Electric Bike Thread

[El Chupacabra]

If anyone is interested, I'm going to sell my converted ebike - haven't gotten around to listing it yet, but it's a Schwinn 700c hybrid, rigid fork, aluminum frame, cable disc brakes, set up for commuting. Bafang BBSHD mid drive motor, 48v battery, fancy charger from Luna.

I'm not really commuting anymore, even before the virus, so it's just sitting here.

[grinch]

Oh no, grinch, I totally get your drift on trails, agree totally. I was just sayin' that 150mm of squish, dropper seatpost, high-end tires, modern frame angles, etc. can get pricey fast, and since wooley is staying within budget, it may be a lot to ask.

Anyway, is that Univega part of your stable wooley? It would be fine, and with addition of some cheap V-brakes, prolly stop well enough, especially if it isn't super wet/muddy. Add an inexpensive Suntour suspension fork and you got some squish up front.

Also 1-speed eBike is not totally out of the question, since you can adjust the level of e-assist on the fly. Not ideal, but works.

What? That univega is 1" steerer and has a quill stem. Good luck finding a threaded 1" steerer suspension fork. It may have mounts for v brakes if you find one.
$800 -bafang
$300?-fork
$25- aheadset
$25-non quill stem
$75- disk brake
$100-disc compatible front wheel
$100+- misc part replacement
Total $1425 minimum . No thanks

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[wooley12]

1" with a quill stem, eh. The bikes fit is a bit cramped for my comfort and I found that the fit "is what it is" with that stem. Too many cheap mountain bikes bikes available to build on.

If I up the budget and be patriotic and spend my Corona check, might get a pair of ebikes for the Mrs and me.

I see Rad Rovers go by the back yard on occasion. The look of the stance / geometry fits my eye. Front suspension. Rear hub drive. I'd still want some rear suspension for washboard sections of the forest service roads. 3" would work. I should test ride one for the experience of ebiking.

[Shorty_J]

Yup it's a Bigfoot, hydraulic brakes, didn't put any brake sensors on but what I've seen is zip tieing a washer on the lever for the sensor to work.

Pulled old crank out and out the Bafang kit on, it needs a 1" spacer(I made one out of abs plumbing pipe on the drive side due to the shape of the chain stays. I ordered the 120mm BB kit and it's plenty wide enough, almost to wide but I had enough spacers for the left side to make it work.
Battery fitment is an issue with the Norco frame shape, the Panosonic Dolphin I have can not be bolted on the water bottle mounts so I went with the bag and it's perfect.
The chainring that comes with the kit is a steel pos 46 tooth, I switched it for Luna 30 t aluminum. This requires some redneck engineering to keep a decent chain line. I bought a SRAM cassette that has individual cogs and spaced it out by taking a few of the cogs off and putting them on the inside. I've moved to a 36t leki chainring and it is a better ring and gives better ratio options.
Overall I am super happy with it

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Thanks for the feedback.

I wonder if going with a smaller ah battery from someone else could work as a bolt on? I need to do more research... the frame triangle is definitely small on this bike, and I bought a size S making it even worse.

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[grinch]

If theres zero chance you would be riding actual mtb purpose built trails in the future, thats probably the way to go or atleast something similar. The fat tires will probably take the place of any rear suspension need. Hub drive is cheap and ez to use and is best for that use, unless your going up a lot of steep hills or pulling a lot of weight. Personally i wouldnt want anything that isnt pedal assist. Theres enough power settings to not need a throttle. Im on the fense between dropper post or suspension post for that usage. If the fat tires are enough suspension it makes the decision ez. A dropper is great for a lot of reasons. Any kind of downhill slope, carrying a bag of groceries, slow cruisin the boardwalk, getting on or dismount while carrying something, mud, possible icy sections. Once you have a dropper its hard to not have one
Now that i think about it i may have posted early in the thread a vid from electric bike review. There is a chinese distributor in cali that has its warehouse beside bafang NA distribution. I think they have a fattire hard tail, front suspension and a bafang hd mid drive motor for 1k. Ill try and find the episode
Edit; its more than 1k. Lots of options on there though. Maybe thats where you first saw the rover. Things that concern me with bikes in that price range are the obscure standards. The cranks/axles are square taper and square tapers get stretched if overtightened or get loose. Spline attachment is 1mil x better. Seatpost diameters are tiny and sometimes hard to replace because theyre an obscure size not to mention hard to fit a suspension or dropper post. The seat attachment is usually suspect too and will fail or strip. The wheels may be hard to find axle spacing and a good chance they will need service or replacement. Freehub bodies(the part of the hub that your gear cluster goes on) are prone to failure with even decent quality hubs when you add the extra tourque of a motor. Chains are easily replaced but hubs(rear in particular) suffer in all but the most expensive bikes. If any of the stuff is easily replaced thats not a problem

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[pano-dude]

Thanks for the feedback.

