Need help in making my first e-bike

Hi,

I live in Finland and I want to make my own e-bike. Mainly because transportation cost is becoming incredibly high now. We are a family of 4. Average e-bike price here is 1999euro. Can anyone please help me and guide me to find the kits and the technical stuff. :wink:

You just buy any kit and slap it on your bike, easy peasy :thumb:
How fast do you want to go?
What is the hill situation like there?
Do you want to pedal or throttle only?
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=66302

Vikasbm said:

Hi,

I live in Finland and I want to make my own e-bike. Mainly because transportation cost is becoming incredibly high now. We are a family of 4. Average e-bike price here is 1999euro. Can anyone please help me and guide me to find the kits and the technical stuff. :wink:

Click to expand...

Here in the USA, I'm not sure it makes sense for someone to build a conventional ebike. Motor/electronics is at least $250 USD, and a battery is the same amount or higher. Then I still need a donor bike. Meanwhile, there are chinese imports available for $500USD and I think some are of them are OK if you have ebike and bike skills to maintain them.I am aware that Europe has tariffs/taxes to protect the Euro manufacturers. We do not.

In my case, I build them as a hobby, so the make vs buy decision has no impact. I'm never going to buy a commercial ebike in the future although I have in the past.

A serviceable ebike is just a motor kit and a battery. Pay attention to the battery. They are dangerous if mistreated or built too cheaply. New York City has been averaging two ebike fires a week in the past 20 months. Sadly, people have died. There are some CHinese battery sellers that have Europeam warehouses and delivery points. Thise may be your best bets,

Most people already have a bicycle and in finland its more bicycle friendly and if that be the case and the op already has a bicycle that they like then it makes sense to buy a plug and play ebike kit and slap it on the bicycle. You just have to pay close attention to the wheel size and if you want front or rear, front being 110mm dropout width and rear being 135mm dropout width. Then comes all the other general questions

Geared hub motor - freewheels with no drag, more moving parts, smaller

Direct drive hub motor - regen and braking, saves a lot on brake pads but when out of juice there is a drag unlike geared but you can buy a gmac geared hub motor that locks to get the best of direct drive and geared.

Mid drive - used for hills

Finland big city riding for commute or getting groceries if theres no long hills scratches out mid drive.

Generic kits are 250$ for a 1kw hub motor and low power controller, but do not skimp and cheap out on the battery. You want more battery then you need. The csc kits on amazon are decent and affordable and could be a great starting point, go with 48v if you have any sort of hill because the extra watts really helps out especially when loaded down with a kids trailer with a kid or two in it or groceries. I would say for a family person in finland 48v 30a controller with a 48v 40a battery will be the sweet spot, no need for any sort of display to add more potential failure, so no kt display kits. Just use a cheap cycle computer and a voltage readout on the throttle.

If you are a scared finlandish person and you are scared of authority and want pedal assist then by all means go with a kt display kit to get that pedal assist but its really not necessary. If you are rolling in cash and want to throw money at it, then get a cycle analyst and a torque sensing pedal assist which is way more money then the generic pedal assist where you just spin the pedals without any actual resistance and it engages the power depending on the level of assist from 1 to 5.

Figure out the total miles/km you will ride, add a buffer of an additional 20-30% and your golden.
Figure out what the hill situation is like, how steep and how long.
What is the total weight of you and anything your hauling.

A good battery will cost 750-1000$ I would say 48v 15-20ah, and be sure it will fit inside the triangle of the bicycle. You can buy a triangle bag to hide the battery. You can hide a rear hub motor behind a rear rack with pannier bags. You can buy a small controller such as the phaserunner/baserunner from www.ebikes.ca and no one will have a clue what it is.

@calab

"You just buy any kit and slap it on your bike, easy peasy :thumb:
How fast do you want to go?
What is the hill situation like there?
Do you want to pedal or throttle only?
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=66302"

Thanks for the reply. I have been thinking about the same but couldn't find which kit would be right? Getting the idea that I need to check the bike wheel dimensions etc to get it done right. I am looking for assistance in ride and not speed so I can use it in winter and snow also. And as a substitute for a car for distances of up to 20kms more or less.

Vikasbm said:

@calab

"You just buy any kit and slap it on your bike, easy peasy :thumb:
How fast do you want to go?
What is the hill situation like there?
Do you want to pedal or throttle only?
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=66302"

Thanks for the reply. I have been thinking about the same but couldn't find which kit would be right? Getting the idea that I need to check the bike wheel dimensions etc to get it done right. I am looking for assistance in ride and not speed so I can use it in winter and snow also. And as a substitute for a car for distances of up to 20kms more or less.

Click to expand...

It's interesting that you quoted the three questions but didn't answer any of them. Which probably means you didn't read the link to the sticky. So I guess we're at a stalemate?