E-bike motor/battery fit to standard MTB??

nasha48

Hey all. So my brother has an e-bike (mountain bike style, but nothing you'd be that comfortable taking to the trails) and he just uses it to commute every day. In short, the battery + motor have performed well over the few years of use but the rest of the bike has been pretty shite (many buckled rims, brakes seizing and a truly horrendous debacle involving the bb). Despite me telling him he's probably better off buying a decent commuter bike (without a motor) he tells me he's intending on buying another mtb bike and retro-fitting the motor + battery to it. The motor is sat in the rear hub aiding power there as opposed to through the crank arms. I told him this was a ridiculous idea and that it would prove virtually impossible to do without investing a huge amount of research time and, probably, cost, let alone even finding a frame/spec to match.

Am I right here or does this have potential? Happy to admit defeat!

rockmonkeysc

Extremely unlikely to be possible. Tell him not to be so lazy and just use the pedals.

The Rookie

You can buy off the shelf kits to do just that, it's a doddle. About £400-500, but mid mounted is a nicer ride (I've tried home conversions of both).

Lazy fugger though!

Anonymous

Take a look at the forum on here :-

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk


Lots of advice on e bikes

nasha48

Agree, a bit lazy and stupid really but he doesn't like the idea of having to pedal "on his own" up a couple of the hills when its windy + raining after working all day. Can't convince him as i said.

Helpful info + link guys, many thanks. I'll pass this info on to him. Personally, i think he's better off buying a bloody scooter or a 50cc. Haven't even been able to tempt him to venture out with me on some flat forest trails for a bit more fun.

The Rookie

A scooter costs more per mile and you have to tax and insure......

If he went for a decent road commuter bike it would probably be as fast if not faster than an e-bike!