Anyone made their own electric bike?

euser1984 wrote: »

Might try it out....

Yes, It's a supper cool and expensive hobby.

I sold all my kit now, had my fun and now own a German made Haibike with Bosch mid drive motor. It's quiet expensive, but it's probably the smoothest electric bike on the go right now. The way it matches your pedal input and cadence is remarkable, I was worried about loosing the throttle but now I don't miss it at all.

1st, Budget ?

2nd How fast ?

3rd Hills and what grade ?

Hub motors in the rear wheel will be cheaper, mid drive motors will usually climb steeper hills and more efficiently because you can use the bike gearing where as the hub motor is a fixed speed and becomes a lot more inefficient the slower it turns and up a very steep hill a lot of power is wasted as heat.

The Bosch will climb 20-23% grade with a lot of effert, but it means the difference between being able to do it and not, simple as that and I want a Bike that I can take most places on some sort of paved road. I actually love to cycle and put in effort and like having an electric bike because it keeps the motivation going on those windy days and it gets me on hilly routes I would normally avoid. And I can go a hell of a lot further also.

If anyone knows the access road up Mount Leinster to the RTE mast will know how steep that is and the Bosch can get up, granted with hard peddling but I wouldn't be able to do it without it.

Yes an electric bike can be heavy, the Haibike trekking is 27 kg but I do pedal a lot without assistance and use the motor mainly for hills.

There are lighter bikes with the Bosch and Haibike make one weighing about 17 kg but it's very expensive.

You can get a mid drive kit from Bafang, one of the more reliable Chinese motor makers, It's called the BBS02 in the pic below. It can be mounted to most bikes and so you can convert your existing bike.





This was one of my conversions with a MAC motor in the rear wheel,



Notice the Torque Plate in the pic below ? this is absolutely essential to prevent axle spin in the dropouts, Failure to have two will result in damage to the cables, droupouts or serious injury. No matter how tight the wheel nuts are the axle will spin, ( experience)



This is the Haibike EQ Trekking SL with the older 2013 motor, the new one with performance motor is slightly more powerful.





The Bosch is fully E.U legal and is not 250 watts, it's about 500 watts maybe a little more because they use clever software to limit power on take off to pass the tests, and the motor still shuts off at 17 mph, it starts to power down at 15 mph at 17 no assistance. It climbs hills like a mountain Goat.

Batteries are expensive and you got to make the right choice for your setup.

There are shops around the country selling very cheap electric bikes with very underpowered hub motors that will hardly climb a motorway bridge never mind real hill and charging 4 times the price, beware.

People in Ireland are not very open to anything electric, but electric bikes are outselling cars in Europe today !

euser1984 wrote: »

tbh, I just want something that goes fast and helps me to get from a-b that can pass off as road legal - I'll turn the pedals but I want the motor to do a lot more than a normal electric bike would....

How fast ? how far ? hills etc.

Cost ? more speed means more power needing a bigger battery etc.

Also, if you go with the Hub motors you'll need to fabricate your own torque arms/plates or buy them ready made.

Check out endless-sphere.com tonnes of info there also.

You'll most likely have to do some diy with some kits you buy some are easier to put together than others. Most of the kits are Chinese but do not let that put you off, there are good quality kits coming from China if you know the right contacts.

euser1984 wrote: »

I'm just after looking at that bbs motor linked above - surprised at 500 euro for a conversion kit.

I was thinking I might be able to pull an old motor off something and connect it straight to the big gears on the pedals - differential required or not....suppose that's a motorbike then though. I don't want to get this thread locked, but who polices whether bikes meet the legal watt or speed limit requirement?

Thanks.

500 is a lot and most likely excludes a good battery, but it's better than a cheap poor quality kit. The fun is priceless IMO, others go to the pub and drink it and think I'm mad for buying the haibike but I'd rather pay for my hobbies than p it up a wall.

You can use any motor provided it's speed is reduced enough. making something like this from scratch is complicated but check out endless-sphere for tips.

You're not going to build something good cheap, unfortunately.

Laws are laws and if you crash into someone you'll be in trouble, btw you're not allowed a throttle in the e.u either the motor is not supposed to come on until you start to pedal.

If you don't act the edjit and don't draw attention to yourself you'll be grand. Speed in towns will attract attention or get you hurt as cars will not expect you to be going fast and will pull out right in front of you.

I use the motor only when I need it for hills and wind, I've dodgy knees so I need the motor but I pedal on flats and small hills.

The bosch motor I have makes me pedal and I can set the assistance levels so I'm always getting exercise motor on or not.

Having the motor means I can go further and cycle on windy days where I might not bother and above all hilly routes.

loughside wrote: »

Over a year since the last post on here and it would be interesting to see if many more have taken to e-biking?

I went down the DIY route, bought an old bike on gumtree for 25 quid and changed everything except the frame and built up a complete 48v 750watt powered bike. 9 pedal assist modes and separate throttle if you need it. I reckon the total cost with all new parts somewhere around £1000.