comand
1 mW
After a long period of research and procrastination, I finally pulled the trigger and built my bike. My commute is about 7mi each direction, with a lot of moderate climbing and a bit of pretty steep (>10% grade) climbing on the return trip. At the start, I was considering a geared hub, and when a mid-drive was suggested here, I kind of balked at it, because it seemed like there were some reliability issues with the BBS02, and they were kind of on the expensive side, and not particularly powerful.
Ultimately I ended up going with a BBSHD, and I'm pretty happy that I did. It climbs like a champ, and has plenty of speed to let me keep up with traffic in the more urban sections of my commute. It's also reasonably stealthy, due to how integrated it is (no external controller, nothing in the wheel). I was pretty concerned about un-sprung weight on the bike, and didn't want to replace spokes -- the roads on my commute are not in great shape, and there are quite a few speed bumps to navigate. Having the weight centered on the bike makes me feel better about how the bike is distributing stress, and also makes handling much nicer than if the weight were mostly in the rear.
The bike is a 2015 Motobecane 550HT from bikesdirect.com. I added the BBSHD and a 52V 13.5Ah NCRb shark pack, both from Lunacycle, and replaced the stock chainring with the Luna Eclipse HD chainring. I opted for the C963, as it is a little sleeker looking than either the 965 or 961. I didn't do any aftermarket modifications on the BBSHD, like disabling pedelec or installing a temp probe. I also bought a Lunagizer charger, on discount when purchased with the battery pack.
I replaced the stock Kenda tires that came on the 550HT with a set of Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. I ordered Schwalbe tubes from Amazon, but didn't notice until they were shipped that they were coming from the UK! Long trip for a couple of tubes. I also picked up a slightly more comfortable saddle.
After a week of commuting, I think the roads I travel warrant a Thudbuster ST, and I need to find a rear rack that works with my disc brake setup. Other than these two things, it's been pretty great. Flying up steep hills past sweaty cyclists on my ride home is fantastic
.
I had to drill holes for two rivnuts in the down tube so I could firmly connect the shark pack using all three of it's bolt adapters. Otherwise, the battery mounting bracket seemed just a little too under-powered to keep the somewhat-heavy battery firmly attached. I wish the mounting plate were aluminum or some other durable material, rather than plastic. Seems like having a key on the battery is Barely Adequate Security when leaving the bike out of sight with battery attached. A couple of swift kicks could probably dislodge it if someone were determined to steal the battery.
The setup as it stands doesn't have e-brakes. It doesn't seem like I really need them in my typical riding so far, which involves using pedelec on flatter parts, and throttle plus a bit of pedaling on steeper bits. In either case, I'm able to shift without any grinding (most of the time -- still getting the hang of it) just by letting off the throttle a bit. Shifting in pedelec mode (and I usually just use level 1, as that's really the only level I can reasonably pedal along with -- trying to pedal along with level 2+ is just faking it) is flawless.
My main worry is that I'm going to have some throttle/controller malfunction and I won't have any way to cut power quickly, short
of a long press on the M button on the display.
The bike came with hydraulic disc brakes -- that was a key feature I was after in a donor bike. I realized soon after I started buying parts that getting e-brakes working with hydraulics was going to be a bit of a pain. The two options I was able to find are hall sensor cutoffs, and replacement hydraulic brakes (like the Tectro Dorado). I didn't want to swap out new hydraulic brakes for a different hydraulic brake, so I went with the sensor cutoffs, and bought a L/R pair from EMPowered Cycles.
However, I should have checked the brake levers on the Tectro Draco system that comes on the 550HT, as the lever doesn't move away from the perch when activated, it moves closer.
So far I haven't figured out a way to adapt these sensors to the levers I have, so I'm resigned to have no e-brakes for now (unless someone reading this can make a suggestion). Hopefully if something fails, the bike will stop, rather than pinning the throttle.
The bike has worked pretty well for me so far -- I've had some strange issues, mainly that the system sometimes shuts off just as I head out first thing in the morning. It's either right away as I head up a gentle hill from my garage, under pedelec, or as was the case this morning, it shut off as I started to pull on the throttle. In both cases, it happened within 3 minutes of heading out from the house, and then never happened again for the rest of the commute, return trip included.
