Anyone tried a lightweight ebike conversion kit on the Scott Addict?

[Katrina92]

Hey everyone!

I have a Scott Addict, and I've been considering converting it to an ebike, but I don't really want to buy a whole new Scott Addict eRIDE.

I recently started commuting to work by bike—it's about a 25-mile round trip through a pretty hilly area. After a while, my legs started struggling a bit, so I began considering adding some e-assist to help out on the climbs.

I'm looking for something similar to the Mahle X20. Its 23Nm of torque seems enough for me, and I love how lightweight and stealthy it is.

I mostly ride under my own power, so I don’t want a heavy setup that feels like a drag when the motor isn’t running.

I've looked around but haven’t found many conversion kits that match what I’m looking for. Does anyone know if there's a lightweight, stealthy kit out there that could work for my needs?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Deacon Blues]

See my post on your other thread.

 

[Katrina92]

See my post on your other thread.

OK

 

[PCeBiker]

I'm looking for something similar to the Mahle X20. Its 23Nm of torque seems enough for me, and I love how lightweight and stealthy it is.

As you know, the motor can be installed as a 23Nm hub drive or a 55Nm mid-drive (if your rear sprocket is 2.39 times bigger than your chain wheel) but I'm not sure which approach is the easiest or the most workable?

As a hub motor, you could quite easily have it built into a front wheel hub motor.
Rear wheel hub motor is more complicated.

I'm pretty sure Installing it as a mid motor gets really complicated?
It looks like the kit has a Bottom Bracket Torque sensor?
But installing the motor in the bottom bracket could be tricky?

And it might look even more trashy than my ebike.


EDIT: Thinking about it some more, I'm sure that you're standing on the pedals and leaning forward when you're workin it up a hill, which puts weight over the front wheel where you'll need the extra traction to keep the front wheel from doing burn-outs from that Whopping 23Nm of torque.

My vote is for a front wheel hub motor kit.

 

[Deacon Blues]

A front carbon fork, with a front wheel hub motor, wouldn't be a good combo.

 

[peterecosse]

Hey everyone!

I have a Scott Addict, and I've been considering converting it to an ebike, but I don't really want to buy a whole new Scott Addict eRIDE.

I recently started commuting to work by bike—it's about a 25-mile round trip through a pretty hilly area. After a while, my legs started struggling a bit, so I began considering adding some e-assist to help out on the climbs.

I'm looking for something similar to the Mahle X20. Its 23Nm of torque seems enough for me, and I love how lightweight and stealthy it is.

I mostly ride under my own power, so I don’t want a heavy setup that feels like a drag when the motor isn’t running.

I've looked around but haven’t found many conversion kits that match what I’m looking for. Does anyone know if there's a lightweight, stealthy kit out there that could work for my needs?

Thanks in advance!

Hi, The Keyde stuff is a really good fit for this purpose. I used an S110 hub motor and made a couple of 180wh bottle batteries for it. Really lightweight and you can switch rear wheels to go from electric to full pedal power, as there is only one cable from battery to motor needed, and everything else is controlled via an app, or a Bluetooth display. It is very good. I have done it on a few bikes. Keyde also do some nice bottle batteries. I just like making my own and experimenting.

I have attached a pic of it on my lapierre bike. Although this also has an internal downtube battery I made for it. The Keyde motor is arguably better than the Mahle system, and it is a little faster.

 

[EMGX]

I had mentioned the Keyde in another of the OP posts, but they (OP and an engineer friend) decided to try to reinvent the wheel themselves rather than buy something off the shelf. Any further information that you can share might be helpful to someone with a real & practical interrest. If I didn't have too many bikes already I'd have liked to try one on an inexpensive carbon bike like this:


Keyde with 11-12sp cassette, wireless control, non-proprietary battery, torque sensing, single wire installation and thru axle compatibility sounds like a great solution if it performs well and proves durable. How long have you used yours and how many miles? Any issues with the phone app or wireless control?

 

[peterecosse]

I had mentioned the Keyde in another of the OP posts, but they (OP and an engineer friend) decided to try to reinvent the wheel themselves rather than buy something off the shelf. Any further information that you can share might be helpful to someone with a real & practical interrest. If I didn't have too many bikes already I'd have liked to try one on an inexpensive carbon bike like this:
View attachment 197213

Keyde with 11-12sp cassette, wireless control, non-proprietary battery, torque sensing, single wire installation and thru axle compatibility sounds like a great solution if it performs well and proves durable. How long have you used yours and how many miles? Any issues with the phone app or wireless control?

I have done a through axle conversion on a carbon frame (pic attached with my prototype bottle battery. It has since improved). I have used these systems for around 3 years now, and love them. The motors work really well. The app is great, but I prefer the Bluetooth display. I think it is better than the Mahle system, and is a bit faster. I have experience with most conversion kits like Swytch Bafang, Dillinger, and various generic types. I have also worked on the Bosch, Pollini and Shimano stuff. I think the Keyde equipment outperforms most of it for my needs, and is significantly cheaper. The biggest draw for me is that it does not use proprietary software, so you can use any battery you want just about.

