Perhaps uncommon mods to my Bosch powered FS900 Lapierre

[Scott C]

Hi, a forum noob here, first post
I just wish to rave about how darn good my e-mtb bike is. I've done a few mods to it which I I reckon are awesome but possibly not all that common.

I'm getting on in years (fifty cough cough) but have always ridden bikes and motorcycles both on and off road.
I've actually got two of these bikes - ones stock and the other as one can see in the pics (the other was for my wife and I's 'couple cycling' - which hasn't turned out so well .. ). I've ridden this bike in a couple of mtb parks and various single trails, commuting to work, around most all of the city and across every park, trail, path I can find. I've done about 5000km (3000 miles) on the black one and 1000km on the stock one.

Best mods - comfy seat - I'm not sure how many km's one might need to ride in single ride to make the standard seat - which is similar to sitting on a piece of 2" diameter pipe - make sense - but certainly 50 or 60 km's isn't enough.

High bars - they're off a kids bmx bike but omg I simply think they're better than the standard neck and back breakers in every respect. Again I'm not sure how fast one needs to do a downhill to make the standard setup of flatbars that has you bending down over the front steering head make sense, but I haven't found any such point. High bars are miles better for standing - avoiding going over the front - and even the change in weight distribution (more to the back) and the slowing of the absurdly fast (comparitively twitchy) standard steering is much better. When I try the standard bike it just seems ridiculously uncomfortable and front loaded, and I miss it never on my black bike.

A mirror! - if you ever ride on the road and you don't have a mirror - well good luck. It's so obviously useful and feels safer - without now I feel blind and at risk.
So yes I'm sure there is the thought that I have my bike set up for a complete dweeb - but at my age I don't care that it might appear like grandads bike - fact is is freaking brilliant.

Tyres - Schwalbe supermoto's - hate to make the a similar argument again but darn it's true - those tyres - being wide as they are get decent traction in everything except on muddy clay hills - yeah knobbies work better in soil and mud but it's not chalk and cheese - and the advantage of these tyres on any decent surface is significant. In my view one of the charms of any two wheeled bike or motorcycle is the smooth lean and the carve and my experience with bike knobbies is that they tend to have squarish profile and take away a lot of confidence on the road and a fair bit off-road too - if it's not wet clay mud.

Problems - two of 'em - one every one seems to know about the mud and the chain suck around the front sprocket - it's a pain ..and the other the quick release axle on the rear simply wasn't up to the job of dealing with the torque of the motor - it drove me crazy for months - the feeling of the real wheel being torqued out of skew when giving really standing on it. I've fixed it now with a 12mm stainless bolt (nice fit) torqued to 25Nm - and I've had it like that for likely nearly two years without issue.

So that's me - intersting forum by the way. Pretty sure you're not allowed to smoke forum noobs. ..lol
Cheers.

[edit Oh sorry one - two last things I changed out the standard rear air shock for the coil spring shock unit from my old Kona Coiler - and need I say I think it's miles better - compliant and more composed. And i've put the badass speed sensor hack unit on the rear speed sensor ...and of course now I can't bare the cutout on the standard bike - at 25km/h!]

 

[rich c]

I wouldn't mod my handlebars like that. As a retired mechanical designer, I'm very aware of moment arms in stress and metal fatigue calculations. With the increased moment arm of your mod, I'd suspect frame or steerer tube issues sometime in the future. Doesn't it throw off the geometry enough to make it more difficult to bunny hop or jump over hazards?

 

[Scott C]

Hey rich, re the fatigue and altered stresses, the forces don't strike me as all that different and likely in fact reduced. Stock there is a 4" levered bar attachment point ahead of the steering stem - that moment is reduced to 2". Further the average forces applied in that moment are reduced via next to no weight from the rider being applied thru it, so liklyhood of fatigue? less. Stock trim half rider weight supported through the handle bars. So fatigue is a non issue I would say. AS for momentary increased tortion in that same moment being I guess imagined to outright break the steering head? - no - scenario being maybe falling vertically head first so to speak and having the leverage of the bars act thru steering head...no bars will bend - bar mount will give - I mean it's competing with in stock trim with the weight of the rider banging down thru the handlebars on every jump/bump and root. To me rich crouching forward in stock - significantly ahead often of the steering axis, craning ones neck is a pointless exercise in conforming - conforming to those who may really need it - admittedly there may be quite a few - fast downhillers/X country riders. Even then I think they should try higher bars - motocross bikes aren't as head down as mtbs - it's just not a necessary rider position for weight distribution most of the time and nor does it necessarilly equate to an ability to position that weight as forward as required when required. It may well be a fasion hangover from head down road bikes (or mtb racers)and avoiding the demon of wind resistance - which is not an issue for us by and large.....[edit regards bunny hops - - you mean leap two wheels in the air? - no can do - damn hard on emtb's aren't they? ...but what I can do is pop the front up with a thought ..and ride over said obstacle with a decent shock - just like a dirtbike]

 

[Scott C]

Oh rich by bunny hop do you mean - bounce down on suspension and then lift up and kind of launch that way - yeah that I can do and do do , - the standing position with higher bars is a delight crouch jump whatever its lovely. (I was thinking above perhaps you meant that fancy lift the front and rotate the rear up with ones feet - so no in that case seems impossible and it's got little to do with the bars I would have thought - weight and age come to mind)