Been riding gravel and mountain bikes a bit the last couple years, mostly on the Katy Trail near me. I have a really bad right knee but I was able to get up some of the more daunting hills without issue.

In November, 2021 I badly strained or mild tear to the left quadriceps right above the the knee. Been doing some light running and Zwift, along with lots and lots of knee extensions and rehab work. went out for my first ride, tuning up the bikes and couldn't make it up a slight hill due to knee pain. I tried a friend's e-bike and had no issues and enjoyed a long ride without knee pain. I just ordered a Giant Talon E-bike, should have it in about a week. I may try building an e-bike using my Marin (it is doing duty as a Zwift bike).

I used to be an avid road bike rider. It is the one regular physical exercise activity that appeals to me. But at 64 with both knees replaced, reality set in. Tried a fat bike but having all my saddle time on performance oriented road bikes it was just annoying.

I had been looking at Ebikes and almost pulled the trigger late last year. But about two weeks ago I left the doctor's office, having been told again that the sedentary lifestyle had to go, and drove straight to a local reputable bike shop and rode one. (If you are not going to buy one, don't test ride ) I came home with a script for gout and a new Specialized Vado. I am loving this bike. It is a mid-mount which is beneficial on the hills of Western Pennsylvania. There is no throttle. It is pedal-assist so it gives you adjustable boost as needed. It is smart and intuitive and I get the workout I am looking for.

dumb question: what does it mean when it's 'no throttle?'

If I'm trying to go up a hill and my legs are on fire and about to give out, will no-throttle sense that and pick up the slack? If i just stop pedaling while going up hill, will it keep me going? How does it know how fast I want to go up the hill - do I modulate that by changing gears?

You can move between three levels of assistance and they in turn react to the force the rider is putting in. On mild rolling hills I can switch off the assistance or run the lower level and save battery life. But when I stop pedaling all assistance stops. It becomes a dance between the legs, the gear selected and the level of assistance dialed in. But it is NOT sit there and give it more juice.

Got it. Thanks. Makes sense.

I think I want an independent throttle then. Sometimes, going up long step hills, I'm probably not going to make it; would like to just have the throttle get me to the top.

The kit I built has 5 levels of pedal assistance with the 5th level being “unrestricted/full power”. I wired my bike up with a twist throttle and never bothered with the pedal assistance. I can more or less control the electronic assistance with the power levels which cut out assistance at incremental speeds or with my right hand and the twist throttle.

Technically such a set up along with my bikes top speed makes it an “off-road only” machine but as I said earlier it’s not being looked at closely so as long as you’re not being an idiot you’ll likely never have an issue.

My neighbor (ebike enthusiast) told me “just pretend like you’re pedaling when you’re cruising at fast speeds and you’ll be fine”.

Stopped by the LBS. They don't sell or install conversion kits. They don't recommend them.

Mtn ebike is out of my price range unless I can perhaps find a good deal on a used one. I'll likely need to rationalize the price - if new low end is $5500, then used is probably around $2500+. To me, a premium bike has been $1200. DIY may be a path but I don't have the confidence to do it. Meaning, I might be able to install it but I'd be afraid it would break down suddenly and probably catastrophically.

So, my rationalization will be to cough up the coin so that I can ride trails with elevation changes and/or ride further distances. Probably 4-6x per month for 8 months of the year.

Or just limit myself to trails with minimal elevation changes and also shorter round distance.

The latter sounds boring. The former is more interesting but another concern is that bike trips will be limited to trailhead and home - I'm pretty sure that around here the bike would be stolen in a new york minute if I stop anywhere. And wouldn't be able to take over night trips unless the hotel allows me to keep the bike inside.

I did watch a mid-drive install video - it didn't look too bad. If I had plug-n-play kit for my bike from bosch, shimano or other brand name, maybe I could give it a shot. But seems like ebike midrive favors a single gear front. Maybe I need to start with a different bike to build from.....

My LBS has plenty of horror stories of people who tried to build ebikes without doing much research.

When I first told them of my plans they seemed skeptical. A few of them were shocked when I showed them the LCD dash with 43 mph indicated as the bikes max recorded speed. After letting a few employees at my LBS ride my build one of them now wants to build his own ebike and they were all shocked at the performance relative the build price.

Most issues arise from crappy spokes or wiring issues during the install/set up. That part of the build comes with painfully little instructions. I had to do a quite a bit of research to make sure I was installing everything correctly but I am the kind of person who typically does exhaustive research before building a project.

I’m going to build two more hub drive ebikes before I attempt my first mid drive bike. I already have two candidates that would be great to convert to electric assist.

Boost spacing and quick release axles make a conversion over to electric possible and very easy.

The fun I am getting out of a VERY underpowered battery makes me curious what the bike can do with a decent battery and better controller.

Konata88, the guy who inspired me to build my kit sells good quality kits. The LBS probably discourages people to build these because they don’t want the headache of trying to fix the low quality builds.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: stickman428,

I noticed over the weekend that the local campus police are riding electric bikes now.
Didn't get to talk to any of them, but the bikes looked pretty cool.

I think mid drive makes sense to me / for me. But I still need to research. Preliminary - seems like a Bosch or Shimano product may work best for me.

