My folding e-shopper

[twinkle]

A few months ago my father in law gave me his old shopper bike ,"I know you will be able to do something with it that's why l wanted you to have it " he grinned .

with 3 speed , rusty wheels and some rust on the handlebars and stem it was not going to be an easy task .


Mountain bike Saddle ,handlebars and stem put the riding position in a half decent position and a pair of kids mountain bike wheels and 5 speed derailleur helps to send the man power to the rear wheel, the old cable brakes would have to stay for the moment whilst I source a pair of BMX ones .During this time Dave's thread on the overclockers dream came up and l grabbed one of the motors . Fitted with a 500 watt controller a"pedal less " sensor ( the hardest thing to fit on this type of bottom bracket assembly ) and twist grip throttle with the 36v SLA batteries in the shopping bag the bike doesn't look much different to any other folder.



This weekend all the bits were here so we finished off the bike .
Performance wise its a cracker with a top speed over 20mph and with a smile and a wave you really upset some of the hardened types on their MTB's as you pass them on an old shopper bike

Out on the road the motor that was originally designed for 700c wheels and 25v really goes well , the extra torque gained as the wheels are only 20" can get the front wheel spinning in the wet , This is a little wolf in sheep's clothing and needs to be treated with a little respect .
Thanks DaveH and Shemozzle for the bits that helped make this an interesting weekends project

I can see we will have lots of fun with this one and when my charger arrives l will fit a Lifepo4 battery to extend the range .

regards emma

 

[MikeRo]

I love it I can see you upsetting some mamil's with that...

 

[Nealh]

I past a mtb mamil on the road a couple of weeks ago going uphill, I blew him in to the weeds with my bbs conv. Must have looked strange a bloke wearing jeans,long sleeve shirt and bush hat with side panniers disappearing in to the distance.

 

[MikeRo]

You just need to go 'silent' for long enough as you pass so they have no idea what hit them

 

[Geebee]

Love the riding position it is more like a full blown road bike, must help massively with aerodynamics compared to sitting upright as normal.

 

[twinkle]

"Love the riding position it is more like a full blown road bike, must help massively with aerodynamics compared to sitting upright as normal."

Riding position with the flat bars and extension make the bike feel like a sports bike , the balance between weight on my bottom and hands is much better distributed and that helps the grip on the front wheel.

Putting on the power in a turn , the bike feels like it "understeers " as the bike tries to straighten up , a little disconcerting the first time it happened so was accelerating over a wet manhole cover

I don't think that l would like to ride it with the original high rise bars and stem as the front would be too light .

The neighbours wondered how a pair of almost pensioners could fly up the road so quick on a shopper when we gave it the shakedown on Saturday .

The worse bit was trying to make the plate to hold the pedelec sensor as this model has a 2 piece ( 1 cotter pin ) chainset .
We modified the crantset to accept a 3/32 chain and trimmed the back of the chainguard so the 14-28 block would not rub against it .

regards emma

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Did you check the steering head bearings? Instead of balls at the top, the one that I converted had a nylon bush, which had worn a bit giving the understeering that you mentioned.

 

[twinkle]

Hi Dave


Headraces all good ..

Checked that on the service I gave the bike after I got it and whist "playing with the riding position etc " , this bike had real balls and cups top and bottom .
I think father in law had done a bit to the bike in the first 10 years of the 20 years he owned it .At 84 he wasn't going to ride it any more and I don't believe it had been used for the past 5 years ,
.
There is lots of power with that Chain Reaction motor I wish I had got a second one
The 500watt controller seems to be getting warm so it must be drawing some power ! , next stage is the lifepo4 batteries to cut down the weight .

regards emma

 

[Geebee]

Matches my experience with high torque front wheel drive and slippery surfaces, the bike I had at that time only had on/off no throttle, the front would tend to wash out if you hit the button at the wrong time, could get quite entertaining

 

[twinkle]

Hi Folks

Finally fitted the 37v 10ah LifePO4 battery ( thanks Dave ) and fitted mudguards ( resprayed black ) to the shopper , Testing at the weekend revealed that the range should be in excess of 15 miles , Over a run of hilly terrain of 10 miles the motor preformed faultlessly with a top speed of 19 mph and hill climbing performance better than the q100 motor on my trike , Ken is going to use the bike as a commute to work bike in January and I hope to report on the bike as a mamil eating commuter bike . The only down side to the bike is the top gear of only 68" The bottom gears from 35 " up to 54" were not used at all during the testing
After the 10 mile run it took less than 2 hours to recharge the battery at its rated charge of 2.5 amps so I estimate the range "IN Excess of " 15 miles .

regards emma

 

[twinkle]

Hi Folks

Ken has been using the e-shopper for the last 4 weeks and the only problem we have found is that the brakes are not as good as they should be .
The range seems to be about 18 miles per charge .
After a few thoughts we came out with an idea
We have modified a front brake bridge assembly from a set of suspension forks and redesigned them to use as a set of vee brakes for a normal set of forks . This front brake seems to be an ideal upgrade and we will make a mkll version and fit alloy brake arms to replace the "plastic ones on this mkl version .

regards emma