Converting a mountain bike into an e-bike, worth it?

[dude7691]

Hi guys,

So I've got a Carrera Vengeance 29" mountain bike and I'm wondering if it's possible to convert it into an e-bike, probably with a 250W motor on it. I'm 55kg. I am used to riding a road bike, and can comfortably do 60 miles on it but every time I get to work on it I'm drenched in sweat. I'm selling my car soon, to go full cyclist but I'm thinking it might be a good idea to fit an electric motor to my MTB in order to fill the gaps where I'm not feeling so good, had a really long shift or I've injured my leg. Is this possible and what price range am I looking at? Has anyone done this themselves? Thank you

 

[Phil Fouracre]

Cyclotricity - everything on their website

 

[dude7691]

Cyclotricity - everything on their website

Thank you for this Would 36V/7aH be enough for a 20 mile commute thereabouts? Also with these rack batteries can you just take them out when you get to work and charge them up at the wall?

 

[Pale Rider]

Lots of things have an impact on battery range, including type of bike, hills, headwinds, amount of assistance demanded by the rider, and weight of the rider.

Put shortly, 7ah could be tight for 20 miles.

 

[Cycleops]

Plenty of bids on YouTube showing how to do it. Simplist and cheapest would be a wheel conversion. Anything from £350 up including battery.


View: https://youtu.be/YtF_16RA2Jo

 

[dude7691]

Lots of things have an impact on battery range, including type of bike, hills, headwinds, amount of assistance demanded by the rider, and weight of the rider.

Put shortly, 7ah could be tight for 20 miles.

Thank you, I'll probably go for 9ah or somewhere around there then just to give me a bit more flexibility if there's particularly strong headwinds which do happen around where I live. I'm only 52kg (weighed today) so I'm guessing I'd be alright, pretty strong cyclist as it is.

 

[dude7691]

Plenty of bids on YouTube showing how to do it. Simplist and cheapest would be a wheel conversion. Anything from £350 up including battery.


View: https://youtu.be/YtF_16RA2Jo

Thanks for this Will keep doing more research, selling my car in about 2 weeks so plenty of time to get myself acquainted with all the details.

 

[keithmac]

I did my Carrera Vengeance Ultimate after it retired as the work steed.

TSDZ2 mid drive with a 36v 15ah battery and a Nuvinci rear hub.

It's quite pokey but I haven't put massive miles on it, more of a project.

Put stupidly big disk brakes on it last time I worked on it.

 

[Pale Rider]

Put stupidly big disk brakes on it last time I worked on it.

Fair bit of weight/momentum with an ebike so a big disc on the front is far from stupid.

 

[Pale Rider]

Thank you, I'll probably go for 9ah or somewhere around there then just to give me a bit more flexibility if there's particularly strong headwinds which do happen around where I live. I'm only 52kg (weighed today) so I'm guessing I'd be alright, pretty strong cyclist as it is.

You weigh about as much as my left leg so you will get decent mileage out of a battery.

The other point to bear in mind is battery capacity decreases with age.

Handy to have more than you need when new which means you will still have enough a few years later.

 

[CXRAndy]

Fair bit of weight/momentum with an ebike so a big disc on the front is far from stupid.

Conversion ebike weigh around 16lb more than non ebike. Not much of a weight penalty. Acceleration is not overly rapid wth standard setups. I agree disc brakes is better reliable option for various weather conditions.

 

[Pale Rider]

Plenty of brake is required to control an ebike on a sharp descent.

A standard hydraulic disc will do the job, but there's no harm in having the next size up on the front.

 

[keithmac]

I'm sure my front and back ended up at 220mm?, will have a look next time it's out.

New Shimano calipers front and back as well.

Need to put some miles on it really but there's aways something else to do!.

I'm sure I bought the Nuvinci hubbed wheel from an add on here, was a long while back though..

 

[Phil Fouracre]

Thank you for this Would 36V/7aH be enough for a 20 mile commute thereabouts? Also with these rack batteries can you just take them out when you get to work and charge them up at the wall?

As has been said, perhaps go for higher capacity just ‘to be sure’! We’ve got two touring bikes with rack batteries, and, two mtbs with frame batteries. All are lockable and removable, although it’s quicker to just plug in if possible.

 

[DBrown67]

I did exactly this 2 years ago. I bought a 700c kit from Whoosh in Southend and fitted it to a brand new Cube Aim Race MTB. The kit was around £600 but that included everything with the largest capacity battery available. The battery alone was half the cost of the kit.

Of course you can save by buying from China direct but if anything goes wrong or you need warranty support you may as well piss in the wind.

The motor came in a ready made wheel with 8 speed cassette so I made sure to buy a bike with 8 speed cassette. That way I hardly had to mess with indexing etc. It was plug and play just about.

I get around 45 miles from a full charge using level 4 assist (out of 5) so that's pretty decent. Don't skimp on the battery. And by using a kit you get round that crappy 15mph max limit on the assistance. Mine is set at 20. Oh and the kit has a trigger that you can't get on UK stock e-bikes. The trigger is brilliant for just pushing you on through junctions at full power if the lights just change as you're on them. Using the trigger full time eats the battery life though, it's not really for that purpose.