Bafang Conversion

Rustienuts

Finding my (electric) wheels
Nov 27, 2013
6
4
Hi.
After a recent heart I want to get out in the hills but just haven't got the energy and strength that I did a few years ago especially as I'me nearer to 60 than 50 haha. I want to go back out with my family and friends in the hills and be able to keep up instead having to get off and walk on the long steeper runs. I have no shame lol.
I was thinking of getting a Bafang BBSHD and converting my mountain a Giant Trance x2.

I trawled the net for anyone who's converted one of these and the nearest I can find is this on a Trance 1.
https://electricbike.com/forum/forum/builds/ebike-building-directions/66039-my-giant-trance-bbshd-build
A problem that this guy had a problem with the motor binding against the swing arm.
He states; (Copied and pasted).
"I installed the drive kit and was sure to get good alignment – one thing I did not foresee was the up/down movement of the rear swingarm against the BBSHD motor body itself. I had to remove the entire motor later on that night after this discovery, and place a spacing washer inbetween the BB and the motor to provide more clearance so the swingarm would not rub up/down on the motor body during operation. Even with a “locked out” shock, this would still be an issue as the swingarm still moves especially with the extra weight".

To rectify it he says;
"If you have bought the right sized BB kit, this should not be a problem, it did look a bit strange however that the crank arm was not sitting flush on the tip of the BB spindle – this is not an issue as the crank still fits snuggly and the spindle bolt can be tensioned accordingly".

I'm apprehensive about paying out all that money if there's going to be a problem but off the shelf
e mountain bikes are prohibitively expensive. Although I appreciate this guys efforts to put his bike build on the net his pictures do not give me enough information and probably because I do not know what the BB kit is and how or where he moved the motor too? Left, right, up????
Hope you guys can help especially if you know of a Trance x2 conversion
All help and constructive comments appreciated.
 

jarob10

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 22, 2017
270
83
51
Uk
The bbs motors are available in different widths, to suit the width of your bottom bracket. If there is an issue with a clash between chan ring & chain stay, spacers are available to position the motor slightly outboard of the bike to resolve

If your trance has a pressfit bb, it’ll be a difficult conversion for a first timer. In this scenario I’d choose either a different donor bike, or go for a rear hub motor - the trance will fly with a 500w Q128C hub motor & hailong downtube battery. This was that setup I had on my anthem xl 29er