New member long time lurker

[silver50]

Hi I'm 47 years old and live in Edinburgh I'm over 6ft tall and around 15st. A rather hilly city! Been doing a fair bit of cycling for leisure (old but not bad mountain bike) and fitness last 6 months but I tend to take flatter routes. For a long while I've been looking at e bikes and kits and boy oh boy have I struggled to reach a conclusion on whether to buy a bike or kit, and if so which ones.

I've bought an old but virtually unused large Raleigh Savanna with the intention of converting it myself as a starter bike. I am a bit concerned about missing out on the fitness I've built up but I also think there is still every chance to get fair excercise from an e bike. If I can get the Raleigh converted I feel it'd be an interesting experiment in powered bike use.

Where should I post for help and advice on buying kits? I think I've narrowed it down to either (spending a bit more..) for Bafang mid drive or hopefully converting for less on a rear hub system.

Thanks

 

[Benjahmin]

Wow, bike with a big triangle, great for a huge battery - wish I had one. I'd put a rear hub in it, convert the front brake to Magura HS11 hydraulic and the biggest battery I could afford.
Don't worry about fitness, with the hills around there you're still going to be getting plenty of exercise.
Yose power kits seem to be getting a lot of good press on here recently. If you want to buy in the UK look at Woosh bikes - lots of kits and good customer service.

 

[vfr400]

That's not a bad bike for conversion. Disc brakes would be better, but what you have might be acceptable. Maybe uprate the pads to Koolstops or some other higher grade ones. With a motor, your speed might be nearly twice as much, so you have four times as much energy to dissipate. That's without considering the extra weight of the kit.

If you can pedal around at the moment, a hub-motor kit would add about two and a half times your own power, so I'd be surprised if you need the extra torque of a crank-drive kit. In my experience, hub motors are more reliable, need less maintenance and cheaper in the long run, so I'd only fit a crank motor if you definitely need it, like lots of very steep hills or extra heavy rider.

Your rear gears are freewheel ones, so you can use the cheaper and more common freewheel rear motors. You'll find that if you swap your freewheel over to the motor, your gearing will be too low for your higher speed, so think about buying a DNP freewheel with 11/32 top gear from Aliexpress. Also, it saves the hassle of getting the old freewheel off.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/BY-DNP-Longyi-Mountain-Bike-7-speed-8-speed-9-speed10-positioning-flywheel-11-tooth-rotary/32856762368.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.17.1dd56d9eGYpsdF&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_5_10065_10068_10130_10547_319_317_10548_10696_10192_10190_453_10084_454_10083_10618_10307_10820_10301_10821_10303_537_536_10902_10059_10884_10887_321_322_10103,searchweb201603_6,ppcSwitch_0&algo_expid=e265585b-6cdd-4343-81f2-057788a5ddab-2&algo_pvid=e265585b-6cdd-4343-81f2-057788a5ddab

The favourite kit suppliers these days are Woosh if you feel you'll need full customer support or Ysbattery-2012 on Ebay, who, like Woosh, seem quite good at dealing with any problems or complaints, but won't give you one-to-one advice, though you can more or less get that from here. Ysbattery-2012 also sell from their own website and on Amazon, etc under the name Yose Power.

 

[Fat Rat]

Hi welcome to the site
Enjoy your build

 

[scotsguy00]

I am also Edinburgh. Good luck with the build. Would be good to see it in action.

 

[silver50]

Thanks very much for the info. Much of it very useful. My apologies didn’t reply sooner.

Yes, I agree a pity the bike isn’t slightly more modern with disc brakes. I always fancied a bike for “electrifying” with a nice comfortable upright riding position and this was the appeal of this old but good condition Raleigh.

Would I be right you’re unlikely to need worry about a torque arm if power was say 500W or less? (the bike is aluminium framed). Saw on Woosh a different style of pedalling sensor/pickup (not multi circular magnets). Are those a new development and worth considering?

 

[Woosh]

For hills, the Tongsheng 48V TSDZ2 is a good kit.
Videk wrote a review here:
https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/whoosh-crank-drive-tongsheng-kit-review.34071/#post-489738

If you prefer rear hub motor, I would recommend the SWX02.
http://wooshbikes.co.uk/cart/#/product/uid-203-swx02-13ah/swx02-26in-rim-rear-hub-kit-with-13ah-battery

Saw on Woosh a different style of pedalling sensor/pickup (not multi circular magnets). Are those a new development and worth considering?

yes, it's a better pedal sensor. If you need any help, just email support@wooshbikes.co.uk

 

[Nealh]

Would I be right you’re unlikely to need worry about a torque arm if power was say 500W or less? (the bike is aluminium framed). Saw on Woosh a different style of pedalling sensor/pickup (not multi circular magnets). Are those a new development and worth considering?

All but the weedy hubs should utilise a torque arm, you never know when a drop out may fail, for the sake of a few £££'s you can save yourself a lot of grief should the unthinkable happen.