Busy

To get up to speed: The phase wires fuxored at the bend in the axle.  I came up with a great plan to use enamel-coated 10 gauge wire because there's more cross-sectional copper than with rubber-coated wires.  I bought some of said wire from a great little store in California.  P.S. it's very difficult to find enamel coated 10 gauge wire in quantities less than 1000 feet.  I thought I was going to get it working tonight.  I did a bunch of research, took apart the wheel, went to put the three phases in and they fit right in, but alas, they didn't fit around the bend right as they entered the axle.

6 hours later I still hadn't come up with a good plan, so in frustration I got out a drill, a bit, and drilled a wonderful new hole into the axle at a less extreme angle.  Then I took the bit out and spun the wheel and found that I drilled through the bearing.  Fuck.  The wheel is trashed, I'm terribly frustrated, and overall I'll vent that the BMC wheel has a TERRIBLE wiring design.  I'm very tempted to take a Dremel to the casing and cut the stupidly small bearing off the wheel and weld on a 3" diameter bearing with a stationary insert so as to create hole so loose a cucumber would fit through it.  There's absolutely no excuse for BMC's shitty design.  Five minutes with a crayon and a napkin and even a monkey could've come up with a better design.

Shitty Design:

Drastically improved:

I'm extraordinarily frustrated.  I started this project last year and thus far have yet to ride the bike casually.  It's been one problem after the next and now I'm just frustrated.  I'm so close and this motor has just taken the wind out of me.

I've also managed to break 2 spokes on this wheel, which just breaks my heart at the amount of money I burned through on this wheel.

In my idle time I rigged up a heater to the batteries and used it to contract heat shrink tubing; marginally more interesting than watching paint dry, but quite a bit more expensive...