Hello! and I think I want to build my very first ebike(compact cargo)!

[kevinmccune]

Spin, not pistons. Fast, smooth, and easy. Not slow or hard. It should feel like swimming with scuba flippers. Down shift, rev up, shift up.

NOT UNDERSTOOD BY A LOT OF FOLKS, matters little to me because no muscle memory poor coordination I just pump( for the duration spin is the word) my troubles go back to injuries and late blooming on anything that requires coordination, at 67 still cannot swim adequately, my legs do not do what they are supposed to,oh well will try to stay out of deep water, having increasingly difficult time to maintain balance. however am working on a (new to me build) espin nero, repainted, new hub motor,larger battery, converted to 3" from 4" tires. The repair stand fell over the other day and its been so cold the paint is not doing well, doesn't matter, next warm day its reassemble time!(also piddling with a trike) you guys hang in there,I can think of much worse hobbies

 

[autobike543]

Some compact cargo bikes built by me, welding & machining by workshops

 

[PedalUma]

The LA Short Haul turned out nicely. I sold him the motor and battery and walked him through the conversion process to optimize the bike. It took about thirty email exchanges. Although this one is not a compact cargo, I have got to say that movie stars, princesses, Taylor Swift, and heads of state, do not have bikes this nice. I also do cargo bikes mostly for local moms. Those rims are British racing green and glow.

 

[m@Robertson]

Some compact cargo bikes built by me, welding & machining by workshops

Absolutely love the tilting trike concept.

 

[kevinmccune]

Some compact cargo bikes built by me, welding & machining by workshops

like your reverse trikes,mine didnt turn out I finally got rid of it because I had reweld spindles.

 

[kevinmccune]

The LA Short Haul turned out nicely. I sold him the motor and battery and walked him through the conversion process to optimize the bike. It took about thirty email exchanges. Although this one is not a compact cargo, I have got to say that movie stars, princesses, Taylor Swift, and heads of state, do not have bikes this nice. I also do cargo bikes mostly for local moms. Those rims are British racing green and glow.

fantabulous!

 

[Scramjett]

The LA Short Haul turned out nicely. I sold him the motor and battery and walked him through the conversion process to optimize the bike. It took about thirty email exchanges. Although this one is not a compact cargo, I have got to say that movie stars, princesses, Taylor Swift, and heads of state, do not have bikes this nice. I also do cargo bikes mostly for local moms. Those rims are British racing green and glow.

Nice looking bike! I’ve been looking at buying a fast commuter ebike with drop bars, but this makes me consider doing a conversion rather than buying a new ebike.

 

[PedalUma]

Nice looking bike! I’ve been looking at buying a fast commuter ebike with drop bars, but this makes me consider doing a conversion rather than buying a new ebike.

This is the same flavor of bike with a commuter bar. Check out the climbing gears. It is meant for western Marin.

 

[m@Robertson]

Nice looking bike! I’ve been looking at buying a fast commuter ebike with drop bars, but this makes me consider doing a conversion rather than buying a new ebike.

If you have the inclination and some mechanical ability, you'll be far better off. Just the issue of sourcing a replacement battery when a proprietary one wears out is either frightfully expensive or maybe even impossible. Was talking to some people just yesterday about Sondors mid drive and older hub motor battery replacements and while most of the bike is made of industry-standard parts, the pack itself and the battery contacts are one-of-a-kind with no replacements available. Thats a common story especially nowadays when Hailong, Reention etc. no longer make most of the battery cases. Nowadays you see unique cases molded to fit a specific frame design.

This covers everything including picking frames with the right characteristics, project planning, tools etc.

How To Build An Ebike From Scratch

You want to build an ebike, but the project seems overwhelming. Lets de-mystify the entire process, including planning, parts and perfecting the end result.

talesontwowheels.com

 

[Scramjett]

Thanks! I’ve seen your website (loved the 2fat, really nice!). I’m a mechanical engineer, though I lean more thermal and fluids, I can usually work out the machine side of things pretty well. The tricky part for me is the time and space to work on it. My property isn’t very big and we don’t have much storage space, to say anything of workshop space. The local bicycle kitchen is a bit too far for me too. I might go proprietary initially until these circumstances change for me.

 

[PedalUma]

I might go proprietary initially

Just know that many have been left high and dry as @m@Robertson suggests. Sondors is just one example of a popular company that just vanished. And the high-end bikes can charge whatever they want for parts and service because you are stuck without other options. You can do it.

 

[PedalUma]

I am picking up a trike to convert in a few minutes. I saw an $11,000 trike today. It is off road capable for people with disabilities with two wheels in front. For budget reasons the one I am converting is just getting a geared front hub motor. She only wants to do 12mph max, but it will get 500W to be overly robust.

