Got my ebike parts, need help choosing a bike

Hi everyone, i'm Ken. This site has been very useful so far maybe you all can help me more?

I need to pick out a new bike and am wondering if there are reccomendations on brands or ones to avoid... I was going to get a opening line full suspension and at the last second decided it would be foolish to spend all this money on ebike gear and get a piece of junk frame. Besides i think I have a lot of power going on.... I plan on replaceing tires fyi.

I got a new BMC 1000W hub motor and BMC 36-72v 50amp controller.

Is full suspension worth it? It looks pretty cool thats for sure I dont want to spend a lot of money since im about 1500 bucks deep already.

Thanks for the suggestions-

I guess we need to know a lot more about your needs before we can do more than talk about what we like ourselves.

A few generalizations I've noticed.

Old farts like me with bad backs seem to love suspension, while the not yet ruined bodies wonder why we care.

Full suspension helps keep wheels straight. Big loads on back wheels can be harsh on rims, spokes and even the motor flanges.

Decent full suspension is nearly always aluminum. That makes any welding you may have planned for beefing up dropouts is nearly impossible. So depending on where you are headed, a hardtail steel frame may be the thing you need. 72v 50 amps is going to need serious torque arms, tourqe plates, or something more than just nuts pressing on alloy dropouts.

Full suspension bikes often have clearance problems running a really large front sprocket. So for really fast riding, and pedaling, bikes designed for narrower tires may be the choice for a 52 tooth front ring.

Full suspension bikes with much space in the triangle for batteries are rare. Those that have a triangle may have a small one, so look in sizes a bit on the larger end of the scale for your body size.

For the biggest frame space for battery mounts, the beach cruizer types seem to have the huge space, followed by classic road bike type frames.

long wheel base with big fat tires is the way to go I think to maintain fast speed without worrying about the pot holes. I bought a 1999 GT Outpost Trail off craigslist for $85 and I'm happy with it but the wheel base on it is a little short for my taste but it's good enough. If you want to maintain over 30 mph, you'll want to turn the bike into kind of motorcycle with fat tires.

What style of riding are you planing?
Long range or short?
you want high speed handling or low speed maneuverability?
on road or off?
What Size and type of battery are you going to using?

For my money, you can't beat a mid '80s to early '90s butted cro-mo MTB frame.
Fully rigid, forged drop outs, great geometry, usually inexpensive when you can find a good one these days.
If it has a relatively long wheelbase and 1 1/8" steer tube it's golden.

I suggest big tires and full suspension! My take is that suspension gets increasingly more desirable/important as speed hits or passes the 30mph mark where better setups keep tires on the pavement without float or getting springy. Your eparts will likely take you to speeds where a hardtail may leave you wishing or wondering about Full Suspension? Though most any hard tail is better than a poor full suspension choice that can't dampen weight at higher speeds. If link bearings and shocks are replaceable It indicates to me that the bike is worth a look as any issue can be fixed or upgraded. Look for parts before buying.

I'm building another ebike with similar e-parts... It took some classified looking, but finally scored a good large triangle frame FS bike (Craigslist find). Here's the bike I'm starting on now.

What year is that Giant Trance and what trim level? It looks like a 05-07 I just scored a 2008 Giant Trance 2 with 4.2" Maestro suspension. I love it because it has a fairly large front triangle. The shock mount is above the bottom bar. It looks exactly like the 2010 version of Maestro. The Trance 2 that I got is an entry level full suspension cross country bike with entry level shimano hardware. It's pretty light compared to Walmart moongoose special at 28lbs.

That does look like an ideal FS bike for a motor. Wish mine had some triangle space, but in my under $500 price range I was lucky to get anything nice. Now if only those bikes came with steel dropouts.

dogman said:

... under $500 price range I was lucky to get anything nice. Now if only those bikes came with steel dropouts.

Click to expand...

That was exactly my price range too and why it took so long to find one. Good deals go quick. What usually works for me with CL is waiting a week or so of active or repeat listings before providing my offer. I figure if it's out there that long it's priced too high and the seller might be less insulted by my offer and more inclined to consider.

Yes, steel dropouts ... that's a compromise many of us end up making! 2 torque arms are planned this time ... though not due to a bad experience as I've had good luck so far with the single arm v3 in aluminum dropouts I currently ride.

cprobike said:

What year is that Giant Trance and what trim level? It looks like a 05-07

Click to expand...

Yes, it's an 05 Trance 1. Each year was a different color scheme. They had good durability reviews and everything is still replaceable as they were a pretty popular bike.

Drunkskunk said:

What style of riding are you planing?
Long range or short?
you want high speed handling or low speed maneuverability?
on road or off?
What Size and type of battery are you going to using?

Click to expand...

I have about a 10 mile route I'd like to do everyday. Its got about 1000 foot elevation change on the way in. Not a big deal for the parts I ordered. I just figured the price wasnt too big between them not to get the faster equipment. On road, average speed will be about 30mph. BTW its a rear hub motor, I dont know if I mentioned that before...

I havent ordered the battery yet, I'll probably spring for something Lith-Ion since weight and installation will be an issue. It sounds like everyone is saying theyd put the battery in the triangle, I was picturing it above the back tire even though I know my front/rear weight ratio will be huge.

Full suspension does sound desirable but like everyone was saying, a cheap full suspension is not as good as decent hard-tail. I will criagslist shop unless someone has a recomendation for a new full suspension bike that isnt crazy expendsive yet beats the low end full suspensions I see in Costco, Walmart, Target, ect...

I know the dropout situation wont be steel. I will certainly get the torque arms...

High speed commute you'll want something with a longish wheelbase. a couple inches can make a world of diffidence for high speed stability, and 30mph is high speed for a bicycle. A full suspension with that motor will help the handling, but having the battery in the frame would be a bigger improvement than a rear suspension.

Any late 90s to early 2000s mountain bike should work. Newer stuff won't have the room in the frame for the size battery that Black Lightning needs. if its a ping, then probably a 48V 20AH minimum to handle the amp load.

Torque arms are a must. I haven't seen a steel frame that I would trust to handle a 1000 watt geared motor by its self.

You'll want a front disk brake. rear if you can get it, but it's not as critical. Your front fork should be beefy, as your extra speed and weight and braking force are going to put some real stress on it. Air or hydrolic suspension, but the longer the travel past 100mm or so, the worse it will handle.

If it's mostly on road, you'll want semi slick tires like Schwable Big Apples, Maxxis Holy Rolls, or Hookworms.

tycreek said:

cprobike said:

What year is that Giant Trance and what trim level? It looks like a 05-07

Click to expand...

Yes, it's an 05 Trance 1. Each year was a different color scheme. They had good durability reviews and everything is still replaceable as they were a pretty popular bike.

Click to expand...

That Giant Trance looks like a FS bike even I'd consider except it's aluminum.
The cheapest one on craigslist here is $685. There's also a bare frame for $500.
The other few listed are between 12 and 15 hundred.

I was just looking at trek 820's at the bike shop yesterday.

They have a cheap but servicable 65 mm travel steel suspension fork, and cromoly frame. Looked like it would be pretty easy to take some two piece tourqe arms, or have tourqe plates for it made to mount a rear motor. Or just weld more steel on to the dropouts, beefing them up. About $300 at this shop, web msrp was 330. In the large size, lots of room for a battery. If you don't weld on it, but rather bolt on tourqe arms of some kind, the bike could resell pretty good later when you find a nice enough FS affordable.

Rim brakes though, and I didn't look to see if the rear has mounts for disk, I'll look again tomorrow. Front fork could get disk by upgrading the fork easy, and sell the steel suspension fork to somebody wanting front hub.