As far as "any bike can be an ebike" I'm surprised that Hilltoppers[0] haven't gained more traction over the years. You just pop off your current bike's front wheel and install theirs.
[0] https://hilltopperbikes.com/product-category/electric-bike-k...
And then you remove your bottle cage to install their battery (hope you don't ride a small frame). And then you install the speed/cadence sensor. Then you install the display/swtich/throttle assembly. Then you wire it all up.
And then you get into all the compatibility problems - many e-bike conversion kits are sold with a freehub that's not the correct size for modern cassettes (comes with HG 9-speed, need an HG 11-speed, XD, XDR, or Microspline freehub). Axle widths and axle type (bolt, QR, thru-axle).
Granted, all the above is easier than it sounds, but it's not quite as simple as "swap wheel, done". You need a working knowledge of bicycles to do this.
Then there's the cost. Basic "unbranded" kits are $500 or so. Brand-name kits, larger battery, or mid-drive kits cost more. Is it worth putting a $500 kit on an old bike that's only worth $100? Or, are you better off buying a new bike with warranty and no need for service for years (which will cost $1500-$3000).
People who can't ride usually don't go OTB because of the torque around the front wheel (i.e. the entire bike rotating), they go OTB because they can't handle (or aren't ready for) the sheer force of the deceleration, it makes their hands fold.
If I hit somebody else on my bike… I don’t think I have insurance for that liability? I don’t think my auto or homeowner’s insurance policy mentions me riding bikes at all, let alone an exclusion for DIY e-bikes.
The problem is (IMO) e-bikes that are more "motorcycle" than "bicycle". Which includes a massive number of the kits.
There currently is no national framework for classifying e-bikes. There's the 3 tier system that some industry groups use, but it directly conflicts with most state's moped/motorcycle regulations.
Safe bet for an e-bike is a "class 1" bike from a major brand. 20mph cap, no throttle, the most "bicycle" of the 3.
Class 2 bikes keep the 20mph cap, but add a throttle (don't need to pedal). This probably makes it a moped or small (50cc) scooter in some states.
Class 3 removes the throttle, but bumps the top speed to 28mph. Again, this speed probably makes it a moped or scooter (or possibly even a full motorcycle).
And then there's the e-bikes that are more motorcycle than bike. 30+mph, powerful engines, and the pedals are truly vestigial. Supe73 and Surron bikes fall in this category.
Pedaled vs throttle is an ablest issues; not everyone has picked up on this.
I’m ambivalent about throttles - much more concerned about the mass and speed of some e-bike when they inevitably get used on sidewalks, multi-use paths, etc.
And if you don’t think you have liability coverage, that’s exactly the risk. If your policy doesn’t mention bikes, it’s more likely not covered than automatically included. The more you do things outside the norm—like DIY e-bikes—the higher the chance standard policies don’t cover it.
Not saying you’re wrong, just that it’s worth checking so you don’t get caught off guard.
To be fair, all of these problems exist when doing work on normal bikes too.
You see a lot of skaters carrying their skate in a bikepack by bike to the skatepark. Surely if skating is their passion and the longboard would be a perfect medium/longer distance solution they would use one to carry their smaller skateboard to the skatepark. Yet you never see that.
Previously I lived in London and commuted by longboard there as well. Obviously flat but the surface quality of the pavement was a lot worse, so my knees did complain more.
That bike bottles are so small seems to be due to small frames. 750ml is about the max normal size. I’ve tracked down some 950ml ones, but I’m sure you could go larger with a decent sized frame.
Most of the batteries for e-bike kits look to be at least the size of a 1L bottle, if not even larger.
Needless to say, you save more money if you change the wheels over yourself. That's a 45 minute job for me, including finding the tools and putting them away.
I eventually got a whole new set of tires+wheels and the shop still swaps them for free.
Depending on where you drive, it's a good idea to rebalance your tires on a regular basis anyway.
Incidentally, my tire shop said they've had people lose the balancing weights due to the current adhesive not being able to handle the heat this summer. Hopefully they switch to something stronger next year, but it looks like you may have to rebalance twice per summer...
I have found the cheapest and most convenient solution for me is to buy high-end studless snow rated tires with a mileage warranty and run them all year.
As for the time, I consider it an opportunity to have a look at the brakes and suspension, make sure the lug nuts are torqued appropriately, and that the wheel comes free without undue force. And it's practice for having to change a wheel at a time not of your choosing. If you're used to doing it, it's an irritation, not an emergency.
I'll admit to only having one honest-to-god pull-over-to-the side-of-the-road-and-get-out-the-jack flat tire in my life. I guess I've changed a couple for other people too though.
The rubber and tread patterns are getting more feasible for year-round running. I can't fault your choice, especially if you've done the changeover yourself in the past.
In Italy Norauto charges 11€ for tires (17"), 10.50€ for wheels [2]
Other countries show higher differences, though.
[1] https://www.atu.de/pages/meisterwerkstatt/wartung-service/re...
[2] https://www.norauto.it/e/cambio-gomme.html?cod=PSNGOO00001IT...
So for most automobiles, the tire (tyre) can be detached from the rim, which can be detached from the wheel hub, which encloses the wheel bearing, which is generally friction fitted to the axle (or steering knuckle/hub carrier).
Or said another way, both the tire and rim are subassemblies of the wheel, which is also constituted of a wheel bearing and hub. Some manner of brake is also generally attached to the wheel, but is not essential to the definition of a wheel.
Bicycles wheels are generally packaged along with the axle, which can be removed as one subassembly from the bike fork.
Of course the great problem with pedantry is that once you start down this road, each following step must be taken with great care. In other words, I've almost certainly said something wrong here, Muphry be praised.
