Advice about conversion kit, plee

[4maddogs]

I want to convert my Giant XTC. It is a very small frame so the bottle style kits will not fit, I suspect.

I want a throttle and would quite like a display with battery power remaining and speed etc.

I have talked with Cyclezee, but stocks are short at present. The Cyclotricity kit looks good, but there is not too much information about controller power (if that is the right term)

I am currently using a folding bike, but I prefer larger wheels. I will use it for recreational cycling on holidays, days out, but not commuting. I do go to Scotland a fair bit in my motorhome so a reasonable range and hill climbing ability would be good....oh and I am not sylphlike!
So, some advice would be helpful, please.
Thanks
Julie

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I've seen lots of different XTCs. It would help if you could post some pictures of your bike that show the handlebar layout, forks and rear of the bike. Also we need a bit more info to advise you correctly:
How fast do you want to go?
How far do you want to go? Reasonable range means different things to different people.
How much do you want to spend?

To post high definition pictures, a good way is to upload them to photobucket and then copy and paste an image link.

 

[4maddogs]

Thanks, I will do when I get home....I am away until Monday. Thanks

 

[Cyclezee]

I want to convert my Giant XTC. It is a very small frame so the bottle style kits will not fit, I suspect.

I want a throttle and would quite like a display with battery power remaining and speed etc.

I have talked with Cyclezee, but stocks are short at present.
Thanks
Julie

Just to clarify, we sold out of eZee Mk2 26" and 700c front kits very quickly, but we still have all other versions available from stock.

More kits will be arriving soon and we still have one remaining Mk1 26" front wheel kit available for £675.

 

[4maddogs]

Sorry, I misunderstood.

The bike is a Giant XTC 4.5 2007, but hardly used. It is a 14" frame so the people at Oxygen confirmed the bottle style kit they make will not fit. It has Giant disc brakes and Shimano Deore reapidfire gear shifters with an LX rear mech. It has Rockshox Dart 2 forks.

It will be for light recreational use. I am an old and unfit woman but I still find that my 20" electric folder cannot go fast enough. Once up to speed it just cannot go any faster no matter how fast I pedal. I think I will get a lighter bike if I buy a kit. For the cost of a kit I wowuld not get a very good bike.

I want a throttle and several levels of power. I would also like a display that shows remaining battery power, as well as the usual cycling computer functions......although this last point is not a deal breaker as I can always add mine. I don't need a very long range so 9 or 10ah battery would be fine....say 20-30 miles maximum.

Any views on the ezee and cyclotricity kits? £850 would be my top whack......Hopefully a bit less would be even better.

The bike does have a seatpost mounted rack, a topeak beamrack with a load capacity of about 9 or 10 kg.

Any suggestions gratefully received
Thanks
Julie

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The main problem to overcome with a kit is the shifters, which don't allow enough room for a throttle; however, you can often just about squeeze in a thumb throttle. One solution is to swap the right hand shifter to a thumb shifter, but they only go up to 7 speed, so you lose gears if you have more than that. The rear motors only accept free-wheels, so your rear gear-set has to be replaced anyway, in which case you might as well get a 7 speed and kill two birds with one stone. If you fit a front motor, you normally have to deepen the drop-outs a bit to re-centre the larger diameter axle. Also, if you have brake levers integrated into your shifters, you'll have problems with the brake switches.

You can take your pick from any of the kits. They're all much of a muchness apart from the Ezee kit, which is a bit heavier and stronger, and I believe that Juicy don't do a disk brake version.
In the UK as well as Oxydrive and Ezee are:
Juicybike kits E-bike kits 36V250W rear driving including li-ion rack battery-GreenBikeKit online store for electric bicycle components-GreenBikeKit.com
8Fun kits 8Fun Ltd
Alien Kits Electric Bicycles - 36v Road Legal Kits £549
Eclipse do crank-drive kits, but the kits are not highly rated: 1 Chainwheel Electric Bike Kit
Sunstar do a crank-drive kit that might be a good solution. They're exhibiting at the Birmingham show this weekend.: Sunstar Ibike S03 Electric Bike Kit Review - BikeRadar

Most of us buy from China, which is a lot cheaper, but it normally involves a bit more DIY:
electric bike kit, electric bicycle kit, e-bike kit for building your own electric bike online store for electric bicycle components-GreenBikeKit.com

There's other kits that are a lot more expensive like Bionx. Only the more expensive kits give different power levels from the pedal sensor via an LCD panel, but most have throttles that work independently of pedalling.