 

[Yako]

Keyde

I was looking at these for a conversion vid. (I was going to ask them to provide one!). My concern was having the controller, which needs to stay cool/lose heat when under strain, like on steep climbs, in the same housing as the motor, which also gets hot, under strain.
How are you finding that Peter? Have you ridden up long trying climbs, or do you live in cooler climes where this would be less of an issue? Bike looks great, btw.

 

[peterecosse]

Thanks,

I have not had a problem with overheating and it is quite hilly in Scotland. It is a direct drive, not geared, so you still need to pedal a lot to get up the hill. Our hottest temperature is only about 30°C maybe once in Summer, with most of the summer heat being around 17-20°C on average. I cannot really fault mine, and there are spares available from Keyde. I have built a few for other people, and they have been quite happy with no problems so far. I have opened one up (The crammed P160), and it looks like circuit boards etc, can be relatively easily replaced. Their newest P110 and S110 appear to have altered the design slightly, meaning you need a proprietary disk brake, but apparantly it increases efficiency and reduces heat.

 

[Yako]

Thanks for that Peter, I thought you were in Scotland but didn’t want to jump to conclusions! My thinking about the Keyde was for people with for example original Orbea Gains with batteries reaching the end of their lives. £600 for a new one, still with only 252Wh, or buy a Keyde, with the considerable upgrade in power and torque, and have an internal battery made to fit the down tube. I thought that without the controller in there an increase in cell size & capacity might be possible for the same price as the replacement battery. On the Pedelecs forum (I think) they call Keyde stuff ‘junk’, but that’s obviously not your experience.

 

[peterecosse]

This is what I have done on an x35 equipped frame. It is very difficult to increase the internal battery capacity though, especially if using the existing casing (which is probably easiest). In fact, you often need to slightly reduce capacity. This is because you have to get cells with higher discharge rate for the Keyde motor. I think I went from 250wh to 216wh using molicell P30b. However this is more than made up for with a very cheap 180wh range extender or two in bottle format. My Lapierre esensium now has 476wh of range if I want.

 

[EMGX]

I didn't realize that it was direct drive, doesn't seem optimal for extended very hilly riding but I have no experience with direct drive ebike motors. Excessive heat for the controller encased with the motor sounds concerning but mid drives also have controllers enclosed in close proximity with the motors.

 

[peterecosse]

It is not optimal for hills, but still helps an awful lot. They are a good bit faster on the flat or gentle uphill than a geared hub. A bafang or other geared hub, or even better a mid drive, would be more appropriate for hills.

The Mahle and Keyde direct drive motors are more suited to people that still want to cycle, but experience a nice bit of assist. They are a good option for some. For example, I built one of these for a pro cyclists mum. It let's her go out with her daughter and actually keep up.

They are also the most discrete system on the market at the moment. So lend themselves to quite good looking stealthy conversions, especially the P100 and S100 motors, which are only slightly larger than one of those larger ordinary hubs.

Heat within the casing has not been an issue for me yet. It was an initial concern of mine too. Tried and tested for my purposes (20 mile commute and the odd 30-40mile day out at weekends), and so far so good.

What is your preference for conversions?





Heat inside the casing is a concern, but not had any issues with that. Maybe the climate...

 

[EMGX]

Didn't realize that Mahle was direct either. I really don't have a strong preference because they all have significant bothersome limitations. I've installed and removed my TSDZ2 mid drives (have two) on several bikes. They work very well, similar to my Yamaha PW-SE equipped gravel bike. What I don't like is weight, poor chainline and that you lose the original 2x or 3x chainrings. One is sitting on the shelf and the other is on a hard tail mountain bike that my son used when we recently rode through Glacier NP. Also put a geared front hub motor on my wifes bike and played around with a rear hub motor some. They work fine but I much prefer torque sensing like the TSDZ2 and Yamaha for recreational riding. Also tried Qiroll friction drive and have one on a bike currently. Very low weight and the original drive train is unaltered but friction drive has issues all its own. I try to put in as much effort as possible and use assist mostly to prevent suffering on hills. Used the Yamaha last week at Glacier and only used the lowest two settings over Logan pass. I live on a small mountain but typically only use the lowest two assist settings unless I'm feeling lazy or my knee is bothering me. Keyde is interesting because I could potentially have a mid 20# bike, preserve the OEM chainring/sprockets and have torque sensing. But I have too much stuff already to add yet another bike to the stable.
Thanks for your insight, for a potential lower weight DIY option compatible with thru axles Keyde doesn't get the attention that it appears to warrant.

 

[peterecosse]

I have played with just about all the available ebike motor options there is. I think Keyde is by far the best of the hub drive options. Just very neat and functional.

My first entry into ebikes was friction drive. I messed about and made one out of a vesc, a 6083 motor and a little diy 24v battery. It was fun, but the limitations were massive. It was really bad in the wet. I moved on to one of the revolution works friction drive kits, and that actually worked in the rain. I got fed up with friction drive a few years ago, and have not went back to it.

I jave heard good things about the TSDZ2. I like mid drive, especially the integral ones inside a frame. However, J dislike very much the lack of standardisation in mounting points. Apart from a mid drive project that ended up in a monstrous looking bike that I actually like (pic attached), the lack of standard mounting points keeps me away. I did think about the Cyc motor stuff for a while, but the price was ridiculous.