How far can the frame dropouts be spread?

[momus3]

I just got a great deal on a Townie bike ($150 delivered to my door from someone moving to Phoenix). My plan is to put an electric hub motor kit on it. There's also a Sun trike here that's transitioning into an eTrike, so there's stuff for me to do during this lockdown.

I'd prefer to use the electrics off my current eBike on the Townie, but the eBike has wide dropouts on the rear measuring roughly 7" across. The Townie is much narrower, maybe 5 1/2". Is that too much of a stretch for a steel frame?

 

[markz]

$150 is a great deal for that bicycle, Townie Electra 7D, 7 refers to the 1x7 gearing.

The rear dropouts will be 130mm, and you will need torque arms for that.
I would buy a rear Leaf 1500W kit and buy a em3ev battery, or the MAC geared motor would probably be better for you then the leaf direct drive. Then you can get everything from em3ev.com.

7" is 177.8mm which is quite a lot. I wouldn't want to extend the Townies rear dropouts down 47.8mm to fit your kit.

edit - The Townie 7D is a aluminum frame.

 

[momus3]

Oops, yes, the frame is aluminum. Guess I'll have to go to Plan B (as soon as I think of one, LOL). It looks doubtful that an aluminum frame could stretch that far. In fact, I'm not comfortable w/ bending aluminum at all. Nothing left to do but look for some compact (expensive) rear hub motor kits or go mid drive.

I could also make something like this from a steel frame and attach it to the Townie. Maybe even have it pivot from the Townie dropouts, add a spring, and make it rear suspension. This particular design needs considerably more bracing, and I'd like to do it more in the mode of an Extracycle, but it looks simple and promising. The welder arrived for the frame stretch project on my trike, and I wouldn't mind a stretched cargo type eBike.

This leetle "mistake" reminds me of the motto we had over our door at an artist's studio I shared in Albuquerque. It said "Failure is sometimes success at a level that we don't yet fully understand". In my life, a lot of things that looked lousy in the beginning turned out very well. Ex wives seem work on a 180 degree principle

 

[amberwolf]

Some threads that may have useful info (there's others that don't show up here)
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=spread*+dropout*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=%22spread+the+dropouts%22&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=%22spread+dropouts%22&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=%22spread+your+dropouts%22&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=%22spread+my+dropouts%22&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search