Alien Rides Extreme Bull K6 E-Bike- Review and Hacking!
Hey everyone! I am sure you all remember my review of the Alien Rides Extreme Bull K4. Well, today I have its successor- the Extreme Bull K6. It’s got a few welcome changes and a few may be less welcome ones. I am going to take it out for a quick spin as is, and then when I get back we’ll talk about what’s new and different about it. As you can see I test new EVs in full armor, fashion always takes a back seat to safety and proper PPE and anyway, I think it looks pretty cool. Ok,
the K6, like the K4 is clearly built rather than mass manufactured. For me, since I like to hack my machines this is ideal. Die-cast metal or injection molded plastic just complicates things and makes upgrades and repairs harder. Lots of easy-to-source off-the-shelf parts here so I can customize them. Given how low the Extreme Bull rides- well below the hood of a car it’s both incredibly stealthy, and incredibly unsafe. If pharma pirates in a cyberpunk story had a smuggling vehicle- kind of the land equivalent of the narco sub or go-fast boat, it would be the Extreme Bull.
It’s silent, low profile, incredibly fast, long-range, and spectacularly unsafe out of the box. So I am going to need to do something about that before this can be a
to be all over it in the comments. I’ll do a whole video about it another time, but it’s mostly for jobs like this- rough work and so I can learn the basics of manual machining. No, I’m not going to be making aerospace parts on a cheap Chinese 3-in-1. But so far it’s done everything I’ve asked of it and I’ve learned a lot. I’m just polishing up the ends a bit with the foam sanding block because it helps it slide smoothly into the fittings. Here’s a trick I use a lot- 3D-printed drill guides. If I need
to make a straight hole and it needs to be precise, I 3D print a guide, push a drill bushing in and clamp it in place. That lets me make a pilot hole that I can then enlarge. Make sure the hole in the 3D print is loose enough that you can take the bushing out when you’re done and reuse it for other projects. Otherwise, you’ll have to keep buying them as you make more jigs. That should be ok for 20 kilograms of groceries or so. This is called Dykem Blue, it’s used when we want to scribe
layout lines on metal and have them clearly visible. This is another handy trick. I can design the piece I want to make in CAD, and then 3D print a template that I can use to scribe the lines I need to cut on my workpiece. It’s not for very precise machining, but it’s fine for this. This time, instead of using the bushing for a drill bit. I’m going to use something called a transfer punch. It fits the bushing and will leave a small dent so I know where to position my center drill. This is an inside
template to match the outside, so I can see where to cut when I flip the piece over. I’m using the scribing tip on the height gauge to confirm the position of my holes from the working edge. I’m doing this on my smaller manual mill, and I want to reduce the amount of material it has to remove or it will take forever. So I’m going to rough out the shape by cutting close to the lines with the vertical bandsaw and removing all that extra metal. Now all the holes I marked get center drilled, and then drilled
with a little bit of lubrication. Yes, it’s very wobbly at the moment. It’s all bolted to the stand but something seems to be flexing, I’m not sure what. I have to have the uncles over to figure it out since it’s far too heavy for me to move on my own. Yeah I know I have quite a bit of tool chatter there, C minus for me in shop class. But I never got to take a shop class so I’m learning as I go. Add that to the list of things to work on. The digital readout on
this has been great, what I’m doing is just barely touching the mill to the workpiece, going in about half a millimeter, and then making my cut, over and over until I’ve removed all the access material. If you are patient, lock everything down, and don’t take huge cuts a little machine like this is more accurate than you might think, although again- it’s not what you’d use for very tight tolerance work. I don’t have the budget for a rotary table for the mill yet, so I’m just going to hand-file that radius. Files are the kings of metal
working tools, files, saws, some gauges, and enough time- you can make almost anything. Same trick again, another drill guide so I can precisely mount the part at an angle I’ve determined in CAD. And the light pole just snaps in place with a collet. I have this side mirror I clamp on new e-bikes when I test drive them, but I am going to need something a little better. Fortunately, the hydraulic brakes have a standard tapped hole for them. Please open the gate for me, thanks. This is so cool. Beautiful girl, this E-bike is cool. Thank you,