 

[tomjasz]

I am picking up a trike to convert in a few minutes. I saw an $11,000 trike today. It is off road capable for people with disabilities with two wheels in front. For budget reasons the one I am converting is just getting a geared front hub motor. She only wants to do 12mph max, but it will get 500W to be overly robust.

Man be certain it’s a trike that will run well with a hub motor. $1500 in a trike and top shelf motors that completely sucks.

 

[Scramjett]

Just know that many have been left high and dry as @m@Robertson suggests. Sondors is just one example of a popular company that just vanished. And the high-end bikes can charge whatever they want for parts and service because you are stuck without other options. You can do it.

Yes, I’ve been reading through these forums a lot the last few weeks. You and @m@Robertson make a compelling case for building from scratch, or at least finding a used bike for upgrading and conversion. I’m not in a hurry so I’m going to take the time to research this and determine if I can do it. Especially since I never seem to find the bike that fits what I’m looking for.

 

[kevinmccune]

I am picking up a trike to convert in a few minutes. I saw an $11,000 trike today. It is off road capable for people with disabilities with two wheels in front. For budget reasons the one I am converting is just getting a geared front hub motor. She only wants to do 12mph max, but it will get 500W to be overly robust.

is sonders gone? am building a trike like that myself, will let it go rather cheap,it has a 20 ah brick battery in a harbor freight ammo case( low on the right side) a 750 watt 36 volt front hub motor,throttle and pas( think I got it worked out,just wanted to try it getting balancing issues( cant stand many more slams to the head) for a smooth.little grade scooter should work out,rather than wiring a headlight just put a clamp on the handlebar to mount any number of smallish led headlight its yellow,some say yuck! i say you can see me.

 

[m@Robertson]

is sonders gone?

Went into receivership last week I think. Electrek had an article on it.

 

[PedalUma]

Left high and dry. A good friend is stuck with two. The other failed and took a thousand to make whole. Now it is unsupported.

 

[m@Robertson]

Left high and dry. A good friend is stuck with two. The other failed and took a thousand to make whole. Now it is unsupported.

There is a significant supply of spare parts available, which have been transferred to a 3rd party in SoCal who runs an ebike shop. He's set up a web site. Unfortunately the Rockstars are light on the one part that is not readily available to replace and thats the battery. Only two of those left last I heard earlier in the week. And since the same battery is in use on all of the mid drive models, that goes for them as well.

The Rockstar was the one I saw pre-production with the other Sondors group admins, and went bonkers over the 7-spd freewheel it had. Fixing that was rumored to be the reason it came out later than the other two mid drive models, as they had to redesign the rear triangle to accommodate the SRAM cassette they ended up switching in after that discussion. They didn't upgrade the other two models and from what I hear, exactly the problem I warned about ended up happening (freewheel threads + 160 Nm = stripped threads).

But back to the mid drive battery: This again points to why you do your own with quality parts, if you have the ability to do so and want to be the one who decides when your ebike is ready for retirement. The one proprietary bit on that bike is the battery and its effectively unavailable. Can't blame Sondors for this blame the entire ebike manufacturing channel who all went to spiffy in-frame batteries rather than the quasi-standardized cases they started out with.

A few months ago I resurrected my road bike from the 1980's; a professional-level (for the time) custom build. All I needed to do was replace the tires (surprisingly the tubes inside have held up fine) and change the pedals to work with the cleats I use now vs. then. Thats an almost 40-year-old bike and it works perfectly again. You can forget that benefit if you don't take charge of the situation and keep yourself in control of the process.

...

It is entirely possible that a 3rd party will purchase all of Sondors intellectual property and unlaunched designs, and restart the brand. Scuttlebutt is the most likely candidate is the factory that made the Metacycle and has hundreds of units of unsold and unpaid-for inventory in its warehouse, accompanied by spare parts for same.

 

[PedalUma]

The Rockstar was 85.87 pounds/38.95Kg. I will go for an external battery every time. It came with the cheapest shifter and swapping it was a huge pain because the shift sensor is buried deep in a pit under the battery and the shift cable needs to be fed through it. It was built to sell, not maintain.

 

[kevinmccune]

The Rockstar was 85.87 pounds/38.95Kg. I will go for an external battery every time. It came with the cheapest shifter and swapping it was a huge pain because the shift sensor is buried deep in a pit under the battery and the shift cable needs to be fed through it. It was built to sell, not maintain.
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Sonders loved fat tires,I remember one guy running his mouth because his 750 watt would outrun a sonders with a 350 watt motor.I do not watch troll videos anymore, reminds me of a guy that was interested in a 500 watt rear suspension bike I was selling for $400,he didn't like it because it wouldn't pull over 600 watts,he kept comparing it to his $4000 dollar hunting bike,of course there was no comparison( what did he expect,he did ride it twice)