Hi all,
I've been reading through the forums and slowly beginning to learn!
I noticed that although a lot of the ready made bikes are based on hybrid / town bikes, most of the conversions both on here and over at the endless-sphere forum are based on mountain bikes.
What is the reason for that? I currently ride a cycle cross (Surly crosscheck) with drop handlebars, and am thinking of either a sturdy drop handlebar or town bike to convert, but wondered if I was missing something important?
I think the main reason is because mountain bikes popular, cheap and sturdy bikes (typically steel frames and forks, so no messing with fork/drop-out reinforcement) to use for conversion. My first conversion was a
cheap Chinese 26" folding MTB clone of the
Dahon Espresso which turned out rather well.
On a related note, I wondered why there are not many people with rear engine setups putting the batteries at the front of the bike for better weight distribution. I can see that bike frame bags make functional sense, but wonder if you could hide batteries in front panniers / handlebar bag to make it look more in keeping with a traditional bike? Has this ever been done? Are there good reasons why not? Can you use 2 smaller batteries to distribute weight across 2 paniers and use both (rather than having to swap half-way)?
Thanks,
Phil
On my above first conversion, you'll notice I put the battery on the front in a bag with the controller, and my reasoning and thinking was exactly as you describe, to make the bike look as normal and "non-electric" as possible.
But I think that's unusual though, putting a handlebar bag with battery on a self-build set-up, mainly for practical reasons and weight limitations.. my battery was a small 36V 5Ah battery (LiFePo4 - I had two, and just rotated use).. it didn't compromise the steering or handling of the bike but if you had a standard 10Ah battery or higher, it most likely would. I found 5Ah to be ok for PAS (I did 18 miles on that bike at full power on PAS with pedalling) but it was not really ideal for throttle-only and only lasted < 4 miles, and the bike struggled on very steep hills.. 10Ah is the minimum power really.
Now though, people are turning to LiPo batteries which are not only cheaper but smaller and lighter, so this makes the possibility of front-mounting at higher power, more feasible.
I think though, front-mounted batteries and electronics is more common on lighter, smaller 16-20" self-build folding bikes where you either have no rack, or need to keep the rack free. Larger 10-20Ah batteries are either rack mounted or centrally mounted for better weight distribution and handling.
Two 10Ah batteries in panniers as you suggested on a lighter road or touring bike is a good compromise and alternative if you want to keep the bike looking non-electric, I know some adopt that approach. I also think it's good to have two separate batteries on the bike from a practical sense in case one should fail, you always have a backup to get you home, and you can easily have the option to join them together at will, for more speed and long distance journeys of course.
