What to do when your mid drive bike give up the ghost

[BillyBoy88]

I have a Shimano E6000 motored Orbea, which is coming up to 6 Years Old, all is OK at the moment.

I have done lots of upgrades on the bike, Wheels, Tyres, Gears, Brakes etc so a fair bit has been spent on it, one day something expensive is going to die on the bike , Motor or Battery, I was wondering has anyone seen or heard about a replacement for the motor to convert it to a Manual bike, so basically a bolt in bottom bracket.

It would seem a sham to scrap it for the sake of replacement cost, also where I live in Cyprus it is difficult to get items like batteries delivered.

Regards
BillyBoy88

 

[matthewslack]

I have a Shimano E6000 motored Orbea, which is coming up to 6 Years Old, all is OK at the moment.

I have done lots of upgrades on the bike, Wheels, Tyres, Gears, Brakes etc so a fair bit has been spent on it, one day something expensive is going to die on the bike , Motor or Battery, I was wondering has anyone seen or heard about a replacement for the motor to convert it to a Manual bike, so basically a bolt in bottom bracket.

It would seem a sham to scrap it for the sake of replacement cost, also where I live in Cyprus it is difficult to get items like batteries delivered.

Regards
BillyBoy88

How many km has it done, has the battery range from full gone down much?

My E5000 is at 12,000km, motor sounds same as when new, I've used multiple batteries so highest mileage battery has done about 3,000km and has 90% capacity.

In what is probably quite a dry climate, it may go a lot longer yet!

 

[BillyBoy88]

It is still on original battery and motor, both have done 13,000 KM, the range is still good shows 93KM on full charge, and shows more when I cycle in Eco mode which is most of the time, no problems so far, but most of the year it is used in hot dry dusty conditions.

 

[matthewslack]

It is likely that the later batteries E8014 428Wh and E8010 500Wh are compatible with the E6000 motor, just need the matching mount hardware, and are still in production, and the E6000 motor is available, so I'd be tempted to plan how to get spares rather than go non-electric.

Then you should have another 6+ years of easy riding to look forward to.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

The Shimano E6000 and E5000 are low torque mid-drive motors. The E6000 is 50Nm peak and the E5000 40Nm peak so allowing for loss through the chain these motors are down in small hub motor torque level territory and likely to be much longer lasting than their e-mountain bike versions from the same manufacturer that have peak torque getting on twice these figures. It could be even using the same small motor inside and even some of the same cogs etc so these motors will likely have a much longer life. The Bosch motor that only outputs 40Nm peak and is often paired with Nexus hub gears also is known for great reliability compared to its high performance e-mountain bike versions. It gets a much easier life basically.

So it feels like the E6000 should be a much longer lifespan motor system than most mid-drive motors. I think some of the newer Shimano mid-drive motors allow for third party batteries which is great but presumably these don't. Ultimately ride it until it fails, then consider your options. Shimano stuff is generally very well made and brilliant quality mostly for mid-level stuff and above. I think where they fail is their dirt cheap components and their very high end performance lightweight components. Like the Ultegra crankset that can often split. Most of their stuff is excellent although I think I've read on this forum some of their stuff can be a bit proprietary electronically. Even if the frame and all the electronic stuff is scrap only end of life there are still many other components to salvage.

 

[AndyBike]

What to do when your mid drive bike give up the ghost

Buy a new bike.
Personally I've never had a bike longer than 4 years before building something else.
Even my mirror polished 6/4 ti got sold on after about 3 years, and that was one head turner of a bike.

Variety as they say, is the spice of life.

 

[BillyBoy88]

Buy a new bike.
Personally I've never had a bike longer than 4 years before building something else.
Even my mirror polished 6/4 ti got sold on after about 3 years, and that was one head turner of a bike.

Variety as they say, is the spice of life.

It's not so easy to just buy or sell a bike over here in Cyprus as it is such a small market and dealers do not carry any stock, only the cheap Chinese hub drive bikes.

