Converting my road bike: lessons learnt

VillageIdiotDan

Pedelecer
Apr 28, 2019
37
16
Thought it may help (if only as a counselling sessions for me :)) to put down in a thread my experience of converting a drop handle bar road bike to an ebike.

Background: I ride a ~12.5kg steel road bike about once a week to work. The ride is 16 miles each way through country lanes and a little bit of an A-road. There's only 1 hill (150ft elevation over 0.5 mile). There's very little stop:starting like you get in urban riding, perhaps 7 or 8 times at junctions. I average about 16 mph on the way and about 12 mph on the way home (head wind, the hill and too many chocolates at work). I weigh 85kg.

Objective: to make the journey to work easier and faster while still getting exercise so that I'll do it more often, while also cutting out car use at other times (10 mile trip across town to tennis).

Conversion:
front v mid v back:
My front forks are a thru axle and hub kits are quick release so that was out. Being a commute bike with few hlls i wanted reliable and cheap so I opted for rear hub over mid drive.
legal v illegal: my past is littered with bad ideas where I've pushed the boundaries & paid the price! I didn't want to invest in an illegal hub that the uk.gov then regulate & I find I've got to register/insure/tax/MOT as a motorbike. I also felt that my needs weren't too demanding and that a legally rated 250w hub may be sufficient.
DIY v kit: I'm not technically very capable. I don't have many tools or experience to fix things when they go wrong. With an eye on reliability and not causing myself problems in the future I opted for the Woosh XF08 CST kit with 17ah battery

Outcome:
install time:
I enjoyed the experience but it I took way longer than 3 hours. Saying this, I took my time, took the opportunity to learn about my bike and give it some TLC while I did it. I clearly didn't understand even the simple principle of what each part was doing but Woosh were very patient with me when I asked stupid questions and were incredibly fast at responding. I found adding a rivnut quite difficult. I kept things easy by buying a new cassette & disc rotor rather than trying to get them off the old wheel.

feel: The bike now sits at ~20kg, if that contradicts anything Woosh say about the weight of their kit then apologies - that's me not knowing what my bike weighed originally! It was a heavy bike to start with and the extra weight doesn't feel awkward. I'm surprised by both the balance (thought it would feel like all the weight was on the rear but the battery nicely offsets this) and the ease with which it is to still ride the bike unassisted,

speed: Still early days so can't say if i'll meet my objectives yet but will report back in a while. I tested it out of interest derestricted to 35km/h and it was still clearly assisting me so my initial concerns were unfounded (i.e. that the 250w hub would be so weak it would do little more than pull it's own weight). I intend to ride it restricted to see what range I get and what impact it has on my commute time but it is good to know that the power is there if i'm not getting the results I want.

Sorry for the rambling post and thank you to everyone's advice on this forum that helped me on my journey.

Dan
30596
 
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VillageIdiotDan

Pedelecer
Apr 28, 2019
37
16
p.s.
1. Waiting on shrink wrap to tidy up the excess cable i've bunched up.
2. The throttle doesn't fit the drop handlebars, the aero bars are too big too. I've got it ziptied to the bars at the moment but have a vague plan to someone have a bar between the two aerobars and fit it to that.
3. The LCD comes with a fixing strap that's too small for drop handlebars also. I've since taken the strap off and moved the LCD down to the stem using a rubber strap that's intended for a phone. It works well as it clears up space on the handlebars.
4. I didn't fit brakes. I'll never be pedalling when braking so didn't feel they were necessary.
 
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Benjahmin

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 10, 2014
2,460
1,675
69
West Wales
Nice job Dan. 20Kg sounds like a light weight to me, my hybrid (c/w panniers, two batteries etc.) comes in at 28-30.
The average speed you state should put you above the 15,5mph legal cutoff most of the time, so you're range should be impressive.
There is a niggle. When you have a throttle not having brake switches can be iffy. Throttles can go wrong, normally with water ingress, and go full chat. Brake switches allow you to defeat that without burning the motor or your brakes. It is possible to run the kit without the throttle with no ill effects - just unplug it. Other than that BMSbattery do a hidden wire brake switch which detects the movement of the inner cable and switches the motor off. Check with Woosh to see if it would work with your kit.
 
