Has anyone ever retro fitted a motor to a mtb bike? My neighbour is looking at the kits that a company called Cyclotricity sell and just wondered if anyone had experience of them or can offer advice about fitting one. Any alternatives he should consider?

Tried cyclotricity website but was almost unusable on my phone.

Bottom bracket / mid mount is better for mtb as the motor benefits from the gear ratio (same as your legs). Hub motors fine for commuting not very good at slow off road uphill (almost stalling motor).

I fitted a second generation Bafang to a retired friend’s bike. Cranks are a bit cheap but work OK. You can only run a single ring, but can get narrow – wide as an option.

Bought it from Brighton e bikes as they import the nw rings and seemed to have done some tidy conversions. Battery bracket might need some creativity and could over stress some bottle cage bosses. Cables well made but a bit untidy.

An off the shelf Bosch one will be nicer but rather expensive.

Hope Tj will be along if he sees this. He has a successful conversion…

I have – but the company I used has stopped selling them which is a shame as it was by far the best of the retrofits. It was so expensive tho they could no longer compete with bosh motored full builds

Central mount is best for hills etc as it uses the bike gears. Proper torque sensing makes the fit much easier but I don’t think you can get a central mount now with torque sensing. the bafeng central mount on uses a cadense sensor and a speed sensor which means you also need to fit cutout switches on the gear and brake cables complicating the fit and making it messy.

trail rat has one IIRC and he gets on well with it

Rear wheel hub motors allows proper torque sensing but as its after the gear train obviously it boosts more in lower gears than higher which can feel a bit odd. Front wheel ones are easiest to fit.

all have disadvantages and advantage. IIRC there is a e bike forum somewhare with lots of good discussion

Ben at Kintetics has experience of them

I would go for a bosch motor full build now I think – torque sensing mid motors give by far the best ride

~That kit – it doesn’t say its a torque sensor in their pedal assistance kit – I suspect not. I wouldn’t use one with a throttle control

Make sure its a proper legal one.

Thanks tj,good advice.

Agreement on STW!

I looked at the Sunstar mid mount with torque sensor before fitting the Bafang – as TJ says, they stopped selling it this year because the price clashed with proper off the peg Bosch ones and the retro-fit market died.

The Bafang came with reasonable brake levers with built-in cut out switches – OK if he runs cable vee or discs. If on hydro discs then much messier to fit switches.