Newbie wanting to electrify a Diamondback

[petrushka1611]

Hi, all!

I got the idea a month or so ago to build a fully enclosed e-trike. But, I've started to realize that I need to start a little smaller since I'm reeeeeally new to all this. I've also got a bunch of business stuff I need to get wrapped up first.

Then, the last few days, I've been toying with the idea of making a basic windscreen for my Diamondback. My wife and I went for a short ride tonight, and I started messing around with the highest gears, which I'd really never done, and I topped 25 MPH at one point on a slight downhill grade.

This all got me thinking about putting an electric motor on my existing bike, just to get some practice at all this stuff, before I have to worry about picking out or making a trike, worrying about the motor, making the battery, thinking about the shell, and all that.

Since I'm too impatient to wait until tomorrow to get a better picture, here's one I snapped of my bike a few weeks ago.

Is this a good candidate for getting my feet wet? I realize I'll need some close-ups of things, because I'd probably need people here to tell me what I even have. So, let me know what I should take pictures of and add to the post.

I'd be very happy to have a motor that would keep me moving along at 20-25 MPH on our bike paths. (I live in Xenia, Ohio, and we do have some really good trails.) I don't even mind doing most of the acceleration myself.

I would build my own battery from laptop battery cells -- I've been watching videos on that, and I've been soldering for years, so figuring out the amps, etc, will be the main challenge.

Now, if this bike would work, what about even using a random motor rather than buying a kit? What specs would I need to look for? Over in Dayton, we have Mendelson's Liquidation Outlet, and the third floor is basically an entire city block of the randomest industrial scrap parts you can imagine (they even have an entire room of vacuum tubes). I would bet I could find something there that would work.

Then I would need a controller, throttle, and other good stuff.

I have in mind something like this guy has, but obviously mine would be electric.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVZwBBIqMhQ

I appreciate any help y'all can give.

 

[petrushka1611]

No replies?

 

[Dave31]

Hello petrushka1611,

Hopefully someone with more experience with E-bikes can offer you some advice and help.

I've never built a e-bike or messed with them so I'd rather have someone who has.

I have ridden an e-bike with an electric hub, and I hated it. It was heavy, it was slow, and as much as I had to pedaled I would just rather have a non-motorized bike. But that was years ago and technology is much better now.

 

[petrushka1611]

Thanks, Dave.

My tendency is to avoid a hub wheel if possible, and I say this without having ever been on a motorized bike at all.

I work 2-3 days a week for a high school that's about an hour from me. Biking there is about 43 miles, and it's probably 96% paved bike trails. I would really like to try biking there once it starts getting a little cooler, and with a helper motor and a windscreen, I think it would be feasible in under 2 hours without getting too sweaty. That would also be butt-feasible, since that's the part of me that starts griping the fastest.

One more reason I'd like to get a trike or recumbent bike, but I'm not sure if it will happen this year or not.

 

[petrushka1611]

Annnnnnnd...just today, after daydreaming again about a camper-trailer for my bike, probably Coroplast, I thought, "Rather than put the motor on the bike, why not make a pusher-camper-trailer?"

I'm back to it being more complicated, but I like this idea better. With a camper, I wouldn't have to do an 86-mile commute in a single day.

I've found a bunch of trailer threads on motoredbikes.com, and I'll check around here, too, and probably start a new thread once I begin gathering parts.