What's a good folding bike for front-wheel conversion?

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swbluto

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I have the hub-motor and I'm willing to resize it whatever diameter necessary. Now the next step is... the bike! I want a folder that I can stow in a tote-bag(of any "regular size") such that I can take it in on the bus and plop it on my lap(or somewhere else convenient, such as under the seat). This kind of necessitates a folder and I was wondering what experience anyone has. I noticed one other person also had a folder(A Dahon of some sort) but the front-hub width is not "standard". So... hmmm... that's going to be a consideration.

I'd also like it as small as possible. The brompton's folded dimensions of 22.2" x 21.5" x 10.6" sounds impressive and that sounds nearly ideal but bromptons aren't cheap! I saw the Dahon Vitesse today in real life(I think it's the only one in my city. :roll: ) and it didn't seem to fold so neatly nor with as much compactness(the pedals didn't seem like they flattened, so they just stuck out.). But it fitted my size at my height of 6 ft and 1 inch(73").

And the placement of the controller/batteries are not really a concern of mine as I know they'll fit *somewhere* and still be foldable if I think hard/long enough and try enough permutations.

Any suggestions?
 
Yes, the bromptons are quite expensive.

If you're going front hub, you'll want steel. Not a lot of bikes in steel these days. The dahon speed d7 (my bike) and the dahon boardwalk still use steel. I think the brompton does use steel too but for the money, (unless you really want a brompton) the dahon is a much better deal. At $350, it's still a solid bike.

There are a number of folders out there worth looking at like downtube and what not.

Just a word, unless you have both a geared hub (or other light motor) and lithium batteries, the bike is still going to be pretty heavy. Not something you're going to want to fold and put on a bus every single day.
 
Yeah, the bike would be fairly heavy. But I'd excuse such inconvenience for "Much needed exercise"(like my biking everywhere), and the batteries would be put in my backpack, so there'd be some 'balance'.

I asked the only Brompton dealer in WA(and they also sell electric folders and other folding bikes) if any had a "standard width hub" folding bikes that I could use to convert with the Golden Motor front that I happen to have in hand, and they said no. So bummer. It appears the electric folder's folding dimensions(like the eZee Quando) are still pretty large.(I still might get a regularfolding bike, but that's going to be faaaar into the future and assuming I don't find an effective electric alternative.)

I'm guessing my only options for the size required is to convert a smaller sized kick scooter(that happens to have a large wheel-base-width and a relatively high weight limit for me around at least 200 pounds) using an RC motor(a 200-600 watt one). I'm thinking the back wheel would have to have some sort of adapter, like a disc brake hub, so that I can attach the sprocket. So far, I know of no such manual scooter that exists.
 
Have you made any progress on this?

I've been looking at the eZee Quando...but am wondering if I can match together a motor kit with a folding bike that'll give me more bang for my buck.
 
No, not really. I've pretty much abandoned the "large box" idea that electric bikes fold into and switched to the "slender stick" shape of an electric scooter, and I have the scooter and I'm now motorizing it. I've cobbled everything together BUT... I need an appropriate controller. It appears my crystalyte 20amp pedal-first controller easily loses sync with the motor so I'm waiting until I can afford one of those reputable $100-200 RC controllers.

But I was noticing a few more electric folding bikes on the market aside from the eZee Quando with more impressive folding-space specs. As can be seen at NYCEwheels, they have some dahons but they're predictably in the thousands of dollars(emphasis on the plurality of the word thousand) but they're special in the way they seem to be a standard folding bike fitted with the BionX System. Meaning that they're might be a way to painlessly fit a cheaper hub motor on one of the Dahons(The MuP8 being at least one).... I'd imagine it altogether would cost 1000-1400 dollars(with batteries+hub-motor+controller+bike though, if you're like me, you already have a few of these parts hanging around!), so getting an ezee might not be bad idea if you're not overly concerned about the folded size.
 
The Brompton is the only one that folds into a really neat package. I'm planning to convert mine, at some stage, but it won't be a simple conversion because I want to solve other problems with the Brompton design, at the same time....

The spacing on the front forks of the Brompton is 74mm, so they'll need stretching to get a hub motor in.
 
I have an eZee Quando II; 36v NiMh battery, rear motor, one speed, aluminum, roughly 50+ pounds. Larger folding envelope as stated.

A nice bike with a 15+ mile range (totally flat terrain) and 12+ mph speed carrying 260 pounds including groceries.

Poor design of the center stand which broke almost immediately after purchase. Can be re-brazed but I simply replaced with a rear kick stand. Downside is that bike won't stand as easily when folded.

Great bike but a pig to pedal having only one speed plus motor drag.
 
Look at the headset size and length, and get a folder that you can put normal forks into, such as bms forks that will fit the front hub and be nice strong steel. If the frame is aluminum, that should not matter once you have some steel front forks that fit a hubbie. Too bad they don't allow bikes on the train, like what there isn't room? They should have a car with a bike rack inside dammit.
 
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