Hi There!
I'm new to the forum, but I've been playing around with eBike conversion for about a year or so. I started by modifying a mountain bike that I had (Giant Iguana, 2007), but I found that it wasn't suited to be an eBike. I purchased a Trek Marlin 6 (this years!), but I'd like to show how I evolved into what I have right now.
So I live about 13km's from work - traffic is ridiculous and it takes about 30 - 40 minutes to get there. I thought that I could mitigate some of the traffic by using an eBike, so I started looking for conversion "kits". I purchased one from GoldenMotor.ca and began my journey.
I wanted the install to be clean, but I was anxious to get going. I purchased what I deemed the "required parts":
I started assembling!
I finished it fairly quickly and was ready to give it a shot. It worked for a little while, but I quickly found issues.
The biggest problem that I had was that the battery was so heavy for the rack, that it kept breaking racks. On the Giant Iguana, it had absolutely no mounting points for a rack, so I was pretty stuck with broken seat post racks. This also caused the seat to "turn". The bike was extremely rear heavy. I used it for about 8 weeks before winter hit and I gave up on the actual rack problem.
I decided that I needed to upgrade the bike to something that had a rack point mount, as well as something newer. I went into my local store and picked up a Trek that they had on the floor. It had Disc Brakes, and a nicely mounted rack which I thought would be perfect.
So I began to build the Trek. This is the base bike I started with - http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/mountain/sport/marlin/marlin_6/# - I didn't pick it for any particular reason, other than it had an actual rack.
Summer has begun and I have been seriously putting KM's on this bike. I ride it to and from work every day for the last 4 weeks. Thats about 25km's a day, so 500km's (estimated) - I've learned to love eBiking - but I've found a lot of issues with the setup, and I'm hoping to improve it.
I started building v2.1 tonight, and I'm almost complete.
My primary problem was that the bike is really "rear heavy". The Rack has snapped bolts at least 4 times (in only 4 weeks of us), and I've popped 2 tires. The rear heavy really causes the bike to "bounce" alot when even on the sidewalk, or hitting a normal bump. I think this puts a lot of strain on the rear. I've been researching the best way to move this battery to the triangle frame for the last few weeks.
On Thursday I ordered a triangle bag from Amazon and I thought I'd take a shot at converting the battery over to make the bike more reliable.
I got to work this morning, and I'm almost complete - but its 1130pm now, so I have to continue tomorrow. I'll post some pix now, but add details later! Check it out.
Pretty much just have to tie everything up, get rid of the old rack and give it a test run!
I'm excited to see the weight difference and how it performs. I'll update the thread tomorrow! Have a great night.
I'm new to the forum, but I've been playing around with eBike conversion for about a year or so. I started by modifying a mountain bike that I had (Giant Iguana, 2007), but I found that it wasn't suited to be an eBike. I purchased a Trek Marlin 6 (this years!), but I'd like to show how I evolved into what I have right now.
So I live about 13km's from work - traffic is ridiculous and it takes about 30 - 40 minutes to get there. I thought that I could mitigate some of the traffic by using an eBike, so I started looking for conversion "kits". I purchased one from GoldenMotor.ca and began my journey.
I wanted the install to be clean, but I was anxious to get going. I purchased what I deemed the "required parts":
I started assembling!
I finished it fairly quickly and was ready to give it a shot. It worked for a little while, but I quickly found issues.
The biggest problem that I had was that the battery was so heavy for the rack, that it kept breaking racks. On the Giant Iguana, it had absolutely no mounting points for a rack, so I was pretty stuck with broken seat post racks. This also caused the seat to "turn". The bike was extremely rear heavy. I used it for about 8 weeks before winter hit and I gave up on the actual rack problem.
I decided that I needed to upgrade the bike to something that had a rack point mount, as well as something newer. I went into my local store and picked up a Trek that they had on the floor. It had Disc Brakes, and a nicely mounted rack which I thought would be perfect.
So I began to build the Trek. This is the base bike I started with - http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/mountain/sport/marlin/marlin_6/# - I didn't pick it for any particular reason, other than it had an actual rack.
Summer has begun and I have been seriously putting KM's on this bike. I ride it to and from work every day for the last 4 weeks. Thats about 25km's a day, so 500km's (estimated) - I've learned to love eBiking - but I've found a lot of issues with the setup, and I'm hoping to improve it.
I started building v2.1 tonight, and I'm almost complete.
My primary problem was that the bike is really "rear heavy". The Rack has snapped bolts at least 4 times (in only 4 weeks of us), and I've popped 2 tires. The rear heavy really causes the bike to "bounce" alot when even on the sidewalk, or hitting a normal bump. I think this puts a lot of strain on the rear. I've been researching the best way to move this battery to the triangle frame for the last few weeks.
On Thursday I ordered a triangle bag from Amazon and I thought I'd take a shot at converting the battery over to make the bike more reliable.
I got to work this morning, and I'm almost complete - but its 1130pm now, so I have to continue tomorrow. I'll post some pix now, but add details later! Check it out.
Pretty much just have to tie everything up, get rid of the old rack and give it a test run!
I'm excited to see the weight difference and how it performs. I'll update the thread tomorrow! Have a great night.