auntie. Okay, pros and cons. Cons, as delivered, the K6 isn’t really road safe. It needs the light pole like this or I’d be roadkill in minutes. This is also what I did with the K4 here- and it’s been great, and I take it out a few times a week. Day or night, cars and trucks see me, and most of the danger of being so low to the ground is addressed. So before anything else- add lights to suit your sense of style. I suggest starting with a light pole like this and side mirrors. As far as
general safety- you have to drive as if you are invisible to everything else on the road. That’s why you need good mirrors. Don’t count on anyone seeing you, slowing or yielding no matter what the law is technically. Being technically correct is small comfort if you are actually dead. The K6 is not a toy, it’s not a bicycle, and it’s not for kids or probably even most teenagers. You have to be fully 100% in the moment and focused on what you are doing or they’re going to be scraping what’s left of you off the concrete and
burying you in a bucket. I wear motorcycle armor when I ride- and I’m probably a lot more interested in showing some skin than most of you are. If I can put that aside, so can you. If you drive this without at least a helmet, sign an organ donor card, that’s all I have to say- that’s just incredibly stupid. Next legality. That’s up to you to figure out, in lots of places no, in some no but they don’t care much. In others, no but you’ll at least be given a chance to sell it, in others, they’ll
confiscate it immediately and fine you. That’s up to you to figure out before you order one. This display here- isn’t really daylighted readable. That said, their app works really well so it’s effectively a non-issue. Last, even though it can carry 200 kilograms, it really only has room for one person, and you’ll probably want to add some cargo capacity. Although maybe wearing a backpack is fine. Pros. Power- it is a monster. 7000 watts in total, 3500 in each wheel. I actually don’t think this is a safety problem. This has turned out to be a safety feature.
A couple of times I’ve had big trucks coming up behind me, dodgy intersections, weirdos driving a little funny trying to get a look- I can hit the throttle and be two blocks away before they can hit the horn. If the K6 was less powerful it would actually be more dangerous because it can accelerate fast enough to get you out of a lot of bad spots. They say about 100 kilometers an hour but I haven’t tested that yet since I like being alive. But having the acceleration is fantastic. Now, those powerful motors come with an equally
huge battery- 146 volts 44 amp hours. The range is going to depend a lot on your body weight but it’s around 150 kilometers. That battery is only a few centimeters off the ground giving the K6 an incredibly low center of gravity. Which at 80 kilograms is a good thing. That means it’s very stable and if you do hit something, it’s less likely to flip over and you’re less likely to go head-first over the handlebars and face-first into the concrete as you might with bikes and scooters that you ride with a more upright posture. People talk
a lot about the seat and suspension. Honestly, I have taken two-hour drives on the K4 and been fine. It’s not bad at all. I am not exactly well padded in my rear, if my butt is fine, probably yours will be also. Ok- side by side. The K4 has 10-inch wheels, the K6 has 13-inch wheels, and an upgraded suspension, and upgraded brakes, making for a much smoother ride. The K6 is quite a bit larger than the K4, it’s 1380 centimeters long with a 1000-centimeter wheelbase while the K4 is 1060 centimeters long with a 710-centimeter wheelbase. That
is a significant difference. I like the new app, but I would also like it if the display was daylight readable. The K6 is more built rather than manufactured, so it will be easier to repair and upgrade. But for $4,700 you may not be willing do to that. Personally, I like to have the option to personalize it, some people want their vehicles to come fully loaded. Final verdict. Would I buy one? If I could drive it fully legally maybe. With the risk of it being confiscated at any time, that’s really a lot of money to lose.
Dangerous as it is, I do love the Extreme Bull form factor, am comfortable with the safety issues, drive my K4 regularly, and look forward to driving the K6 with my girlfriend on the K4. If you’d like to look into getting one, the link to my friends at Alien Rides is in the description below. That’s it for today, I hope you enjoyed this review. I tried to work in a little bit of everything but there is more fabrication coming up. Remember YouTube tends to hide my videos so anything you can do to let people know about
me, or follow and turn on notifications is really a huge help. Until next time remember, if I can do it, anyone can do it.