Overall, very happy with all of the vendors I interacted with -- Lunacycle was fantastic, especially around getting me the chainring, which was not yet available when I ordered, and C963 which was out of stock when I ordered. EMPowered is a local store for me, so it's great to know there's a source of BBS spare parts I can drive to if something bad happens.
Ultimately I ended up going with a BBSHD, and I'm pretty happy that I did. It climbs like a champ, and has plenty of speed to let me keep up with traffic in the more urban sections of my commute. It's also reasonably stealthy, due to how integrated it is (no external controller, nothing in the wheel). I was pretty concerned about un-sprung weight on the bike, and didn't want to replace spokes -- the roads on my commute are not in great shape, and there are quite a few speed bumps to navigate. Having the weight centered on the bike makes me feel better about how the bike is distributing stress, and also makes handling much nicer than if the weight were mostly in the rear.
The bike is a 2015 Motobecane 550HT from bikesdirect.com. I added the BBSHD and a 52V 13.5Ah NCRb shark pack, both from Lunacycle, and replaced the stock chainring with the Luna Eclipse HD chainring. I opted for the C963, as it is a little sleeker looking than either the 965 or 961. I didn't do any aftermarket modifications on the BBSHD, like disabling pedelec or installing a temp probe. I also bought a Lunagizer charger, on discount when purchased with the battery pack.
I replaced the stock Kenda tires that came on the 550HT with a set of Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. I ordered Schwalbe tubes from Amazon, but didn't notice until they were shipped that they were coming from the UK! Long trip for a couple of tubes. I also picked up a slightly more comfortable saddle.
After a week of commuting, I think the roads I travel warrant a Thudbuster ST, and I need to find a rear rack that works with my disc brake setup. Other than these two things, it's been pretty great. Flying up steep hills past sweaty cyclists on my ride home is fantastic
.I had to drill holes for two rivnuts in the down tube so I could firmly connect the shark pack using all three of it's bolt adapters. Otherwise, the battery mounting bracket seemed just a little too under-powered to keep the somewhat-heavy battery firmly attached. I wish the mounting plate were aluminum or some other durable material, rather than plastic. Seems like having a key on the battery is Barely Adequate Security when leaving the bike out of sight with battery attached. A couple of swift kicks could probably dislodge it if someone were determined to steal the battery.
The setup as it stands doesn't have e-brakes. It doesn't seem like I really need them in my typical riding so far, which involves using pedelec on flatter parts, and throttle plus a bit of pedaling on steeper bits. In either case, I'm able to shift without any grinding (most of the time -- still getting the hang of it) just by letting off the throttle a bit. Shifting in pedelec mode (and I usually just use level 1, as that's really the only level I can reasonably pedal along with -- trying to pedal along with level 2+ is just faking it) is flawless.
My main worry is that I'm going to have some throttle/controller malfunction and I won't have any way to cut power quickly, short
of a long press on the M button on the display.
The bike came with hydraulic disc brakes -- that was a key feature I was after in a donor bike. I realized soon after I started buying parts that getting e-brakes working with hydraulics was going to be a bit of a pain. The two options I was able to find are hall sensor cutoffs, and replacement hydraulic brakes (like the Tectro Dorado). I didn't want to swap out new hydraulic brakes for a different hydraulic brake, so I went with the sensor cutoffs, and bought a L/R pair from EMPowered Cycles.
However, I should have checked the brake levers on the Tectro Draco system that comes on the 550HT, as the lever doesn't move away from the perch when activated, it moves closer.
So far I haven't figured out a way to adapt these sensors to the levers I have, so I'm resigned to have no e-brakes for now (unless someone reading this can make a suggestion). Hopefully if something fails, the bike will stop, rather than pinning the throttle.
The bike has worked pretty well for me so far -- I've had some strange issues, mainly that the system sometimes shuts off just as I head out first thing in the morning. It's either right away as I head up a gentle hill from my garage, under pedelec, or as was the case this morning, it shut off as I started to pull on the throttle. In both cases, it happened within 3 minutes of heading out from the house, and then never happened again for the rest of the commute, return trip included.
Overall, very happy with all of the vendors I interacted with -- Lunacycle was fantastic, especially around getting me the chainring, which was not yet available when I ordered, and C963 which was out of stock when I ordered. EMPowered is a local store for me, so it's great to know there's a source of BBS spare parts I can drive to if something bad happens.
