Mcfizzlestag's 700c commuter conversion - Magic Pie Edge

Hello all.

So I am a beginner cyclist, been at it only for around 6-7 months after an almost 20 year hiatus due to equilibrium issues. Because I wasn't sure if i'd be able to keep up with riding, I bought a dirt cheap bike off amazon, the Giordano rs700. Well even after a snowy winter by Vancouver standards, I made it through with only 1 broken rib and am loving the freedom cycling gives and couldn't give a damn what the weather is like when riding.

I originally started cycling to cut down on the lost time between bus connections, one issue was when I worked afternoon shifts, i'd get off work at 11 pm and i'd be stuck carrying a large bike unto a shuttle bus for the journey up to my house on a mountain. So I figured it was time to give electric a chance. One of my goals with the bike was to make it a more discrete ebike, as I am using transit with it, and no motor assisted bikes allowed on bus racks regardless of weight. The racks take 55lb per bike slot, this bike weighs 49 lbs without the pannier on, which I got to remove anyways. my excuse is without the battery, its not motor assisted worst case I just go on the sky train with it as its only a slight detour with a few extra km.

due to my size, many ready to ride ebikes wont work for that climb, so I explored conversion kits as an option. I decided on the Magic Pie edge as the kit of choice due to it being 500Watts, not oversized and generally good customer service from GM canada. So I put in an order to Gary, and an order for a 10AH 52V Panasonic GA cell battery from lunacycle. They both arrived fairly quickly and within a day of eachother, plus on my first day of a 3 day weekend, so a perfect scenario to do the conversion.

Installation wasn't the 30 minutes advertised, i spent roughly 4-5 hours converting. Several issues were the cause of my delay:

1. I forgot to use the spacer for the freewheel, so i was delayed not having a free wheel remover and exploring youtube for creative solutions. Spark plug socket saved the day Atm i set the limits so i cant use the largest cog, as the derailler scrapes the motor casing. Likely needed a larger freewheel spacer.

2. My old brakes were shifter combos, i saw this issue ahead of time and bought shifters prior to install time. THey still conflicted with the twist throttles cable entry though, so i didn't have smooth shifting due to limited access to levers. I broke the throttle HAL sensor while rewiring the switch function in the throttle. SO i converted to PAS only and removed the throttle. To still use the BAC-601 display and not see an error, i spliced the 4V to the signal wire and reconnected it to the harness. I waterproofed the splice to prevent corrosion.

3. Wire mess. I got to hand it to GM, their harness really makes it clean, but it still leaves a lot of excess wire around the handlebars. It would have been nice if it came with a pouch to hide around the headset. This will be a problem I fix one day, and it will be one that bugs me until I do. Being an electrician who's skillset is mostly PLCs, VFDs and various industrial applications, messy wiring really pisses me off. One of the changes I ended up making after I tied in all the cables, was removing a brake line and sleeving the line in brake housing so I could tie wrap around the housing rather than the tube.

4. noise issues. first one was clanging, this was spokes that loosened off, I had to tighten quite a bit. second noise was a swishing every rotation. This was caused after tightening all the spokes throwing the rim out of true and rubbing on the brake pad. Then.... there was creaking, this was solved by lubricating each spoke hole in the rim. Eventually i trued the wheel again, and dished it. THis caused a different noise. One side of the spokes was too loose and it sounded like those old musical beads kids used to put on bike spokes. Tightened everything 1 full turn, and threadlocked the spokes. All noise issues solved!

So thank you to those who kept up with my wall of text, now i'll give some photos

The Battery and charger from Lunacycle (GM canada was out of stock):


They both fit perfectly in my trunk bag:


The mounted wheel with the cables tied in place (With a drip loop)


Heres the display and harness cable tied to the brake housing:


the excess wiring as neat as I could get it


decluttered handlebars once I removed the throttle



and finally the full view of the bike:


So with me being 300lb I put this kit through some abuse. After over 4 km of straight incline, the motor still doesn't kick out. I've only put it in thermal overload once by trying to take a shorter much more steep climb, which I expected to trip out a lot sooner than it did. Plus its rainy season (big surprise in vancouver) so its functioned fine through a couple really bad downpours. Overall im really happy with the Kit Gary provides, and his documentation is superb once you figure out which ones apply to the Edge.

The other week i blew a tire on the way home. Was at a standstill and heard a loud bang and all air instantly gone from my rear tire. It actually blew through the sidewall of my bontrager h5 tire that's only a few months old. I've never had this happen, but I guess that's what happens when bike + myself is over 350 lbs.

Once I removed the tire and tube, I noticed that the rim strip that came with wheel really didn't like the load that was on the tire. Despite sticking to 80 psi on my rear wheel, the rim strip on each spoke well was indented atleast 3/16" and where the tube blew out, it was a full 1/4" indentation. I am surprised the tube has lasted this long. Anyone else experience this issue with the GM supplied rim strip? I replaced the rim strip with 2 wraps of Stans no tube rim tape. I really liked the h5 tire, so I bought a new one and ensured its not the light version, and going to try it without a tough strip. Also upped the size to 38mm vs the 35mm i had.

Since the tire was off, i took a trip to GRIN (didn't realize they were local until recently) and picked up a new PAS magnet ring with more poles and some Statorade. I opted to take the cover off the hub but was unable to remove the stator for the life of me, even with both feet on the rim, so i just applied the statorade to the air gap. I've really noticed how much heat its transfering to the casing now, just wish there was some sort of heatsink solution for a smaller hub motor like the Edge, especially considering it has an uneven surface.

Nice conversion. I wouldn't want to be stuck without a freewheel remove tool, do you have one now? The Edge does make a pretty a slick install. I'm sure you could paint the side covers to make the hub motor less noticeable too.

This is also the first application of Statorade I've read of in any Magic Pie, well done!

So since the statorade, i've been able to push this kit further. I even had it running at 25A battery current (controller max) w/ 70A phase current, but going up a bridge at 40km/hour (iron workers memorial) seemed excessive and not worth the battery drain. i no longer thermal overload taking the shorter 3km long 9% avg grade hill home.

My config atm is 23A draw/56A phase, if i lower it more, a couple spots in the ride up will cause me to drop below 8 km/h with full throttle, causing temperature to climb very fast. This is what led to my previous thermal overload. By the time i get home, the casing is almost too hot to touch.

I have also discovered the drawback to leaving PAS on, went to walk the bike across the street to get a coffee, pedals triggered the PAS when the rear wheel dropped off the curb and bike decided to take itself for a ride Now my bottom bracket makes a rubbing noise for a 1/4 of its rotation and my rack has a lovely nice offset in it.