Home made Ebike.

[kfoto]

In my ageing years I needed an ebike that was easy to lift into my car, so of course weight was the consideration. Most of the ready made ebikes are heavy in excess of 27 kgs, so I decided to buy a lightweight folding bicycle. After much deliberation based on design in the main and weight, I chose the Dawes Jack at 13 kgs. This cycle had rear carrier that I proposed would be ideal for mounting the battery on and to spread the weight.
I then looked at all the ebike kits available and finally chose the Yosepower. The front wheel hub motor and parts arrived very quickly including my chosen battery. I opted for the 36v 15.6Ah model but the battery carrier with integrated controller had to be ordered from China.
As I am solely going to be using this off road I decided to add Mr Tuffy tyre liner to reduce punctures. As the 20 inch wheels had city tyres, I thought it best to aid traction to replace the front tyre with a Michelin Country J tyre.
I decided I was not going to use some items in the kit namely brake levers, front light, thumb throttle, and a controller. Installation was without any problems although there was an excess of cabling which I thought was unnecessary. Once completed I ran a no load speed test to check that everything was in order. The display has 5 power levels, 2 at Eco, 2 at Norm and 1 at Power. Power in mph for each level was 7.7, 10.9, 13.0, 14.7, and 17.5.
Weight of bicycle excluding the battery is 18 kgs.
Now waiting for some warmer weather to try the ebike out.

 

[kfoto]

Here is the Dawes Jack Ebike.

 

[berty bassett]

I know nothing about these sort of things but looks impressive and wish you luck - it’s good when things come together with a bit of tinkering

 

[bonzobanana]

A lot of the pre-built ebikes can be a little lower weight than this and that is because they typically come with lower capacity battery packs. Also some pre-built ebikes including entry level folding bikes have a little reinforcing or maybe they have steel forks for front mounted hub motors where as non electrical folding bikes might have aluminium forks that would need a torque arm when used with a hub motor.

 

[kfoto]

This model the Dawes Jack I chose specifically because it Hi Tensile Steel forks. Also the ebike kit came with anti torque axle washers. The motor fitted was 250 watt with just 32nm.

 

[bonzobanana]

This model the Dawes Jack I chose specifically because it Hi Tensile Steel forks. Also the ebike kit came with anti torque axle washers. The motor fitted was 250 watt with just 32nm.

Sounds fine and 32Nm is not to be sniffed at, that is decent torque with small wheels which will amplify the torque over larger wheels. Some of the basic entry level 20" wheel ebikes like the Assist bike at Halfords are much below that, probably in the region of 12-15Nm torque although they are only 24V systems and have very low capacity battery packs which have much lower discharge rates.