I commute a lot on my road bike as I’m trying to escape the dependency on the car. Most commutes fall into the round trip distance of 10-30 miles with the longest being 50 miles. My commute time on the bike is twice as long as drive time. Since I’m not very mechanically inclined I decided to buy a Wilderness conversion kit for the front wheel to see if I could cut into the time. I thought I would keep a log of the adventure.
Amp log Jan 12, 2008
E-Bike kit arrived from Wilderness today. It was an uphill battle the whole way to assemble the kit. Seven hours later the E-bike is ready for action.
The wheel was out of true and the tension were not right when it arrived. I had to go over the whole wheel and set proper tensions and get the rim to turn true.
Had to replace the front tire from a 23c to a 28c due to the width of the rim. Installed slime tubes front and rear. Hopefully I won’t every have a puncture because replacing the tubes will be an ordeal on either tire.
The bike rack was tweaked and would not fit. Had to make an adapter to fit the seat to the seat post.
Throttle is not sized for a road bike bars. Had to make an adapter and zip tie to the side of the left hand hood and ran the wire under the bar tape.
Because of the size of the motor a huge 700c rim was laced to the motor. This made the Shimano 105 front brakes not fit due to the width. Replaced with an old 600 series circa 1990 that I had lying around that provided just enough clearance.
It’s a clean installation but there is a lot of weight with the batteries and motor. I did not get a chance to ride today but will ring it out tomorrow.
Specs
2002 Iron Horse 18 speed standard road bike.
Weight 65 pounds, 36V, 600w brushless motor, 50 amp controller
Standard Shimano 105 groupo
Rear cassett is 13-23
Front Chainring is 39-53
Batteries #1 13.1v #2 12.96v #3 12.98v
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{ 1 comment }
I have an old electric bike, and find that the weight is not the problem, but the heavy battery pac up high makes it less stable. I’m designing a battery cage that attaches down near axle level, which shold make things better. I hate falling over, it’s hard on me and the bike.
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