For the last year I commuted 4 miles each way from my house in Seattle to my work in Seattle via bicycle. It was a great 15-20 minute ride through the city, bringing me smiles and near death experiences every week. We moved out to Bellevue a few months ago, increasing my commute to roughly 14 miles each way. It is a great ride, but 28 hilly miles on my road bike leaves me very sore and tired, along with taking about twice as long as driving.
So I decided to build my first e-bike. The bike is a "Charge Plug" from Performance Bikes, very similar to my road bike but all steel and disc brakes. 105 components, coupled with a shit seat, shit tires and mediocre brakes. So I paid $700 for good components and a sturdy frame. I considered flat bars as most kits are made for them, but I am used to drop bars, and I really like the various hand positions they offer. I was camera-less for a few months, so here is a stock photo of the bike:
I threw on an Avid BB7 front brake, some 32mm Schwalb Marathon tires and an old semi-comfortable seat I had laying around. Also added a rear rack and some Banjo Brothers panniers with a waterproof liner. At this point it was a pretty solid, but heavy commuter. Time for some power.
Ordered a BBS02 kit and a 48v 20ah shrink-wrapped battery from LunaCycle.com. Sadly, the first battery only gave me 8-10 miles of range. The battery would also become very hot on one side after a few miles of riding, and frequently refused to charge. Returned for a replacement, the second battery was defective as well. Eric at LunaCycle seemed just as frustrated as me about the bad batteries. They were very responsive and easy to work with throughout the returns. I considered buying a battery from someone else, but I couldn't find another stateside vendor with prices even remotely close to LunaCycle. So the second battery went back, and for the third try I switched to a 52V 13.5ah dolphin pack. It seems I finally have a winner. The enclosure is very well built, and most importantly I made it all the way in to work this morning without the battery or anyone going dead. Took about 10 minutes longer than driving, and I feel like I cycled 6 miles instead of 14. Success.
The (somewhat) finished bike:
The handlebars present a bit of a challenge, but I seem to have a functioning setup at this point. I managed to get the throttle mounted near my hand, but I prefer pedal assist as my hands are busy enough shifting and braking. So I bought a "big green button" from em3ev.com, which kills the motor when depressed. I can progress through the gears one at a time without much grinding, and then use the green button to rapidly downshift for hills.
Big green button (it's not that big), sadly ran out of black zip ties
View attachment 2
Battery pack power button and lock.
Wires heading out of battery enclosure. Everything is nicely sealed on the mount/pack, hopefully it holds up in Seattle.
The display mounts nicely on the middle of the bars, but the control ring doesn't fit so it is just dangling there by a zip tie. I made pickup some sort of accessory bar to give it a better home. Adding front, rear and spoke lights tonight. I may also attempt to add the ebrakes that came with the bbs02 kit as interrupter brakes. Also have a little thermometer to mount inside the bbs02, as I it gets quite warm and I would like to get a few years before burning it up. However if I kill it I suppose I could buy the new 1000w edition
Big thanks to Eric @ LunaCycle for all his help, and teslanv for helping me debug the defective batteries.
So I decided to build my first e-bike. The bike is a "Charge Plug" from Performance Bikes, very similar to my road bike but all steel and disc brakes. 105 components, coupled with a shit seat, shit tires and mediocre brakes. So I paid $700 for good components and a sturdy frame. I considered flat bars as most kits are made for them, but I am used to drop bars, and I really like the various hand positions they offer. I was camera-less for a few months, so here is a stock photo of the bike:
I threw on an Avid BB7 front brake, some 32mm Schwalb Marathon tires and an old semi-comfortable seat I had laying around. Also added a rear rack and some Banjo Brothers panniers with a waterproof liner. At this point it was a pretty solid, but heavy commuter. Time for some power.
Ordered a BBS02 kit and a 48v 20ah shrink-wrapped battery from LunaCycle.com. Sadly, the first battery only gave me 8-10 miles of range. The battery would also become very hot on one side after a few miles of riding, and frequently refused to charge. Returned for a replacement, the second battery was defective as well. Eric at LunaCycle seemed just as frustrated as me about the bad batteries. They were very responsive and easy to work with throughout the returns. I considered buying a battery from someone else, but I couldn't find another stateside vendor with prices even remotely close to LunaCycle. So the second battery went back, and for the third try I switched to a 52V 13.5ah dolphin pack. It seems I finally have a winner. The enclosure is very well built, and most importantly I made it all the way in to work this morning without the battery or anyone going dead. Took about 10 minutes longer than driving, and I feel like I cycled 6 miles instead of 14. Success.
The (somewhat) finished bike:
The handlebars present a bit of a challenge, but I seem to have a functioning setup at this point. I managed to get the throttle mounted near my hand, but I prefer pedal assist as my hands are busy enough shifting and braking. So I bought a "big green button" from em3ev.com, which kills the motor when depressed. I can progress through the gears one at a time without much grinding, and then use the green button to rapidly downshift for hills.
Big green button (it's not that big), sadly ran out of black zip ties
View attachment 2
Battery pack power button and lock.
Wires heading out of battery enclosure. Everything is nicely sealed on the mount/pack, hopefully it holds up in Seattle.
The display mounts nicely on the middle of the bars, but the control ring doesn't fit so it is just dangling there by a zip tie. I made pickup some sort of accessory bar to give it a better home. Adding front, rear and spoke lights tonight. I may also attempt to add the ebrakes that came with the bbs02 kit as interrupter brakes. Also have a little thermometer to mount inside the bbs02, as I it gets quite warm and I would like to get a few years before burning it up. However if I kill it I suppose I could buy the new 1000w edition
Big thanks to Eric @ LunaCycle for all his help, and teslanv for helping me debug the defective batteries.
