Would you convert this bike?

[Benjahmin]

I'm a 61 year old leisure cyclist living in West Wales and having ridden my wife's Giant Twist, I now want a pedelec myself.
This is the bike I'm using at the moment and I like its geometry. But is it a candidate for a conversion kit?
It has no suspension, is that a problem?
I want as much range as possible, so at least a 14/15Ah battery. Is the rack up to this?
The tyre wall tells me they are 700x88 (no idea what that means) are they suitable? Given that the walls are showing cracking I'm guessing it would be new tyres.
I've considered a woosh Big Bear and the Cyclezee Sprint Primo for their range and hill climbing. But out here it's difficult to get to try one and I know the Silver fox is a reasonable machine.
Any views or help would be most welcome.

 

[trex]

yes, I would - the only problem is to fit a battery to the rear rack.
Most rack batteries need matching rack so they can be locked to the rack.
You need to pay about £25 for the new rack in addition to the battery.
The £499 Woosh Big Bear kit would be suitable if you can get them to supply the front 700C BPM wheel with a rack battery kit instead of a bottle battery.

 

[RobF]

The tyres are almost certainly 700X38, not X88.

The second number refers to the width in mm.

That size is fine, but ebiking does put extra strain on tyres so best to replace them with something sturdy.

Schwalbe make ebike specific tyres.

You don't have to have those, but something from their Marathon range will be durable and offer good puncture resistance.

http://www.schwalbe.com/gb/

 

[Cyclezee]

View attachment 9948 View attachment 9948 View attachment 9949 View attachment 9950 View attachment 9951
I'm a 61 year old leisure cyclist living in West Wales and having ridden my wife's Giant Twist, I now want a pedelec myself.
This is the bike I'm using at the moment and I like its geometry. But is it a candidate for a conversion kit?
It has no suspension, is that a problem?
I want as much range as possible, so at least a 14/15Ah battery. Is the rack up to this?
The tyre wall tells me they are 700x88 (no idea what that means) are they suitable? Given that the walls are showing cracking I'm guessing it would be new tyres.
I've considered a woosh Big Bear and the Cyclezee Sprint Primo for their range and hill climbing. But out here it's difficult to get to try one and I know the Silver fox is a reasonable machine.
Any views or help would be most welcome.

Hi Benjahmin,

I assume by the geometry you are talking about the frame dimensions rather than how it handles?

The increased weight of a kit will inevitably change the way the bike handles as will be adding typically 7 or 8Kg.

I am not sure what your budget is, but we supply kits from £799 with rear mounted batteries and the kits include a replacement rack.

In the eZee kit can be supplied with soft battery bag that has velcro straps to secure it to your existing rack and as the 14ah battery weighs 3.8Kg your rack should be more than adequate. The downside of using your own rack is that the battery which is the most expensive single component is not locked as it would be with an eZee rack.

As for tyres, eZee kits are supplied as standard with Schwalbe Marathon Plus, the best tyre for punture resistance.

http://www.cyclezee.com/ezee-conversion-kits.html
http://www.cyclezee.com/ansmann-conversion-kits.html
http://www.cyclezee.com/heinzmann-conversions.html

I hope this is helpful.

 

[RobF]

As for tyres, eZee kits are supplied as standard with Schwalbe Marathon Plus, the best tyre for puncture resistance.

But only one, presumably.

Nothing to stop the OP buying another to match the pair.

 

[Cyclezee]

But only one, presumably.

Nothing to stop the OP buying another to match the pair.

Hi Rob,

One tyre comes fitted to the motor wheel, but we can supply a second if required.

 

[Benjahmin]

Thanks Guys,
This gives me a starting point. Good call on the locking battery rack, didn't consider that.
Nobody has picked up on the lack of suspension so I assume it's not a problem.
I will look at both kits mentioned, however it's just occurred to me that the starting point is actually quite a heavy steel framed bike in the first place.
So, although the frame suits me, I may be about to create a heavyweight that I can't lift onto the bike rack, even minus battery. (We have a small 4x4 with spare tyre mounted rack).

