Bikengineer
10 mW
My weekend project was starting a new electric bike. Not as easy as I thought but pretty straightforward.
It's a work in progress.
Donor bike is a Repco Sirocco. It's actually my mums bike but it's been collecting dust for 5years.
A friend bought back a MXUS kit from China for use on another bike but I switched bikes at the last minute from an Apollo Kosciusko Cro-Mo 1" headset with cantilevers (1989) to a girls Aluminium frame with 1-1/8" headset and V-brakes.
The front kit wheel did not fit the cheap suspension forks in any way. Bolts didn't fit recess, hub didn't clear fork arms and the suspension was soft and the forks made of an alloy?
So I went shopping for another fork, after 4 LBS's I found a single cro-mo fork but it was rigid and didn't have disc mounts and wasn't suspension geometry corrected and was threaded. But it was cheap so I went for it. It needed some tabs grinded off on one side to fit anti rotation washers.
The donor worked perfectly as a normal bike but I bought new grips, new stem to correct geometry, new shifters as the existing ones were integrated with brake levers. The kit came with a box for controller and e-brake levers. The box didn't fit controller and connectors so I got a saddle bag instead.
First thing I did was cosmetic and removed all the stickers (except head badge) from chrome frame.
Bolted battery on, tied controller box on.
Swapped fork, tried new stem.
Set up handlebars new grips, new shifters, new levers, new throttle, new LED dash, new headlight.
Redid gears and brakes.
Installed speedo, programmed dash.
I installed the cadence sensor after sunset and stupidly stripped crank thread with PARK crank puller. It was on drive side so I might replace with a single chainwheel eventually.
First test was about 10km and ironed out a few issues.
Still need to sort cable mess and was thinking of using heat shrink sleeving.
Stage 2
Suspension Forks with disc brake mounts, was going to weld onto cro-mo fork but no clearance
Xtracycle free radical to extend wheelbase so I can carry passengers.
Free radical has a disc mount on rear so I'm building a 24" wheel with a nexus 3 disc hub.
Front chain wheels replaced with 1 large biopace chainwheel
36v LED headlight and tail lights
Second bottle battery mount
My wife is having twin boys this week so it might be a while before stage 2.
It's a work in progress.
Donor bike is a Repco Sirocco. It's actually my mums bike but it's been collecting dust for 5years.
A friend bought back a MXUS kit from China for use on another bike but I switched bikes at the last minute from an Apollo Kosciusko Cro-Mo 1" headset with cantilevers (1989) to a girls Aluminium frame with 1-1/8" headset and V-brakes.
The front kit wheel did not fit the cheap suspension forks in any way. Bolts didn't fit recess, hub didn't clear fork arms and the suspension was soft and the forks made of an alloy?
So I went shopping for another fork, after 4 LBS's I found a single cro-mo fork but it was rigid and didn't have disc mounts and wasn't suspension geometry corrected and was threaded. But it was cheap so I went for it. It needed some tabs grinded off on one side to fit anti rotation washers.
The donor worked perfectly as a normal bike but I bought new grips, new stem to correct geometry, new shifters as the existing ones were integrated with brake levers. The kit came with a box for controller and e-brake levers. The box didn't fit controller and connectors so I got a saddle bag instead.
First thing I did was cosmetic and removed all the stickers (except head badge) from chrome frame.
Bolted battery on, tied controller box on.
Swapped fork, tried new stem.
Set up handlebars new grips, new shifters, new levers, new throttle, new LED dash, new headlight.
Redid gears and brakes.
Installed speedo, programmed dash.
I installed the cadence sensor after sunset and stupidly stripped crank thread with PARK crank puller. It was on drive side so I might replace with a single chainwheel eventually.
First test was about 10km and ironed out a few issues.
Still need to sort cable mess and was thinking of using heat shrink sleeving.
Stage 2
Suspension Forks with disc brake mounts, was going to weld onto cro-mo fork but no clearance
Xtracycle free radical to extend wheelbase so I can carry passengers.
Free radical has a disc mount on rear so I'm building a 24" wheel with a nexus 3 disc hub.
Front chain wheels replaced with 1 large biopace chainwheel
36v LED headlight and tail lights
Second bottle battery mount
My wife is having twin boys this week so it might be a while before stage 2.
