UKH

just purchased an old steel kona 1x9 26" (v brake) as an e-bike conversion for a friend.

thinking front wheel drive 36v 250w kit with downtube battery, but surprisingly hard to find. much easier to find 500W+ motors.  any user recommendations?

Only comment I'd make is that front wheel drive isn't great uphill off road, as you can't easily get the weight over the wheel to get the required traction.

Rear wheel drive much better for MTB.

This might help: https://ebiketips.road.cc/

Dillinger. Not cheap but good kits, converted my wife’s rim braked MTB with their 250w front kit. It went surprisingly well, no sign of lack of traction on the front wheel as I thought it might. Battery cage fitted to the bottle cage mounts, just get an alternative bottle mount

think i may go for a mid-drive - only a little more expensive eg Tongsheng 36V 250W TSDZ2B for £280

Very interesting - I had a look on their website. Is the wheel supplied fit for off road use?

this is the mid drive that i'm about to buy (36v 250W tho). prob £100 cheaper with battery

than £599 for dillinger front  kit..

youtube.com/watch?v=P8FFOSwGLzU&

What size is the battery? As in watt hours not dimensions. Although dimensions can be important when trying to fit the battery.

haven't decided on battery yet but 36V 15Ah should work with above (eg 'UK Warehouse' 365x110x90mm)

here's my base bike - a sweet kona hahanna from the 90s in excellent condition for only  £80

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aq6ceJUHqgaDG1At5

15Ah will give you plenty of range.

Nice bike👍🏻

I wouldn’t say that but didn’t have any issues other than on my own dillinger kit (rear wheel) would eat the free wheel bearings at a rate of 1 cassette/freewheel per year This was a 1000w motor though (massive torque) and salt/sand environment. No such issues on wife’s front though. They do have shorter than usual spokes regardless of wheel size so feel stiffer side to side.

mid-drive seems like way to go now that prices have come down- none of the disadvantages of front/rear wheel setups..

total cost so far £80 for bike, £280 for kit, £170 for battery..

Will save a lot of messing about when you get punctures! keep you stock wheels too 👍

has a torque sensor as well for a more 'natural ride' than the bafang. may get another kit for my oldgravel bike as i think of bike n+1 (carbon

Those prices are a lot lower than I paid for my bafang several years ago! Let us know how it turns out 😀

first issue - looks like i need lower profile gear cable routing under the BB..

If you run full length outer cable you can run it wherever you like. On my Tongshen converting I run it over the top of the motor with no issues. 

Thanks. What I like about the idea of a front wheel drive is the simplicity of it.

may try and file down the cable guide..

next issue is bottle cage mounts are too low so need a battery bracket adjuster- £30 for a strip of metal with holes ..

The joys of e-bike diy conversion!😂

I made my battery bracket adjuster out of plywood.

My wife’s full suspension bike had nowhere inside the frame for a mounting so we fitted a bike rack and fixed it to that. Looked quirky but worked a treat.

Looking forward to seeing pics of your finished bike.😀

If you have access to relevant tools you can use a 90 degree drill to make a new hole in the frame, and a threaded insert pop rivet. Quite tricky to drill exactly on the down tube centerline though.

expensive and probably not good for a serious MTB rider but looks interesting for lots of bike riders 

https://www.skarper.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsfa_4c6YgQMVN4ZoCR1LCA3vEAAYASAA...

You should post on uktakeawaydeliveryriders.co.uk (or whatever it's called). Those guys get knackered old mtbs going like sh*t of a stick!

i used a mounting adjuster in the end. comes in at just under 20kg.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RvXnkgnciqYMbP8V7

managed to squeeze the gear cable guide under the BB.

nothing to compare with but i like its responsiveness, although rather frustrating when you reach 25km/hr. there's some open source firmware available tho..

got into the menu to turn speed limit off- cruising on flat at 30km

just got a used rear rack battery to try out, but it's designed to plug into a battery holder which i can't source. there's a 5 pin female connection on it with two pairs of +/- with central pin unused.

can anyone explain why e- bike batteies usu have 2 pairs of +/-? presumably i could use a suitable 2 pin spade connector to just one pair?

On at least some setups, one pair is for the, say, 36v or whatever output/input to the motor, and the other pair is for the battery management system (motor/charger) which runs at a lower voltage of 5v. Seems to be various number of pins in the connectors possible depending on make.

I have read that even a very minor fault in the BMS stops the whole system from functioning. My guess therefore is if they are there on your system they will be needed for something and the bike motor/battery charger most likely won’t function correctly without them connected.