Its a large and confusing world. Help?

[swbluto]

Excellent point, i hadnt thought of the laws associated with a 4 wheeled bike, and to think i just took a class in criminal procedure =(. I get the feel ebikers have been here before. Considering safety, speed and range. You get more speed/range with the bent but less safety because your out of sight. I see why many people choose mountain bikes. Also, its cheaper.

You can convert a mountain bike or similar into a recumbent, so you get the same height "advantage" of regular biking brethren, but your frontal area is decreased so that you get more range. But, it's not particularly cheap and recumbents have some inherent disadvantages to regular bikes (Mainly, mushing up hills and mounting sidewalks - it seems you can't just "pop the wheel" up.).

It's called the cruz-bike conversion kit and it costs $400 *gulp*.

 

[Drunkskunk]

Do you suggest i stick the motor on the front or rear wheel? I always thought rear would be an obvious choice but is front better in order to spread out the weight load?

Some People like sticking it in the front. Some people prefer putting it in the rear. We don't judge here.


For what you want to do it really doesn't matter. There are pros and cons for both, but ultimately, neither is better than the other.
I prefer rear motors, But I also prefer rear wheel drive cars. It does take a little more skill to fit a rear motor to a bike, but its still a job a novice can do.

 

[torker]

I've got a front motor on a long wheelbase recumbent with batteries on the lower tube and it handles great. Most recumbents put the riders weight towards the rear so a front motor works good. I put a rear on my Rincon and the batts in the triangle and it also handles well so it really depends on the bike and where you mount the batts when deciding front or rear.

 

[dogman dan]

Front or rear is really a personal preference thing. Lots and lots of discussion on that in the past. Both have advantages and disadvantages.

Simply put, I prefer front hub on asphalt and rear hub on dirt, so a bike for both often means a rear hub.

Carrying a battery on a rear hub bike is best done in the frame triangle. On many full suspension bikes, what frame triangle space? So if the battery is rear, it can balance the bike better to put the motor up front. One rear hub bike I built was a real wheeliemobile, and that was with 1/2 the battery in the frame.. Kinda fun, but too sketchy to ride much on it that way. But a rear hub is not so big a problem with smaller batteries. You though, want to go a long way.

Front hubs MUST be installed on steel forks, and even many steel forks are not strong enough. Oddly the cheap ones tend to be the strong ones. Good stuff is made light. Front hub on alloy suspension forks is not for a novice to install. Screw up and put your dental surgeons kids through colledge. Don't forget, you have no insurance when you crash. ( ok if lucky, you have a dental plan and only pay for one kid to go to colledge. ) For this reason, some will never consider a front hub.

Some people absolutely piss themselves if a wheel spins. They may piss and crap themselves if a front wheel starts to spin. Me, I just adjust, Ok today I get lots of wheel spin cuz it rained last night. No biggie for me with 45 years of experience riding two wheeled stuff. Drift the front wheel, drift the rear wheel, whatever.

Repeating one more time, your desire is not an ebike, but a motorcycle. Having it insured and licenced will be worth the cost, but the cost will be 5-10 thou. Nothing wrong with gaining experience cheap though, by building a more ordinary 30 mph ebike.

 

[moostrodamus]

If you buy a mountain bike, i found it a big advantage to putting a road bike crank (52 tooth)and 11 tooth rear cassette on the bike, that way you can help the motor along at higher speeds. I can pedal along at 52km/h (32mph) now. Before with the mountain bike crank and rear cassette i couldn't pedal fast enough to keep up with the motor.

Moo

 

[dogman dan]

Definitely helps to put the big crank on the bike. But on most of the better mtb's, they won't fit. Some won't even take a 48 tooth. But a 48 tooth front crank and 11 tooth rear crank does get you to where you can pedal up to about 30 mph.