Sparky the Magic Piano...er I mean Magic e-MTB
Discussion
Frantic twirling of spanners in the shed has seen me re-purpose my single speed MTB into a demon e-MTB!
At the age of 61 I decided that I ought to look after my knees if I still wanted to be riding at 71 and the single speed MTB , although great fun, was hammering them pretty hard. For my birthday and to avoid looming inheritance tax I bought myself a full suspension modern job with gears that I absolutely love, should've got one sooner hey ho!
But what to do with the old single speeder?
As luck would have it I spied a neat mid-motor e-bike conversion kit for sale on a popular online auction site that claimed to fit any bike with BSA BB shell. A plan began to form, I could use the conversion kit with the Nuvinci continuously variable transmission that was left over from a previous experiment.
So Frankenbike became Frankenbike with added electricity!
Converting the bike took slightly longer than the claimed 15 minutes but it was straight forward, remove the old crankset and BB, fit motor assembly and cranks, fit power selectors and dash to handlebars then mount the battery, fit speed sensor to the rear wheel, push 3 sets of connectors together and job done!
My kit is made by Gospade and is similar to the Bafang mid drive kit, it has a 500W motor and a 36V 13.5Ah battery, it adds about 10kg to the bike, plus the Nuvinci 360 hub adds another 1.5kg
I took it to the Forest of Dean yesterday and had a fun 3 hours of hooning around, here's what I found:-
The power selector has 4 levels, Off, 1, 2 and 3, you can program the maximum power for settings 1 to 3, the defaults are 1=35%, 2=55%, 3=75% which is how I left them, you can also set the assist cutoff speed from 20 to 35km/hr, again I left it at the default 25km/hr.
The Nuvinci hub gives a seamless gearing range of 2 times underdrive to just under 2 times overdrive if that makes sense, with the sprockets I had that gives gearing ranging from almost 1:1 in bottom to 1:4 in top. The gearing is controlled by a twist grip and can be changed at any time.
The riding experience was a revelation, the combination of electric motor and the Nuvinci hub works so well, you start pedalling, the assistance cuts in gently, pedal at your preferred cadence and just use the Nuvinci twist grip to keep your cadence where you want it, no crunching up and down gears.
I covered 53km with 600m of climb and had 20% battery left, I rode for 3 hours and my heart rate stayed in zone2, it was enjoyable but a very different experience to either my meat powered MTB or gravel bike.
Looking at the stats and comparing them to rides I have done on the other bikes the average speeds are actually very similar which I found surprising, the real difference was how I felt at the end of the ride, I was tired but not knackered, nothing ached!
Some of you will understand this but I actually missed the feeling of fatigue, the assistance had robbed me of the physical challenge, maybe I was missing the endorphins but I just didn't feel that sense of accomplishment I usually get at the end of a ride when I feel like I have been ripped in half!!!
With a choice of bikes guess which one I am taking tomorrow? Yep Mr Evil, the meat powered MTB!
Where the e-bikes really score is as enablers , for anyone with struggles with fitness either because they don't have the time or because of medical issues the e-MTB is terrific!
I got very wet and very muddy!!
Tomorrows ride: Mr Evil, (Evil 'The Calling')
At the age of 61 I decided that I ought to look after my knees if I still wanted to be riding at 71 and the single speed MTB , although great fun, was hammering them pretty hard. For my birthday and to avoid looming inheritance tax I bought myself a full suspension modern job with gears that I absolutely love, should've got one sooner hey ho!
But what to do with the old single speeder?
As luck would have it I spied a neat mid-motor e-bike conversion kit for sale on a popular online auction site that claimed to fit any bike with BSA BB shell. A plan began to form, I could use the conversion kit with the Nuvinci continuously variable transmission that was left over from a previous experiment.
So Frankenbike became Frankenbike with added electricity!
Converting the bike took slightly longer than the claimed 15 minutes but it was straight forward, remove the old crankset and BB, fit motor assembly and cranks, fit power selectors and dash to handlebars then mount the battery, fit speed sensor to the rear wheel, push 3 sets of connectors together and job done!
My kit is made by Gospade and is similar to the Bafang mid drive kit, it has a 500W motor and a 36V 13.5Ah battery, it adds about 10kg to the bike, plus the Nuvinci 360 hub adds another 1.5kg
I took it to the Forest of Dean yesterday and had a fun 3 hours of hooning around, here's what I found:-
The power selector has 4 levels, Off, 1, 2 and 3, you can program the maximum power for settings 1 to 3, the defaults are 1=35%, 2=55%, 3=75% which is how I left them, you can also set the assist cutoff speed from 20 to 35km/hr, again I left it at the default 25km/hr.
The Nuvinci hub gives a seamless gearing range of 2 times underdrive to just under 2 times overdrive if that makes sense, with the sprockets I had that gives gearing ranging from almost 1:1 in bottom to 1:4 in top. The gearing is controlled by a twist grip and can be changed at any time.
The riding experience was a revelation, the combination of electric motor and the Nuvinci hub works so well, you start pedalling, the assistance cuts in gently, pedal at your preferred cadence and just use the Nuvinci twist grip to keep your cadence where you want it, no crunching up and down gears.
I covered 53km with 600m of climb and had 20% battery left, I rode for 3 hours and my heart rate stayed in zone2, it was enjoyable but a very different experience to either my meat powered MTB or gravel bike.
Looking at the stats and comparing them to rides I have done on the other bikes the average speeds are actually very similar which I found surprising, the real difference was how I felt at the end of the ride, I was tired but not knackered, nothing ached!
Some of you will understand this but I actually missed the feeling of fatigue, the assistance had robbed me of the physical challenge, maybe I was missing the endorphins but I just didn't feel that sense of accomplishment I usually get at the end of a ride when I feel like I have been ripped in half!!!
With a choice of bikes guess which one I am taking tomorrow? Yep Mr Evil, the meat powered MTB!
Where the e-bikes really score is as enablers , for anyone with struggles with fitness either because they don't have the time or because of medical issues the e-MTB is terrific!
I got very wet and very muddy!!
Tomorrows ride: Mr Evil, (Evil 'The Calling')
Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff