Newbie can't decide what kit to get

[scbk]

Hi folks

Have been browsing this forum for the last couple of weeks.

My other half recently bought an ebike - Focus adventura with the Bosch system, and I was completely blown away by it.
I'm not a cyclist but love going out for a wee run on a bike, but always struggle with hills, hence now looking at conversion kits

The bike I have is a 6 yr old Revolution Trailfinder (Edinburgh bikes), hybrid, no suspension, vee brakes. Cheap but good bike (to me)


Beyond oiling the chain or fixing a puncture I have no experience in bicycle maintenance or terminology, but like to think I'm handy with a set of spanners.


It's seems there's too much choice with ebike conversion kits?!
Can't decide between front or rear hub motors, what battery?
What supplier?
Ideally easy to fit without too much fiddling about


Cheers

 

[Nealh]

Yours wife's bike is torque sensor so go to a bike shop or Halfrauds and try a cadence hub bike to compare.
If you like one over the other then let that decide which type of drive kit to buy.

In the UK Woosh are the best suppliers of kits and sell mostly cadence drive kitst and have a center/mid motor torque kit or if you wait till about April they will be selling a torque sensor drive kit for a hub motor. For hub motor front is slightly easier to fit but rear hubs drive feel and ride better.

 

[soundwave]

na get one of these

 

[sjpt]

I'd second the comment about Woosh as a good supplier.

You don't say how big or steep the hills are. A front hub kit is easy to fit, but not the best if the hills are long and steep. A crank drive with the motor taking advantage of the gears is best in that case.

We have a Woosh front kit on a tandem; it gives lots of help and makes all the difference on the not so big hills around here (Winchester), but still leaves us with quite a bit of work to do. You have to think a little more with a hub kit than with the very natural feel of a torque driven crank drive (we also have a solo Bosch drive bike), but still very straightforward.

 

[Benjahmin]

To fit a crank drive you'll have to remove cranks, strip out the bottom bracket and fit motor. There can be chain line issues - all solveable.

To fit a rear hub you remove rear wheel, remove gear cluster and fit it to the new wheel that has the hub in it. Sometimes the rear forks may need spreading slightly and/or the dropouts may need a bit of filing.

To fit a front hub you drop out the wheel, fit the new one c/w a torque bracket. Sometimes the drop outs need filing deeper.

Apart from that it's mounting battery and controller and routing the cabling needed in all cases. On both hubs you may need to remove one crank to fit the pas magnets (a small plastic disc with a number of magnets used to give pedal rotation signal to the controller).

On most bikes it's sensible to upgrade the front brake to hydrualic.

It's down to how confident you feel, there will be plenty of help to be had here.
My first conversion was front hub. Yes it can scrub a bit on steep hills that are bit slimey (best avoided if you want to ride of road) but otherwise, easy to fit and thousands of trouble free miles.

 

[sjpt]

To fit a front hub you drop out the wheel, fit the new one c/w a torque bracket.

Good comments there. One clarification: with some less powerful front hubs (our XF07) you don't even need a torque bracket.

Our front hub took about 1/2 day to fit, but that was because of lots of dithering as it was first time and not wanting to make a mistake ... Will the battery be OK on those bottle mounts? Which washers should go inside and which outside the dropouts? Do I really need to push the cadence sensor quite so hard to get it to locate on the bottom bracket? Do we really want that cable to go there? (Woosh had supplied with all cables ready connected, it was just a matter of relative neatness)

 

[vfr400]

The decision on whether to fit a torque arm shouldn't depend on the amount of power the motor makes. If you have steel forks, you don't need one unless the dropouts are clearly weak. On aluminium, magnesium or other light alloy forks, you should fit one because of the risk of metal fatigue, which will show itself some time in the future.

Also, it's a matter of safety. If rear dropouts fail, you lose a motor. If front ones fail, you lose your good looks. Don't think it's like slipping off in the wet. I guarantee that it's going to hurt. Even the lowest power motor will rip its way out of the forks if you don't keep the nuts tight enough.

In my opinion, front motors are best avoided. If you must have one, get some steel forks with strong drop outs and fit a torque arm in case your nuts come loose.

 

[Woosh]

In my opinion, front motors are best avoided.

strange view.
Front hub motors are generally very reliable because it's practically impossible to stall the motor, so the clutch and gearbox will last for ages.
Also, where it is positioned, front motors take in much less water than mid or rear motors.

 

[vfr400]

strange view.
Front hub motors are generally very reliable because it's practically impossible to stall the motor, so the clutch and gearbox will last for ages.
Also, where it is positioned, front motors take in much less water than mid or rear motors.

