Hybrid road bike ebike conversion

[jlpicard]

I have an old 18 spd haro bike I ride on levelish town roads. Getting older and love to tinker around with stuff so would like to add a front wheel motor. I see this online and considering it. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OYZ ... UVVX&psc=1
I have a couple hundred samsung 26f batteries that I have used in various projects over the years salvaged from medical equipment so will be spot welding my own battery packs.
Rim brakes are what I have I know not the best 26 inch
15 20 mph flat road 30 mile range
190 lb not wealthy human...
Doable?

[izy]

yes doable although i would recommend getting a rear wheel kit and also some torque arms

(not the generic ones you see online that are really flimsy and slim)

[raylo32]

Definitely doable... you might also look into the mid motor kits, Bafang and TSDZ2. Rim brakes are not ideal but OK. I have rim V-brakes on one of my conversions and last ride we had some serious high speed downhills over 10% grade and it did OK. I did not let the 47 pound bike get up to 50 mph like I would have on my road bike... but with care the rim brakes can handle that. But for most general riding rim brakes are perfectly fine.

For mid motor kits install is pretty much as simple as swapping out the bottom bracket for the motor and running a few wires. As for the battery, for a neat install you could build your own shark pack. The kits that include cases, cell holders, and BMS are readily available and not very $$.

[jlpicard]

Definitely doable... you might also look into the mid motor kits, Bafang and TSDZ2.

Mid motor eliminates the front derailer yes? So from 18 spd to 6 pedal. I rarely use the front derailer anyway. TY

[999zip999]

6sp and motor is fine. Just use the have proper Gearing for your needs.

[raylo32]

Yes it does eliminate the need for a front derailleur. There might be some way to keep it and have a smaller inner chainring but that is not a standard setup. The one ring you get is all you need... unless the motor or battery dies. Then you could be in trouble depending on your fitness and terrain, and remember the bike will weigh 15 or 20 pounds more than stock. That's what mobile phones are for, I suppose.

Mid motor eliminates the front derailer yes? So from 18 spd to 6 pedal. I rarely use the front derailer anyway. TY

[MikeSSS]

Extremely do-able, it should work very well.

Last year I rode around 1200 miles using a front hub motor and another 900 miles using a rear hub motor. I can't tell the difference between them when riding on dry pavement. Steep climbing on dirt is different, the rear hub motor worked better. Well, a front hub does transmit a lot more shock to the handlebars than a rear hub, but less shock to the seat.

Grin in Canada makes very good torque arms, they are often available on US Amazon and are well worth the money. Torque arms are extremely important, twisting out a drop out and screwing up a hub motor axle is expensive.

When using a front hub, placing the battery on top of a rear rack works just fine. Putting the battery in a side of the rack pannier works even better.

The ebike brake levers are for V-brakes aka linear pull brakes, they won't work well with cantilever brakes. Converting a bike from cantilever brakes to V-brakes is easy and cheap. V-brakes are on Amazon.

I use hub motors and do a lot of shifting on the front triple chain rings as well as a lot of shifting on the rear cogs.

The generic 52v, 20ah, 14s, 8p battery I got on Amazon has been amazing. Amazingly good.

Keep us posted on what you do and how it works out. Questions? Ask em.

[Chalo]

yes doable although i would recommend getting a rear wheel kit

Why? Be specific.

[dogman dan]

Nothing wrong with front wheel conversions for what he plans to do.

But yes, rear wheel conversions work particularly good on 7, 14, and 21 speed bikes. It will work good with an 18 speed too. Gets a bit different when you have 24 or 27 speeds, because the typical 7 gear rear freewheel that comes with more affordable hub motor kits.

Riding it with front wheel is not as bad as some think. It does help balance out a bike that carries a large load in the rear, whether its cargo, or just the battery. I commuted for a long time with front hub, but the real reasons for it were 8 speed rear gears, and no triangle on the full suspension bike. So I could not put my battery weight in the middle. Traction was terrible on dirt, but that was my street ride. I rode other bikes in dirt.

