Electric Bike From The Ground Up

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Electric Bike From The Ground Up Hackaday

Electric vehicles are getting more traction these days, but this trend is rolling towards us in more ways than just passenger vehicles. More and more bikes are being electrified too, since the cost of batteries has come down and people realize that they can get around town easily without having to pay the exorbitant price to own, fuel, and maintain a car. Of course there are turnkey ebikes, but those don’t interest us much around here. This ebike from [Andy] is a master class in how to build your own ebike.

Due to some health issues, [Andy] needed a little bit of assistance from an electric motor on his bike, but found out that the one he wanted wouldn’t fit his current bike quite right. He bought a frame from eBay with the right dimensions and assembled the bike from scratch. Not only that, but when it was time to put the battery together he sourced individual 18650 cells and built a custom battery for the bike. His build goes into great detail on how to do all of these things, so even if you need a lithium battery for another project this build might be worth a read.

If you’ve never been on an electric bike before...

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THOUGHTS ON “ELECTRIC BIKE FROM THE GROUND UP”

geocrasher says:
August 8, 2018
My winter project is going to be a long wheelbase recumbent. It just might get electrified! I built one 10 years ago, it was not electric though.(Details here.) This one will be like it, but shorter.

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Follow my blog if you like, check my youtube channel (miscdotgeek) I’ll be posting updates there, and hope to build the whole thing on youtube
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I have 3 homemade e bikes. One is a Atomic Zombie trike that has a rear hub motor fitted. It also has a coroplast body fitted to it that makes it look a little like a pedal car. It,s great fun to ride and where I live it,s just springtime now. I have taken it out for rides when the temp was minus 7 Celcius and a t shirt and sweater provided enough warmth. Gloves are a must as well. It now has a roof as well so I look forward to trying it out in the rain. I also made a recumbent SWB stick bike or high racer using 24" wheels. That bike got a Bafang mid drive motor installed on it similar to the motor in the first post in this thread. That turned out to be unsuitable due to the weight distribution. On a DF bike the motor is down low, on a stick bike the motor is out at the end of the boom and the battery is slung under the frame near the front forks. It made the front end way to heavy and the motor has now been removed and placed onto a 700C road bike. My conclusion for a recumbent is a hub motor preferably rear is a good choice. Quite a few trikes do have a front mounted motor which is fine but its a good idea to keep an eye on the front boom to be sure it is strong enough. Just my 2 cents worth.