At long last I have finaly built my bike. Started last night and finished (well, sort of) today.
The bile is a very old (about 18 years) dawes Horizon touring bike. I have not used it for about 13 years until I dug it out recently and started cycling to work. I have had to spend money on it getting it into reasonable shape but most of it is not so bad given the years. I had used and abused it a fair amount for its first four or five years of life.
I liked the steel frame but found my 42 mile hilly comute hard going. Things I have done are:
Butterly bars to allow V-brake levers. Not sure about these yet, stem is kind of stuck solid and I would like to lower it. I will need to get the WD-40 and a matllet on it I think unless somebody has a better idea.
Changed Canti brakes to v so v levers would work. These are so much better although I ended up with mountain bike ones that don't fit as well as I would like.
Ping 10ah 36v battery.
Tongxin brushles and sensorless 175rpm motor and controller.
Thumb throttle.
Changed the bars and brakes and installed the rest of the stuff. Took it out today without a cycle computer. I think I did about 25 miles on very hilly roads with lots of throttle - it was quite windy. Worked without fault and could not kill the battery. I tackled some steepish hills - looked for them rather than avoiding them and no issue at all. So far very happy indeed.
There is some stuff still to do like tidy the wiring and sort out a battery encolsure but it is functional. I will post some pictures and provide some range info and speed info when I have it.
By the way, I got the motor from Johnp on this forum. He was very easy to deal with, honest polite etc. I picked the motor up from his house as we live reasonably close to each other. If you are after a Tongxin he may be able to provide the necessary.
I am a moderately fit cyclist as I was doing the 42 mile round trip once or twice a week for the last 3 months. I found the bike complimented the way I wanted to ride and I still got a workout without killing myself. The real proof of the pudding will be how long my commute takes. I don't think I would recommend this setup if you don't want to put a fair degree of effort in but for me I think it is near perfect.
All in the bike is 19kg. It was 13kg before the conversion.
The conversion was really quite easy and so far has worked without fault. I know it is early days.
I have spent about 450 squid on the project excluding repairs to the old bike (chain, cassette, tyres, tubes, bearings....)
Thank you for all the help and advice, could not have done it without you all.
Cheers, BM.
The bile is a very old (about 18 years) dawes Horizon touring bike. I have not used it for about 13 years until I dug it out recently and started cycling to work. I have had to spend money on it getting it into reasonable shape but most of it is not so bad given the years. I had used and abused it a fair amount for its first four or five years of life.
I liked the steel frame but found my 42 mile hilly comute hard going. Things I have done are:
Butterly bars to allow V-brake levers. Not sure about these yet, stem is kind of stuck solid and I would like to lower it. I will need to get the WD-40 and a matllet on it I think unless somebody has a better idea.
Changed Canti brakes to v so v levers would work. These are so much better although I ended up with mountain bike ones that don't fit as well as I would like.
Ping 10ah 36v battery.
Tongxin brushles and sensorless 175rpm motor and controller.
Thumb throttle.
Changed the bars and brakes and installed the rest of the stuff. Took it out today without a cycle computer. I think I did about 25 miles on very hilly roads with lots of throttle - it was quite windy. Worked without fault and could not kill the battery. I tackled some steepish hills - looked for them rather than avoiding them and no issue at all. So far very happy indeed.
There is some stuff still to do like tidy the wiring and sort out a battery encolsure but it is functional. I will post some pictures and provide some range info and speed info when I have it.
By the way, I got the motor from Johnp on this forum. He was very easy to deal with, honest polite etc. I picked the motor up from his house as we live reasonably close to each other. If you are after a Tongxin he may be able to provide the necessary.
I am a moderately fit cyclist as I was doing the 42 mile round trip once or twice a week for the last 3 months. I found the bike complimented the way I wanted to ride and I still got a workout without killing myself. The real proof of the pudding will be how long my commute takes. I don't think I would recommend this setup if you don't want to put a fair degree of effort in but for me I think it is near perfect.
All in the bike is 19kg. It was 13kg before the conversion.
The conversion was really quite easy and so far has worked without fault. I know it is early days.
I have spent about 450 squid on the project excluding repairs to the old bike (chain, cassette, tyres, tubes, bearings....)
Thank you for all the help and advice, could not have done it without you all.
Cheers, BM.
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