What is the most technically correct definition of the "RJ45" connector that you can construct? Something something 8P8C EIA/TIA standard UTP termination something something.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Exploded-view-of-wheel-b...
I know many people find pedantry to be viscerally repulsive, and feel that the pedant is acting self-important. I disagree with this because if you look deeper down, I think there is a reason for it: To be able to name and distinguish things. Let me give a few examples:
Some people think it's okay to abbreviate kilometres as "kms", whereas the standard is "km". By analogy, that would mean it's okay to abbreviate watts (a unit of power) as "Ws" and newtons (a unit of force) as "Ns". But now you can't distinguish them from actually useful units, like the watt-second for photographic flash output energy or newton-second for rocket impulse.
I've encountered people who call a laptop computer as a "laptop" (okay) but a desktop computer as just "computer". That makes no sense, as a laptop is a computer, and can easily be a desktop replacement especially if you attach an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
These days, it's common to ask "Do you want to buy the game disc or get the digital version?". But that's a misnomer because the data on the disc is digital! Ask anyone from the cassette vs. CD days about whether CD is digital music or not. Common speech ascribes qualities to digital that are not inherent in the definition. Digital does not imply electronic, high-tech, new, or immaterial; there are counterexamples to all of these. There can be digital logic made of plastic mechanical LEGO; digital signaling is as low-tech as a man writing numbers on a tablet; digital is as old as DNA (a 4-symbol code); digital information can be transmitted by physical objects like CDs or by energy like Wi-Fi radio waves.
I argue that the core qualities of "digital" are finite information and perfect copies. For example, you cannot measure the real-valued positions of every single atom in a painting, nor can you copy it perfectly. Technically, you can't copy every atom on a "digital" CD either, but by convention we all agree that the exact atoms are irrelevant and only the high-level interpretation is important. For example, no one argues that a file on a server's hard disk is any "better" than the same file transmitted over the Internet to some rando's flash drive; both files are equally good.
Pedantry means "pay attention to what these words are supposed to mean, not what you want them to mean".
I don't think that's really a misnomer.
You're ordering some food, do you want the combo or the sandwich? The combo has the sandwich of course, nobody is implying otherwise. But if you say "the sandwich" then you get just the sandwich wrapped up in a delivery medium.
Don't know whether your spelling was intentional or not, but anyway:
Muphry's law:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law
Murphy's law:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law
Edit: I just saw this one for the first time, after re-reading the one above:
Yhprum's law:
That word does not mean what you think it means.
- the chain is routed through the add-on device, so it should be longer than usual
- the pedals don't rotate when the chain and the wheel do, so there is a custom pedal hub with a ratchet mechanism
New ebikes from reputable brands come with good brakes from the factory.
In many countries ebike assistance is strictly limited. Sure an ebike weight more than a regular bike, but the stress in brakes is only an issue in hilly places.
If you ride a bike restricting assistance to 25kph (15mph)/like in most countries[1] and do not hit steep dow hills there are very little reason for you to go faster as going past the assistance limit feels like hitting a sudden headwind. In that case you are riding slower than most cyclists doing recreative cycling on road bikes and are less likely to need strong braking.
[1] in europe you can buy faster ones but they need to be registered like a moped (for those limited to 45kph) or motorbikes, have plates and you usually lose the right to use bicycle lanes. Having said that, a lot of people are breaking the law and never get issues until they are involved in an accident and lose insurance coverage and get fined.
Ebikes are generally pretty heavy, even i this case where you are converting an old bike, that aluminum box of batteries is going to add a ton of weight.. and given that there are many older bikes with caliper breaks out there... that's pretty scary. At least the expand ships with disk breaks (still not up to the task but a caliper break would be totally ineffective).
For most e-bikes, you're looking at maybe an extra 30lb/14kg. That's generally within the envelope of reasonable rider weights. If the combined bike and rider weight is too much for the brakes, it's probably also too much for the whole bike.
Again, not that there aren't worthless brakes in the world, but it's usually not the weight of the battery and motor that pushes a set of brakes over the edge.
Fact is most department store bikes comes with shitty brakes, or brakes not setup by professionals (lacking cable tension, shitty stock brake pads) but the very same happen when an high end bike is badly maintained by its owner. But this is a tangential problem.
I rate Rad Power bikes as shitty department store quality bikes anyway. They are successful because they are cheap and people know they can easily bypass the set assistance limits. They are cheap because the brand spec them with the cheapest components available. It doesn't help that most bikes are delivered to the owner's door without being revised by professional and appart from googling how to change the assistance limit speed Rad Power owners are rarely knowledgeable enough in bikes to correct any setup issue.
The design is pretty clever, I was expecting more work to make things happen. Also, the individual parts about mud and fireproofing etc. are quite illustrative.
However, for me the best part was the scenery. It just looks somehow... peaceful. Calm. I actually watched this several times just because of the scenery.
I don't know why it seems so peaceful. Maybe because the scenery and nature and the light (?!) reminds me of the late summers when I bicycled (not quite as effortlessly though) home as a child when the Sun was low. I mean especially the part when the dog is chasing him.
I was annoyed at one thing though: he casually throws the empty container of flammable liquid into the ditch. I hope he picked it up afterwards.
2. They're dangerous. FWD ebikes have a tendency to break traction on corners.
3. They tend to destroy the dropouts in your fork.
4. Installation is much more complex than "pop off your bike's front wheel". I can't even find the axle compatibility specs on their website. You know that there are many standards for front axles, right?
Do not recommend.
Nah, they're selling a complete wheel (wheelset?), which consists of: Axle, electric hub, spokes, spoke nipples, rim, inner tube, valve, valve core, tire.
(Addendum: To any downvoters, I was replying to the parent's original text as I first saw it. They made an edit after my reply, within their 2-hour window.)