Conversion of Giant Revive semi recumbent

robinnj

Finding my (electric) wheels
Dec 16, 2010
16
0
Hi Guys,
I have a Giant revive which I purchased a number of years ago because I had a severe back injury and it was the only bike I could ride for any distance.
I now would like to convert it to an electric bike, are there any views or pointers that people could give to help achieve this?
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,763
30,349
Giant did produce an electric version called the Giant Revive Spirit which used a special version of the Panasonic unit with a small rear mounted battery.

Taking a cue from that, you could use a frame tube mounted Cyclone motor, though they are a little noisy.

I don't know if yours has the disc wheels or spoked ones, most were spoked so hopefully yours are. If so, you could use any of the hub motor kits that come in a 20" wheel version, which would be near enough. In the front wheel you might have the odd traction problem on loose surfaces since there's very little weight on the front of your semi-recumbent.

If you have a derailleur gear version, you could have a rear hub motor with multi-sprocket freewheel, but if it's a hub gear version, that would not be possible of course.

 
Last edited:

flash

Pedelecer
Apr 1, 2009
189
78
68
CW12 Congleton
The disc wheels were just plastic covers over spoked wheels. Although if I remember rightly they did not have many spokes. I trued quite a few of them for a local shop
 

robinnj

Finding my (electric) wheels
Dec 16, 2010
16
0
Conversion

Hello flecc thanks for the reply. The model I have is the 21 speed SRAM model, so rear hub motor would not be possible.
As you rightly say there is not a lot of weight on the front wheel due to the design, so it may be that I would have to go for a cyclone motor, although looking at some video's they do seem to be noisy as you say.