there's a technique) 
5. shortening the supplied bolt
6. screwing it in and using light grade thread locker on that 

Left hand done, I moved over to the right where I met with problems on step 4

Because of an additional complication on the RHS, you can't imagine how much I feared this outcome and had taken every possible precaution against it by 

• turning gently (two fingers)
• only turning till it bound
• back off at least one, sometimes two turns to feel for the 'break' of the cutting tool swarf 
• backing all the way out to double check the measurements of drill depth 
• knowing how far I'd been able to turn the cutting tool into the newly cut thread...

Of course now I haven't fucking got a cover on that side because when you break these off in there, there's just no drilling it out ...

On the place it broke, I'd felt that while the screws had enough thread I did not test that on the many occasions I'd backed out. I should have been doing this to be clear exactly how many turns of thread the cover mounting screw had (and it only needs a few right!!).

Had I done that I may well have saved this issue, had a good looking bar end on the right and maybe just more loctite on that one ... FCK

This is as much a warning to  others as an exercise in accident analysis and self punishment

FCK!