Hello and what's the best ebike converstion kit out there....Help !

Solesister

Just Joined
Oct 17, 2021
1
1
Hi I'm Soles and I am looking to get into cycling. I've bought a new ladies MTB from a friend some time ago and hardly been out on it due to not able to tac kle the hills around me on my rides. I would therefore like to get a converter kit and turn my MTB into an e-bike. I am looking for advice as to where is the best place to buy the converter kit. Looking for a mid hub 600 Watt battery. Great to be onboard - hoping to get some good advice on her for a novice cyclist.
 
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Bikes4two

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 21, 2020
1,009
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Havant
Hi I'm Soles and I am looking to get into cycling. I've bought a new ladies MTB from a friend some time ago and hardly been out on it due to not able to tac kle the hills around me on my rides. I would therefore like to get a converter kit and turn my MTB into an e-bike. I am looking for advice as to where is the best place to buy the converter kit. Looking for a mid hub 600 Watt battery. Great to be onboard - hoping to get some good advice on her for a novice cyclist.
  • Welcome to the forum and the world of ebikes
  • May I suggest you have a good read of other posts and get more used to the terminology of ebikes as only then will you be best placed to understand the recommendations given.
  • You also need to lay down a few factors about what type of cycling you will be wanting to do (5 miles to work and back on roads, or 50 miles a day over mountain passes), and of course any budget constraints plus your (or a friend's) abilities with a spanner or two.
 

Benjahmin

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 10, 2014
2,592
1,747
70
West Wales
Hi Soles,
Some basic information for you.
Two types of drive. Hub motor (front or rear wheel), or mid drive/crank drive. This fits on the bottom bracket and drives via the chain and gear set.
There are two types of hub motor, geared hub and direct drive. For all sorts of technical reasons best avoid direct drive and consider only geared hubs.
Bikes, legally, can only give assistance when the pedals are being turned. There are two ways of achieving this, torque sensing and cadence sensing also called pas.
Torque sensing takes the power that you put in via the pedals and gives you a multiple power back via the motor. So may give you, say, 10%, 20%, 50%,100% depending on the assist level selected.
Cadence sensing detects the rotation of the pedals and allows the motor to give power, again amount of power depends on level selected.
Most systems these days are 36v or 48volt, either is fine.
Battery capcity/size is measured in Amphours or also quoted in Watt hours. The second method is probably the most useful.
A 14Ah36v battery would give 504Wh. A newby cyclist (still building strength and stamina) may consume around 12Wh/mile. This would give you a notional range of 42 miles (depnds hugely on strength, terrain, wind, rider weight etc).
I would argue that the easier fit is a hub motor and certainly gives a less technical ride style. There are those who say hub motors aren't good at hills. Well, if you look at the bike in my avatar, that's a front hub motor on a carrera. I live in West Wales (where flat bits are illegal) and it's done around 12000 miles over 6 years and I'm on my late 60's.
There's some basics without getting too technical.
Best to say what bike you have to convert. What terrain you'll be riding ie roads or mountains or flat or hilly etc. Your weight (sorry - helps with motor type). And ride style, commute, leisure, touring Etc.
 
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Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,917
8,533
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West Sx RH
Two possibilities for mid drive is the Bafang BBS (now supposedly more reliable with updated controller on new B series) or a Tongsheng TS one.

Woosh when they have stock sell 48v 250w TS and with a UK warranty and great CS.
 
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