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DIY eBike Mid-Drive (www.youtube.com)
submitted 2 months ago by poVoq@slrpnk.net to c/diy@slrpnk.net
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[-] activistPnk@slrpnk.net 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Shit, Google-Youtube exclusivity strikes again. If anyone has a copy of this video in an unrestricted host, plz share. I would be quite interested in seeing this video, ideally from a copy that I can pass around to friends who are considering building ebikes.

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Would an invidious proxy count? https://yt.chocolatemoo53.com/watch?v=0jco-RKzRSo

If not, the video could be downloaded from there with the help of a browser addon or perhaps the youtube-dl application, then re-uploaded elsewhere for you to share.

[-] activistPnk@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 months ago

I appreciate the effort. Google has killed off most invideous instances so I only know of a few instances. I did not know about that one so I was happy to try it. But it gives a broken CAPTCHA. Took like 5 min to apparently do a proof of work problem, which in the end finally gave an “error, try again”. Had to switch to hCAPTCHA. After repeated enabling of a shit-ton of nested JavaScript, I was able to pass the hCAPTCHA. Then I could only watch the video, not save it. And there was no audio.

Using yt-dlp yields: “ERROR: [generic] None: Unable to download webpage: <urlopen error [Errno 111] Connection refused> (caused by URLError(ConnectionRefusedError(111, 'Connection refused')))”

I was trying to work out whether he came up with a torque sensor. With no audio, I can only guess. But there were some moments where he has his feet off the pedals and the motor is still cranking. Not sure if that means there is no torque sensor, a demo of a faulty torque sensor, or if he was testing a manual torque-sensor override mode.

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Hm, the captcha worked on my end without issue and I was able to watch with audio.

I tested it just now with Freetube instead (should be available in most linux repositories), and that appears to work well for me without any captcha. Hopefully it should allow you to watch it without as many issues.

I don't see a way to download the video from within Freetube. I suppose a much more inconvenient but guarenteed method of capturing the video would be to capture it live by recording the video and audio in OBS.

[-] merde@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

try newpipe to download

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago

I was trying to work out whether he came up with a torque sensor. With no audio, I can only guess. But there were some moments where he has his feet off the pedals and the motor is still cranking. Not sure if that means there is no torque sensor, a demo of a faulty torque sensor, or if he was testing a manual torque-sensor override mode.

No that was just about issues with a mechanical clutch bearing.

[-] activistPnk@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago

So there is a torque sensor?

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 months ago

No, why do you think so?

[-] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is pretty impressive. It looks like they're using PLA, though? That seems wild to me. I skipped around, so if he described using something else someone let me know.

I don't know if other people have some kind of magic print settings that make PLA a durable, high-strength material that I'm not aware of, but tbh this looks like building a bike out of hot glue and cardboard. I think it can be done with high-end filaments, though, and the work overall looks solid, so I'm not dissing the guy. He looks like a pro to me, so I'm confident he knows what he's doing, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of this project.

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 months ago

It seems like he is rapid prototyping with that material, not expecting it to hold very long. He also admits later in the video to having underestimated the forces and doing the calculation showing that it is way worse than he thought.

[-] Mac@mander.xyz 2 points 2 months ago

Yeah it's geared way, way too long. That motor wants to turn thousands of RPM.

[-] poVoq@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 months ago

Using a motor from an angle grinder clearly seems to be a bad choice. But I have heared of other similar projects using cordless screwdrivers more or less unmodified and those worked quite ok.

[-] mlfh@lm.mlfh.org 5 points 2 months ago

I built a friction drive for my bike with a load-bearing PLA motor mount (cheap crappy PLA, too), since I don't have the equipment or ventilation for much else. With a bit of overengineering, it's been doing great for almost a year now, despite all the heat and force thrown at it.

[-] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 5 points 2 months ago

That's awesome to hear. Do you have any special techniques, like annealing? Maybe it's just the consequence of my always buying bargain filament.

[-] mlfh@lm.mlfh.org 3 points 2 months ago

Nothing too fancy! Mostly just designing a lot of thickness and buttressing into the part, and then slicing with thick walls, dense triangle infill, and an orientation that puts the layer lines perpendicular to the highest stresses.

this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026
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