Build your own ebike motor?

[maxsideburn]

Just wondering if anyone here has built an e-bike from scratch. Looking at the price of the kits I'm seriously considering creating something custom.

The majority of the time my bike will be for pedal usage, but it would be nice to occasionally be able to just hit a button and zoom off. I'm sort of rethinking the gas engine thing because Louisiana law says that you have to register them...and I can only imagine how hard it's going to be to come up with paperwork to get it registered....and then call up my insurance company and have them laugh at me when I tell them I want to get insurance for a bicycle. On top of that the small town I live in is crawling with cops who love to be jerks about everything. So that puts a dent in my ideas of gas power.

I'm kinda thinking something like a big vacuum cleaner or sewing machine motor. Obviously it wouldn't do burnouts, but should keep the bike rolling if I pedal it to start off. That's sort of my basic idea...some kind of electric motor, a battery probably from a Power Wheels toy or something like that (maybe two batteries), and nothing more than a switch to turn it off and on. I'd love to see the local PD try to give me crap about something like that, lol.

I know lots of people have built gas bikes with weed eater engines, chainsaw engines, etc... but has anybody made a custom electric bike like this? If so details would be interesting.

 

[jdcburg]

Hi maxsideburn - that's what many of us do around here. Deacon has built all different kinds including chain and friction drive. I built a front wheel drive ebike from a Razor Dirt Quad motor and a couple of batteries for under $200. Search the archives. you can check out mine at http://motorbicycling.com/f9/controller-relay-9929-2.html - jd

 

[deacon]

the easiest to build is a friction drive using a scooter motor from ebay. You can retro fit a lot of scooter parts onto a bike. Just let your imagination be your guide. My Rhino friction drive is easy and inexpensive to build. of course it ain't very pretty... Good luck...

 

[professor]

I added a scooter motor to my Mongoose and have run it on batterys. am in process of completing the task of replacing the battery with an engine powering an alternator.
But I agree with Deacon about using the whole scooter rear end being the easiest to do.
Here is a pic of the motor drive layout (it was quite a bit of work). I am thinking a direct friction roller on the motor (to tire) would be a lot simpler OR not use a full sus. bike and put the scooter drive stuff on back.

 

[fasteddy]

Max, look up Endless Sphere. It's a electric vehicle site that has a very good e-bike section that you can get questions answered.

check out the other site and look up the electric motors and related sites.
You will see AussieJester there and see the bike he is building. He is really good about answering questions Ask him about his E powered trike. It's on You Tube.

Steve.