Just starting out, help wanted.

[Bazippy]

Hi I'm looking to cycle to work again but commute is now 10miles each way. On this route is a hill called jawbone which was part of the Tour de France so it's pretty steep and long enough to cause me issue. There are lots of other steep hills in both directions. I can pedal the journey but takes me about an hour. I need to do it in 45mins. So in tempted to go electric. The Urbanx got me thinking of a little help. However feel there is something better for this. My budget is £400-500. I just want a little help and bit still want to get fitter just time is causing me to go this route. Thanks for the help. Running a 700 wheel sized hybrid with discs.

 

[QFour]

Just go for a basic Bafang 250w or 350w. You need to check the size of the bottom bearing to make sure it fits. Smaller size motors use less power so you can save on the weight of the batteries. You will loose your front chainwheels so you need to pick one you can live with. 44t or 46t. You will then be limited to 8 or 9 speed back cassette BUT you can fit an SRam hub that will give you 3 gears so you are back to 24 or 27. It does work I have got it setup on my Merida Matts 500. It saves trying to make a derailier work on the front hub. Mid Drives are designed for going up hills.

 

[Bazippy]

Just go for a basic Bafang 250w or 350w. You need to check the size of the bottom bearing to make sure it fits. Smaller size motors use less power so you can save on the weight of the batteries. You will loose your front chainwheels so you need to pick one you can live with. 44t or 46t. You will then be limited to 8 or 9 speed back cassette BUT you can fit an SRam hub that will give you 3 gears so you are back to 24 or 27. It does work I have got it setup on my Merida Matts 500. It saves trying to make a derailier work on the front hub. Mid Drives are designed for going up hills.

Thanks for the information, I cant see it for the budget im after even with a small battery. Certainly given me a different avenue to look down. Seems a lot of faff though and maybe Ebikes arent for me, i will want to remove it from time to time to ride in different circumstances, so as i said maybe I'm looking up a tree that isn't going to produce what im after. Have a feeling this forum is against an urbanx and thats why ive come here to see what other answers there are. Maybe the efront wheel is all doom and gloom but its whats sparked my interest initially but slowly seeing the drawbacks to this system.

 

[Nealh]

For commuting a hub will be more relaxing then a CD.
A decent hub kit at £500 ish will get you up steep hills, like a CD motor you will have to peddle though. But don't expect any std 250w to romp up a steep hill at 15mph.
Hub drive means you keep your front chain rings as well so plenty of gearing to help keep the drive spinning, with 5 assist levels and a torque controller you can up the torque for climbing as required.

 

[Woosh]

if budget is an issue, check out the Woosh GSM CD kit with 13AH battery.

http://wooshbikes.co.uk/cart/#/product/uid-165-gsmkit-13ah/gsm-cd-kit-36v-18a-250w-13ah-hl-battery

 

[Deleted member 4366]

There's loads of possibilities to get your bike electrified for £500, but we have no idea of what bike it is or what your skills and experience are.

It doesn't make sense to have an electrical kit that you can instantly remove from your bike, when you can rescue a perfectly adequate bike from the scrap men for about £10 and leave it permanently converted.

You can get kits with everything except the battery from Ebay for £120, and a battery for about £150, so about £300 for the entire bike.

I don't think that Urbanx will give you what you want. Pedalease sell them on Ebay for about £370. I guess we'll soon be getting a lot of questions about them, and maybe answers too, in the near future. I wouldn't recommend buying from Pedalease, their reviews are terrible. I don't know whether that seller on Ebay is Pedalease themselves. Most of the reviews say that it's impossible to get an answer to questions after the order has been placed.

 

[rich_r]

There are advantages in doing as d8veh said - pick up a neglected bike for next to nothing on places like Freecycle, Gumtree or eBay and fit a kit to that rather than your existing bike.

A bit of time cleaning and oiling it, putting on new brake pads etc and it can be revived in an afternoon. Doesn't even matter if the front wheel is bent or missing if you're fitting a front hub motor.

Fitting a front hub kit will take you under an hour. It's pretty much a case of taking off the front wheel and fitting one with a motor in it. Some even come with tyres already fitted so you don't even have to swap your tyre over. Then mount the battery, controller and display (maybe replace the brake levers with ones with cutoff switches) and connect it all up. Everything you need other than cable ties come with the kits.

I've just converted my wife's old bike that she hasn't ridden for 10 years for under £400. If you went for a cheaper display and battery and weren't bothered about waterproof connectors, then sub £300 including the bike is very achievable.

 

[Woosh]

I've just converted my wife's old bike that she hasn't ridden for 10 years for under £400. If you went for a cheaper display and battery and weren't bothered about waterproof connectors, then sub £300 including the bike is very achievable.

I thought my kits are cheap! do you want to drive me out of business??

 

[Bazippy]

With my old fella we can do anything (builds Norton's for fun). I don't need a motor to get me up that hill but help me maintain a higher pace for the rest of the ride. I can pedal the hill but assistance would not be frowned upon. Lots of information from you guys and I'll be looking closer at this when I get home. Really don't fancy having a cheap bike converted as I like decent bikes and anything cheap won't make me happy.

 

[rich_r]

I thought my kits are cheap! do you want to drive me out of business??

Panda had a sale on, and I got the battery from Germany.