I’ve been wanting to build one myself over the winter here in michigan with the single APS motor I have. I remember seeing something on endless sphere where he used the existing chain drive and did a further reduction to where the pedals are making it a double reduction to the rear wheel. He was using it as an assist only, but I would remove the pedals if going this route. I’ll see if I can dig up the link tomorrow (tonight? 3rd shift) At work.
Edit: it may have been on the e-bike forums I was digging through a couple months ago. Similar to the link in the other ebike thread here, but wasn’t that one.
Tsdz2 mid drive with torque sensing crank, l found this pretty good as you don’t loose the cycling feeling as it is pedal assist, you can still use the gears, don’t need to fit brake sensors or gear change sensors, and just ride it like you would a normal bike, all be it with what feels like bionic legs. I have the 750w version, it’s not massively powerful, but more than adequate for general use, don’t really think I’d need any more power. There is also an open source firmware that you can get, opens up a lot more options on the controller.
I need to raise up the battery rack a couple of mm as I’ve noticed the rear wheel hits it a little on big bangs, but other than that it handles bumpy stuff fine. The kit is intended for hard tail installation, so you need to get a little creative in mounting it (its ment to get bolted to the rear triangle), but I just have it secured to the frame it some fat tie wraps to stop it from rotating backwards, I have some more permanent stainless tie wraps that I intend to fit to give it a more durable install.
Only issues I have with it at the moment is a tiny lag before it applies power, milliseconds, and it rolls off the power at high cadence, both of which are addressed with the open source firmware.
no, but i’ve researched a lot on these hub kits, and they are pretty straight forward to install for a “builder” like us. And this one is of higher quality than the typical ebay voillamart hub kits (which are also bullet proof af).
The only tricky parts may be: mounting whatever battery you get (bolted on? removable? etc). And making all the wires neat. I would also recommend a torquearm for 500w+ kits.
And then there’s all the fun extras you’d inevitably add on such as: rear rack, fenders, panniers or front/seat/triangle bags, lights, etc But these are very straight forward to install
yeah front hub kits are the easiest because you don’t have to deal with the chain wrap. A torquearm is a must because front forks are super skinny and are designed to freewheel.
The good thing about a front hub commuter, is that you can put the (smallish) battery and controller in a front basket/bag. This way all the wiring to the motor and lcd/throttle will be hidden pretty nicely in the front area. And the rest of the bike will still look super clean
Really interested to see how this goes Tim, my wife is showing interest in riding as well. We both used to ride a lot back in the day but we’re woke now so electric or nothing.
I have one of the Bafang mini geared motors (from ebikes.ca) and a baserunner FOC controller/36V battery on a cheap single speed. It’s not a hot rod, but it pushes me along pretty quick on the flats (22-24mph) and makes my commute nice. The phaserunner style controllers are worth it, I blew some fets on an Infineon controller doing an aggressive full throttle hop down a curb.
