Converting a bike to an ebike

KMD

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Me and the good lady have mountain bikes. Nowt special but decent enough, mines a Scott and hers a Specialised. Had them a while and we each get along well enough with our respective bike. Riding around the Mosel and Eifel regions last trip it seemed just about everyone was now on ebikes.

Now, we are fancying a bit of ebike ourselves but as mentioned, we quite like the bikes we have. An option that has recently come to mind is to electrify them with a kit.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bafang-Con...&qid=1628509958&sprefix=Bafang,aps,225&sr=8-5

Has anyone here done this to their own bikes, and if so, is it an easy enough conversion to do, and what has been the experience of them in use?

TIA.:thumby:
 
Not done it myself - but I looked at it - you can build a 3500W monster!

Try the e-bike sub-forum on here?
 
A friend did it with a Brompton. He now saves a small fortune commuting on it most days and it works extremely well (my not look all fancy and integrated but who gives a toss)
 
Me and the good lady have mountain bikes. Nowt special but decent enough, mines a Scott and hers a Specialised. Had them a while and we each get along well enough with our respective bike. Riding around the Mosel and Eifel regions last trip it seemed just about everyone was now on ebikes.

Now, we are fancying a bit of ebike ourselves but as mentioned, we quite like the bikes we have. An option that has recently come to mind is to electrify them with a kit.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bafang-Con...&qid=1628509958&sprefix=Bafang,aps,225&sr=8-5

Has anyone here done this to their own bikes, and if so, is it an easy enough conversion to do, and what has been the experience of them in use?

TIA.:thumby:

That battery is quite small.
 
I had a Moulton converted by these boys a couple of years ago. Well chuffed with it especially as it takes standard Bosch power tool batteries so it’s easy to have one in use and one on charge. https://www.arccbikes.com/
 
Not done it myself - but I looked at it - you can build a 3500W monster!

Try the e-bike sub-forum on here?
But then you'd need insurance, V5, VED, MOT and all the other paraphernalia of a motorcycle.
 
I've done two bikes recently with Bafang 250W mid drive kits.
Mrs C's bike was a piece of cake as it had good old fashioned BSA bottom bracket, so the Bafang unit slotted in with no issue. Cable brake levers swapped for the kit ones with auto cut outs when braking. Her bike was treated to a 20Ah 36V rack mounted battery which gives very good range when using reasonable assistance.
The 250W kit is fully legal unless you fit the provided throttle unit which over rides the assistance and gives full power - this is important as with this fitted the bike becomes a powered two wheeler - liable for tax/insurance etc...

My Boardman 29" MTB was more of a challenge as it has a more fancy press fit bottom bracket which required additional conversion adapters to sleeve the bottom bracket down to the BSA standard. This was a right pain, as the external diameter of the bracket interfered with the Bafang unit, and required some filing of the bracket to fettle to fit up. I know this has created a weak point in the frame and it will eventually fail there! My bike got a 15.6Ah, 36V frame mounted battery which had to be fitted upside down to fit within the frame geometry.

I've just been out for a 26km romp around the local lanes and tracks, assistance on level 7 of 9 and I've used around 9% battery on my 15.6Ah.

Transforms the enjoyment of cycling, select the level of assistance you want to make the ride as easy or as hard as desired.

The whole conversion process is relatively simple and if you have a decent bike it means your retaining the decent components, easy wheel out for puncture repairs etc.

and saving a fortune!!

Play around with the cable routing until you have the best, tidy, layout; make sure you have a good selection of cable ties and some conduit for extra protection on the cables - in fact if you do go ahead drop me a note as I bought far too much conduit and I can send you a few metres!

There are plenty of youtube videos giving you the basic guidance, but every bike is different!

200252217_10159254646803396_6750578015533189866_n.jpg
 
I should add that both bikes have covered a couple of hundred miles since conversion, so it's early days yet.
However, all the info I researched on the Bafang units pointed to them being very reliable.

I did buy a programming cable so I can change the parameters of the assistance levels etc, but I haven't felt the need to delve into this as yet.
 
Bafang is probably the best way to go for conversions. You may be disappointed with the performance of a 250w though.
 
Look on Youtube for Citizen Cycle he's done some good upgrade stuff. I know he's into already built ebikes but he put a front wheel conversion on his RadRhino and made it onto an all wheel drive bike that's insane.

If you're doing a lot of off-road MTBing then crank drive is the way, if not I'd stick to a wheel conversion.
 
