Why can't I just bolt on an electric scooter swingarm?

[azneinstein]

Alright,
stupid idea time! I'm just curious with products like the Ridekick and with the abundance of Electric scooters with dead batteries, I've seen tons of 48v-72v scooters for less than $300.

Which begs the question, can I just take the hubmotor/rear swingarm off the scooter and have it bolted to either the rear dropouts/frame on both sides. One issue with the push trailer types are either the wheel is too small or there's multiple wheels and increases drag or there's not enough weight in the back to maintain grip.

The single scooter tire/wheel weight should be able to overcome these issues and if you gut it with the original controller, you'd have one of the fastest trailers but not having the weight on your bike.

Stupid idea? Just seeing the hubmonster builds.

 

[Drunkskunk]

not a stupid idea. several people have done it with the larger diameter scooter wheels replacing the back wheel of a bike. John in CR's bike does over 100mph. His monster motor started life as a scooter motor.

Smaller wheel might work on a frame meant for smaller wheels. plenty of 20" wheel adult bikes, like a Dahon folding bike or a BMX stunt bike, would work like this.

 

[spinningmagnets]

"powered push trailers"
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9855

 

[Chalo]

The last e-bike I made for myself was a pusher trailer I made from a kid's tagalong type "half-bike" trailer. I built a 16 inch wheel on an old Wilderness Energy brushed hub motor and put it in the trailer after stripping off all the bike parts.

Even with the weight of the hub motor and 36V battery on the trailer-- which was not terribly light by itself-- the thing struggled to find enough traction. I eventually put a set of big heavy pannier baskets on it to help keep it stuck down, and even then I had to be gentle with the throttle when accelerating.

The only times it was forgiving with wheelspin were when it had plenty of groceries aboard, and at those times shimmy became an issue.

Eventually I horked up either the brushes or commutator, and to be honest I haven't missed the thing since it went offline. I haven't bothered to try fixing it.

 

[dogman dan]

So you mean make a 5000w pusher trailer? The guys who sell tires will love it.

Put a strong motor on the bike, scooter one if you like, then you can pull a very big or heavy trailer with ease.

This is what I did with this bike. It has a big rear motor, which I run at 2000w because it's all I need to climb large mountains with a loaded trailer.