I recently traded our big A-Class motorhome for a Camper Van. In the Motorhome the bikes lived in the garage out of sight. In the Camper there is just about enough space to get a bike, with wheels and bars off, under the bed … but not my Speciaized Levo so that ends up on on the tow-bar rack, which is not an ideal situation.
Sometimes I just need a bike with me for pub/shopping and bimbling duties, so I figured I’d grab a cheap s/h hardtail and Bafang it.
I already had a 36v 378wh battery as I have the TrailWatts extender kit on my Levo. I can’t ride both bikes at the same time so an effective use of the battery I figured…
I spent a a month or so watching Gumtree, eBay etc with a budget of about £300 but I couldn’t see anything that didn’t either look stolen or knackered.
Then I happened across this, new for £350 …
https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/16210931/calibre-point-29-hardtail-mountain-bike-16210931
Reasonable enough for knockabout bike and it’s actually quite nice to ride.
I pondered over Bafang and the tsdz2 Tongsheng motor kits. Ended up going for the Tong as it was cheaper.
Ordered the motor kit from Pswpower for £235 and a pair of Big Apples tyres from Ebay for £32.
I needed more tools, so spent another £50 on a Crank puller, C Spanner and Cup Wrench BB Spanner .. I also got use my bearing press, for only the second time ever, to hold the cup wrench in place while I hit it with a lump of wood...
The build was very straight forward, front derailleur and shifter removed, then pedals off, cranks off, BB out, motor in, wheel sensor, magnet, display panel and power selector switch fitted.
Managed to thread the cable to handlebar mounted display through the internal cabling route. Battery sits in the water bottle.
Turned it on, then configured it; set wheel size, power mode and removed the 25 kmph restriction cut out. Motor is 250 Watt so tis legal.
Weighs in at just under 20kg. Also looks pretty OK - not obviously an Ebike at first glance.
Noticeably lighter than my Levo. Doesn’t feel as powerful but is a much more natural ride.
All in all for £600 plus a battery its gonna be a useful machine I reckon.
Quite pleased with it!
Nice job.
Turned it on, then configured it; set wheel size, power mode and removed the 25 kmph restriction cut out. Motor is 250 Watt so tis legal.
Not without the restriction 🙂
Tis a fine machine and will serve you well.
Looks decent for the money and a little knock about bike. Obviously it’s not legal with the cut off taken out but other than that it seems tidy.
Hi
That looks really good and useful.
Some questions about the e side if I may
- is the motor torque sensing and if so does it seem to work ok. (The kit seems to come with brake sensors etc)
- does the kit have everything except the battery and tools that I’d need
- any reasons (overrun, power glitches ?? Etc), why it wouldn’t be suitable for an elderly, not the most confident/experienced/highest ability cyclist to help her extend her range
Ta
Very nice! And that Calibre is almost offensively cheap for what it is.
Also watching with interest, for a shopper ebike conversion we keep threatening to do.
Some questions about the e side if I may
– is the motor torque sensing and if so does it seem to work ok. (The kit seems to come with brake sensors etc)
– does the kit have everything except the battery and tools that I’d need
– any reasons (overrun, power glitches ?? Etc), why it wouldn’t be suitable for an elderly, not the most confident/experienced/highest ability cyclist to help her extend her range
Yes - it's torque sensing and the ride feels very natural, no sudden snatching. I actually bought the slightly cheaper kit without the brake sensors as if you stop pedalling its stops the power assist.
You just need a battery and suitable tools to remove the BB.
I built a Swytch for my wife using her Specialized Myka as a base. That was an easier build as you just replace the front wheel. She loves it - it's great for fire-roads, tow-paths and general bimbling. To me though, the drive through the front wheel feels wrong.
Very nice! And that Calibre is almost offensively cheap for what it is.
It was a bit of a punt but has worked out better than I though it would.
Obviously it’s not legal with the cut off taken out but other than that it seems tidy.
I turned the cut-off because my Levo is noticeably draggy once you get beyond 25kmph/15mph, the Tongsheng is nowhere near as bad. I reckon even with the cutoff on it would be very rideable.
That looks very interesting. I was looking at a FS e-bike for my wife to ride on for roads, because she got a bad back and can’t ride much uphill. But they are very expensive new, potentially risky second hand (and still expensive), and finding something size XS is very difficult - and it’s almost impossible to do any sort of try before you buy for XS size.
So a few hundred £ to convert her current Specialized FS looks much lower risk and more affordable.
I would be interested to know what you think of battery capacity and whether you are still happy after a few weeks use.
So a few hundred £ to convert her current Specialized FS looks much lower risk and more affordable.
I would be interested to know what you think of battery capacity and whether you are still happy after a few weeks use.
It's also a reversible change so if it doesn't work out you can move the kit to another bike or eBay it.
The battery capacity will depend on how and where you ride it - you can buy various sizes but the bigger you go the more the weight penalty.
I built this for gentle riding with the family so more fire-roads, canal paths type stuff rather than gnarly tracks. Guess it will give 30 - 40 miles range.
I'm after a bit of guidance from anyone who's willing to give it. The bike I want to convert will be used for nipping to the shop that's about two miles away. However, the return journey is up a pretty steep hill - 12%+ in places, and climbing about 600 feet in about a mile (can you guess why we'd like some electrical assistance?). So, it needs grunt, but not really range.
So, what should I be looking at in terms of motor and battery spec?
>what should I be looking at in terms of motor
250W if you want to remain legal
>and battery spec?
as big as you can afford. Frame (bottle cage) mount better for handling than rear rack mounts
as big as you can afford.
But why buy a big battery when it only needs to do five miles?
