Having used the public ebikes on a recent trip to Pisa I decided that I wanted one so rushed out and bought the cheapest used electric bike that I could find to test the feasibility of commuting to my new place of work on a pedelec (5 miles each way, some slight gradients, all tarmac/paved roads).
What I bought was a dilapidated 24v, front hub motored womens style MTB sold under the name ‘AlienOcean’ which I believe were a UK based reseller of electric bikes up to around 6 years ago. The bike came without a charger as it had been lost so I assumed the battery was knackered and strapped on a 36v 10ah lipo that I had from my son’s electric motorbike build and rolled the dice in whether it would let the smoke out of the controller or run, and it ran! Initial runs showed that it was faster than driving to the same place and I got 2 trips without noticing any loss in power from this thrown together contraption so things escalated…
I’ve since bought a beautiful looking, steel framed, single speed track bike that I wanted to transplant the motor/controller into, I’ve now decided that I’d like to fit a new motor and controller instead along with the 36v lipo to build a clean looking single speed so I’m looking for recommendations on the following but open to advise or suggestions if other options are more sensible:
Lower power limit is to appease English feds…
Aiming for around 15mph cruising on the flat on 28mm wide high pressure tyres, more speed wouldn’t be a bad thing. Would like to get 15-20 miles from a 36v 10ah battery if possible, please feel free to tell me that’s unrealistic!
Hub…
36v
250-350w
Geared
Freewheel thread
32 hole (to keep the existing rims)
Disc mount not necessary but welcome
Prefer black but not a deal breaker
Controller…
To drive the hub mentioned above
Would like a small/clean LCD mounted to the bars or Bluetooth connectivity to a phone app.
Throttle not necessary, would prefer PAS
This will be bought from and shipped to the UK so any links or past experience of ordering specific parts from fellow suffers Brits would be good.
If you’ve made it this far then thanks for reading my meandering, random thoughts!
What I bought was a dilapidated 24v, front hub motored womens style MTB sold under the name ‘AlienOcean’ which I believe were a UK based reseller of electric bikes up to around 6 years ago. The bike came without a charger as it had been lost so I assumed the battery was knackered and strapped on a 36v 10ah lipo that I had from my son’s electric motorbike build and rolled the dice in whether it would let the smoke out of the controller or run, and it ran! Initial runs showed that it was faster than driving to the same place and I got 2 trips without noticing any loss in power from this thrown together contraption so things escalated…
I’ve since bought a beautiful looking, steel framed, single speed track bike that I wanted to transplant the motor/controller into, I’ve now decided that I’d like to fit a new motor and controller instead along with the 36v lipo to build a clean looking single speed so I’m looking for recommendations on the following but open to advise or suggestions if other options are more sensible:
Lower power limit is to appease English feds…
Aiming for around 15mph cruising on the flat on 28mm wide high pressure tyres, more speed wouldn’t be a bad thing. Would like to get 15-20 miles from a 36v 10ah battery if possible, please feel free to tell me that’s unrealistic!
Hub…
36v
250-350w
Geared
Freewheel thread
32 hole (to keep the existing rims)
Disc mount not necessary but welcome
Prefer black but not a deal breaker
Controller…
To drive the hub mentioned above
Would like a small/clean LCD mounted to the bars or Bluetooth connectivity to a phone app.
Throttle not necessary, would prefer PAS
This will be bought from and shipped to the UK so any links or past experience of ordering specific parts from fellow suffers Brits would be good.
If you’ve made it this far then thanks for reading my meandering, random thoughts!