{"id":1259,"date":"2022-03-06T19:31:51","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T00:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/?p=1259"},"modified":"2024-06-19T15:39:01","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T20:39:01","slug":"elf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/elf\/","title":{"rendered":"ELF!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2013, a unique startup called Organic Transit in Durham, NC started manufacturing the ELF (Electric, Light, Fun) &#8211; a 3-wheeled electric vehicle\/bicycle hybrid (classified as a bicycle). For a variety of reasons, Organic Transit went bankrupt in 2019, after selling only ~ 800 bicycles. They were intriguing, but pricy.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, someone donated one to the Durham Bike Co-op in June. A friend with a trailer helped pick it up and we brought it back to my house for evaluation.<\/p>\n<p>In short, it&#8217;s a mess. Assessment:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Multiple cracks in the ABS frame<\/li>\n<li>Both front fenders cracked with JB Weld attempts at repair making a mess<\/li>\n<li>Both front ABS mounts broken<\/li>\n<li>The motor mounts are damaged<\/li>\n<li>The cable for the motor wrapped around the axle, destroying the cable, also shorting out the Hall sensors in the motor.<\/li>\n<li>The electrical system (the Kelly controller) was shorted out (see above)<\/li>\n<li>The previous owner reported that the battery was also dead<\/li>\n<li>Rear shifting (for pedaling) was frozen<\/li>\n<li>No key (which the owner later mailed)<\/li>\n<li>The steering mounts are bent<\/li>\n<li>The motor torque arm that prevents the motor from inappropriately spinning is also stripped (hence the cable wrapped around the motor)<\/li>\n<li>The front and rear windshields are scratched<\/li>\n<li>The rear brake is broken<\/li>\n<li>The seat cover is torn<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Additionally, I&#8217;ve learned that the early ELFs had a number of designs flaws (many of which show up above), and this is ELF #11! One design flaw is that the front kingpins (aka &#8220;antlers&#8221;) (upon which the front wheels rest) snap off! Those will need to be re-manufactured in steel. The seat mounts are known to break. There&#8217;s no suspension. Fortunately the ELF was made in Durham, and I&#8217;ve tracked down a machine shop that used to be associated with Organic Transit. Hopefully they can also help with the steering mounts and motor torque arm.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, wow. My estimate for repair? $750-$2400. Still, I&#8217;m interested. The repairs require a blend of my skills (cycling, electronics). The co-op declined to invest in repair, so I purchased it from the co-op and now embark on a money pit.<\/p>\n<p>Off to Lowe&#8217;s, Amazon, and other dark corners of the Internet. $125 later, I&#8217;ve replaced the cables for the shifting, started cleaning up all the JB Weld mess, replaced the front ABS mounts, and started cutting ABS for reinforcement. More pieces are inbound. I have a friend attempting to create CAD designs of the &#8220;antlers&#8221;. (No, not only is there no CAD design of this critical component, but apparently OT chose to keep changing the design; there are multiple designs out there).<\/p>\n<p>The electronics are in pieces (even the motor is disassembled). The ELF is up on blocks in my garage. Who knows if it will ever come off them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2013, a unique startup called Organic Transit in Durham, NC started manufacturing the ELF (Electric, Light, Fun) &#8211; a 3-wheeled electric vehicle\/bicycle hybrid (classified as a bicycle). For a variety of reasons, Organic Transit went bankrupt in 2019, after selling only ~ 800 bicycles. They were intriguing, but pricy. Anyway, someone donated one to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/elf\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;ELF!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1318,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1259\/revisions\/1318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinister.net\/netpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}