Engineering for fumble fingers?

As MIT don't seem in a rush to market the wonder wheel - motor & battery in wheel, all controls wireless - what, if any is the next most easy kit to install on a bike? No soldering (I melt things ...) no fancy electronics, no need for high IQ and hamfisted operative to feel quite at home?

The idea is to buy a second-hand (second footed?) trike and see if we can enable J to keep upright on her way to the shops? (Coffee shops, to be honest ...)

:-)

Tom.

PS - recommend the Coffee shop at Tatton Park ...

Hi Tom,

I'm sure an expert will be along to answer your question fully, but my experience of kits (Alien Ocean, and Cyclotricity) is that the hardest part is the pedelec sensor fitment. Hard, as in fiddly, and in both cases I've needed to 'adapt' the kits to fit the bikes I was fitting too. If you go only for throttle, it simplifies matters no end.

HTH

Phil

As MIT don't seem in a rush to market the wonder wheel - motor & battery in wheel, all controls wireless - what, if any is the next most easy kit to install on a bike? No soldering (I melt things ...) no fancy electronics, no need for high IQ and hamfisted operative to feel quite at home?

The idea is to buy a second-hand (second footed?) trike and see if we can enable J to keep upright on her way to the shops? (Coffee shops, to be honest ...)

 

:-)

 

Tom.

 

PS - recommend the Coffee shop at Tatton Park ...

I haven't found a kit yet that didn't involve some DIY engineering of some sort. There's always "ifs" and "buts" when matching a kit to a bike. Most of the kits have sorted out connectors now, so the electrical side isn't so bad, and bottle batteries are east to install.

If you get a bike without rear suspension, with cable disc brakes, without twist-grip gear-changing, and without integrated brakes and gear-changers, it should be a lot easier, so that you only need to do a minimal amount of filing to get the motor in.

Since it's a conventional trike you are buying, that complicates matters. Some have the two mandatory brakes on the front wheel, one rim, one hub, and that rules out a front hub motor. But of course a rear hub motor is out of the question. So with one of those types it has to be a crank drive and that's often not going to be an easy to fit option.

So the best advice I can give is go for a trike that has rear wheel brakes and only one brake at the front if any. Then a front hub motor will be the option to fit.

Hi Tom

We have kits for you to come and see at New Mills and a tilting framed trike bought in especially for a customer who couldn't ride a conventional bike nor, as it turned out, could cope safely with the A6.

Welcome to come and have a look. We're off to Bristol after closing New Mills on Saturday then back open again on Tuesday. Buxton branch is always open, but the trike is at New Mills.