I own a 26 inch Triax (not sure what model) bike, second hand – after a few months of road touring I can say I'm quite happy with it, however I'm no longer able to mechanically bike long distances any more due to medical conditions.
I'm interested in converting my bike with a budget e-bike conversion, however I'm not really sure where to start as in what to look for in terms of specs for the kit.
My goals are being able to ride roughly a maximum of 50 kilometers in 1 go at speeds of minimum 20km/h. The terrain I plan to cross is somewhat hilly with road inclines reaching around 10%. I prefer having a setup that relies mostly on the motor and not much pedal assist, as it may not be within my physical capabilities to pedal for extended periods of time. Ease of use is a +, including being able to charge it outside of my house, for example in some way while staying the night at a hotel.
I'm not very deep down the rabbit hole, I know there's budget kits on ebay and AliExpress that can be hit or miss. What I want to know is whether anyone has experience with similar ones, whether mounting on a bike like mine is feasible and won't be problematic. What specs would you recommend based off my ride parameters?
All advice is greatly appreciated 🙂
by RedditPotato54
5 Comments
Also, my budget is definitely not strict, but Im generally interested in going for a really budgety more-experimental setup, also not for daily use like commuting.
Swytch kit might be good for this… might take 6 months for you to revive it though xD Try eBay
That’s a common 135mm wide rear dropout with a QR wheel, yes? Plenty of choices for hub motors. For peak incline 10% and not too much weight (e.g. you won’t be towing a trailer right?) a geared hub motor should be fine. Most kits will come with a thumb throttle and have a PAS system which controls output voltage (leading to a given assist setting essentially controlling the bike’s speed – this means you can ghost pedal if you don’t want to work very hard).
Unfortunately 400€ is a low budget. You don’t want a cheap nasty eBay/AliExpress/Amazon battery – they’ll let you down on tour. A quality battery like a smallish EM3EV model (e.g. https://em3ev.com/shop/em3ev-48v-13s4p-super-shark-ebike-battery/) will cost basically your entire budget. Given you want to let the motor do much of the work, you probably do want a reasonably good battery capacity. The battery I linked is ~650Wh (48V * 13.6Ah = 653Wh). I’d suggest that sort of capacity or more. Not doing much work with your legs requires a lot more battery capacity.
Cheap hub motor/controller kits aren’t so bad – they tend to use 14mm axles with a 10mm wide flat ground on them for spinout resistance which moves brake discs slightly down from their ideal position. That’s no problem for you though because you have rim brakes. Plenty of options on eBay. Make sure you use a torque arm too – the kits often don’t include one.
I’ve heard of spokes popping and chain stretch.
Also tire wear is likely to be more pronounced.
I replaced my road bike with an ebike (Gazelle) two seasons ago. 8000 km later the tire still look great. Never had a flat. Wheels remain true. I never have seen such robust performance from my road biking days.
I installed one of these mid drive conversion kits on my Trek 520 ~4-5 years ago.
[https://www.pirez.com.au/collections/mid-drive-conversion-kits/products/bbs01b-36v-250w-bafang-mid-drive-kit](https://www.pirez.com.au/collections/mid-drive-conversion-kits/products/bbs01b-36v-250w-bafang-mid-drive-kit)
They are probably available everywhere. It’s pedal assistance cuts out at 25kph as required in Australia. However, it also has an accelerator which allows me (75-80 kgs) to do ~40kph. Buy a quality battery to help you get up to 100kms, and equally important is a quality charger so that you don’t have your house burn down due to a charging fault. They also make more powerful motors.
I’ve got a former touring companion who installed a similar one on his Surly Trucker. In his mid 80’s, he decided that he needed help to keep touring. He uses 2 batteries and stays indoors overnight, but carries camping gear just in case he can’t get indoor accommodation.