I wonder if going with a smaller ah battery from someone else could work as a bolt on? I need to do more research... the frame triangle is definitely small on this bike, and I bought a size S making it even worse.

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There's a few different options of batteries for sure. I chose the biggest I could and hoped for the best. My frame is a large

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[wooley12]

Good stuff to chew on grinch.

[Beaver]

My daily driver. 2004 Rocky Mt Slayer with a Bafang BBS02 hot rodded to 1250W. On the flats I can maintain 55kph but I'm reved out on my pedals. Dropping hills if I tuck and mash the throttle I've had it up to 72kph. Climbs that are in the 5kph range with no motor are done at 30kph pedaling. I'm running a 42T chainring up front because the 52 I had gave me clearance/chain line issues but holy fuck was it fast with the 52T. 5" suspension is great in town, potholes, curbs, railway crossings... no problem. The biggest problem is keeping the front end on the ground when the light goes green and I mash the pedals and throttle.

[wooley12]

Sweet!

[grinch]

FKNA thatll work

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[Tri-Ungulate]

Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'. Retrofitting a 2004 bike works great, and is less resource-intensive to boot.

I met you wooley at BBI19, and you strike me as the type that is looking for something that works, but doesn't necessarily have to be state-of-the-art, somewhat of a pragmatist. But I recognize that it's easy to get seduced by the vast array of options, and get paralyzed by choice, especially here on TGR-world where everything has to be da ultimate, 'cuz we're all above-average dentist rippers.

I get where grinch is coming from, but if he's selling you FOMO on what your ideal build could possibly be, maybe it's more than you need. Sure, it may be right for what HE wants in an eBike, and he's passionate for sure, but you gotta figure out what works for YOU, within your budget.

You didn't mention if the Univega is currently in your stable. If it is, and you're eventually okay with the fit with adjustments (maybe cramped now, but have you optimized it?), cheap V-brakes are good enough for a lightweight like yourself, discs aren't absolutely necessary. Front suspension? Yeah, it's nice but not absolutely positively necessary. If you do want it, sure, finding a brand-new 1" suspension fork these days ain't gonna happen, although finding one used on eBay or CL is trivial (though you gotta figure out if the head tube length works).

But if you're gonna buy a new cheap bike to retrofit, as I mentioned earlier, a $250-300 Bikesdirect or even cheaper Walmart Schwinn isn't as shitty as the hardcore at TGR might lead you to think.

Good thing about the Bafang kit is you can transfer it (and the battery) to a different bike if you really truly feel the need for something better.

[Norseman]

If anyone is interested, I'm going to sell my converted ebike - haven't gotten around to listing it yet, but it's a Schwinn 700c hybrid, rigid fork, aluminum frame, cable disc brakes, set up for commuting. Bafang BBSHD mid drive motor, 48v battery, fancy charger from Luna.

I'm not really commuting anymore, even before the virus, so it's just sitting here.

What price are you asking?

[Beaver]

Good thing about the Bafang kit is you can transfer it (and the battery) to a different bike if you really truly feel the need for something better.

The truth. That's the third bike I've had that on. I bought the bike brand new so there is an attachment to it. The only original parts are the seatpost, bars and rear shock. I'm thinking a 7 speed internal would be great on there, then I could run my 52T chain ring and not have to worry about chain line problems. That motor was in front of a 3 speed with the 52T, just over 60kph on the flats.

[wendigo]

How do y’all think a bafang setup would workout in an old surly 1x1?
Just for mucking about, job change has increased my commute to further than I want to commute on a singlespeed. Have 26, 27.5, 29 and fat wheels I can use on it.

[splat]

https://www.ebay.com/i/163324551393?norover=1&mpt=

[Name Redacted]

How do y’all think a bafang setup would workout in an old surly 1x1?
Just for mucking about, job change has increased my commute to further than I want to commute on a singlespeed. Have 26, 27.5, 29 and fat wheels I can use on it.

I looked into that too, and someone said it would be tough on the motor to only have one gear so I switched up my approach. However, after running a BBSHD for a while, I'm not totally convinced that it would be that hard on the motor if you got the right gear ratio. On my geared bike now, it pops really bad if I'm in an unmatched gear for power. So I'll usually run in the middle to top of the gear range until I get moving fast (40KPH).

