Since I was having problems again with the gauge that shows me voltage and current I replaced it. It's the same one again though (EV Display), just a newer version. I think I won't have any problems with this anymore, quality and build of the circuit board is much better than with the version I had before.

All wires already connected.

And placed in the enclosure. I did have to modify a few things to make it fit since this circuit board is a bit bigger.

The new gauge is nicely showing the voltage and current again, hopefully it stays like this now.

I did have a small problem where it kept showing 10 V while everything was turned off. The cause turned out to be a layer of rubber that I added between the circuit board and contactor as isolation. I found out that the rubber I used (EPDM) is slightly conductive. That's never a good thing so I removed it immediately.

Then there's still the problem with the motor that's getting too hot. Coincidentally there's also that same layer of rubber (EPDM) on the protective cover and a few copper wires of the carbon brushes actually touch this. It also looks like the rubber got pretty warm at those spots, it was kind of sticking to the copper. So this could already be a cause for the motor getting so hot.

I also checked the carbon brushes and you can see really good that they've been very hot on the inside.

This definately isn't good and I'll have to find a solution quickly before I can use the full power again.

I also have confirmation from the RDW that I can go there on April 30th at 8 in the morning for the road approval test. So I still have a few weeks to completely finish everything. It will definately be very exciting but I'm still very confident that it'll be okay.

You don't have to wait any longer, I will now show what the quad bike looks like after working on it for almost 2,5 years. I'm really happy that I chose these colors, everything matches really good and it just looks really great. When I started this project I did have an idea of how I wanted it but it's become even better than I expected. Well, here it is. :)

Ofcourse it's nice that it all looks so good but what's more important is that it did really good again during the third test ride yesterday. This time I went to the industrial area again where my sister works, there's a nice long road there with a dead end so there's not much traffic. I've only tested at high speed now, mainly to see if the motor would get as warm again. This past week I've ran the motor for 12,5 hours at 1000 RPM so the brushes should be seated by now.

But unfortunately it already got too warm again (90 degrees celsius) just after going up and down the road twice in Sport mode. Meanwhile I did reach a new top speed of 84,7 km/h (52,6 mph) though. And it should be able to go a little faster. I think 88-90 km/h (54-56 mph) should be possible. Which is good as that's exactly the speed I had in mind when I selected the sprockets. It rides a lot better as well now, it's fitted with 4 new tyres (Toyo Proxes T1-R) and the wheels have been balanced. You can really notice the difference is at high speed.

After the motor got so warm I only still tested on Eco mode. Was a bit less fun but necessary to see if the motor would still get warm with just half the power. This is also the nominal power which the motor should be able to run at continuously. While it did take a bit longer it unfortunately still got to 85 degrees celsius after going up and down the road 6 times. So something is not right and I already have a few ideas what could be causing it. I'll look into this in the coming days.

Another problem is that the gauge which shows me voltage and current has broken for the second time. And not even during the test ride but just here at home while I was charging the quad bike a bit. I don't really have any faith in it anymore so I'll be replacing it with a different one. I'll just have to take a few fenders off again but this just needs to work properly for the road approval test.

But for the rest I'm very satisfied, the quad bike is working just fine and on Sport mode it's a real pleasure to ride on it. Ofcourse I made another video again so you can see it all as well. :)

Just a few more modifications and then on to the RDW. ;)

Very good news today, the quad bike is finally completely built up. You still have to wait to see what it looks like right now though, I'll show this on Sunday. Tomorrow I'll probably go out for the last test ride before I go to the RDW with it. I'll make another video again. :)

But as promised I'll already show you a few little details. ;)

The quad bike has really become very beautiful, can hardly wait to share it with you all. Just a little more patience. :)

Just a quick update after the weekend. Made the quad bike a bit lighter for now, the wheels had to go off. You might be wondering why but you'll see within a few days. ;)

Placed the last few wire hoses around the orange wires. Looks pretty nice now, it just makes the wires even more stiff. But it's not really a problem. As you might be able to see the motor is running here. I'm busy seating the brushes so I can see if this will lower the temperature. For this I'm letting the motor run at 1000 RPM for about 12 hours. I'm just at 7 hours now so it'll still take a while.

Unfortunately I'll have to modify the fenders a bit in a few places. Here where the 2 wires cross eachother I had to bend the fender a bit so they still fit. I also expect that I have to modify the rear mudguard a bit since the wires to the motor are in place there.

I'm really working on the last few things now before the fenders can go on. This coming Saturday I'll probably go testing for the last time and I hope to have the quad bike completely finished by then. I'm really curious myself what it'll look like. :) To make it a bit more fun for you as well I'll only show this all after the testing. ;) I might show a few little things this Friday but the pictures of the end result will come some time this weekend.

Yesterday I went testing for the second time. First I went to a boatyard's parking lot nearby. Usually you can drive all the way around but since the water was high this unfortunately wasn't possible now. But the asphalt also wasn't as good as I thought, because of this it turned out to be a good test to check if any bolts or nuts would still come loose though. ;)

I rode around here for a while and it was very fun again. Could really notice that I had a lot more power now than during the last test. Acceleration was much quicker now. But I still don't think I had the full power. The highest I've seen is 315 A while everything is set up for 400 A. But I also couldn't keep looking at the gauge the whole time since I had to keep looking where I was riding. For the next test I'll just place the camera in front of it, then I can at least see everything at home.

But everything went well, nothing came loose anymore and nothing broke either. The temperature sensor in the motor is working fine as well. Only problem was that the motor got pretty warm quickly and I had to let it cool off a few times. It's probably because the brushes aren't properly seated yet so I'll just have to wait and see. On the parking lot I also couldn't really reach a high speed and was really only accelerating and braking the whole time. So I left there and since I couldn't resist I did a few quick runs on the road. :)

The real fun started here since this was actually the first time at higher speed. The quad bike again did very well here, it all felt great and it just kept accelerating nicely. It definately has more than enough power. First I tested at low power (Eco mode) so the motor wouldn't get so warm right away. Accelerates less quickly then but on that road I was able to get up to 75 km/h (46 mph).
But I knew that it could do more so after that I tested again but this time at high power (Sport mode). I reached 75 km/h (46 mph) very quickly now and was able to get a maximum speed of 82,6 km/h (51 mph). That was pretty much the goal of this test, getting above 80 km/h (50 mph) for the first time. And that has also succeeded. :)

In total I rode almost 10 km (6 miles) again, so the same as the last test. Only the ride time was a bit less this time since the quad bike was much faster now. ;) Only thing I need to keep an eye on for now is the temperature of the motor, at the moment this is getting a bit too high.

Ofcourse I brought the cameras with me again and made a video again. Think you can see really good that the quad bike has more power now. :)

This coming week I'll order the new tyres so the Chinese tyres can go off. And I'll also completely finish the quad bike by adding the fenders on. I'll probably test once more before I go the RDW but for now it's all looking good. If I don't run into any problems anymore during the next test then I also don't really expect any problems at the RDW. It'll definately be very exciting.