 

[RobF]

Thanks Guys,
This gives me a starting point. Good call on the locking battery rack, didn't consider that.
Nobody has picked up on the lack of suspension so I assume it's not a problem.
I will look at both kits mentioned, however it's just occurred to me that the starting point is actually quite a heavy steel framed bike in the first place.
So, although the frame suits me, I may be about to create a heavyweight that I can't lift onto the bike rack, even minus battery. (We have a small 4x4 with spare tyre mounted rack).

Weight and ebikes go hand in hand.

A ready made ebike - even an expensive one - will be more than 20kg.

Removing the battery gets rid of a kilo or three and makes for easier lifting.

I reckon your bike converted and a budget ready made bike will weigh about the same.

 

[eHomer]

.....This is the bike I'm using at the moment and I like its geometry. But is it a candidate for a conversion kit?
It has no suspension, is that a problem?

It would be fine in my opinion, I converted a very similar bike a few years ago.

It was a Dawes Mojave 700c with the same sort of Lady's frame with the dropped downtube.

I used a £400 ebay kit from a UK seller which included everything required, eg 700c replacement front wheel with a Bafang 250w brushless motor, controller, rear rack with lockable 36v 10ah lithium battery.

It worked very well, with a top speed of 15mph and a range of about 24 miles.

 

[Alan Quay]

Suspension is not a requirement. Personally, I prefer a bike without as I'm rarely off road.

I'd agree with others, it's a good bike for conversion.

If that rack is sturdy, then you can put a battery in a bag.

 

[Benjahmin]

Thanks everyone, I think I'm pretty much convinced.
I shall be talking to cyclezee 'cos the amount of detail on their site is awesome, and they can supply a rack.
The Dawes looks how I think mine will look with it's luggage boxes on,tidy job.
Today I was talking to a friends 15 year old son who is a keen mountain biker/mechanic. He's up for doing the conversion with me. He's got more knowledge I've got the savvy, should make a good team.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks again.

 

[Nealh]

Benjamin if a bike is a favorite then its a waste not to keep using it. Sounds like it will get a new lease of life and may be a youngster keen as well. Post a pic when finished always good to see homebuilds.

 

[Benjahmin]

Well, I've done it !
I settled on the Cyclezee kit because it had everything I needed. The conversion took about 5 hours. Everything went as per the instruction sheet apart from mounting the rack. I ended up having to make a bracket to suit the frame. It's a bit rough and I will be refining it after the sheer whoop of riding this beast up welsh hills has worn off a bit.
I had to ditch the fitted combined front deraillier changer/brake lever as it collided with the throttle housing. How naive was I ? Who needs 3 front rings with this motor ? So I fitted the supplied switched brake lever to the left side.
There's a lot of cabling to keep tidy, I think there must be a Kg of cable ties and self amalgamating tape to keep it in order.
I'm currently in battery conditioning phase, two complete discharge cycles, to flatten this baby takes some doing (I went for the 14Ah version). So I'm finding the steepest hills around to try to get this done. I still can't quite believe that, on setting 5, this thing will drag me up whilst merely rotating the pedals.
But mostly I'm riding on setting 2 allowing me to still get some heart pumping exercise. This is a large motor and when it kicks in it's quite a jolt. Some people have mentioned the noise of motors, yes it does make a noise but I find in any sort of traffic this disappears. Assist level change is instantaneous the only delay being on initial start up when it takes about two pedal revolutions to get motor going. This is the only time I've found a use for the throttle.
Obviously the handling/weight distribution is totally different and, on tight turns, this is taking some getting used to. There's some fine tuning to do on brakes and gears but overall I'm really pleased, neigh excited like a 12 year old !
I am having some small problem with the front light, hence the coiled up cable on the back rack. Nevertheless Cyclezee has been really helpful with advice and sorting things out.
So, I enjoyed the process, I haven't done any work on a bike since I was about 15, and I'm already trying to find a reason for doing another.
Any comments welcome.
Ben

