Bionx Fitting advice

[droo]

Hi Guys,

I have been reading the forums and googling for the past few weeks.
I currently have a saracen trace2 LE bike with 26" wheels.

I am pondering fitting a Bionx PL350 to it for my 6 mile commute to work and wonder if anyone knows:-

*Where did people in the UK source their Bionix from - I have had a good responce from Electric Bikes | Folding Bicycles | Powered motor kits | Scooters

*Does anyone have the hub dimentions so I can mesure the frame to make sure it will fit or do I not need to check that ?

*Will I need a new rear hub - my bike currently has an 8 gear rear hub. The bike is fitted with a Shimano Deore rear derailer.

Any advice wellcome !

Droo

 

[Falstaff]

Bionx PL350

I have been considering converting an older MTB with a PL350 BionX upgrade. Think there is a North American website you need to check out..

The Bionx Home Page: Electric bike, electric power bikes, electric bike kit & electric bike motor hub manufacturer - BionX

They state the necessary distance between the rear dropouts as 135mm. This seems to be standard... I pulled the rear wheel off my mtb and it was 135mm... But before you spend your money on a BionX rear wheel, measure the gap.

On the home Page, under the About Us Column, is the FAQ.. It gives a good explanation as to why a Freewheel rear sprocket is needed. Verses a cassette gear sprocket.. Which is more common.. So the odds are you will have to replace the rear sprocket when you order the Bionx kit. A small extra tithing. For me, I wanted to have my old rear wheel rim and sprocket set up as a standby in case something went wrong with the BionX wheel.. So the extra rear gear cluster is not that much of a curse.

My real curiosity is whether you can buy the PL350. I thought the Euro limit of 250 watts would apply to even a Bionx conversion..

 

[droo]

My real curiosity is whether you can buy the PL350. I thought the Euro limit of 250 watts would apply to even a Bionx conversion..

Well So far I have found suppliers that will ship a PL350; none are prepared to ship a PL500 However I have been offered a PL350 with what was described as a custom turned motor for approx $100 more.

Personally I suspect that this may be the PL500 just described differently ;-)

As for the euro limit well the law can be what it is; if a copper were ever to stop me for a bike that is under the legal limit doing 2/3mph over the electric limit I would question what real work he has to do!

Also I need to check if the PL350 firmware will have the menu feature to remove any speed limit set on it. As it stands I regually hit over the defined limit on straight sections of my commute.

Droo.

 

[Nick]

Hi

I live in England and bought the lithium ion powered 350 Bionx from NYceWheels in New York who were very helpful both before and after I bought the kit. My review is on this site and on my own .

Droo's covered your questions I think Falstaff, and the kit certainly attached very easily to my Trek 7300. You do need a freewheel (gear mechanism) to replace the cassette - I recently put a newer, close ratio on mine 13 – 14 – 15 - 16 – 17 – 19 – 21 from ZENITH 7 Speed Freewheel : £11.00 : PARTS & ACCESSORIES : Components - Gears - Sprockets & Screw on Freewheels - Spa Cycles, Harrogate - The touring cyclists specialist..

I hope that helps.

Nick

 

[droo]

Hi

I live in England and bought the lithium ion powered 350 Bionx from NYceWheels in New York who were very helpful both before and after I bought the kit. My review is on this site and on my own .

Droo's covered your questions I think Falstaff, and the kit certainly attached very easily to my Trek 7300. You do need a freewheel (gear mechanism) to replace the cassette - I recently put a newer, close ratio on mine 13 – 14 – 15 - 16 – 17 – 19 – 21 from ZENITH 7 Speed Freewheel : £11.00 : PARTS & ACCESSORIES : Components - Gears - Sprockets & Screw on Freewheels - Spa Cycles, Harrogate - The touring cyclists specialist..

I hope that helps.

Nick

Nick,

Great post - thanks for that.

Some of my reading leads me to belive that the gear ratio may need to change as you tend to use your higher gears more. I will keep reading !

Droo.

 

[Nick]

Droo

I'd go for a close ratio freewheel with the emphasis on the low end (even in hilly areas), and then change the chainset if needs be.

Nick

 

[droo]

Droo

I'd go for a close ratio freewheel with the emphasis on the low end (even in hilly areas), and then change the chainset if needs be.

Nick

Sounds like a plan - I just need to do more reading to understand what it all means !

I know you posted else where nick but what did you use to produce that graph of your journey in your review - wouldnt mind doing the same for mine

Droo.

 

[Nick]

Hi Droo

A friend ran it off for me in TrackLogs Digital Mapping - Ordnance Survey Maps on CDROM with Route Planning Software for your Windows PC. It's a good guide but it didn't acount for bridges so some hills appear steeper than they are, bu tthat might have chenged with newer releases or with other software.

The idea behind the close ration freewheel is that each gear is very similar to the ones either side of it which, with the motor, I find much better than having a bigger difference between the gears. If you're feeling lazy though, you can leave the bike in top gear all the time except for the steeper hills.

The freewheel is needed with the Bionx rather than the more common cassette, and it simply screws into the Bionx hub, although you do need a special tool (freewheel remover for a fiver) to remove it.

The whole kit attached straight onto my Trek without any adjustments or bodges at all.

Nick

 

[droo]

Yeh cool - I did some mroe googling and recon it will fit fine as well.

Going to get mine ordered once pay day comes - will post a review once I get mine etc.

Droo.

 

[john]

*Will I need a new rear hub - my bike currently has an 8 gear rear hub. The bike is fitted with a Shimano Deore rear derailer.

I think you will have to change to 7 speed, so at least changing the shifter(s), but check this.

 

[Nick]

I went from an 8 speed cassette to a 7 speed freewheel and didn't have tochange anything else. On my Trek, I have to 'lock out' the lowest gear as otherwise the derailleur hits the hub - so it's a 7 speed freewheel but I can only use 6 of them.

 

[droo]

Im assuming if I change to an 8 gear freewheel I can just swap them straight over? If I goto a 7 etc then I might need to reset the gears - probably get this done by a local bike shop as I always seem to cock it up when I have tied to sort out gear problems in the past.

That said I know by googling I have found allot of info on setting gears up - might give it another stab.

Droo

 

[john]

I think there won't be enough space for an 8 speed cassette.

 

[Nick]

before I fitted the Bionx kit, my bike had an 8 speed cassette. I fitted an 8 speed freewheel and now have a 7 speed freewheel, and both of them simply screw into the Bionx hub. The only problem as such is that I can't access the lowest gear as the derailleur hits the hub - you can either simply not use that gear or adjust the derailleur's travel so that it can't go that far over - it doesn't affect the other gears at all.

 

[droo]

oh well thats not to bad - I will go with that for the moment and see how I get on - just got to wait for payday and order be placed

Droo