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sjpt

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 8, 2018
3,642
2,652
Winchester
The item Woosh sells as sensors for hydraulic brake also works with other brakes; we needed them because our tandem had integrated brake/gear levers. Or from their page http://wooshbikes.co.uk/?cdkit look at 'Make your own hydraulic brake sensors from the supplied levers'
 
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VillageIdiotDan

Pedelecer
Apr 28, 2019
37
16
Ace, thanks both for alerting me to this. I'll do a test ride to work Weds to see if I actually use the throttle, I'd probably rather lose it if it's optional.

Hey, what's the best approach for waterproofing any spare connector I have please? - is shrink-wrap enough?
 

VillageIdiotDan

Pedelecer
Apr 28, 2019
37
16
Sorry for the slow reply, thanks Benjahmin. I was too tempted to ride it this morning so have had to use electrical tape for now, iit felt like it was self amalgamated so hopefully relatively dry on ride home.

Tomorrow i'll spray some silicon spray on the loose connectors, apply glued heatshrink wrap and then apply self amalgamated tape for good measure! :)

Hmm, my rivnut isn't holding, I reckon I'd benefit from going in somewhere and asking to borrow their tool - who uses rivnuts that I could try pls? - car mechanics? Metal works?
 

VillageIdiotDan

Pedelecer
Apr 28, 2019
37
16
The bike is exactly as I'd hoped, although nothing more. By that I mean that it's had limited impact on my ride in (16mph), maybe a couple of minutes quicker and a little easier on the legs. The ride home was the revelation: 20 minutes quicker so 15mph which i'm very happy with.

The throttle is interesting, it's very tempting to use and I'm torn on whether that's a good thing. I worry it will be perceived as laziness but what I was finding I was doing was using it maybe 10 times over the 16 mile journey to get back up to speed after an junction and then sprint as hard as a I could at the top speeds, rather than use that energy at lower speeds.

All in all, very happy and it's very clear that this kit is going to make me fitter as i'm pushing myself harder and will be riding more often which is the key. Thanks all
 
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Phil Fouracre

Finding my (electric) wheels
Feb 28, 2013
9
4
Great story! I think your last sentence sums it up for me and our experiences, with converted bikes. Why on earth worry about being ‘perceived as lazy’ what’s that got to do with anybody, just enjoy
 

VillageIdiotDan

Pedelecer
Apr 28, 2019
37
16
Really got used to the ride now and really enjoying it. The throttle will be staying lol so will have to get the sensor sorted.

I'm finding that I want to keep it in PAS level 4 or 5 as it seems to assist better at the top end speeds. Do you think this would be a bad thing for the battery longer term?

It seems insanely cheap to run. The battery wasn't flat so only managed to get 1/3rd kw charge into it for the 85 miles i'd ridden....that's something like 1.5p for my 33 mile round trip commute!?! lol
 
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Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
19,406
16,387
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
I'm finding that I want to keep it in PAS level 4 or 5 as it seems to assist better at the top end speeds. Do you think this would be a bad thing for the battery longer term?
No, your battery will be fine, you can run it at maximum assist until it's completely flat.
Do put a smidgen of grease on the two outer battery contact pins, they need to be protected against sparks and humidity but not too much grease that the current does not get through. Check also that the leaf springs on the battery side are in good shape to ensure good contact.
 
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VillageIdiotDan

Pedelecer
Apr 28, 2019
37
16
No, your battery will be fine, you can run it at maximum assist until it's completely flat.
Do put a smidgen of grease on the two outer battery contact pins, they need to be protected against sparks and humidity but not too much grease that the current does not get through. Check also that the leaf springs on the battery side are in good shape to ensure good contact.
Thanks Woosh, as ever I appreciate your advice.