Felt mid drive

[Toro1978]

Hi, guys. I started with a regular Felt Cafe that I bought from a friend. I am not really a bike guy, but the 100$ price and the beautiful design convinced me. I didn't know much abou bicycles having only ridden cheap MTBs before. It had the original double crown fork and a 3sp Sturmey Archer coaster hub.
I got tired of the uncomfortable seat and lack of any suspension in no time.
So the first upgrade was a Lepper seat I found at the flea market and from there things escalated quickly. Decided I wanted the seat lower, it turned out it needed to go further back as well. Well, one thing led to another, then I needed longer handlebars...

I installed a nice air suspension fork. I cut the original fork and used the upper crown with parts of the pipes to emulate the look of a "motorcycle" fork. I was told by the LBS that the bike could not be electrified, but hen I found a picture of a mid drive Felt, so I knew it was doable. My research led me to the Velodrome's Reverend "Iggy" cruiser and after that it was easy to do the rest. The motor is the well known Bafang BBS01 250W.

I had my wheels relaced - I got a 3sp Shimano with a roller brake in the rear and a disk in the front. Then installed the motor and somewhere along the line I got this big front lamp.

In order to move swiftly I put a 52t chainring and combined it with a 16t rear sprocket. Thenn it was all just palying with different bars, stems and seats...

I was finally able to score a real double crown suspension fork. I had new wheels laced, this time with a 7sp hub, which allowed me to go back to 46t chainring and a 18t rear sprocket, since I finally have the gear range I need to both climb and cruise. Used the opportunity to switch to 24" in the front and black rims which make the wheels look even bigger.

I finally made Felt logos for the battery.

I would have to think for a more elegant solution than those zip ties for the battery, but they actually work pretty good and hold it very securely in place. It doesn't move a milimeter.
Here is comparison of the seat setup in the two position one could use:

Watching at this thread I am very amused, since it reminds me of a computer game where You upgrade Your mashine with better parts and each upgrade takes more time to get LOL.

 

[dogcatcher]

That is a "clean" looking bike, you did a good job. Can you elaborate on the seat build, I am really impressed with it.

 

[Toro1978]

Thank You, sir.
I used the front springs connecting point to bolt the seat frame to a "patent" seat post. Then I used a piece from a threaded stem to connect the seat clam and that stem. The original version You see in the first pics had a regular stem (non adjustable, actually the same one which is used now for the handlebars) and the upper part of a standard seat post.

 

[dogcatcher]

Thanks, I think I figured out a method to attempt this.

 

[indian22]

Nice build....the bits and pieces really work well together!

Rick C.

 

[zing]

That is a very nice build. It's serious business as a motorized bike but is still all get down and dirty with the stealth and power as a bonus. Why if I was only a couple decades younger

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Toro1978,
The engineering put into the seat mount requires more photos so I can replicate it on my Huffy Davidson.
Excellent work sir.
Tom from Rubicon

 

[zing]

That seat is one beautiful piece of work. I have to agree with Tom from Rubicon : "Excellent work sir."

The element I enjoy most is the rear support and the attachments front and rear to the spring system.

 

[Toro1978]

Update. Robbed this interface from an older Inter 7 I have:

I also swapped the revo-shifter for a thumb shifter because the 7sp shifter is just too massive - unlike the 3sp shifter - and this makes it hard to match to brake levers on some handlebars, also grips always have to be cut to accomodate (left one is a 3sp Shimano shifter on a rat non-moto build):

So now with torpedo grips:

I saw the Brooks B190 on a sale 30% off:

I had to mount it a little differently than the Lepper. To clarify - the rear piece is a 1" handlebar stem (with 1" handlebar clamp). The handlebar clamp is attached to the brake bridge between the seatstays, it works mainly because the Felt has such a thick frame. In the shaft opening is a shimmed piece of a threaded 22mm stem that connects on the other end to the seat clamp. The front part is a seat post with some random parts from other seat posts to hold the seat rails in place.
This was also done with a regular 1 1/8" stem and a piece of a seat post before (the Brooks seat has a smaller diameter bolt at the front springs attachment which was the reason I had to rework the idea a little this time):

I also put these black Shimano brake levers because I didn't like the electric cables on the Bafang levers (cut-off is not a necessity, I found):

Digging through my parts pile I found the original Felt cable housing:

A rear view:

 

[Toro1978]

A full frontal:

The "bigger" picture:

 

[indian22]

Beautiful mid-drive, excellent work and photos documenting the very innovative and strong saddle mounts.

Rick C.

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Toro1978, 30% off on a Brooks 190 is real money and a great saddle. I looked a long time period look saddle. The support and suspension is something that has to be experienced. The saddle tension adjustability really works great. Enjoy.
Tom

 

[Toro1978]

Thanks!
I remembered a small detail. The Bafang motor offsets the cranks to the right, which leads to wider Q factor on the right side and a narrower on the left. I took a left crankarm from a MTB crankset I had - lucky it was also black. Because of the triple chainrings most MTB cranksets have a wider Q factor. Riding you wouldn't notice a difference, but once you see it you can't unsee it, so if it bothers you this is how you solve it.