My first hunting ebike build

[sbaumann14]

I’m a 58 year old trucker. That being said, my knee needs a replacement within the next two years, and I’ve already done my ankle and my wrist surgeries. Was looking for something to get me back into the woods a lot easier than normally just driving back there and then walking in. Wanted to get an E bike but really didn’t know what I wanted and I was not ready or prepared to drop down 3 to $4000 on something I may or may not like. I like to tinker a lot, so I said to myself, why not build one yourself?
I went on YouTube and watched a lot of videos. There is a guy on there that has a channel called “Johnny nerd out”. JUST AWESOME! He answers all your questions you may ever have in various videos. He also has about 40 or 50 bikes that he is already custom built and you can get a look at what he did to them and how. He can also build you a bike for 30 to 40% cheaper than what you would buy in a store and it’s going to be a lot more powerful and a lot more reliable. If you’re looking to do something, like I just did, I would say, go to his YouTube channel and watch. You won’t be disappointed.
With that being said, onto my build….

 

[sbaumann14]

As I live in northern Wisconsin, a lot of times that we’ll be out hunting there will be snow on the ground. So I wanted something that would have the ability to go through the snow, as well as the sand, the mud and the rocks, and any other sort of debris that might be out there. I decided to go with a fat bike model. As I was trying to keep this in a budget build, I went online and found a company called bikesdirect.com. I picked up a bike called a gravity monster. It has 26 x 4“ fat bike, tires, and 8 gears. You can get it in either blue or dark, gray metallic, and it was $630 to my door. Shipping took about four days from Texas to Wisconsin.

 

[sbaumann14]

wanted to go with a mid drive motor. Hub drive motors are nice, but they don’t give me the option of shifting gears to a lower gear if I need to climb a hill. Or have that extra grunt to pull a deer on a trailer out of the woods. I just feel that a mid drive motor while not only being more powerful would be more practical. So I went with a 1000w Bafang BBSHD. The crossmember on the monster is 100 mm, but Johnny suggests you put a 120 in there and space it so you have room to clear your frame with the motor. It worked perfectly.

 

[sbaumann14]

Motor going in…

 

[sbaumann14]

Well, the grips and the handlebars that came with the bike were adequate, I wanted something a little bit wider to give me more control through the woods, as well as something grippy to hold onto with bigger gloves. So I went with a company called 50-50 on Amazon. I Purchased, the grips, a stem, and a 780 mm wide bar. While I was on there, I also wanted to upgrade the brakes. I wanted to go from the disc brakes to a hydraulic brake. The kit comes with your motor has speed cut off’s for your cable actuated brakes that when you pull on your brake cable, it automatically cuts the power to the motor. You can buy an extra sensor if you switch to hydraulic brakes to where you would install it and it would do the same thing, but I didn’t wanna spend the extra $25-$30. I’m a cheap ass. Besides, this was a budget build. So I went with some brakes that are hydraulic brakes, but their cable actuated brakes. They were $45 on Amazon and they work great.

 

[sbaumann14]

Also added some foot pegs and kickstand. Who would’ve thought that a bike nowadays does not come with a kickstand? I guess I’m just too old to remember. But I sure as hell remember those little metal torture devices called shin splitters that they thought were pedals. Ummmmm. No On went some better ones

 

[sbaumann14]

got the battery mounted which was a piece of cake. The frame is already pre-drilled for a water bottle so I just used those mounting holes to mount the battery. By the way, the battery is a 52 V battery. With pedal assist, it should give me between 40 to 50 mile range, without pedal assist and just straight power I’m figuring between 10 to 15 mile range.

 

[sbaumann14]

Got the battery, charged, ran all the wires, and got it rolling. Gotta say it is one sweet set up. You’ll see in the pictures that my wires are grouped together up just under the handlebars, and I don’t really like the way it set up right now, so I will be changing that and covering them up better. Doesn’t look too bad though.
Total time for my build was about 6 to 7 hours, the UPS guy brought the package at 10 in the morning, and I was finished by six clock at night, breaking for a beer every now and then. One thing left to do is change the tire liners. Can’t say I really like the red look in there and it will be a simple thing to change, but I might just leave them on for this coming hunting season and see if they make a difference or not.

anyway… here’s the finished product:

 

[sbaumann14]

To all you guys out there looking to build your own, I would say it’s fairly easy. Total cost from zero to full build, was $2020. If you already have a mountain bike, you’ll save yourself $630 as any mountain bike can be converted. If you have any questions, go ahead and ask them, I’ll help you out as much as I can. Like I said, it was fairly straightforward, simple, and easy to do. I was amazed that the same bike that I just built, would probably cost about three to $4000 a shop. yeah, maybe my wiring isn’t as pretty as theirs would be, and it doesn’t have a camo scheme on it….yet. But I got the satisfaction of doing it myself, saving some money, and knowing that I have a great product for me to use for many seasons to come.

 

[sbaumann14]

So update time….
Added a rear rack.
Mounted some mud shovel fenders to the rack.
added front fenders.
Put on a Luna 42 tooth eclipse offset chain ring to help out the chain line.
Now this thing climbs like a cat in low gear.

 

[sbaumann14]

I’ll b adding a suspension seat post, wider seat, lights, and a few other do dads. Will post when I get to it

 

[SlowCo]

Great result. Enjoy riding it!

 

[E-HP]

Turned out great! Where are you locating the trailer hitch?

 

[sbaumann14]

Turned out great! Where are you locating the trailer hitch?

Haven’t gotten that far yet. Quiet Kat has a trailer I’ve got my eye on and usually they do a Black Friday sale so I might get it then. If I do, I’ll post it here
my friend did a similar build….here’s his with a camo paint look…

 

[99t4]

Total time for my build was about 6 to 7 hours

I find that simply amazing.

You have been comparing your homebrew bike to $4000 store-bought bikes. Don't forget that yours has several features that are better attuned to your needs, priorities, and preferences. Won't normally find that on a store-bought bike.

 

[calab]

I've been riding easy well worn single track trails, along with exploring trails that get much harder on the single track with large logs crossing the path. I find that even the courteous mini log ramp over the big logs still require to lift bike in half the cases where someone did that, they dont do that out in the bush, you will be lifting the bike.

A fat bike is to heavy to lift, the beaver trails, the tight, overgrown wildlife trails dont need a big heavy wide beast fat bike.

Cut your handlebars shorter to get between the trees easier.
Protect your derailleur or go mid drive to igh.

Branches do a number on your bike. 2 derailleur hangers broken in a couple months, bush stumps.

 

[sbaumann14]

Apprec the advise. The area I hunt now are accessible via old logging trails. There’s fire breaks as well as snowmobile trails. ive checked the routes out n back and been clearing any major obstacles. The IGH sounds interesting, but this is my first year with her and we‘ll see how it goes. Trial n error sort of thing.
Lift my fatty? I thought I could just power over ANYTHING! LOL! I lift it into n out of the truck and it’s not too bad. Course I’m also used to throwing 120lb tarps. Lol

 

[calab]

Winters here with its hard snow, soft snow, ice
a fat bike would sure be nice, diy studded tires to save a bit.
Good times ahead for you!

You were prepared, planning pays off. With the good weather it had me hypnotized so I'd be out soaking up the fun sun and not preparing for the coming cold weather.

What do you hunt and like the best?