[Dayhike Mike]

[Tom]

BTW, here's a pic of my current build. Still need to hook up the wires (note loose cable coming from rear of bike) but for the most part looks just like a regular bike. It's on the heavy side since I wanted dual suspension for ride quality and also put heavy duty slime tubes in the tires to minimize the chance of flats but that's the beauty of electric assist as a few extra pounds don't matter.

2 labels

[Toonces]

Checkmate.

[Tom]

[Backpacker Joe]

Tom, is the point only electric assist, or is it either power type? (I.E. Human and or electric?)

[Tom]

You can do either. It's a freewheel so the motor doesn't add resistance. However, the motor adds ~10 pounds and the batteries ~15 pounds so it would be on the heavy side to pedal uphill without electric assist.

[Backpacker Joe]

Well heck, in the past I wasnt interested in this, but now that you have explained everything it looks very promising. Nice work. Now we have you to educate those of us who have never looked into this system. Just think, as technology advances so will run time/longevity with these bikes.

[Tom]

The big barrier is cost. The hub motors are expensive enough but the batteries skyrocket the price. I went with a 36v/20ah (amp hour) battery which provides plenty of range (i.e. one hour pulling 20 amps continuous at 36 volts). The battery cost was reasonable because the battery only has a "c" rating of 1 which means I can only draw 1 times the ah capacity (20 amps) continuous without damaging the battery. If I wanted more continuous amps or voltage for hill climbing power I would need a 36v/30ah battery or 48v/20ah battery. Either of those would would be 50% heavier and cost 50% more. So the only practical solution for more power w/ reasonable weight is to pony up for batteries with a high "c" rating. Those get real pricey so most folks that want more power buy power tool batteries and harvest the cells inside to make their own ebike battery. That's why I got some tool kit batteries as a backup, but I'm not really that excited about going that route unless I have to.

[509]

Tom, One last question is it Pedal Assist or Pedal Torque?? Do you have to pedal in order for the motor to kick in?? I have ridden both styles of electric bikes and the pedal torque is definitely a lot more fun to ride. Sort of like a bike on steroids. Pedal assist is fine, but it definitely is a cross between a bike and a scooter.

[Tom]

I'm not aware of many pedlec options out there (most are throttle based). Most with ebikes get addicted to the power and don't pedal that much.

[captain jack]

[Tom]

Good point. I was speaking in general terms. Some leave the tool batteries intact and hook them up via connector blocks. Some harvest the cells. Others buy the cells directly. Whether you come out ahead really depends on how aggressively the tool pack batteries are priced.

[GeoHiker]

I think this is awesome, but wondering Tom if you've ever ridden a mtn bike with a backpack? Adding all that weight up high is going to make it very top heavy. You might want to look into dropping the batteries lower as was suggested in an earlier post. I'm skeptical as to how much range you are going to get if do much uphill climbing. Did you find much experience with gravel/hill climbing on the ebike forums?

[509]

[Tom]

There are quite a few Europeans in the ES forums. I don't really see it as a US vs. Europe thing. The ebike laws seem to be stricter in Europe which may account for why there are more pedlec options available there. I'm not aware of any pedlec kits though I'm sure they exist. All of the pedlec options I've seen are all in one ebikes, which generally means crappy bike with crappy components and not much power. BTW, this seems to be the dominant pedlec forum (glanced at it a while back but didn't poke around it much).