 

[selrahc1992]

Well, I've done it !
I settled on the Cyclezee kit because it had everything I needed. The conversion took about 5 hours. Everything went as per the instruction sheet apart from mounting the rack. I ended up having to make a bracket to suit the frame. It's a bit rough and I will be refining it after the sheer whoop of riding this beast up welsh hills has worn off a bit.
I had to ditch the fitted combined front deraillier changer/brake lever as it collided with the throttle housing. How naive was I ? Who needs 3 front rings with this motor ? So I fitted the supplied switched brake lever to the left side.
There's a lot of cabling to keep tidy, I think there must be a Kg of cable ties and self amalgamating tape to keep it in order.
I'm currently in battery conditioning phase, two complete discharge cycles, to flatten this baby takes some doing (I went for the 14Ah version). So I'm finding the steepest hills around to try to get this done. I still can't quite believe that, on setting 5, this thing will drag me up whilst merely rotating the pedals.
But mostly I'm riding on setting 2 allowing me to still get some heart pumping exercise. This is a large motor and when it kicks in it's quite a jolt. Some people have mentioned the noise of motors, yes it does make a noise but I find in any sort of traffic this disappears. Assist level change is instantaneous the only delay being on initial start up when it takes about two pedal revolutions to get motor going. This is the only time I've found a use for the throttle.
Obviously the handling/weight distribution is totally different and, on tight turns, this is taking some getting used to. There's some fine tuning to do on brakes and gears but overall I'm really pleased, neigh excited like a 12 year old !
I am having some small problem with the front light, hence the coiled up cable on the back rack. Nevertheless Cyclezee has been really helpful with advice and sorting things out.
So, I enjoyed the process, I haven't done any work on a bike since I was about 15, and I'm already trying to find a reason for doing another.
Any comments welcome.
Ben

View attachment 10190

congrats, looks lovely to me (and inspirational, I've got a knackered Raleigh roadster I'm converting, for the hell of it, and irony of speeding up hills on something designed to potter fifty years ago).

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Ben,

Good write up on your conversion.

I'm not sure why you had to fabricate brackets for the battery rack, would the standard ones as shown in the conversion below not work?

 

[Benjahmin]

Hi,
Looking at this photo I see that all parts were in the kit, however the rack is slightly different. The controller was pre-mounted under the front of the rack. With the rack sitting on top of the mudguard the vertical legs weren't long enough to reach the frame lugs. So I used the standard kit to achieve this and fabricated da ugly silver thing.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Ben,

That's really odd, the controller is normally fitted under the rack and the vertical legs are long enough for a 29er or 700c as shown here

 

[Benjahmin]

Hi,
Is it because the design of the rack legs has changed? I notice that yours has two legs whilst mine has three. From the bottom horizontal rail of the rack to where the legs come together measures 9.25 inches, from same rail to frame lug measures 14.5.

 

[Cyclezee]

Hi Ben,

That's definitely not right, I will get a another rack sent out to you next week.

 

[Benjahmin]

Well the new rack is now fitted, much tidier, thank you. Also lights all done and switched - I'm ready to go.
I've just returned from another battery conditioning run, trying to flatten this monster. So I chose a route that I knew had a serious, hard to walk up hill. This thing took it on number two setting, though I was using hill climbing gear.
But hey, I rode up it siting in the saddle I can't believe this thing. My SDS drill is rated 650w, even my random orbit sander is rated at twice the wattage of this motor, I really didn't expect what it does. Are you sure it's only 250watts?
Since living in west wales our cycling has been restricted to putting the bikes on the rack and taking them somewhere. But we've just been looking at the local map and it's all open. Rides on a whim, thought they were a thing of the past.
Now looking for my next conversion. Trying to persuade my daughter (city dwelling, commuter) it's what she needs.
So, yes, I.m converted and full of evangelical zeal/in danger of becoming a pedelec bore.