Conversion on an Oyama folder.

[bfuk]

Hey folks, yet another post asking for info from a newbie, so here goes!

I found myself a very nice, very dinky Oyama Lexington after much deliberation of whether or not to buy a basic Tesco Hopper or Sportsdirect Eco type folding eBike.

I decided in the end to go the DIY route so bought a very sweet folder at 11.5kg which had lots of stuff missing (chainset, pedals, folding mechanism etc etc)

So anyway, I've saved myself a few bob on getting a nice incomplete bike which is now complete with Big Apple tyres, MKS folding pedals and a nice light Charge Spoon saddle.

It's now time to buy myself a conversion kit, I have £450 tops to spend and have seen a couple of kits which differ immensely in price from Alien and Cyclocitry (sic) amongst others.

As you can see, my budget is fairly limited although I do have a decent bike to work with which I guess is a good start!

The bike once converted will be used for leisure, I'm 95kg and aiming to shed some of that and looking for a conversion kit which will help me on inclines as I pedal on flat.

All help and advice is most welcome!

B

 

[KirstinS]

Welcome

Could you first tell us what the distance is between your forks. At the point where the hub is and at a point about 3 or 4 inches higher

The reason I ask is that if the forks are narrow, and I suspect they may be, then your options are narrowed.

 

[bfuk]

Hi there, 79mm and 75mm as shown on the pic.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Fit a rear motor, because the frame's stronger there.

If you have the bottle fixings on top of your frame, you can use a bottle battery.

This kit will take some beating for the money. Select the LED display, 328 rpm, 20" and thumb throttle. Add to your order a pair of their hidden wire brake sensors, and if your drop-outs don't look to strong, add a torque arm.
36V250W GBK-100R rear driving electric bike kit with light weight and high speed for e-bikes-Greenbikekit.com online store for electric bicycle components-GreenBikeKit.com
Hidden wire brake sensor/wireless brake sensor for electric bicycle online store for electric bicycle components-GreenBikeKit.com
torque arm for electric bicycle front fork online store for electric bicycle components-GreenBikeKit.com

You need to budget another £25 for a DNP free-wheel gear-set with 11T top gear. Alternatively, you can ask them for the same kit, but with this motor in it, which is a bit more expensive, but should still be within your budget. It has the spline for cassette gears, which is a hundred times better.



e-bike cassette freewheel hub motor with light weight and high speed, 36V250W bldc engines-Greenbikekit.com online store for electric bicycle components-GreenBikeKit.com

 

[KirstinS]

Hmm I think you have a problem there

All the cheap and cheerful kits seems to need 100m on the forks

There are other options but I don't think
at your budget. I'm not the best person to ask here though

Search for jerry Simon who converts folders (mostly bromptons) and you will find more about narrow width motors

Cyclzee do narrower ones as well from memory but their gear is out of price range

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Here's a photo of my Dahon converted with the kit I mentioned above, only I used the frog battery instead of the bottle battery. The frog battery has the advantage of the compartment underneath for the controller, also, you can buy an empty frog case pretty cheaply and stick a pair of 6S lipos in there for 48v, which makes that motor fly.



You can get the motor in 85mm front version that will fit your forks, but it's less powerful than the 100mm version and it isn't going to haul your bike plus 95kg up hills.

If you look at those light-weight Brompton conversions, very nice though they are, bear in mind that they won't haul you up hills either. They're more suited to flat terrain - or better still, down-hill.

 

[bfuk]

Thanks for the replies, I was thinking it was do-able as the Oyama seems to be very like the Dahon builds. Foldingbikes.biz do a number of Dahon electrics and one called a "Succinct" which was actually on my wish list but at £1000, the cost was pretty prohibitive.

There are bottle like the ones I see on your Dahon but slightly worrying that the fold will be compromised with the bottle battery.

Is the diameter*(width) of the rear wheel fork not as important when fitting a rear drive wheel?

Also regarding customs costs, are these normally covered by the carrier company or does that cost have to be added, once in the UK?

I'll post a pic of the bike, if that would be helpful?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Pictures are always useful. Use Photobucket to host your pictures and paste a link, so that we can see full detail. Show photos of the rear drop-out area and the same for the front. The bottle battery unclips from its holder, so shouldn't be too much of a problem, although there's still a lump at each end of the holder.
Here's one on a folder. The one on my Dahon is a "Frog" battery:
886c6b77-84a4-434d-a914-911ae4e3c68a_zpscf16548e.jpg Photo by 19Bikesales | Photobucket

Expect to pay about £20 duty and handling.

 

[bfuk]

Here's a link to a slideshow of some hastily taken photos. I'll take more (and better quality, if needs be!)

Oyama Slideshow by Bfuk1970 | Photobucket

 

[Deleted member 4366]

It looks pretty straight forward with a rear motor. I don't think those forks can be sprung to 100mm, so a front motor would have to be an under-powered narrow one. There'e room on the left side for a pedal sensor if it won't fit behind the chain-wheel. The only thing to decide is what battery and where to put it.

 

[bfuk]

Thanks again, I would be quite interested in the pannier rack and battery, any experience of them?

Have you used the greenbike website to order parts before?