Wife’s Giant Frankenstein bike (possibly Giant Escape?)

[gsm.terra]

So a couple of years ago, a neighbour dumped a pretty decent looking bike, minus front wheel and a few bits. It lay in the street for weeks as I suspect no council uplift had been arranged, anyway I decided to take it.. and it’s lay in the shed ever since. Until may this year I decided to make it my lockdown project, got a new front wheel and tyre/inner tube and a few other bits and pieces, gave it a respray and new decals and geve it to my wife, and she loves it.

Alas, at the end of the month, I am sadly going to be made redundant. I’m expecting a few grand, and now I’m thinking of doing a conversion on the bike, with a rear hub. Looking for advice as I’ve never done this before I’m quite competent at electronics, i’m good at soldering etc. I’m willing to spend around

£350.

 

[Benjahmin]

Any kit, bought as such, will be plug and play, so you can put the soldering iron away. That bike should be a breeze to convert and, with a rear hub motor, you'll get a new back wheel.
However, I think your budget is way shy, a decent kit will be more in the 5-600 (inc. battery) region. There are cheaper e-bay 'dual power' kits but they are direct drive motors which are power hungry, inefficient and need top notch expensive batteries. Have a look at the Woosh offerings.
Also, I would upgrade that front brake to a Magura HS11, it's a hydraulic rim brake and will give you the extra stopping power you need to cope with higher speed and weight.

 

[sjpt]

Also, I would upgrade that front brake to a Magura HS11, it's a hydraulic rim brake and will give you the extra stopping power you need to cope with higher speed and weight.

I agree with almost all Benjahmin said above, but not the bit about the brakes. I've had various bikes with V-brakes like yours (including our electrified tandem) and the stopping power is fine, and they are very easy to adjust. The HS11 brakes on our Raleigh Motus are a complete pain to adjust and don't seem to stop any better than the V brakes (worse a lot of the time because the adjustment has drifted).

 

[MontyPAS]

I agree with almost all Benjahmin said above, but not the bit about the brakes. I've had various bikes with V-brakes like yours (including our electrified tandem) and the stopping power is fine, and they are very easy to adjust. The HS11 brakes on our Raleigh Motus are a complete pain to adjust and don't seem to stop any better than the V brakes (worse a lot of the time because the adjustment has drifted).

Agree with the use of V-brakes. I'm using V's on my bike with 750w/48v TSDZ2, it stops fine.
V's are cheap to buy and maintain, without the unnecessary addition of hydraulics!

 

[gsm.terra]

Thanks guys, I’ll look into the brake situation, at the very least I’ll buy new V brakes as this bike looked to have taken quite a battering when I picked it up. I had a look on whoosh, and they have some great kits. quite a bit of choice, so I think I will leave it until after the year, then and up the budget towards the £650 mark. I have a couple of leads on the job front, want to sort out employment before I make any purchases.

cheers, Kev.

 

[Nealh]

V brakes are ok if one isn't expecting to see silly road speeds, up to the assist level of 15.5mph they should be ok. A kit is likely to add 6- 7kg of weight to the bike , as long as they are adjusted and stop the bike well then sensible use will be ok.

 

[vfr400]

It's the sort of bike that would benefit from a lightweight kit. If you want to have a go at bulding your own wheel, yoy can buy a nice motor and controller plus PAS and throrrle direct from Xiongda in China for about £150. Spokes are about £20 and you can use your present rim, so you end up with nice matching rims. That leaves about £180 for the battery. You can get 7Ah bottle batteries from Aliexpress for that price.

Xiongda have a rage of motors, which include their tiny lightweight ones, so you can get a lkit that weighs around 4kg. Xiongda's customer service is exemplary, as they're a small family business and their prices are low because they sell directly from the factory rather than through resellers.