**EDIT, actually, two and a half miles, cos for half the journey we won't be pedalling...
But why buy a big battery when it only needs to do five miles?
so you don't have to charge it as often. Admittedly I'm not a battery expert, but as I understand it a battery has a limited number of use / charge cycles, so the less often you charge it the better. You may need to offset this against the battery ability to hold a charge when not in use - if you are only using it once a month then you may not get as many miles per charge as you would if you used it every day, perhaps? Given I know the hill, extra weight going downhill won't matter, and as long as you are charged then it won't matter going uphill as you will be powered.
"so I figured I’d grab a cheap s/h hardtail and Bafang it."
Try saying that out loud without using pronouncing Bafang in a 70's Kung-fu movie stylee.
Is the Tongsheng strictly 1x chainring at the front?
Always enjoy a Tongsheng thread.
Mine has just passed 4000km, doing 25 miles each way to work, built on a Planet X London Road. It's a 250 motor with a 48v battery. I've had a couple of wires work loose on the battery, but other than that, it's been faultless.
You can buy a spider for the crank to mount different chainrings, they are available on Ebay. (I have done so to fit a thick/thin ring) I can't see why you would want a double front, I have 44-27 as my lowest gear, and it's fine to spin up seated on every bit of the Chilterns I've attempted to ride up. (Road and smooth gravel only though...)
the Tongsheng is nowhere near as bad. I reckon even with the cutoff on it would be very rideable.
They're perfectly rideable once the assist cuts out, ours are geared (singlespeed, 42:17 on 26") to help you to 25km/h then it's leg power after that.
Is the Tongsheng strictly 1x chainring at the front?
There's no real need for any more if you use a wide-ish cassette at the back, even a custom one made up of 5 or so cogs with a decent spread would do the job. Tongshengs don't (can't?) spin as fast as Bafangs.
With the restriction removed, how fast will that go?
Does it require a specific bAttery or battery connection? Or how easily can different connections be made?
I’ve got a spare focus internal battery with some dead cells but still circa 300kwh useable. Gathering dust so no real value to it, wonder if a project like above could make use of it?
Rechargeable Li-ion Battery Pack
Model:170817059
Voltage:36VDC
Energy: 10.5Ah/378Wh
Does it require a specific bAttery or battery connection? Or how easily can different connections be made?
I’ve got a spare focus internal battery with some dead cells but still circa 300kwh useable. Gathering dust so no real value to it, wonder if a project like above could make use of it?
That was part of my reasoning - I already had the battery.
My battery already had a XT60 Connector, the motor came with bare cable ends so just bought a matching connector so I can quick release the battery.
It does power up with my lawn mower battery but I reckon the range wouldn’t be too good!
In more eking-out-charge news I can report that we hit 100 miles from a single charge today (48V 14Ah battery, mostly eco and tour with a bit of sport on the hills). It was squeaky bum time coming home mind (uphill, headwind, basically nothing at all going for it 🤣 ) - the batteries are charging now. It's nice to have a rough idea of how far we can push them if we need to though.
Cheers, might look into further, wife’s bike or the old pub hack could be turned into ebike for about £250 then. Focus battery in a casing so not sure what wiring on it is. See Tx and Rx on the casing label.
Anyone running a Bafang mid (add on) setup like this? How is in pedalling with power off or once the limiter kicks in? Are you pedalling the motor around? I don’t imagine it deconnects when 15mph is reached?
Thx
I had a BBSDH 1000W for a bit (sold it) and it's the same-ish as the Tongsheng kits when you get to the limiter, there's a sort of fade out of assist and once you're above whatever limit you've set you're on your own. The limit/assist level works differently to the Tongsheng kit though, if you have (say) five power levels available and you set the assist to cut off at (say) 15.5mph (ie the legal cutoff point) then you'll only get assist up to that limit in the maximum power setting, the lower ones will give you assist up to slightly lower speeds (ie eco mode will only help you up to 9mph or so, tour will get you up to 11mph etc.) There's a similar amount of drag from both types of motor (not very much) so pedalling along on flat bits on eco or zero assist to save a bit of battery is easy enough.
Having had both, in hindsight I should have gone for a Tongsheng in the first place for what we use our bikes for. I can imagine a monster Bafang would be ideal on a delivery bike/trike though.
Also, the larger Bafangs have messed up chainlines because of the width of the motor, the chainring sits outboard of the freehub on a non-boost frame so you need to use a rear mech (and cassette) with it to pull the chain back in. It's not much, maybe 5 or 6mm, but enough to be a PITA to work around and it means that using the larger cogs on the cassette really pulls the chain out of line. I got around it by using a cut-down 10 speed cassette and only using the middle block of 5 or so cogs and even then I only ever needed the three largest cogs because the larger Bafangs can spin quite fast. the width of the larger motor affects the crank width too. The Tongsheng motors are small enough to have a 'normal' 51mm-55mm chainline so you can run them singlespeed if you want.
Pic of a BBSHD on a 142x12 frame with cut-down cassette-
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I have nothing to add from the POV of e-bikery, but as a little PSA on the PSA, I have just ordered the Calibre and it now comes with a £100 Go Outdoors gift card, which was to good to pass up on.
The idea is that Mrs LJ can use it when we go away in the caravan as she's currently a bit over-biked for pootling around with the kids. She'll have to do her own pedalling though.
Yeah, that £100 voucher back makes it one of the best bike deals I can ever remember tbh, almost up there with the £900 Pitch Pros bitd. Let alone in 2022. A couple of family and friends have jumped on it too.
Perfect timing on this thread! Was looking at getting a cheap e bike for the wife to keep at our caravan on it’s seasonal pitch.
Bought one of those Calibres today and the £100 gift card makes it a crazy deal!
Ordered a Tongsheng motor and 15.6ah battery for £590 from a UK based seller.
So that’s sub £1k all in. Bargain!