Ridecake Kalk build

[jesdreamer]

Retired engineer in Huntsville Alabama. I have been designing all kinds of custom mod furniture, custom cars and more recently custom woodie electric powered boats -- now ready to take on a custom eBike as inspired by the stark elegance of the Swedish Ridecake Kalk -- which has won all kinds if international design awards and was one of the 50 most desired
Christmas gifts for 2020 as listed by the Wall Street Journal. I am passing up a little used Ecotric at $400 to build from scratch using a hub motor wheel from internet. I do question whether to go with 26" fat tire for the max speed out of the 470RPM these wheels offer or to go with less speed but more torque out of a 24 or maybe even a 20" since I feel the 26 is going to end up looking too big -- I do want a LowRider look so I can have my feet on the ground when not moving (your advice please). Can't find a source for 20-24-26" fat tire wheels on internet (suggestions again please). And wonder if I am going to be able to mount a brake disk or rotor on one of the integral motor hubs which run 9.7" in diameter (will rotor have enough spoke clearance to allow std caliper??) -- So there we go --

 

[indianajo]

Welcome to the site.
Most of the power wheels on amazon/ebay have the 6 holes for the disk brake rotor. I did have to file down the back side of the caliper to clear one hub motor, the large diameter DD one. I have tektro cable pull calipers on the bike left. Took about .050" off.
Lunabike had only fat tire (2.7" up) wheels available when i bought my motor from ebikeling. Try them.
ebikeling sold the brake rotor & caliper as accessories on their website, all came in one box.
I like 26" because our pavement has ruts potholes and valve holes, particularly in the "bike" lane. If you're going with 20" had better buy a full suspension bike or keep speed to 5. There are some 24" power wheels out there.
My legs are 28" inseam & I can reach the ground with toes on bike left. The reason I bought it, a bike with premium shifters & sprockets, fenders, and sensible upright posture. I carry supplies so I wanted a fixed frame, to avoid pumping up shocks every time I buy something and bleeding them down when I got home.
I had to grind down the axle of the DD motor I got for $189 to fit it my aluminum frame. Cast aluminum should not be bent. Sure wouldn't bend when I put a screw jack in the fork. That cheap motor also had no thrust bearings, and I had the wheel start dragging massively on my first trip. Sides pinching in? Had to call for a car ride home. Grinding down the axle 1/32" each side, I was able to install slotted washers (thinned out) that transfered the pinch of the frame to the motor axle.
Wear safety glasses when using grinding wheels.
I ride in the rain & I have always viewed rim brakes as useless when wet. I started on coaster brake. Now we can buy disk brakes, which do actually work in all weather. Hurray. I got 4000 miles on my first set of rear pads. Now that I discovered the allen screw pad adjustment, I might get more out of the next set.

 

[jesdreamer]

Welcome to the site.
Most of the power wheels on amazon/ebay have the 6 holes for the disk brake rotor. I did have to file down the back side of the caliper to clear one hub motor, the large diameter DD one. I have tektro cable pull calipers on the bike left. Took about .050" off.
Lunabike had only fat tire (2.7" up) wheels available when i bought my motor from ebikeling. Try them.
ebikeling sold the brake rotor & caliper as accessories on their website, all came in one box.
I like 26" because our pavement has ruts potholes and valve holes, particularly in the "bike" lane. If you're going with 20" had better buy a full suspension bike or keep speed to 5. There are some 24" power wheels out there.
My legs are 28" inseam & I can reach the ground with toes on bike left. The reason I bought it, a bike with premium shifters & sprockets, fenders, and sensible upright posture. I carry supplies so I wanted a fixed frame, to avoid pumping up shocks every time I buy something and bleeding them down when I got home.
I had to grind down the axle of the DD motor I got for $189 to fit it my aluminum frame. Cast aluminum should not be bent. Sure wouldn't bend when I put a screw jack in the fork. That cheap motor also had no thrust bearings, and I had the wheel start dragging massively on my first trip. Sides pinching in? Had to call for a car ride home. Grinding down the axle 1/32" each side, I was able to install slotted washers (thinned out) that transfered the pinch of the frame to the motor axle.
Wear safety glasses when using grinding wheels.
I ride in the rain & I have always viewed rim brakes as useless when wet. I started on coaster brake. Now we can buy disk brakes, which do actually work in all weather. Hurray. I got 4000 miles on my first set of rear pads. Now that I discovered the allen screw pad adjustment, I might get more out of the next set.

I really do like the style of the cakebike bikes and note that all have wheel size of maybe 16" up through 19", 24" which do look like they give nice proportions. I gravitate to 20-22-24" range but like the higher speed potential with 26" -- had been planning a hub drive kit at 500W or 1000W at 48V but also giving some thought to a 60V separate motor with chain or gates cog drive because I can get 1500W or even higher but all at higher cost -- so life is full of tradeoffs --