 

[tomtag]

I converted a Trek MTB for £350 (kit & battery). For that I got a MXUS rear hub kit (PSWPower) & 11.6Ah battery from Yosepower with Samsung cells (29E). Issues I had were a poorly built wheel (£10 for re-truing), needed to buy a different PAS to suit my bike & also purchased sensors for hydraulic brake levers, so say another £50 total. It is a little more fiddly & much less customer support when buying from Chinese based companies, but it is possible to do on a lower budget. I'm now 800 miles with no issues and all works perfectly. (Prices may have increased since I bought the above in Feb this year)

 

[gsm.terra]

V brakes are ok if one isn't expecting to see silly road speeds, up to the assist level of 15.5mph they should be ok. A kit is likely to add 6- 7kg of weight to the bike , as long as they are adjusted and stop the bike well then sensible use will be ok.

Thanks Nealh, yes she wont be going fast on the bike, mostly it’ll be a family cycle along canal paths with our young daughter, we have a folding camper and often take our bikes with us, would be great for us both to have ebikes, and when our daughter turns 14 I will look into getting her an ebike too (assuming she still wants to tag along with her boring old parents by then ) The wife had a decent test of my decathlon and she was impressed with the ease going uphill so a wee conversion will be a nice surprise for her!

 

[gsm.terra]

I converted a Trek MTB for £350 (kit & battery). For that I got a MXUS rear hub kit (PSWPower) & 11.6Ah battery from Yosepower with Samsung cells (29E). Issues I had were a poorly built wheel (£10 for re-truing), needed to buy a different PAS to suit my bike & also purchased sensors for hydraulic brake levers, so say another £50 total. It is a little more fiddly & much less customer support when buying from Chinese based companies, but it is possible to do on a lower budget. I'm now 800 miles with no issues and all works perfectly. (Prices may have increased since I bought the above in Feb this year)

Yes, I think I’ll spend more cash and get a kit from whoosh, better to have the bike up and running without any issues..

 

[gsm.terra]

It's the sort of bike that would benefit from a lightweight kit. If you want to have a go at bulding your own wheel, yoy can buy a nice motor and controller plus PAS and throrrle direct from Xiongda in China for about £150. Spokes are about £20 and you can use your present rim, so you end up with nice matching rims. That leaves about £180 for the battery. You can get 7Ah bottle batteries from Aliexpress for that price.

Xiongda have a rage of motors, which include their tiny lightweight ones, so you can get a lkit that weighs around 4kg. Xiongda's customer service is exemplary, as they're a small family business and their prices are low because they sell directly from the factory rather than through resellers.

As my first conversion, and seeing as it’s for my wife, I’ll get a kit from whoosh. But if all goes well I might look at building another from a mountain bike for off road use. My daily bike is for commuting and it’s reliable for getting me to my (ex) work, but it would be great to have a fun bike too! I’ll take your advise on that build!

 

[vfr400]

As my first conversion, and seeing as it’s for my wife, I’ll get a kit from whoosh. But if all goes well I might look at building another from a mountain bike for off road use. My daily bike is for commuting and it’s reliable for getting me to my (ex) work, but it would be great to have a fun bike too! I’ll take your advise on that build!

Ok. Further to my post, i was looking at their website ans spotted this: Motor wheel with the desirable KT controller and LCD for $120. That's a bargain. their shipping costs are normally very reasonable too.

Easy E-bike Conversion Kit - Buy E-bike Conversion Kit,Electric Bicycle Kit,Bike Kit Product on Alibaba.com

Easy E-bike Conversion Kit - Buy E-bike Conversion Kit,Electric Bicycle Kit,Bike Kit Product on Alibaba.com

www.xiongdamotor.com.cn

and this one:

Xiongda Ytw-03 Electric Bike Wheel Conversion Kit/electric Bicycle Wheel Hub Conversion Kit Motor - Buy Electric Bike Wheel Motor Kit ebike Wheel Motor Kit electric Bicycle Wheel Motor Kit Product on Alibaba.com

Xiongda Ytw-03 Electric Bike Wheel Conversion Kit/electric Bicycle Wheel Hub Conversion Kit Motor - Buy Electric Bike Wheel Motor Kit ebike Wheel Motor Kit electric Bicycle Wheel Motor Kit Product on Alibaba.com

www.xiongdamotor.com.cn

 

[gsm.terra]

Ok. Further to my post, i was looking at their website ans spotted this: Motor wheel with the desirable KT controller and LCD for $120. That's a bargain. their shipping costs are normally very reasonable too.