This bike, it would be a very good conversion with a rear hub motor, and put the battery in the frame triangle. There are good triangle bags out there now for batteries. So build that battery to fit the triangle. Traction will be good on those occasional times the paved road is covered in dirt, and on good paved the tire will last a bit longer. Front motors do tend to squeak just a bit taking off, and rub off more rubber than a rear setup.

Many new guys consider a front hub because its easier to install. But in fact, its not. A flat on a motor wheel is still a bitch, front or rear. Its still a lot of stuff to un bolt to get that wheel off.

[jlpicard]

Thanks to all for great responses. I will be spending some time researching my options as a budget build. The tires will rarely hit any dirt and zero unpaved hill climbing.

Those recommended torque arms from Amazon are oos it seems.

And my tires are NOT 26 they are 700x3.8c. That didn't compute to this old guy so i looked it up and I think that's closer to 27.5. Mid motor looking much mo bettah!

[jlpicard]

As for the battery, for a neat install you could build your own shark pack. The kits that include cases, cell holders, and BMS are readily available and not very $$.

What is a shark pack? Triangle shaped? Any recommendations?

[HK12K]

I will say this much about my experience with a front hub motor. Taking off from a stop tended to produce wheelspin, even with only 24v 250w at play. This was annoying and could be a potential safety issue, especially at higher power levels. (Hybrid geometry may exasperate this issue due to the more upright riding position.) When I upped the voltage to 18s and paired it with a Nucular controller I utilized the "clutch" feature of the controller to mitigate this, but something to consider especially if using a lesser controller and narrower tires.

Also when paired with a rigid fork the front end seemed more harsh and jarring when hitting bumps than I would have expected, even with some fairly meaty 2.25" tires. I cannot say for certain if the motor up front was the root cause because I switched to a suspension fork at the same time as switching to a rear hub motor. Someone like Liveforphysics could probably enlighten us were he so inclined, but I don't think the extra weight up there was helpful in that regard, sprung or not. I could be wrong however.

All that said, I was very surprised how well it did in snow. As long as I made sure the front wheel was pointed straight before applying throttle that is. You should have seen the slacked jaws of onlookers as I motored along at 15mph, running errands. Something tells me the 8kW I'm feeding my rear hub will be a bit more unwieldy this winter. Luckily we don't get snow too often here.

[HK12K]

Those recommended torque arms from Amazon are oos it seems.

Though they are more expensive than the generic crap you'll find elsewhere, I highly recommend you purchase Grin torque arms. I was skeptical, especially with the cost of shipping, but after holding them in my hands and using them on my fairly high powered bike I am exceeding glad I invested in them.

https://ebikes.ca/shop/electric-bicycle ... -arms.html

I opted for the v4. My only regret is not purchasing two of them at the same time.

What is a shark pack? Triangle shaped? Any recommendations?

The ones shaped like so:

[Manbeer]

I will say this much about my experience with a front hub motor. Taking off from a stop tended to produce wheelspin, even with only 24v 250w at play. This was annoying and could be a potential safety issue, especially at higher power levels. (Hybrid geometry may exasperate this issue due to the more upright riding position.) When I upped the voltage to 18s and paired it with a Nucular controller I utilized the "clutch" feature of the controller to mitigate this, but something to consider especially if using a lesser controller and narrower tires.

Also when paired with a rigid fork the front end seemed more harsh and jarring when hitting bumps than I would have expected, even with some fairly meaty 2.25" tires. I cannot say for certain if the motor up front was the root cause because I switched to a suspension fork at the same time as switching to a rear hub motor. Someone like Liveforphysics could probably enlighten us were he so inclined, but I don't think the extra weight up there was helpful in that regard, sprung or not. I could be wrong however.

All that said, I was very surprised how well it did in snow. As long as I made sure the front wheel was pointed straight before applying throttle that is. You should have seen the slacked jaws of onlookers as I motored along at 15mph, running errands. Something tells me the 8kW rear hub will be a bit more unwieldy this winter. Luckily we don't get snow too often here.

I too was amazed at how good the bike rode in the snow with a front motor...but it tended to beat the crap out of me on bumpy surfaces. For pure road though it was just fine, though mine was a DD So it's weight made the steering a little sluggish

[jlpicard]

Hmm no throttle, no need for brake cutout, built in controller!
https://bmsbattery.com/ebike/1186-18648 ... _wheel-46t

What's pedal assist like? Starts and stops when u pedal huh.

