Following my first mid motor bike conversion I thought I would give some feedback, via a number of posts, which hopefully will be useful to those thinking of doing something similar.
Some cabling/ electrics advice as follows:
1. The TSDZ2 motor is supplied with 3 cables in lengths that are either too long, which is OK, or too short, which isn’t (see photo of the supplied kit). The battery connection cable which has to serve multiple battery locations can be shortened to suit your chosen location. The display and speed sensor connector cables are so short that it is difficult to get the actual connector blocks in a satisfactory location tight against either the down tube or the seatstay respectively. They both end up partially suspended away from these locations which makes them feel slightly vulnerable. Other than wrapping them in copious turns of black electrical tape I did not find a solution to this. Despite it looking dreadful I chose to swathe all of the cabling adjacent of the BB in electrical tape to hopefully protect it and to avoid lots of nooks and crannies that would otherwise fill up with “road crud”. I chose not to use the bike light connection cable leaving an unused connection on the speed sensor “Y” connector which had to be sealed off with more electrical tape.
2. In terms of cutting (if necessary) and fixing do not commit to a routing for one cable until you have worked out the routes for all of them.
3. I avoided an external connection for the battery cable by cutting off the supplied connectors and wiring it directly into the battery mounting plate (see photo below). The cable connection enclosure in the mounting plate has sufficient space for “Wago” type connectors which worked very well and required no soldering. I also improvised a cable entry clamp cut from an old plastic rear light mount and an entry gland cut from a blind rubber grommet to give at least some ingress protection.
4. It may be possible to re-purpose the “internal cable routing” entry points in the down tube to form mountings for lugs to support the now external cables/hoses. Until then I used the cable tie method to secure all the cabling. However my experience of aluminium bike frames is that their manufacturers like to use ever more complex cross sections and ever more elaborate 3 dimensional curving to their tube profiles which then make it difficult to stop cable ties loosening and then moving. I was forced to resort to the use of yet more electrical tape to keep the cable ties in place.
That concludes all the stuff I have learned so far. Hope you enjoy your conversion kit build.
Some cabling/ electrics advice as follows:
1. The TSDZ2 motor is supplied with 3 cables in lengths that are either too long, which is OK, or too short, which isn’t (see photo of the supplied kit). The battery connection cable which has to serve multiple battery locations can be shortened to suit your chosen location. The display and speed sensor connector cables are so short that it is difficult to get the actual connector blocks in a satisfactory location tight against either the down tube or the seatstay respectively. They both end up partially suspended away from these locations which makes them feel slightly vulnerable. Other than wrapping them in copious turns of black electrical tape I did not find a solution to this. Despite it looking dreadful I chose to swathe all of the cabling adjacent of the BB in electrical tape to hopefully protect it and to avoid lots of nooks and crannies that would otherwise fill up with “road crud”. I chose not to use the bike light connection cable leaving an unused connection on the speed sensor “Y” connector which had to be sealed off with more electrical tape.
2. In terms of cutting (if necessary) and fixing do not commit to a routing for one cable until you have worked out the routes for all of them.
3. I avoided an external connection for the battery cable by cutting off the supplied connectors and wiring it directly into the battery mounting plate (see photo below). The cable connection enclosure in the mounting plate has sufficient space for “Wago” type connectors which worked very well and required no soldering. I also improvised a cable entry clamp cut from an old plastic rear light mount and an entry gland cut from a blind rubber grommet to give at least some ingress protection.
4. It may be possible to re-purpose the “internal cable routing” entry points in the down tube to form mountings for lugs to support the now external cables/hoses. Until then I used the cable tie method to secure all the cabling. However my experience of aluminium bike frames is that their manufacturers like to use ever more complex cross sections and ever more elaborate 3 dimensional curving to their tube profiles which then make it difficult to stop cable ties loosening and then moving. I was forced to resort to the use of yet more electrical tape to keep the cable ties in place.
That concludes all the stuff I have learned so far. Hope you enjoy your conversion kit build.