I'm DIY out of necessity to the extent I'm capable, but really am not a DIY type. I wish I had the money to just buy an e-mtn bike. But that's not gonna happen unless I win the lottery. Even a used one is stretching it (unless I buy a used one where the motor or battery needs to be replaced, then perhaps I could get into to it).

I’ve been tempted by Bafang’s high powered mid-drive but the super sweet efficiency and torque of my hub drive has me thinking I made the right decision for my first build. I’ve done almost 200 fun filled miles on it in about 3 weeks. I like the fact that if I snap a chain I could still theoretically ride home on electric power if I didn’t drain my battery (I’m OCD about keeping it above 40% on long rides).

I’ll build a mid drive ebike soon enough but for now I’m loving the brushless, gearless 48V 1500W hub drive even if it’s a bit heavy. The thing can handle well north of 2,000W without blinking. If you’re pedaling and drawing over 1000W of juice that is a heck of a lot of hill climbing power.

I took my ebike on some single trail today and had a blast. I even met a new Scott Spark owner who is just returning to the wonderful world of cycling. He picked the same color I did with his Spark, Candy Orange.

The zip ties holding the battery have been performing admirably so far. I’d post a video of my ride up but unfortunately the camera was shaken to hell so it’s not much to watch.

I've been looking pretty hard at these.
https://sur-ronusa.com/sur-ron-light-bee/

Revi Cheetah Cruiser.

About 3K.

Love cruising down town on my E-Bike.

Pedal assisted or throttle depending on my mood.

28mph max with a 30 mile or so range depending on how much you pedal.

quote:

Originally posted by Ryanp225:
I've been looking pretty hard at these.
https://sur-ronusa.com/sur-ron-light-bee/

You’re not the only one.

I’ve also been looking at them. There are aftermarket pedal kits available so I might be able to ride it on the mountain bike trails at at the HUGE park I live near. If you take off the rear fender, tweak that seat a bit and put on a pedal kit it might not scream electric dirt bike so loud.

This bike has regenerative coasting/braking when in sport mode. With all the hills I live near I am quite curious to give one a ride.

This biking hobby can really pull you in deep. What I thought was going to be a simple rear disc brake upgrade is going to be a little more involved than I anticipated.

I removed my old crappy rear caliper.



Cut the dozens of zip ties securing the wires to the frame.



But then discovered I’d be soon learning more about hydraulic brakes. My kit requires I cut the cable, install the olive and connector insert then bolt it all together and finish up by bleeding the brakes.

As you can see from the pic below the brake cable is not yet installed. No biggie. Shimano brakes look like they are incredibly easy to bleed and all the parts I’ll need won’t cost more than $50. I’ll have a newfound knowledge of the inner workings of my brakes too and be able to cut the cable to size so I suppose it’s a good thing.


Once it’s done I’ll be going from a crappy unknown brand 160mm rear disc to a decent 180mm disc with a brand new caliper.

I got a little carried away last night with my rear brake upgrade.







Above is the controller which is a rats nest of wires. I had to find the four wires that run from the rear wheel hub motor to the controller and disconnect them. That allowed me to remove the rear wheel and remove the crappy Chinese 160mm wavy rotor and install a proper Avid 180mm rotor.



Much better than this crap it had previously. Old rotor pictured below.



I’ve gotten the bike mostly put back together and just need to bleed the brake caliper today after I install the cable to the lever and bleed out the brake. After watching a few YouTube videos and buying all the necessary parts which were inexpensive it looks very straightforward.

The bikes current state. Not finished but way better than it looked last night. Because of the weight of the bike I improvised my own bike stand.

I belong to a group that allows RVers to stay on their property when passing through (Boondockerswelcome.com) and in talking to one yesterday they mentioned that they just bought some electric bikes for about a grand and love them.

This is what they had..

https://lectricebikes.com/coll...K5QtrSIaAgjXEALw_wcB

I was up late last night.

I successfully upgraded the front 160mm and rear 160mm discs to 180mm and whoa buddy does it stop better now! I also hooked up all the wiring and cleaned up the wires so it looks clean and neat. I’m getting to where I could build one of these kits in about 3 hours tops now.

I even managed to get in a late night test ride. Man it’s fun to have my ebike back and functioning again. I have two usb rechargeable LED bike lights with 2000 lumens total and a wide beam. The light output is easily as good as the HID lights on my Toyota.

I think I’ll be leaving this one alone for a while and building a FWD bike next.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
I belong to a group that allows RVers to stay on their property when passing through (Boondockerswelcome.com) and in talking to one yesterday they mentioned that they just bought some electric bikes for about a grand and love them.

This is what they had..

https://lectricebikes.com/coll...K5QtrSIaAgjXEALw_wcB

Like that, been talking about getting the wife one for running up to the Publix

I bought a pair of these as part of a Indiegogo fundraiser: https://www.biktrix.ca/product...riant=41023249875141

My wife rarely rode because she had trouble on hills and my bike was an old dilapidated 25 year old clunker. I figured with the power assist we could go farther and enjoy riding together.
My wife was skeptical at first, but she really enjoys riding now, and I have started using it to commute to work (about 6 miles). So far no complaints, and lots of fun.