It's not the position nor the reliability that's the issue. It's the chance of broken forks and injury. I'm sure that you've seen instances yourself and had emails from guys that it happened to. As I said, it's no problem with steel forks, and I'm talking about kits, not OEM bikes with properly designed installations.

As a minor concern, I don’t like the heavier and less precise steering that you get with a front motor either. I could live with it, but why would I want to when you get perfect steering with a rear motor.

 

[Woosh]

for most of my customers, converting their bike is still something they haven't done before.
If you have to remove the motor wheel, the weight of the wheel is important. The XF07 front motor wheel is about 2kgs lighter than the SWX02 rear wheel with a 7-speed freewheel.
The value of simple installation is also more important. Some customers are foxed by simple issues like the dropout on their bike is 135mm instead of 140mm. Some don't remember that the right wheel nut (on a rear hub) needs to be undone completely before pulling the rear motor wheel out. These things may not be vital but on the first job, best avoided.

 

[scbk]

You don't say how big or steep the hills are. .

We live at a height of about 150m, and to go to the shops you'd be dropping to near enough sea level, although the climb back up is a long slog over a few miles than anything too steep

 

[minexplorer]

We live at a height of about 150m, and to go to the shops you'd be dropping to near enough sea level, although the climb back up is a long slog over a few miles than anything too steep

if u were blown away by a bosch imagine the effect of a bafang bbshd kit and 52v batt on your bike....lol. you can zip up hills without even peddling on full whack and the rest of the time you can poodle around on lower power. otherwise those rear hub motor kits on ebay are inexpensive.paired with battery of panasonic/LG/samsung cells.they are easy to fit as the motor is already made up in a wheel.bag of cable ties a few hrs work an ur away.

 

[jaivioxford]

Quite informative post thanks for sharing with us.

 

[sjpt]

It looks as if even the Woosh XF07 front hub would take the slog out of your hills and give you a very enjoyable ride (Woosh will advise more). Ours is on a tandem; we usually use level 2 of 5 assist, and 3/5 on hills and main roads we want to get away from as quickly as possible. But that is for a quiet ride, usually not much above 12mph on the flat (at 2/5), or 14-15mph (at 3/5), and leaving us with some work on the hills. If you want to be blown away with lots of exhilaration you will want something more powerful.

 

[scbk]

Thanks for the advice everyone

if u were blown away by a bosch imagine the effect of a bafang bbshd kit and 52v batt on your bike....lol. you can zip up hills without even peddling on full whack and the rest of the time you can poodle around on lower power. otherwise those rear hub motor kits on ebay are inexpensive.paired with battery of panasonic/LG/samsung cells.they are easy to fit as the motor is already made up in a wheel.bag of cable ties a few hrs work an ur away.

The Chinese stuff on ebay, is it usually rated as advertised? Seen it plenty of times before on ebay with LED lights etc that are advertised as 50w but in real life are about 10w!!

Same as batteries, is there many knock offs of the big brands, like you get with memory cards and other components

 

[minexplorer]

Thanks for the advice everyone



The Chinese stuff on ebay, is it usually rated as advertised? Seen it plenty of times before on ebay with LED lights etc that are advertised as 50w but in real life are about 10w!!

Same as batteries, is there many knock offs of the big brands, like you get with memory cards and other components

just about all e bike kits are made in china inc the best stuff.id only buy one from a seller in the uk personally for ease of warranty in the event. i personally have a very old chinese made rear hub which is reliable and still going strong.likewise the controller which is just a cheapie , £16 off ebay. i also have chinese bbs01b and bbshd kits from uk sellers which are good kits. i seriously think the bbshd to be one of the finest motors u can buy.its over engineered and the choice of hot rodders the world over. you will have the best and not regret it.

ALWAYS open the throttles and seal the wires to the hall sensor with a little silicon.otherwise rain can cause damage to controllers ,through shorting across the throttle wires.

batteries should be bought from uk sellers again for warranty and the postal costs. make sure they use quality cells not cheap chinese cells.the brands you want are panasonic/sanyo,LG and samsung. such types as the GA cells,35E,30Q and others. you will get better performance less battery stress on high output,less voltage sag etc

 

[Nealh]

Some Ebay kits are cheap for a reason so post a link to any you are thinking of and we can offer some advise on them.

 

[Barrio Barranco]

na get one of these
View attachment 29253

Those wheels are bogging....look like they're off a 1980 Suzuki X7 250...

 

[soundwave]

cant say i like them either nor the £3500 price tag dont think id ever buy a full carbon bike either.

the £5 wood post won that one 10k+ factory bike goes in the bin

 

[minexplorer]

Those wheels are bogging....look like they're off a 1980 Suzuki X7 250...

thats what i want ! im so sick and tired of creaking spokes needing tightening every 10 minutes and the amount of snapped ones....