Donor Bike for XF07 kit

[Idler]

Hi

Am looking for a donor bike for my Woosh, front wheel XF07 kit . When I bought it I had a Falcon road bike that I had had for yonks, and liked; and fitted it to that. That was a mistake, for a start the bike was a lot more decrepit than I had thought, (bit like me and I find that I am now tending to ride not so much on the road but on farm tracks, bridleways etc ie tracks that dont have a tarmac surface. I really like XF07 Woosh kit, it seems to suit, although I dont have any experience of owt else, and my thought is to install it on a more suitable donor bike, rather than upgrade.

So my question is - have any of you done this, and can reco a donor bike? I asked Woosh and they suggested the Carrera2, although they did say that they had not fitted any of their kits to it so I would need to check it would fit.

I am 6’ 1’’ in my 70s and a bit less than 80 kg, I tend to ride slowly and defo want something with slow steering, defo not into competition type bikes. I would also prefer something that doesnt require me to file out the fork dropouts to make the wheel fit, (as I did with the Falcon) or make major mods to the bike. Its not that I cannot, I have a garage full of tools. In addition, my neibour, who has even more tools, used to work brazing and welding bike frames - basically I dont want the hassle

Would be pleased to hear any suggestions.

Best Wishes

 

[Benjahmin]

My bike is a Carrera Crossfire 3, the Ezee front hub fitted without filing, though I did have to make a bracket to fit the torque bracket to.


I fitted a lager disc (with adaptor) to clear the hub then made this bent F bracket.


Forks are Suntour 60mm travel with lockout (don't think I've ever used it). Bike has hybrid gearing so 48t big ring. Took of the smallest granny ring to fit pas disc, leaving 16 gears..
Bike's now done some 4000 miles with no issues (mostly road riding - but they're pretty rough round here).
Fitted a Deore hydraulic to the front apart from that all original. Gear changers are crisp and accurate, one new chain so far.
For the price it's been a good bike and taken everthing I've asked of it.

 

[Nealh]

For front hub the Suntour 60mm sus fork has nice meaty drop outs or use a steel fork. Though they are for 28"/700c wheels you can use one on a bike with 26" wheels and they don't look out of place.

 

[Idler]

Hello
Thanks for the replies. Woosh did say that that the XF07 was relatively low powered and that aluminium forks would not need a torque arm -

Did you have to fit a larger disc? or was that a personal choice?

So far I have not used many gears, the bike has its changer lever on the down tube, the lever is restricted by the battery/controller, one of the problems with fitting it to my present Falcon road bike. Can I ask how is the steering, relaxed or twitchy

V Best Wishes

 

[Benjahmin]

Steering was very light, at first, but I fitted a Carradice handlebar box, that smoothed it out, gave it a bit more inertia. Those boxes are great for gloves, phone, map, keys etc.
Personally I wouldn't want to fit any hub without a torque arm, it's just an extra bit of security. Think of doing a hill start and all the reverse torque that produces. There is a possibility of the motor axle spinning in the drop outs - especially in aluminium.

 

[Idler]

Thanks for that reply Benjahmin, your replies have been most helpful. One last question , its about the fitting of the larger disc and the F bracket. Would not the original disc fit? or did you upgrade because of the better quality of a larger disc? If I can avoid it I dont want to get into "engineering" like I did last time with my Falcon. ;-)
V Best Wishes

 

[Benjahmin]

With the original disc the caliper fouled the hub slightly. Bear in mind the Ezee is a big motor, you may not need to. However, with a mech disc calipe, the inboard adjuster will be hidden behind the motor. The only way I've found of adjusting this is to remove caliper, tweak it, put it back on and see if it suits. If not, repeat. Tedious ! Of course hydraulic caliper avoids this.
The F bracket was because there was no convenient anchor for the torque bracket. On most forks there's a mudguard anchor point or something - even caliper anchor - but everything was the wrong way round on these forks. Here's how it was as bought.


If you've got steel forks it may work easier, like this