Introductions & Bike Garage

[Wabi Sabi]

Hi Court & the team at EBR. Thanks for this wonderful forum serving the E-bike community and newbies like me. I am new to e-biking and do not even own an e-bike yet. Know nothing about it. Having retired from road-biking, I harboured ideas about having a touring bike (looked at a Surly Troll). But age and health require me to have assisted rides. Any suggestions and advice on how I may convert the Surly to an e-bike would be most helpful. I currently live in Malaysia and plan to relocate to the hills of Bali next year. My LBS, being a purist, will not entertain any idea of fitting an electric motor to a tourer. So no help there.
Warm wishes to all & Seasons greetings!

 

[indianajo]

Welcome to the site and a form of biking more popular with us aged. I'm age 69.
I installed a power wheel kit on the unpowered bike shown left. Front wheel installations don't require as many changes. The surly troll is a disc brake bike, which most of us consider a minimum for riding faster, especially in the rain. Check with Em3ev, in your hemisphere, HK. I made my own battery mount out of 2 cm aluminum angle and 4 mm screws. The controller mount was folded out of spam can lids with more 4 mm screws. Use taiwanese or US made connectors on the battery wires. The ****ese ones melt out at 26 A.
Have fun touring.

 

[Wabi Sabi]

Welcome to the site and a form of biking more popular with us aged. I'm age 69.
I installed a power wheel kit on the unpowered bike shown left. Front wheel installations don't require as many changes. The surly troll is a disc brake bike, which most of us consider a minimum for riding faster, especially in the rain. Check with Em3ev, in your hemisphere, HK. I made my own battery mount out of 2 cm aluminum angle and 4 mm screws. The controller mount was folded out of spam can lids with more 4 mm screws. Use taiwanese or US made connectors on the battery wires. The ****ese ones melt out at 26 A.
Have fun touring.

Hi, thanks for the welcome. I am 67, not far behind. I appreciate much your sharing of your bike fixture. Seems a front wheel drive is the easiest to install. I will explore that although I am also keen to find out about the Bosch mid-drive (not sure if I am using the right description). There will be a lot of hills to climb where I am going to live. Vital to find the kit with the right power output and battery endurance. As you can tell, I am only at the start of a journey, one which I hope to enjoy immensely. Cheers Indianajo.

 

[indianajo]

I climb hills of up to 15% with the 1000 W geared hub motor I bought. It is a generic 48 v LY . The only thing geared hub motors won't do is 15% for 25 minutes straight - that will burn the winding. There are grades like that in California, Colorado, and Washington, but not here. Since 90% of US ebike sales are in those states, those dealers warn everybody not to buy geared hub motors. I cover 77 hills including 3 15% hills of 35 m in my 30 mile commute, which I've been doing for 18 months. We have rolling hills here in Indiana.
One other thing about hub drives. Install a 2nd set of lock nuts on the axles. That keeps the nut from coming loose and the axle slides around. I removed & replaced the rectangular sensor connector to do that. I also installed 12 cm thin 1mm torque arms made out of bed frame rail. The common torque arms sold here are ~2.5 mm thick, made of *****y imitation steel is my guess.
If you want a mid drive it is best to buy a bike that comes with it from the factory. There is machine work involved in modifying the frame for a bosch. If an aftermarket conversion, the bafang mid drive is not as difficult to install. Surly has a factory installed mid drive model. The bosch mid-drive requires you to drag the motor with your feet if you wish to pedal unpowered or the battery connection fails.
Note crimped on 3.99 mm bullet connectors or 6.35" flag terminals (from taiwan,T&B,Ideal,Panduit,3M) are more reliable connectors than the push on battery connections of most factory battery bikes. I've had zero battery interruptions in 2 years. I have an XT90 connector on the harness that came with the battery, but those factory welds are also reliable. My personal XT90 solder joints are not nearly as reliable - the XT60 solder joint pulled off the charger where I couldn't charge out at my summer camp 30 miles out. The charger came with a round barrel connector I had to change out to XT60 to match the battery. If using flag or bullet connectors, be sure to put a male on minus and a female on plus to make sure you don't plug them in backwards. Pull test crimp before use. Ideal or Klein crimp tools make better crimps than short handle generic ones.

