First Project - Ribble Road Bike [Q128C]

Lovelock

10 W
Joined
Mar 24, 2018
Messages
72
After around a month of research I finally started my conversion last night. I have to credit 'D8veh' over on Pedelecs and 'molybdenum' from here for giving me plenty of advice!

I have no prior knowledge or eBikes / electronics so its been a massive learning curve, if you notice anything I say is wrong please advise!

I'm starting a new job in a couple of weeks that is 6 miles each way commute, I don't want to turn up sweating everyday so an eBike sounded perfect!

I've decided to convert my current roadbike:

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China delivered quicker than expected! Which left me with a pile of parts ready to fit:

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My current wheel set is only 24 holed so the last piece of the puzzle is a new rim to come on Monday with 36 hole.

The parts list is:

- Q128c 36v 201RPM
- 20a controller from PSWPower
- 47v 17.5ah battery from Jimmy @Insat

The battery was way over my initial budget, but after speaking to Jimmy he convinced me to go with the larger battery and buying from the UK (where I live...) was worth the extra £100 or so over Em3ev.

My first test was to trial fit the motor:

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With a little filing it fits snuggly, the only concern right now is the derailer arm being close but it might be okay once there chain is properly on?

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I'm going to try and keep this build super tidy and as subtle as I can, next up was the display and control:

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I purchased a small seat bag to house the controller:

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I will create a small flap towards the front of the bag for cable to run into, this should keep them tucked away tidy and can also store the additional length.

The last part I managed to get done tonight was the battery test fit. In the future i'm intending on having the battery in my backpack as it looks massive on such a small frame but for now it can sit on the frame whilst i'm still working everything out.

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I was supplied with some Anderson connectors for the battery but they aren't going to cut it for me. Grey and too big doesn't fit my image for this bike so i'm on the lookout for a better quick connect for the battery. Suggestions? For now I've purchased some bullet connectors to get everything running.

As i'm keeping the cables to a minimum I will not be fitting the throttle for now, I also cant find a good way to mount it on my drop bars so that will also take some planning.

My plan over the next week is to get my new rim laced onto the hub and also fit the PAS sensor.
 
Nice build 8)
Battery placement in the triangle is perfect. I suspect you'll be returning/keeping it there when you have commuted a few times with it in a back pack... :lol:
 
Nice post Lovelock, looking forward to seeing this come together.
 
Was a bit lazy and didn't post up the rest of my progress.

Rode around 50 miles on the bike (amazing) but got frustrated by the alignment and indexing of the gears. I could only use 3 gears and the wheel wasn't dished right so wasn't centre.

I gave up and left the bike for a couple of weeks but today found a local bike guy (works from home) who said he's going to try and redish the wheel and also index the gearing again.

I left the last post with the bike looking a bit of a mess! Here's bit of a picture dump.

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My next issue was the PAS sensor, sadly couldn't use the simple one due to lack of room but instead expoxied the ring on the chainring and mounted the sensor (after some cutting) under the frame.

Heres how tight the normal PAS sensor was:

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Here is how I fitted the PAS ring and sensor:

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Due to the odd shaped rear arms / drop outs I couldn't use the full torque arm, I instead used part of the arm as there was a hole in the perfect location (arm is now sprayed black):

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This was the first picture from when I fitted the back wheel:

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I took the bike on its first 10 mile ride and had 0 issues! I was super impressed by everything:

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The controller and all wiring sits within that seat bag.

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PAS was okay, but I tried out the throttle by cable tieing it to the bars and it makes the experience a million times better. I wasn't using the throttle constant, but when pulling away from lights or overtaking etc it really gave a nice boost.

Im still trying to think of a nice way to mount a throttle to the drop bars and searching online but not much is around.

I lost a bit of love for it when the gears weren't aligning etc but hopefully I will get good news back from the bike guy this week and continue riding it more!

Plans in the future are to:

- tidy up the wiring somehow
- paint the rear wheel spokes black
- fit a throttle in a nicer way
- fit a seat post with suspension

I have some more pictures around that I will update when I get them off phone / Instagram :)
 
That's looking really good LL. Clean looking install on a nice bike.
 
Been a while since I updated this and a fair bit has happened. I could only use the larger 3 cassette rings and couldn't get the indexing right so took it to a local bike guy. He had the bike for nearly a month whilst trying to figure out what the issue was.

Turns out that it had Shimano rear cassette and it just wouldn't consistently play nice with the Campagnolo group set. I decided to get him to upgrade my set up to Shimano 105 and it solved all the issues and left me with full use of all the gears and a much better setup.

I took the time once the bike was back to properly route the cables and tidy everything up.

Heres the bike back as a standard roadie with the Shimano setup:

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And back together again within 30 minutes:

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Also finally found a nice way to mount a throttle to drop bars + some venting in the controller bag:

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However... i've covered just over 100 miles on the bike now since its been electric and today hit my first issues whilst commuting to work.

I had a puncture on the way, and another on the way back both on the same back wheel. Whilst pumping up the wheel I knocked the connecter for the motor and it now cuts out every few minutes.

Commuting to and from work on the bike has raised a few questions as to if a road bike with 23c tyres is a good / practical idea. Its bumpy and now not really getting the benefits of a light bike.

I do however love how subtle it is and always get compliments on how people don't ever see electric road bikes etc.

I need to look into whats going on with the motor, but if its not fixable I may be looking at a new project. Luckily I have the most expensive part (battery) sorted.
 
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