Gearing on Sprint 7

[california]

I recently purchased an Ezee Sprint 7. Quite pleased with it, but a couple of the hills on my commute are a bit too much for the motor-with-pedaling. I don't want to go to derailleurs; would rather shift the whole gear range about one stop lower and sacrifice 7th gear, as I don't much need it.
I know it's fairly straightforward to change the sprocket on the rear hub, but I would like to change the crankset in order to have fewer teeth on the chainring and also shorter crank arms for my - alas - short legs.
The setup is a bit of a mystery to me: the left crank arm looks like a conventional force-fit onto a square taper, with fixing bolt. Bicycle shops assure me that the right-hand side is "all one piece" and cannot be changed, usually adding that they want no part of it. Is there something about working in a bike shop that makes a person habitually cross and rude? Topic for another thread, I suppose.
If this assembly is as undesirable as I am led to believe, is there anyone who can tell me where to find a correspondingly repulsive replacement parts so that I can have fewer chainring teeth and shorter crank arms?
Much obliged for any assistance in this regard.
Chas.

 

[flecc]

Yes, bike dealers do tend to be grumpy lot Chas.

However they are talking nonsense about the difficulty of changing the chainwheel, possibly scared of the presence of the pedelec sensor ring if that's fitted on yours, though US models don't usually have. That's inboard and independent of the chainwheel though.

All you need is to replace the chainwheel with a spider and chainring of the size you want, and I did that on one of my eZee bikes (The Quando).

They have to be compatible, the crank spider having the same number of arms, usually five, as the chainring has holes, and the hole spacings on the chainring have to be the same. The best source for these is a race bike oriented dealer.

Here in the UK we have a specialist cycle engineering company, Highpath Engineering, who have excellent information explaining all of this on some pages on their website. Here's the start point for you:

Highpath Engineering, Cranks and Chainsets

Don't worry about the references to number of chainrings, a spider can have just one mounted on it. To achieve correct alignment of the chainring with the rear sprocket, the chainring can be mounted either inside or outside the spider arms, and there are also spacers available for fine adjustment.

Any competent bike dealer should be able to both obtain and fit these for you, the Sprint having a completely standard bottom bracket spindle taper.

Reply here if you need any further help on this.
.

 

[california]

Thanks

Splendid; I'll follow up on your advice. No, there's no pedal-assist mode, so I'll go on in search of a bike shop employee without ulcers, or whatever it is they have that makes dealing with them so unpleasant.
Forgive the double posting.
Chas.