 

[Nomad]

I am new here my self and plan on getting a ebike . While I understand why some purest are against ebikes alot of them are starting to come around to the Idea! I think a lot of reason some cyclist don't like them are they are miss informed as far as "true ebikes" and are also dealing with discourteous ebike riders. Also things are changing and the "big boys" are in the mix. So keep those pedals turning.

 

[Wabi Sabi]

I climb hills of up to 15% with the 1000 W geared hub motor I bought. It is a generic 48 v LY . The only thing geared hub motors won't do is 15% for 25 minutes straight - that will burn the winding. There are grades like that in California, Colorado, and Washington, but not here. Since 90% of US ebike sales are in those states, those dealers warn everybody not to buy geared hub motors. I cover 77 hills including 3 15% hills of 35 m in my 30 mile commute, which I've been doing for 18 months. We have rolling hills here in Indiana.
One other thing about hub drives. Install a 2nd set of lock nuts on the axles. That keeps the nut from coming loose and the axle slides around. I removed & replaced the rectangular sensor connector to do that. I also installed 12 cm thin 1mm torque arms made out of bed frame rail. The common torque arms sold here are ~2.5 mm thick, made of *****y imitation steel is my guess.
If you want a mid drive it is best to buy a bike that comes with it from the factory. There is machine work involved in modifying the frame for a bosch. If an aftermarket conversion, the bafang mid drive is not as difficult to install. Surly has a factory installed mid drive model. The bosch mid-drive requires you to drag the motor with your feet if you wish to pedal unpowered or the battery connection fails.
Note crimped on 3.99 mm bullet connectors or 6.35" flag terminals (from taiwan,T&B,Ideal,Panduit,3M) are more reliable connectors than the push on battery connections of most factory battery bikes. I've had zero battery interruptions in 2 years. I have an XT90 connector on the harness that came with the battery, but those factory welds are also reliable. My personal XT90 solder joints are not nearly as reliable - the XT60 solder joint pulled off the charger where I couldn't charge out at my summer camp 30 miles out. The charger came with a round barrel connector I had to change out to XT60 to match the battery. If using flag or bullet connectors, be sure to put a male on minus and a female on plus to make sure you don't plug them in backwards. Pull test crimp before use. Ideal or Klein crimp tools make better crimps than short handle generic ones.

Fascinating. You do a lot of hills on your commute. Thanks for the technical advice. All useful although I am not much mechanically-inclined. I think Surly has only one model with e-option and that may not be available outside the US. It is not the Troll. Will keep in mind what you said about the Bosch mid-drive. Happy riding!

 

[Wabi Sabi]

I am new here my self and plan on getting a ebike . While I understand why some purest are against ebikes alot of them are starting to come around to the Idea! I think a lot of reason some cyclist don't like them are they are miss informed as far as "true ebikes" and are also dealing with discourteous ebike riders. Also things are changing and the "big boys" are in the mix. So keep those pedals turning.

Encouraging news about purists coming around to the idea. Even the strongest bikers will age and may change their minds. Yes, in some places, especially busy cities, e-bikes and e-scooters (personal mobility devices) are thought to be a hazard therefore considered a nuisance.

 

[Wabi Sabi]

Hi All, I hope the new year is putting us all on a better footing considering all that has happened in the last year in regards of Covid and political problems in the US. I have been remiss since my last post. It is largely due to the discovery of a heart condition at end-2019. That threw me off-course temporarily but convinced me more that an eBike is the way to go. I am looking at fitting an e-drive on a Surly Troll or on a cargo bike to do a bit of bike packing. The constraints known to me are : first, regulations in my country (Singapore) and at my intended destinations restrict the drive output to not exceeding 250 watts; and second, airlines will likely not take onboard a cargo bike for its size. I hope to start on the 'project' soon so that i may roll on when Covid restrictions are lifted whenever that may be. Problem is I have very little technical knowledge other than knowing that some in this forum like Spotty have successfully (2015) installed e-drives on their Trolls. Any advice on how to get started and about the capabilities and limitations of a 250 watt drive will be very helpful and appreciated. Wishing you will all be well and safe and happy rides. Cheers.