I had this brewing in my head for a while, and I think it would be great to get some feedback from people that regularly build bicycles (rather than motorbikes or motorbikes with pedals 
).
Shortest possible summary: Take a cargo city hauler bike with a front basket, add a hub motor, use the basket for battery and storage, turn it into a long-distance cruiser/bikepacking machine.
My context: I have a converted 26" hardtail with a 48V battery and a 2.2kW-capable controller/motor combo. I liked the bike as an acoustic, I liked it as an electric, but neither form really satisfied me fully. It was my main bicycle for the past 15+ years. I did a lot of MTB and the hardtail aspect was limiting for aggressive riding. As an electric bike, I like the range and power it has (with a custom battery made to fit the frame in 13s10p), but the aluminium frame's dropouts are a poor match to the wide motor, so it keeps coming loose, wires rub, the drivetrain is a converted 3x8 -> 1x8, and it's all a huge compromise. I wanted to turn it into a long-distance trip machine, and the plan for cargo was to pull a trailer, but with the motor axle problems i'm not convinced that would work well. Plus it's a size 19", and I'm 186cm tall, so the geometry isn't all that great.
My specific plan: Get one of those:
Which can be obtained used for about 400 eur. It's steel frame with rear-facing dropouts (for singlespeed) - so adapting that to securely hold my motor should work very well. Worst case I can just cut and weld new steel plates to that to make it accept a large QS or something if needed. I'd likely keep it single-speed for simplicity; I don't plan on scaling mountains on it, and if I ever need to, I'd probably rather put a 8kW motor in with a 21" motorcycle wheel and rely on that instead of pretending i can pedal myself and 50kg of bike and gear up a mountain.
The length isn't a problem for me and I think it should be an advantage - i want to ride longer trips, 80-100km/day across bike paths and forest fire roads. With 2+kW of motor behind me, i'm not concerned about the weight and like it more than a trailer. I would put the beefiest tyres I could fit on it, but it already comes with pretty large ones - since it's prepared for the overall large weight. The geometry is relaxed which should work well for longer trips when i only need to put in a bit of power and don't have to be folded over and pedalling like crazy; I might replace the handlebar with a flatter one and with a bit longer stem just to give myself a tad more space and bring it from "upright city bike" to a "comfortable semi-upright tourer".
So I'd take the motor and battery off of my bike, put it into that, see if I like it, and if so likely replace the box with a dedicated solution that holds a larger, dedicated battery I'd make for it (likely needs to be easily removable for charging in a hotel room), and lower-profile, waterproof, lockable storage. To top it off, i could add a solar panel to the lid for extra points.
So...
Am I crazy or is this something that could actually work? I'll likely build/buy another bicycle at some point strictly for the MTB use; I just feel that my current bike is an unnecessary compromise. I want something focused, weird, but functional and reliable enough 500km away from home.
P.S.
As an alternative build route, i might just buy the new one first, ride it unconverted for a while to see if i like it, sell my existing bike as-is to recoup some of the conversion costs, and start the new conversion with fresh dedicated parts (which would then likely be moped-ish rear wheel (21" 36 spoke)/ tyre (front mc tyre or moped tyre) / motor (3K Turbo, QS273) combo, possibly a stronger controller and 60 or 72V battery).
P.S. 2
Just for reference, this specific bike model has 26" rear 20" front as standard, and the rated cargo box capacity (so excluding rider weight) is a whopping eighty (80) kilograms (or 176 pounds). Even with luggage for two people and a massive battery, I'd be nowhere near that.
P.S. 3
My target cruise speed is 30km/h. (19mph)
).Shortest possible summary: Take a cargo city hauler bike with a front basket, add a hub motor, use the basket for battery and storage, turn it into a long-distance cruiser/bikepacking machine.
My context: I have a converted 26" hardtail with a 48V battery and a 2.2kW-capable controller/motor combo. I liked the bike as an acoustic, I liked it as an electric, but neither form really satisfied me fully. It was my main bicycle for the past 15+ years. I did a lot of MTB and the hardtail aspect was limiting for aggressive riding. As an electric bike, I like the range and power it has (with a custom battery made to fit the frame in 13s10p), but the aluminium frame's dropouts are a poor match to the wide motor, so it keeps coming loose, wires rub, the drivetrain is a converted 3x8 -> 1x8, and it's all a huge compromise. I wanted to turn it into a long-distance trip machine, and the plan for cargo was to pull a trailer, but with the motor axle problems i'm not convinced that would work well. Plus it's a size 19", and I'm 186cm tall, so the geometry isn't all that great.
My specific plan: Get one of those:
Which can be obtained used for about 400 eur. It's steel frame with rear-facing dropouts (for singlespeed) - so adapting that to securely hold my motor should work very well. Worst case I can just cut and weld new steel plates to that to make it accept a large QS or something if needed. I'd likely keep it single-speed for simplicity; I don't plan on scaling mountains on it, and if I ever need to, I'd probably rather put a 8kW motor in with a 21" motorcycle wheel and rely on that instead of pretending i can pedal myself and 50kg of bike and gear up a mountain.
The length isn't a problem for me and I think it should be an advantage - i want to ride longer trips, 80-100km/day across bike paths and forest fire roads. With 2+kW of motor behind me, i'm not concerned about the weight and like it more than a trailer. I would put the beefiest tyres I could fit on it, but it already comes with pretty large ones - since it's prepared for the overall large weight. The geometry is relaxed which should work well for longer trips when i only need to put in a bit of power and don't have to be folded over and pedalling like crazy; I might replace the handlebar with a flatter one and with a bit longer stem just to give myself a tad more space and bring it from "upright city bike" to a "comfortable semi-upright tourer".
So I'd take the motor and battery off of my bike, put it into that, see if I like it, and if so likely replace the box with a dedicated solution that holds a larger, dedicated battery I'd make for it (likely needs to be easily removable for charging in a hotel room), and lower-profile, waterproof, lockable storage. To top it off, i could add a solar panel to the lid for extra points.
So...
Am I crazy or is this something that could actually work? I'll likely build/buy another bicycle at some point strictly for the MTB use; I just feel that my current bike is an unnecessary compromise. I want something focused, weird, but functional and reliable enough 500km away from home.
P.S.
As an alternative build route, i might just buy the new one first, ride it unconverted for a while to see if i like it, sell my existing bike as-is to recoup some of the conversion costs, and start the new conversion with fresh dedicated parts (which would then likely be moped-ish rear wheel (21" 36 spoke)/ tyre (front mc tyre or moped tyre) / motor (3K Turbo, QS273) combo, possibly a stronger controller and 60 or 72V battery).
P.S. 2
Just for reference, this specific bike model has 26" rear 20" front as standard, and the rated cargo box capacity (so excluding rider weight) is a whopping eighty (80) kilograms (or 176 pounds). Even with luggage for two people and a massive battery, I'd be nowhere near that.
P.S. 3
My target cruise speed is 30km/h. (19mph)
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