Which bike to use for building an E-bike

[tinynja98]

Hello,

I'm looking to buy a bike to which I could add an electric motor (like this one). The motor would ideally be mounted in the middle of the frame (in the triangle part of the frame). As you probably noticed, i'm not trying to buy an e-bike conversion kit with a hub, I want to do it all myself.

The bike should have disc brakes so it would be able to stop the bike when it's going at high speeds (keep in mind all the added weight), and stop the wheel in case the motor gets stuck in WOT. Also, I plan to use the bike mostly on road, so it should have *somewhat* skinny tires, to reduce the resistance, thus improve speed/efficiency. Finally, I would really prefer if it had full suspension. I understand the impact full suspension has on biking performance, but since its mostly gonna be powered by the motor, there shouldn't be a significant impact on efficiency, and it would make the ride a whole lot smoother.

Is there a bike on the planet which combines all these features? The more common it is the better.

-------------TL;DR-------------
Looking for a bike which has:
- Disk brakes
- Skinny tires (like the ones on hybrid bikes)
- Full suspension
----------------------------------

Thanks in advance for your answers!

 

[memberseven]

full suspension does affect your efficiency on an ebike, you lose speed and range from energy loss through shocks. If you are looking for comfort, you can simply improve that by a suspension seatpost and comfort saddle.

 

[tinynja98]

The suspension seatpost is a good idea, but I thought that maybe the rear suspension would help reduce the stress on the electronic parts caused by all the bumps on the road/gravel roads. Also, if a full suspension affect efficiency, then why do motorbikes have them? What makes them different to E-bikes?

 

[memberseven]

The suspension seatpost is a good idea, but I thought that maybe the rear suspension would help reduce the stress on the electronic parts caused by all the bumps on the road/gravel roads. Also, if a full suspension affect efficiency, then why do motorbikes have them? What makes them different to E-bikes?

if you are planning on riding mainly on the road a front suspension fork is enough, but if your ride nice roads, you can just use a rigid fork. but only get full suspension if you do alot mountain trails and etc

 

[tinynja98]

Ok I'll go try out some full suspension, front suspension and rigid fork bikes and that should help me understand what I really need. I feel like i'm currently underestimating the front suspension bikes, comfortwise.

 

[memberseven]

Ok I'll go try out some full suspension, front suspension and rigid fork bikes and that should help me understand what I really need. I feel like i'm currently underestimating the front suspension bikes, comfortwise.

well it really depends on what you are using your bike for, I'm definitely not telling you to not get a full suspension setup, but are you mainly riding as a commuter or something else, if you are mainly using it as a commuter you can save a lot of money with not getting a full suspension, but if budget is not a problem, then you should also get and ride what you desire

 

[RoadWrinkle]

Why would you want to mount a scooter motor to a bicycle frame triangle? They have purpose built mid-drive systems that mount into your BB. They offer much better weight-to-power efficiency. Bafang bbs02(750w nom) or bbshd (1000w nom), check out eRad as well and the Bafang system kit suppliers like Luna. Find a good sturdy bike for your conversion and make sure the battery will fit your frame first. You will need to know the BB size for the bike you choose before you order the motor system. Many MTB's have the stout design to be conversion ready.

 

[tinynja98]

Your power/weight argument is most probably 100% correct, but first, this was a project I wanted to do from the ground up, design everything myself and not use a prearranged kit. Also, I don't know how good of an argument this is gonna be since I don't know all the Ebike models out there, but all the pictures of Ebikes (middrive) I saw all show a crankset with a single chainring, which limits how fast you can go using the motor and by pedalling. Finally, I wouldn't be able to buy an Ebike with the power (1000w) I want on it as it is illegal here in Quebec. I know your answer to this would be that I can simply buy a conversion kit, as you pointed out, but this comes back to my first argument. Plus, based on the simulation on eRad's website, I think I could get this done cheaper than a conversion kit, but this I'll see when I would be done.

I'm curious to know what "the stout design" means. I'm not that good with bike terms...

 

[RoadWrinkle]

curious to know what "the stout design" means.

Most decent MTB's have large diameter thru axles with wider hubs that allow spokes to be mounted at more of an angle making a stronger wheel, stiffer more robust frames, wider rims with double wall "V" designs so wider better gripping tires (2.25" ) can be used. I would avoid skinny tires/rims on an ebike.
The real DIY experts can be found at the ES forum.

 

[tinynja98]

Wow thanks a lot for your reference to ES forums (I suppose you're talking about Endless-sphere). I didn't know that forum before, but I have found many threads very similar to what I want to do. I think I'll continue my project over there!