Kits to convert my bike to electric power

[piotrmacheta]

Hi all,
My name is Peter and I have just joined this forum after a year of reading all the great things you have been discussing. I would value some advice regarding converting my bike to electric. I have a Velotechnik Spirit recumbent bike with 20" wheels and currently an 8 speed cassette but this may soon be a Rohloff. I would prefer a crank drive system like the Panasonic so was wondering if it is possible to buy this kit separately and fit it to my bike. Are there other kits available? - I have come accoss a French one before somewhere. Apparently there is a Heinzmann hub kit which will give me a decent speed for off-road use (23mph).
What do you recommend? I did try a Kalkhoff bike last year but found it difficult to get used to in that the harder I tried the less it gave!
I only need to travel 16 miles a day to work and this is no problem as I am a reasonably fit cyclist but I wanted to experiment with electric drive as well.
Thanks,
Peter

 

[Fecn]

The panasonic system requires a specially designed frame with a square section at the the bottom into which the unit fits. I don't think it would be feasible to customise an existing frame into something suitable even if you were exceptionally good at welding.

I have seen some other crank motor systems before, but they have the motors clamped to the frame with an extra chain to transfer the power from the motor to the crank. I couldn't name any of those kits by name, but I expect that the all knowing one will be along soon with all the answers.

 

[flecc]

As Fecn has said, the Panasonic unit would not be an easy retrofit, and you may not like it anyway since it's what that Kalkhoff used. In fact it needs a special technique to get the best from it, and pedalling harder and faster is the worst way! It's full power only comes in at lower pedal cadences.

Cyclone make a crank drive motor with special adaptations for recumbents, and you can get all the information about that from this recent thread concerning fitting it to a recumbent trike. The thread contains other motor information as well:

Cyclone kit for recumbent

There's also the Japanese Sunstar crank drive motor which can only be bought in Europe from Zone Cyclable in Lyon, France, but they are happy to deal with other countries. Their telephone number is +33 (0) 478375044 or you can get some details from this Sunstar website. This kit was tested with several others in Velovision issue 32 and from there I've scanned this photo for you of it fitted to a recumbent:



One of our members Jeremy has produced an excellent recumbent conversion using the Tongxin Nano front hub motor which is also tested in that Velovision magazine. As you'll see from the photo below, he also tailored a very neat underseat battery pack and "dashboard":

The Tongxin kit is available from the Electric Wheel Company

The Electric Wheel Company phone 0845 094 2735
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[Orraman]

The Cyclone motor is still in the Permanently Temporary lash-up on the recumbent that I posted in August last year and continues to give an exhilarating performance.
The grin factor is high and if my legs cant keep up with the largest chain ring it has proved politically canny to just let it get on with it. It seems that older folk are not supposed to engage is such shenanigans.

Dave

 

[piotrmacheta]

Thanks for the recommendations. I like the look of the Sunstar which might work well with the Rohloff hub I was considering fitting. One thing I would like is to be able to go above 20mph, do you think that this would be possible with the hub and the Sunstar?

 

[flecc]

With the gear range on the Rohloff that should be possible, but the Sunstar doesn't offer variations since it comes with one size only chainwheel secondary ring for the drive. It's not a powerful motor, rated at 180 watts, but the test indicated it's very efficient at converting what it has into good hill climbing.
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[Orraman]

A to B magazine issue 65 May 2008 has a personal review by Richard Peace of the Sunstar Crank Drive Kit.

Dave

 

[flecc]

I didn't bother mentioning that Dave, because it was the same Pashley PDQ bike and it's owner in the Velovision test, and the review there was more recent with over six months of extra experience of the kit.
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