First time poster. Ikea's latest bike, the Sladda, is starting to become available here in the US now. I like the design, the accessories, and what all you get for the price. I was thinking of converting it to electric since I'm not entirely committed to the Automatix hub anyway. Do you think this could/should be a good starter to then add electric? If so, which options do you think might work best? Thanks for any help.
Ikea Sladda e-conversion?
- Thread starter TheInfovore
- Start date
Ultimately any bike is a starting base, easiest conversion with the bike from Ikea is a front wheel conversion and whack the battery and electrics on the front, unless you want to stick some of the weight over the back moving the battery to the rear rack or pannier.
John
John
Several belt drive mid-mounts are out on the market. Why would a conversion of this one be different?
It is relatively easy for suppliers like ourselves to supply an inexpensive bottom bracket solution for belt drive bikes if the market is large enough.
A Canadian rider has written about his experiences commuting into Toronto in snow this winter on his Ikea ebike conversion. He added a box for the controller for weather protection and posted some photos to reddit, neat job.
He does mention the rear fish-tailing but I wonder how much that has to do with the fact he mounted his battery on the rear rack. When I first tried that location for a battery on my bike, the back wheel would lock up when braking and that was on dry pavement, I moved it to where the bottle cage had been on the down tube where it's better balanced. Mind you the Ikea bike has a rear coaster brake and that might be contributing. I wonder if he added the optional trailer if that might help?
I used to have a VW Beetle, it would climb any snow covered road you just needed a well covered mate to stand on the rear bumper (Translation: fender 
). On snow you need weight over the driving wheels so the battery back there should be helping with traction.
I had an off on my Honda Spacy scooter on fresh snow where fishtailing seemed to be a feature, not an option, no matter how carefully I dosed the power. It seems to be a two wheeler thing - look at MC bikes racing on the sand (Le Touquet) for another example.
). On snow you need weight over the driving wheels so the battery back there should be helping with traction.I had an off on my Honda Spacy scooter on fresh snow where fishtailing seemed to be a feature, not an option, no matter how carefully I dosed the power. It seems to be a two wheeler thing - look at MC bikes racing on the sand (Le Touquet) for another example.
He has a front wheel hub motor and uses the front rack to hold his bag so that appears to be enough weight over the driving wheel to pull him through the snow. Your Honda and the VW would have both been rear wheel drive, not surprised the Beetle coped well as it's been so popular as a beach buggy chassis.
It's gotta be embarrassing for Continental to mess up their relationship with the launch customer of their belt drive product. I hope this recall experience doesn't put Ikea off the idea of selling bicycles, they sell an ebike in some Nordic markets the Folkvanlig in step through and folding models, I was hoping if Sladda was a success they might think about expanding their bike line.
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