Easy E-bike Conversion Kit - Buy E-bike Conversion Kit,Electric Bicycle Kit,Bike Kit Product on Alibaba.com

Easy E-bike Conversion Kit - Buy E-bike Conversion Kit,Electric Bicycle Kit,Bike Kit Product on Alibaba.com

www.xiongdamotor.com.cn

Hey that’s pretty decent!!

 

[vfr400]

Hey that’s pretty decent!!

If you want to order anything from them give me a shout. It's important that you list what you want in the right way with these Chinese people. Basically, you can send Bonnie Xiong an email with your requirements or you can fill in the form in that listing. I've met her a couple of times. she's a really nice person.

 

[gsm.terra]

If you want to order anything from them give me a shout. It's important that you list what you want in the right way with these Chinese people. Basically, you can send Bonnie Xiong an email with your requirements or you can fill in the form in that listing. I've met her a couple of times. she's a really nice person.

Thanks for that! I’ll give you a shout when I’ve decided what I’m doing

 

[egroover]

E-Bike Conversion Kit 36V 350W Rear Motor Kit for Cassette with 36V13Ah Battery and Charger

Hub Motor 36V350W Black Hub Motor for Cassette 26" / 28" & HL1 36V13Ah Battery Conversion Kit DIY E-bike 1.Technical Data and Packing listRear motor with 26"/28"(700C) wheel for Cassette x 1: 36V 350W , installation width: 138mm, diameter: 133mmGearshift: fit for Cassette(8S/9S/10S)13G spokes...

yosepower.com

Just under 400 for the kit delivered, there's a big thread on Yosepower on the conversion kit forum on this site

 

[gsm.terra]

E-Bike Conversion Kit 36V 350W Rear Motor Kit for Cassette with 36V13Ah Battery and Charger

Hub Motor 36V350W Black Hub Motor for Cassette 26" / 28" & HL1 36V13Ah Battery Conversion Kit DIY E-bike 1.Technical Data and Packing listRear motor with 26"/28"(700C) wheel for Cassette x 1: 36V 350W , installation width: 138mm, diameter: 133mmGearshift: fit for Cassette(8S/9S/10S)13G spokes...

yosepower.com

Just under 400 for the kit delivered, there's a big thread on Yosepower on the conversion kit forum on this site

That’s exactly what I’m looking for!

 

[gsm.terra]

That’s exactly what I’m looking for!

I suppose I could slap a 250w sticker on the hub...

 

[Nealh]

The Yose kits have changed a bit form a couple of years ago, the hub was changed to a slower wound motor for better torque and the KT current control electronics changed to Lishui speed control. The former type gives a better relaxed ride feel.

 

[Scorpio]

I'm fairly new to e-bikes and did my first conversion earlier this year.

Tips:
Your frame looks simple to convert, some moderns (mine) can be difficult.
I'm heavy (me+bike+battery+shopping is near 150g) and fast (50+ kmh down the hills), disk brakes are vital for me - your riding needs might be different.
Edit: I've also picked up an upright townbike, it's very slow and the non-disk brakes on that are fine.
Chose a current controlled kit (KT) not speed controlled (Lishui).
I got a 36 volt 350w kit from Yose for £360 including 12ah battery, very simple to install and great value but it's speed controlled - I now know there are better options.

https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/yose-350-rear-hub-kit-onto-spanish-mtb-by-mondraker.37899/s

I got a decent disk brake suspension fork for £20 if you decide to upgrade, just add cheap cable disk + new front wheel

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