e-bike conversion

[crazyt]

I posted awhile ago asking about the mid drive conversion kits on our texas rocks. No one had any experience with them, so I bit the bullet and bought a bafang bbs02 mid drive kit. The plan was to install it on my canfield EPO which my daughter and wife would ride. We live at the bottom of a steep hill and they simply cant climb the hill.

The kit installed very easily there were only a couple of glitches.

1) anything under the bottom bracket can potentially block the motor from sliding in. The EPO has bash guard tabs and i had to use a hacksaw to cut it off and a dremel to smooth it down. Probably could have used the dremel to cut it off, but i wanted to take my time.

2) The downtube is curved so the battery pack needs something custom to fit in the triangle. A lot of triangles wouldnt fir the battery

3) My bottom bracket width is 73. The motor is best designed for 68 but does work for 73. I had to go buy two m6X20 cap head bolts and 10 washers to fill some gaps. There is a retaining cap in the form of a shimano bottom bracket diameter that cant be used.

4) lots of cables everywhere

 

Once the motor is in the bottom bracket, you mount the battery then plug in a few cables. The crank arms are square taper (included)

The controller has the following optional connections:

throttle (it is standard, but I did not install)

mechanical brake motor stop (mechanical levers with interface cables are included, did not install)

hydraulic brake motor stop (optional, hasnt arrived yet)

gear shift motor stop (optional, did not buy)

The motor starts up when you pedal. If you stop pedaling the motor will cutoff after a second. When you pedal backwards the motor cuts off immediately. I was able to ride up far west at around 20mph. Pedaling definitely helps and you can decide how much effort you want to apply.

The standard controller has 5 settings (0-4) that set the speed at that setting. You can probably control lag times and other behavior. 

I started to try riding cat to see if the motor would get smashed, but the battery is just strapped on and kept sliding around. Riding on the road was pretty amazing. Ill post once I get the battery properly mounted and have a chance to ride on a trail.

I read about a newer middrive motor the "revel" which can hang at the same level as the bottom bracket so could be a better choice.

If you have a spare bike laying around a conversion is pretty cool. With the options I got, I think it was $950.

Edited May 3, 2020 by crazyt

[crazyt]

Rode the ebike around cat today. Hit the motor on some ledges and not others.  I tend not to slam into ledges, just lever myself up and over so hopefully the motor housing will last awhile.

It is definitely cheating on the climbs. I kept it on the lowest setting and even then it surged a little too much.  After my ride I wasnt tired so I ended up riding mesa and was able to hit 30mph pedaling hard.