Occasionally we like to celebrate some of the heroes of the electric bike revolution. Aussie Jester is on our list of 10 most influential people of the ebike movement, and we have been intending to do an article celebrating his creations from the very beginning of electricbike.com. If you visit the “non hub” section of endless-sphere, it won’t be long before you stumble across references to a builder named Kim, from Perth in Australia.
His username is “AussieJester”, and as the name implies, he is an Australian who enjoys a good laugh. A quick search will reveal several build-threads for his E-bikes, which are simply stunning. Aussie Jester was involved in a tragic accident some years ago and lost use of his legs. That has not stopped him from building and riding some amazing electric bikes, and unlike most ebike enthusiasts he has an excuse not to pedal. His first electric bike was a trike:
From there Kim had the bug and went back to his workshop to create even a more fantastic ride…this time a bike and not a trike:
At the time of its creation, the Blue Cruiser is known to be one of the most beautiful electric bikes ever created. Aussie Jester is one of the biggest naysayers of hub motors that there is. He has coined the derogatory phrase “Frock Motors” (Non-hubs require a chain that can get caught on a frock [dress], so hubmotors are for frock-wearers!). Kim’s motor of choice is the Turnigy 80-100, which he sets up with elaborate gear reductions so that it works a reasonable rpm. See the Turnigy 80-100 in our store.
Here it is before it became powder coated and the “Blue Cruiser” was born.
Here is the 100-page build thread of the blue cruiser on Endless-sphere: And here it is finished:
The blue cruiser was already a work of art that AJ was quite fond of, so…when he got the itch for a new project, rather than drill, cut, and beat on it, the only logical solution was to…make a completely new E-bike frame!
Kim acquired a compact 2-speed transmission from master fabricator “Thud” and decided it would go quite well with a particular motor he’s had his eye on. http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=48731&p=718406#p718623
AJ would name this bike the HOBO cruiser. HOBO stands for High Output Brushless Outrunner, such as AJ’s favorite motor the Turnigy 80-100, which weighs only 6 pounds and can put out 7,500 watts (10-horsepower!):
His controller of choice is the Castle HV-160 which can put out 160 amps at 48 volts (7680 watts) and it can fit in the palm of a hand while weighing less than a pound. No ebike controller on earth looks this sexy:
Like most high performance electric bike builders, AJ uses Hobby King LiPo as his battery source because of their high discharge rates, power density, and affordability. On the blue cruiser for example, AJ uses 8 X 6S 5-Ah LiPo packs @ 44v/20-Ah.
Here is a video of the working of the motor:
The HOBO Cruiser was born, which is a 2-speed 45-MPH monster:
Here is the video of the Hobo Cruiser:
In this video you can see some of the things that Aussie Jester loves about his RC motor drive set up:
The awesome noise (AJ has said this is his favorite feature of the RC drive system)
The power.
The top speed.
The efficiency.
The opportunity to show the skill it took to build one.
Aussie Jester is a builder who has overcome great adversity, to build from scratch custom electric bikes, instead of just slapping a hub motor on a mountain bike (like most ebike builders).
For more examples of super fast home builds read our 10 fastest electric bikes story.
For more examples of RC drive reduction systems, read our Astro Terrifying Speed Story.
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Written by Eric, April, 2013