With the 1x1, you could also get the BBS02 which is less expensive because you have a ~78mm bottom bracket. You could of course add gearing to the rear and have it as a normal bike. I considered that but the cost was just too much so I bought another bike off CL and went with it.

Do it and let me know how it goes. Like I said, it all depends on your selected gear ratio, and what kinda terrain you are riding. Flat or lots of hills. This will also determine top speed, and how easily you can ride hills. The BBSHD is a really powerful motor, but you still don't want to burn it up pushing it too hard.

[Beaver]

How do y’all think a bafang setup would workout in an old surly 1x1?
Just for mucking about, job change has increased my commute to further than I want to commute on a singlespeed. Have 26, 27.5, 29 and fat wheels I can use on it.

If you live somewhere relatively flat it will work great, gear it for speed and go like hell. If you're in a hilly area it will still work great but you'll want to gear it a bit lower. If you live in Rossland or Nelson or somewhere steep it will still work but you'll need to gear it way down. If you can pedal it now without standing on pedals you'll be fine, you've got to remember with a mid drive you want to keep your pedals spinning fairly fast. When you pedal slow the motor turns slow, a slow motor pulls more current, more current = more heat, more heat = more current.... If you've got any long steep hills you'll want gears.

As stated above, the great thing is that you can put it on a bike and try it, they take about an hour to install. If it doesn't work for you put it on a different bike or throw a 3 speed hub on your SS. When I had my BBS02 on a 3 speed I had it geared for speed but was still able to climb home. My ride had a 5km hill with a really steep but short piece in the middle, on hot summer days on my way home from work I pedaled less than I could have which was the worst thing for the system. I never got it hot enough to trip the thermal cut out but I got it hot to touch. These motors are built to handle a lot of loading.

[grinch]

E cargo bikes use a lot of internal geared hubs, even some with automatic shifting. Their inexpensive option is to use the shimano alfine 8speed rear hub. Theyre quite reasonably priced

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[gravitylover]

I enjoyed riding my bike on the streets so much now that there's so little traffic I think I'm going to set up a pair of wheels with street tires. Gotta get some cassettes and rubber, what's your choice for street shoes? I really don't care how heavy they are, I don't do flats so puncture resistance is top priority with traction second. I felt so sketched at 25+ the other day so I'd rather have a sticky tire and replace more often than something hard that rolls great, I mean really there's a motor to get past the little problems

[Tri-Ungulate]

E cargo bikes use a lot of internal geared hubs, even some with automatic shifting. Their inexpensive option is to use the shimano alfine 8speed rear hub. Theyre quite reasonably priced

Also check out the Shimano Nexus and Sturmey-Archer internal geared hubs, some of which are even less expensive. I'm pretty happy with my Sturmey-Archer RSX-RK5 5 speed internal with a Gates belt drive on my fat tire eBike.

If you wanna go all-out, the Rohloff is the gold standard.

[grinch]

Ya rohloff would be sweet. Ive heard they just go and go and go. 1000s and 1000s of miles. Oil change once a year

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[TahoeBC]

[Quadzilla]

Kinda change of topic. Anyway, picked up two MTB ebikes with Bosch motors and XT level bikes so pretty high end gear. My question is does anyone have any clever ideas on battery charging in the field like camping/bike trips where wall charge is not available? I guess a gas generator but it take a a long time to charge and just don't want to deal with gas powered anything out in the field or campgrounds. So, Solar? I would consider getting a second battery to charge when I am riding the other one during the day. Just looking online don't see a solar system that is small enough to carry easily and still do the job. Thanks........

[TahoeBC]

I have a friend who bought a solar generator, was pretty expensive but he said He wanted to be ready for the apocalypse, that was last fall, thought he was being ridiculous then, I’ll see if I can dig up what he got, but I seem to remember it being in the 3 grand range. I picked up a spare battery as I’m not much of a camper anymore but if I had a camper van and was gonna spend some time in more remote places I’d consider it

Edit: this is what my buddy got and what he has to say about it.

It's awesome...used it a ton during black outs. Solar panel is a joke though. If you use on briefcase panel (big fucker) takes a full week to charge the unit...you need a few panels to make a difference and the aren'r cheap or small.

https://www.amazon.com/Goal-Zero-Portable-Generator-Alternative/dp/B07CS9HKDL?fbclid=IwAR24Zj4wm7M5cInLKZErinXVdF0g2i 4mozICdDujv9yvCSpF6gLAunq7pIY

[Shredhead]

I love my eBike as much as anyone. Mostly because it gets me out the door, on days that I might not ride.
But if I had to worry recharging, I’d just ride my regular bike.