Making Gotway/Begode EX water resistant - 3D prints

[atdlzpae]

Gotway EX is one of the LEAST water resistant wheels on the market.

• Hollow bore is designed in such a way that a droplet is directed directly to your bearings. And bearings are not stainless, they are made from normal, corroding steel.
• A wheel has a gigantic hole in the middle for cables. And it's not protected against water at all.
• Multiple smaller ways for water to get through the screw holes.
• Water will leak through the trolley handle.

All of those problems are on the "inside", wearing any cover will do squat to protect your wheel. The water is taken in by the tires.

This thread describes in great detail how badly this wheel is compromised. If you don't do anything and riding in the rain, you risk destroying your bearings, motherboard and batteries.

3D prints are available in the attachment.

Things you'll need:

• 3D printer (you can order 3D prints online), elastic silicone glue, marine grease, screwdrivers, adhesive tape.
• Additionally buy a bed liquid absorber sheets. They are available pretty much in every store.
• Best material for 3D printing this is PETG.
• Use a high-quality adhesive tape. Don't use packing tape, packing tape is absolutely terrible. This one is my go-to for all kinds of work, it's extremely strong and durable.

 

Suspension
Suspension in this wheel makes it a PITA to waterproof the insides.
You can disable suspension by removing the padding from the inside of the wheel & installing the half-bushings. They lock your pedals in the lowest position.
gotway_disable_suspension.stl
You'll need 2, one for each side. They are mounted using zip-ties.

Additionally add some hot glue to the "bottom" of suspension to add some padding between two metal pieces.

 

Hollow bore shield
A droplet that lands into a hollow bore gets directed directly to your bearings. To prevent that you can 3D print a hollow bore shield.
gotway_bore_shield.stl
You'll need two pieces, one for each side. Tape up the cable hole in one of them.

Before you close the hollow bore with the shields:
- Fill all holes with the absorber sheets. If a water droplet still gets inside, it will be absorbed instead of sloshing around.
- Put a liberal amounts of marine grease on the outside of the shield to lower the water ingress directly into the bearings.

After you're done installing the shields, seal all of the remaining holes with silicone glue. I also opted for adhesive tape + hot glue to waterproof the cable hole.

 

Cable hole

If you removed the suspension, install the cable shield. It's the orange piece seen in the following photo. Seal it up with silicone.
gotway_cable_shield.stl

 

Motherboard

There is an empty space behind the motherboard (no plastic) for cooling. It may be a good idea to unscrew the motherboard and seal it with silicone.

Screws

When you're installing screws, first dip them into marine grease. They should be better at handling water.
Also, silicone all holes you see inside of the wheel.

Top of the wheel

Take off the display, lights, etc. on top of the wheel, put water absorbers behind them and place them back in. Not foolproof, but better than nothing.

Trolley handle

Trolley handle in EX is problematic. It allows ingress of water from the top, it also kinda sucks.
It's way too flimsy for this wheel.
If you remove the trolley handle, you need to seal it up from the bottom and the top.
trolley_hole_filler.stl
This will fill the hole left by a trolley handle from the bottom. Seal it up with a silicone.
Seal the top with a tape from both sides. Water will still ingress, but at a much lower rate.

Before you close the wheel, add water absorbers everywhere they fit.

So you removed the trolley handle, what now?

better_trolley_hand.stl better_trolley_handle_1.stl better_trolley_handle_2.stl

It's way stronger and comfortable than original EX trolley handle.

gotway_ex_prints.tar.xz

Edited May 8 by atdlzpae

[PogArtTi]

It’s an amazing step by step tutorial ~ I do appreciate your effort to get it done and share.

Thanks 👍👍👍

Art.