Most kits have throttles with 3 LEDs to show battery charge state. You can buy an after-market display that shows everything about your battery and speed, distance etc for about £100 called Cycle Analyst. Check with Cyclezee, otherwise direct from www.ebikes.ca Homepage of the revolution. There's also the Speedict, which shows everything on an Android phone from Speedict Technology Ltd..

If it were me converting that bike, I'd use this kit:
E-bike kits 36V250W rear driving including li-ion rack battery-GreenBikeKit online store for electric bicycle components-GreenBikeKit.com
Only additional thing you need is free-wheel set with 11T top gear from Cyclezee for about £25. That should leave loads of money for a Cycle Analyst.

 

[4maddogs]

Wow, thanks. I am beginning to think that looking for a ready made electric bike is the better answer after all. I suspect I would not get much for the Giant if I sell it, but for the price of some of those kits I could buy a pretty reasonable bike.....which is, after all, for fairly light leisure use!
I cannot get to Birmingham at the weekend, unfortunately, as I am only 5'4" (inside leg 29-30") and many of the ready made bikes will be too big for me. I am happy with just my toes touching the ground, but not slicing myself in half on the crossbar every time I get off! A very sloping frame would be OK.

Back to looking at bikes!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Fitting a kit is pretty straight forward if you already know about bicycle mechanics or you're good with tools. There's normally a few small changes to your bike necessary to get everything to fit properly.

Fitting a kit also isn't much cheaper than a ready-made bike, but it allows you to tailor things closer to your requirements.

It's a lot easier to fit a kit to a cheap bike than an expensive one with high spec, components.

 

[Eagle]

d8veh,
I have read that catastrophic failure of rear dropouts can be a potential problem on some alloy framed donor bikes.
Is this something to be concerned about prior to choosing a suitable bike for conversion?

Despite the higher mechanical efficiency of a donor hardtail bike, I would much prefer to use a full suspension bike because of its far superior comfort on our poorly surfaced and badly maintained roads.

Any recommendations?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

d8veh,
I have read that catastrophic failure of rear dropouts can be a potential problem on some alloy framed donor bikes.
Is this something to be concerned about prior to choosing a suitable bike for conversion?

Despite the higher mechanical efficiency of a donor hardtail bike, I would much prefer to use a full suspension bike because of its far superior comfort on our poorly surfaced and badly maintained roads.

Any recommendations?

The failure of drop-outs is often attributable to running with very high power (2kW+) and bad installation.
Some drop-outs are very shallow and don't allow the anti-rotation washers to do their job. You have to look and see how it is on a trial fit. It's always a good idea to file/mill/grind them about 2 to 3mm deeper to re-centralise the axle. For a 250w motor, that should be enough as long as you do up the axle nuts tight. If the tab of the anti-rotation washer can't do its job, you need a torque arm of some sort. I ran at 2KW and 40 amps in my Diamondback frame for a while without anything other than the anti-rotation washers and tight nuts. It has plain aluminium drop-outs. but they are fairly thick and flat. Most high spec. bikes with rear suspension have light weight drop-outs to save weight. Some are a work of art. When you choose a bike, you should always look t see how substantial they are, but with good engineering, there's normally something you can do to strengthen them.

Full suspension bikes bring new problems - mainly where to put the battery. You have to allow space over the back wheel for the suspension movement, which means the battery will be high up on a rear rack. It's tolerable up to about 5kg as long as you can get the battery as low and far forward as possible. So, with a 250w motor and 10aH battery, it's OK, but by the time you go up to a 20aH Ping at 6kg and a sizeable rear motor, you're going to notice it.