Back to the original question, has anyone seen a conversion to replace a mid drive motor with a mechanical bottom bracket.

Regards
BillyBoy88

 

[matthewslack]

It's not so easy to just buy or sell a bike over here in Cyprus as it is such a small market and dealers do not carry any stock, only the cheap Chinese hub drive bikes.

Back to the original question, has anyone seen a conversion to replace a mid drive motor with a mechanical bottom bracket.

Regards
BillyBoy88

Probably the easiest way is to open up the motor casing and remove everything except the crank. Hopefully the crank bearings will be either OK or a standard type (not a given).

I'd still recommend looking at e.g. ebay and postal services to get parts.

 

[flecc]

Back to the original question, has anyone seen a conversion to replace a mid drive motor with a mechanical bottom bracket.

It's an old question, but the answer is that no company has ever made one. There would need to be a model for each type of proprietary crank motor, two or three for each model of Panasonic, Bosch, Yamaha, Impulse at least. But the trouble is there would be hardly any demand.

Almost nobody would go back to unpowered cycling, so the cost of conversion would be the conversion unit, around £200 at least, probably more for a small production item, and a good quality new hub motor kit.

By the time you've splashed out for those you might as well sell the old one for spares and buy a new ebike.
.

 

[cyclebuddy]

Back to the original question, has anyone seen a conversion to replace a mid drive motor with a mechanical bottom bracket.

I recall watching a video somewhere (likely YT) where IIRC after an existing motor failed, the owner ground the old motor mounting bracket off their frame and welded on a Bafang one (Bafang make and supply a couple of different brackets depending upon which of their motors you're looking to fit).

A bit of a faff needing a frame respray, but what else can you do other than scrap the whole bike?

 

[Deno]

Mid-drive motors can be rebuilt by someone like Performance Line Bearings - they did my gen2 Bosch (at 18,000km incidentally). The battery would be more of a concern due to postage and cost issues. In my case the cost of a new battery might be better spent on a replacement bike considering the use i've gotten out of it.

 

[soundwave]

Mid-drive motors can be rebuilt by someone like Performance Line Bearings - they did my gen2 Bosch (at 18,000km incidentally). The battery would be more of a concern due to postage and cost issues. In my case the cost of a new battery might be better spent on a replacement bike considering the use i've gotten out of it.

well the new bosch frame batts will not work on older motors as there not part of there new smart system and software locked not to work with any motors that are not smart and why i had to pay £633 for a new batt this year tho these batts can be recelled but only buy a company in Germany but ppl over here are working on it so it is a matter of time b4 there will be a uk option and keep these things out of the land fill.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

I recall watching a video somewhere (likely YT) where IIRC after an existing motor failed, the owner ground the old motor mounting bracket off their frame and welded on a Bafang one (Bafang make and supply a couple of different brackets depending upon which of their motors you're looking to fit).

A bit of a faff needing a frame respray, but what else can you do other than scrap the whole bike?

Aren't most mid-drive motor frames aluminium, typically heat treated 6061 so you would have to heat-treat the frame again after welding to get back to full strength. This means a full paint strip and access to a heat treatment oven.

However I have to say that if your not going to be re-fitting a normal motor just a bottom bracket I would of thought maybe it would be possible to weld on a normal bottom bracket to bring the bike back to normal use. Yes it will be a weakened area though but may not matter.

I would imagine the best approach is to create a steel bottom bracket assembly that will bolt into the aluminium frame at the same points as the original mid-drive motor. Steel is much easier to weld. You can get children's bikes in the UK often for free or just a few pounds made from high tensile steel and could simply make a bottom bracket from one of those that bolts into the same area as the motor. A much more abuse-able metal. Nice little project and won't compromise the original frame. I guess chainring clearance could be a factor. Not sure how wide proprietary mid-drive motors are so you'd have to factor that it for chainring clearance.