Need help on adding a throttle to an REI Co-op 1.1 bike

[gromike]

Well, power up your bike, hit the throttle, and see which way the wheel turns. If it turns backwards power down and plug the learning wires together. Power up and if the wheel turns smoothly the right way, power down and unplug the learning wires. If it doesn't turn right, repeat.
That's my experience, YMMV.

 

[Bob.A]

Time for an update. I had to return that controller as something failed and it would keep the light on as long as the battery was connected. I ordered another controller and that one seems to be behaving itself. I also ordered a 1 to 5 cable and that is what I am also using on this one. It has connections for the light and two brake inputs and a throttle and display. All seem to be working fine so I started to pull the old parts off the bike and put the new ones on.

The multi input cable was a bit bigger than the opening that the old cables went through so I had to break out my old pneumatic filer and open the hole up a bit. Since its an aluminum frame I'm not too worried about corrosion, but I'll do my best to seal it up.

I tried to mount the pas sensor on the inside of the locking ring which mostly worked, the magnetic pickup slightly bent, but when the magnet ring is on and the pedal is back on it is too tight to turn. Any idea of an alternate way to mount it?

I need to order an extension for the 9 pin motor connector. The one on the controller is just too short, but hopefully I'll have this done soon. Thanks for lookin.

 

[Bob.A]

Going back and forth with this, I think the only thing that will work is another crankset and a new BB. I measured the bike and its a 100mm BB and the chainring is 48t. There is no way to reuse the crank, it is a 2 piece affair, with the chainring sitting on an extended spline from the BB. I found some fairly inexpensive parts on Amazon that I think will work ok, and they should get here in a week or so.

This is the original torque sensing bb with the splined end:

 

[Bob.A]

Parts came in the other day. I was able to mount the new BB after I figured out which side is which and didnt cross thread it. The Pas sensor fit fine along with the new crank and arms.

It seems like this bike has quite a bit more wiring to deal with now. I had to buy an extension cable for the motor wire, the long wire off the Pas sensor, the 1 to 5 cable, you name it. The controller itself could probably fit inside the frame but I havent even tried to stuff the wiring in first yet.

I also looked at the brake levers and could not figure out how I was going to mount the switches and the magnets. The brakes are Tektro hydraulic so there was no swap of levers happening. But Google is your friend so I searched and found this:

It just so happens that I got myself a belated holiday present in the form of a Bambu Labs P1S printer. If you are new to 3d printing, Bambu is what you want. These machines are appliances, you set them up and just start printing stuff. The picture came from printables website so I downloaded the two parts and printed them last night while watching TV. It was late so I pulled them off this morning. I checked the fit and they should work great. I may have to reprint them in black so they match the hardware. but that is easy enough to do.

Total cost for this project so far is about 180 in parts. I didn't think it would have been this expensive, but if it allows her to keep riding the bike, its fine. I still think something like a Townie or Day6 with a mid drive would be a better bike or even putting a mid drive in this frame and swapping the rear wheel out would have been less of a hassle, but you work with what you have.