[HK12K]

For the ones that are cadence based, which is most all of them, you set the level of assist and that's what you get when you pedal with no modulation of power applied on the fly (with the exception of being able to select various pre-defined assist levels of power).

Some may like it. I do not.

[izy]

yes doable although i would recommend getting a rear wheel kit

Why? Be specific.

front wheel will affect your handling as well as grip in different conditions
especially once you get on an incline or wet conditions

[LewTwo]

Someone like Liveforphysics could probably enlighten us were he so inclined, but I don't think the extra weight up there was helpful in that regard, sprung or not. I could be wrong however.

I abhor derailleur systems so you will likely never see me building a bike with a rear motor.

Having said that, you are not wrong. On nearly any standard single rider, non-cargo bicycle configuration, the greater proportion of weight is on the rear wheel. A couple of pounds added to the front hub tends to make a big difference and not for the better. The lighter the bike/rider is the more this is apparent ... that is especially true for high pressure, narrow 700C tired road bikes. I think increasing the tire diameter and lowering the tire pressure probably works as well as suspension in the case of less severe paved surfaces verses trail or other rough terrain.

[HK12K]

Someone like Liveforphysics could probably enlighten us were he so inclined, but I don't think the extra weight up there was helpful in that regard, sprung or not. I could be wrong however.

I abhor derailleur systems so you will likely never see me building a bike with a rear motor.

Having said that, you are not wrong. On nearly any standard single rider, non-cargo bicycle configuration, the greater proportion of weight is on the rear wheel. A couple of pounds added to the front hub tends to make a big difference and not for the better. The lighter the bike/rider is the more this is apparent ... that is especially true for high pressure, narrow 700C tired road bikes. I think increasing the tire diameter and lowering the tire pressure probably works as well as suspension in the case of less severe paved surfaces verses trail or other rough terrain.

You don't necessarily need a derailleur to have a rear motor.

PXL_20210731_200339878.jpg (395.39 KiB) Viewed 741 times

I do understand where you're coming from though.

[LewTwo]

You don't necessarily need a derailleur to have a rear motor.

LOL ... that can not legally be ridden on the street

Side note:
In your previous post, that "second" picture of the battery pack looks more like a Pregnant Guppy than a Shark.

[HK12K]

You don't necessarily need a derailleur to have a rear motor.

LOL ... that can not legally be ridden on the street

And most certainly not at double the posted speed limit.

Side note:
In your previous post, that "second" picture of the battery pack looks more like a Pregnant Guppy than a Shark.

Bubble guppy? Pork pack?

[markz]

You don't necessarily need a chain/belt/drive shaft or any connection to a wheel, but still have pedals and be able to pedal thin air

[jlpicard]

Hmm no throttle, no need for brake cutout, built in controller!
https://bmsbattery.com/ebike/1186-18648 ... _wheel-46t

What's pedal assist like? Starts and stops when u pedal huh.

The motor is 350w. I've been reading mucho posts here and motor wattage is a "thing". Should I seek a more robust motor?

[HK12K]

Probably. A strong headwind will pretty much overcome the level of assistance a 350w kit is able to provide. Personally I wouldn't invest actual money into anything smaller than a 1000w kit. Even if speed isn't your goal the additional copper fill will help resist motor overheating.

The 1500w leafmotor is well regarded. I have one and can recommend it. They also sell a 1000w version. I cannot speak for their entire kit per-se as I have no experience with them, but the motors themselves are pretty darn good all considered.

All that said, if you're really into pedaling a higher power geared motor like the Mac or Gmac might be right up your alley. Less cogging than a direct drive motor.

[jlpicard]

The 1500w leafmotor is well regarded. I have one and can recommend it. They also sell a 1000w version. I cannot speak for their entire kit per-se as I have no experience with them, but the motors themselves are pretty darn good all considered.

Thank You! I found Leafmotor and I guess I am back to a front hub conversion consideration. https://www.leafbike.com/products/diy-b ... t-903.html This is a good price for a kit, I am going to make 100% sure my tire will fit their rim before anything is ordered though.