Hi all,
Apologies if this has been asked a thousand times already, I have spent a good few hours today reading what I can digest in the hope to educate myself a little but it seems such a vast subject with many, many variables I thought it may be best to give my situation in the hope someone with experience can point me in the right direction...
I'd like to convert one of two bikes I already own to commute to work, approx. 9 miles each way but the return leg of the journey does have a 4.5mile climb to contend with. The climb averages around 5% gradient but does go up to 9% for a very short period. I weigh approx 95kgs and do have some cycling fitness (enough to complete the route without assistance, but not 5 days a week!) but the whole idea of a conversion is to keep my effort minimal in order to leave the car at home on a regular basis! I'm not a speed demon so wouldn't be looking for speed gains, but more assistance on hills would be good.
Budget: i wouldn't want to go much more than £500 if thats feasible. I don't mind ordering from overseas and waiting if it makes any difference as realistically i wouldn't be using it constantly until the weather/clocks change (spring)
I'm looking at converting either a Cotic Escapade steel 'gravel' bike, 29" wheels on 40c tyres, or if that can't be done then an old aluminium 26" carrera mountain bike made up of bits i've accumulated over the years.
From what i've gathered so far: I think i'm looking for a rear hub motor, and i have read that theres option for geared or direct drive but i don't know much about either. I'm guessing somewhere around the 250-350-500W mark? Brands wise i'm hoping someone can give me the lowdown on what to avoid/look out for..
Battery and controller wise: I've read in a few places theres a preference for 48V battery with something like a 15a/17a/20a controller. If its worth mentioning i have seen some of the yose 36V batteries with an integrated controller in the battery mount, and i very much like the clean simplistic look of them rather than having a separately mounted controller with lots of wires, but if theres a massive performance difference then it would be good t know. I read something about KT controllers being superior to the Lishui but here i'm just repeating what i've seen and i don't really understand if thats true or not.
Accessories wise, i'm not really fussed on having a throttle and i'd much rather PAS control due to drop bars on the Cotic bike. LCD would be there to provide little more than the basics as i have a separate Garmin computer for speed etc. The cotic has cable brakes and the carrera is on hyrdaulic but i'd much rather not change either as the levers on the Cotic are also the shifters and are drop bar specific.
Again i've tried to be specific on what i do / don't already know as well as my requirements. Apologies if this is well covered ground and if anyone would prefer to post a link to any old threads with all this information on then i'd happily sit and read through it rather than expect people to repeat themselves.
Thanks in advance
Apologies if this has been asked a thousand times already, I have spent a good few hours today reading what I can digest in the hope to educate myself a little but it seems such a vast subject with many, many variables I thought it may be best to give my situation in the hope someone with experience can point me in the right direction...
I'd like to convert one of two bikes I already own to commute to work, approx. 9 miles each way but the return leg of the journey does have a 4.5mile climb to contend with. The climb averages around 5% gradient but does go up to 9% for a very short period. I weigh approx 95kgs and do have some cycling fitness (enough to complete the route without assistance, but not 5 days a week!) but the whole idea of a conversion is to keep my effort minimal in order to leave the car at home on a regular basis! I'm not a speed demon so wouldn't be looking for speed gains, but more assistance on hills would be good.
Budget: i wouldn't want to go much more than £500 if thats feasible. I don't mind ordering from overseas and waiting if it makes any difference as realistically i wouldn't be using it constantly until the weather/clocks change (spring)
I'm looking at converting either a Cotic Escapade steel 'gravel' bike, 29" wheels on 40c tyres, or if that can't be done then an old aluminium 26" carrera mountain bike made up of bits i've accumulated over the years.
From what i've gathered so far: I think i'm looking for a rear hub motor, and i have read that theres option for geared or direct drive but i don't know much about either. I'm guessing somewhere around the 250-350-500W mark? Brands wise i'm hoping someone can give me the lowdown on what to avoid/look out for..
Battery and controller wise: I've read in a few places theres a preference for 48V battery with something like a 15a/17a/20a controller. If its worth mentioning i have seen some of the yose 36V batteries with an integrated controller in the battery mount, and i very much like the clean simplistic look of them rather than having a separately mounted controller with lots of wires, but if theres a massive performance difference then it would be good t know. I read something about KT controllers being superior to the Lishui but here i'm just repeating what i've seen and i don't really understand if thats true or not.
Accessories wise, i'm not really fussed on having a throttle and i'd much rather PAS control due to drop bars on the Cotic bike. LCD would be there to provide little more than the basics as i have a separate Garmin computer for speed etc. The cotic has cable brakes and the carrera is on hyrdaulic but i'd much rather not change either as the levers on the Cotic are also the shifters and are drop bar specific.
Again i've tried to be specific on what i do / don't already know as well as my requirements. Apologies if this is well covered ground and if anyone would prefer to post a link to any old threads with all this information on then i'd happily sit and read through it rather than expect people to repeat themselves.
Thanks in advance