I've done two bikes recently with Bafang 250W mid drive kits.
Mrs C's bike was a piece of cake as it had good old fashioned BSA bottom bracket, so the Bafang unit slotted in with no issue. Cable brake levers swapped for the kit ones with auto cut outs when braking. Her bike was treated to a 20Ah 36V rack mounted battery which gives very good range when using reasonable assistance.
The 250W kit is fully legal unless you fit the provided throttle unit which over rides the assistance and gives full power - this is important as with this fitted the bike becomes a powered two wheeler - liable for tax/insurance etc...

My Boardman 29" MTB was more of a challenge as it has a more fancy press fit bottom bracket which required additional conversion adapters to sleeve the bottom bracket down to the BSA standard. This was a right pain, as the external diameter of the bracket interfered with the Bafang unit, and required some filing of the bracket to fettle to fit up. I know this has created a weak point in the frame and it will eventually fail there! My bike got a 15.6Ah, 36V frame mounted battery which had to be fitted upside down to fit within the frame geometry.

I've just been out for a 26km romp around the local lanes and tracks, assistance on level 7 of 9 and I've used around 9% battery on my 15.6Ah.

Transforms the enjoyment of cycling, select the level of assistance you want to make the ride as easy or as hard as desired.

The whole conversion process is relatively simple and if you have a decent bike it means your retaining the decent components, easy wheel out for puncture repairs etc.

and saving a fortune!!

Play around with the cable routing until you have the best, tidy, layout; make sure you have a good selection of cable ties and some conduit for extra protection on the cables - in fact if you do go ahead drop me a note as I bought far too much conduit and I can send you a few metres!

There are plenty of youtube videos giving you the basic guidance, but every bike is different!

200252217_10159254646803396_6750578015533189866_n.jpg

I'm guessing your bottle holder screws were too low down, hence the battery being upside down?
 
Be careful what you wish for:

A friend decided to convert his late son's trail bike to an Ebike for his own use. We bought this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lithium-Battery-48V17-5AH-Conversion-C965-68mm-46T/dp/B07RZZXZNW/ref=sr_1_11?adgrpid=73571689612&dchild=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwj6SEBhAOEiwAvFRuKFv0leJktZEo7f4JyRGh8qFpkwQi5zgjddH5wBkgFeo3hMnCFHzG7hoCa2IQAvD_BwE&hvadid=338749435637&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1007287&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6182047889609692530&hvtargid=kwd-406543235913&hydadcr=18556_1725672&keywords=bafang%2B1000w%2Bkit&qid=1619616430&sr=8-11&th=1


Bafang 1000w 48v kit complete.
The motor and everything except battery and charger arrived a week or so after ordering.
Batteries are always shipped separately.
14 weeks on the battery is still sitting in East Midlands airport.
Carrier promises it every week, but it never arrives.
We cannot get to the bottom of what is going on, whether it is a Brexit fuck up or a Lithium Ion transportation fuck up.
 
And totally illegal for road use or land with public access without a licence, registration and insurance etc.
 
A friend decided to convert his late son's trail bike to an Ebike for his own use. We bought this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lithium-Battery-48V17-5AH-Conversion-C965-68mm-46T/dp/B07RZZXZNW/ref=sr_1_11?adgrpid=73571689612&dchild=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwj6SEBhAOEiwAvFRuKFv0leJktZEo7f4JyRGh8qFpkwQi5zgjddH5wBkgFeo3hMnCFHzG7hoCa2IQAvD_BwE&hvadid=338749435637&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1007287&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=6182047889609692530&hvtargid=kwd-406543235913&hydadcr=18556_1725672&keywords=bafang%2B1000w%2Bkit&qid=1619616430&sr=8-11&th=1


Bafang 1000w 48v kit complete.
The motor and everything except battery and charger arrived a week or so after ordering.
Batteries are always shipped separately.
14 weeks on the battery is still sitting in East Midlands airport.
Carrier promises it every week, but it never arrives.
We cannot get to the bottom of what is going on, whether it is a Brexit fuck up or a Lithium Ion transportation fuck up.

And totally illegal for road use or land with public access without a licence, registration and insurance etc.
 
And totally illegal for road use or land with public access without a licence, registration and insurance etc.

Correct. for it to be legal in the UK it cannot be over 250 watts and needs to be restricted to 15.5mph. I think that's correct anyway. But if you do not go hooning around like a dickhead you'll be fine. It's nice to have higher watts for hill climbing. Mine was legal when I bought it, 750watt motor but restricted to 15.5mph, that is apparently illegal now. All I do is plod about in PAS2 and about 10mph and use full power to go up hills. I've just bought a new controller (on back order so waiting) that will allow me to have much more torque when going uphill. :)
 
I bought an electric front hub kit off Woosh bikes last year for about £450, which included everything you need.
Good back up and it was a fun project to do. It tops out at around 15 mph but that’s fast enough for me!
http://wooshbikes.co.uk
 

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