Swapping almost everything apart from the frame on a new eMTB

There are hardly any frame only options out there, and the spec of most full bike options is not to my liking. Base models all the components are crap, one level up hardly any better. Next level up is a mix of crap, adequate but not to my preference, ok, and more than I want (e.g. carbon wheels) not to mention the cost.

So I was considering getting a base model, immediately strip it of almost (or totally) everything, sell them in new condition, and fit my own. Like you see people doing from time to time with non-E bikes in the classifieds. Yes it’s a hassle and extra cost, but I’d probably rather than to get a complete package I actually like.

Would you do that with an eMTB? Or have you?

The obvious concern is warranty. I can’t see any valid reason why replacing stuff would affect the frame warranty, but I’d be wary of a manufacturer trying to use it as an excuse. What’s e.g. Trek going to say when you roll in your Trigger’s broom base model Fuel EXe for a motor issue with only the frame remaining? After all, they are mostly all making a decision to not offer frame only for some reason, could be just coz they can or to simplify support.

My Kenevo sl base model has had replaced wheels/tyres, bars, stem, dropper, saddle, drive train and I intend to swap out the fork damper at some point.

Levo SL and one of our Turbo Levos had everything swapped out except frame motor and cranks.

Kenevo SL Comp with only the dropper and cranks left from the OE spec. I haven’t sold any of it on though; some stuff is boxed up to be refitted if I decide to sell and the rest has been repurposed on other bikes.

Yeah I did on a trek fuel exe, bought the base 9.5 model and then swapped virtually everything, I think the only original parts left on it were the dropper post and the shock.

3 months after I bought it the motor failed and I found a crack in the frame, these were sorted under warranty no problem. They supplied a new frame and new motor.

The key is to pick a brand with a good warranty, so that means giant would be out, and when you do swap parts only swap to compatible parts, ie don’t go putting 180mm forks on a frame only designed to take a max of 150mm forks.

I havent fully because of the work involved. Spec is reasonable, but I’m a Hope user, so base spec has to go.

Front wheel from base shimano to pro5, and a tech4V4 along with it. But to do the rear is a complete arsebisuit.

Hose is internal, so I believe i need to drop the motor,which im not prepared to do.

I was hoping to fit a pro5/t4v4 then swop the rear mech from 12 spd micro, to 10 spd hg, and swop out the mech from the xt to xo, but again its so much work im not sure i can actually be bothered. Looked at a quote for some lbs to do it, but theres little difference between their quote and buying a new shock and fork. (robbin’ bas***** want 50/hour and they’re speculating its an all day job)

I can run the hose externally, but the mech cable outer cannot be moved/replaced without dropping said motor and using one of these line pullers.

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Internal run hose and cable housing is one thing, but the actual design of how it goes from the front triangle to the rear, all internal, makes any job 10x harder. Nukeproof has it on the ball. their hose/outer exits the main triangle and is routed along the stays,not inside them.

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If you can do the work, and it doesnt involve major engineering then go for it. It’s often the case that the base frame is the same from entry to tricked out factory. In fact I sometimes wonder if they fit crap brakes because they know and serious rider will be swopping them out anyway.

I did this on a new Orbea Wild, swapped everything except frame, electronics, headset, seatpost clamp, tyres and cranks. Most parts were from a heavily upgrade ebike. Used the original parts to rebuild the old bike and sold that complete.

Frame should last longer than most of the components anyway – I mean, I’ve got new tyres on my ebike, would they refuse warranty for that… I guess Giant might ?

Wheels will probably be next, then drivetrain. Frame warranty will still be good.

Hose is internal, so I believe i need to drop the motor,which im not prepared to do.

Dropping a motor is probably less hassle than swapping a BB in most cases.

I’ve swapped brakes, levers, stem, seat post (removed dropper), seat, wheels, cassette, chain, bars, and bar tape. Only thing original is the derailleur and hanger!

I tend to think changing parts on an ebike is a bit pointless mostly, tart it up as you want, but reality is that the drivetrains are more about durability over weight, same with wheels and so on.

I was complimented by the guys in my LBS for my spec & build of my EX-e yesterday, the only bits that are left from the bike they sold me are the frame & motor. They have absolutely no qualms about working on it & have implied no issue as far as warranty in concerned.

I’m kinda with argee on this one, I’ve had 3 ebikes (+1 from base spec) I changed very little, until parts wore out.  Performance upgrades like suspension or brakes are a different matter

My 2022 Levo has had everything changed, the only original parts are the frame, motor battery etc.. ohh and the saddle, everything has been upgraded

Hose is internal, so I believe i need to drop the motor,which im not prepared to do.

No need to drop the motor, i did mine using this

https://www.sram.com/en/service/models/tl-rvbt-bc-a1

Simply connect the new hose to the old hose using the connector, pull the old hose out of the frame whilst pulling the new hose through the frame’s internal routing

It’s not an issue.  The most difficult thing to change is likely to be the brakes if you need to change the hoses.  I swapped Shimano for Sram on my Rise which meant dropping the motor.

Everything else on a frame is basically a consumable – you need to take the forks and shock off to service them which is annually or less.  On the mk1 Rise you need to drop the motor and battery to remove the seat post (again, annual service item) as you the battery traps the cable outer/

I wanted to do this, but a lot of ebikes lower down the range have lower spec batteries/motors, read very carefully what you are getting, you might be surprised

@escrs is spot on above also – the reverb barb connector is a very handy tool, worked on an ebike for me too – try to push more than pull when using it though

Bought a KSL comp 50% off in November.

Swapped out everything except cassette, headset, seat post clamp.  For the rear shock I  added the compression dial to the Float X to turn it into a Performance Elite. Even had a new TCU and motor.

Some parts changed as they wore out, some because they were shit (I’m looking at you Code R and Xfusion dropper), and some because I’m a slut for nice things.

Would you do that with an eMTB?

No, I really wouldn’t bother. I’d just ride as is and maybe swap anything I thought was really impacting negatively on the performance of the bike. Even entry level stuff is pretty damn good these days, so as long as it’s sensible specced it should mostly work fine. Of course you can fit a load of bling stuff, but on an e-mtb, weight saving is pretty much a marginal (not much of a) gain. I’d pay particular attention to tyres, fork and maybe brakes, but otherwise, na, use  until it wears out, then replace.

But if you want to swap a bunch of stuff and it’ll make you happy and you’re sure the warranty won’t be impacted – I guess longer travel forks may be a no – sure, why not?

I did this to a base model alloy Mondraker but that was already out of warranty. That got nicked and I used the insurance money to buy a base model carbon Orbea Wild and I’ve changed everything bar frame and motor and electronics.  Well, I have also changed the rim magnet to rotor but that was approved by Orbea. I have separate warranty on the other new components and as long as everything is in line with the manufacturer’s design as has been said, I can’t see an issue

As for the comment about ebikes just being about durability, disagree. I think the suspension needs to be decent to control the increased mass, on the drivetrain I changed the garbage that came on it for XT linkglide, so more durable. Which is true for just about everything I’ve changed, TBH. I now have the bike I want, and it’s mint. Shame I can’t ride it for a few months as injured, doh!

Used the original parts to rebuild the old bike and sold that complete.

Interesting idea, no idea whether it’d sell quicker or make more money than all the bits separately.

I tend to think changing parts on an ebike is a bit pointless mostly

Have you seen the crap suspension, brakes, and wheels on many of the lite eMTBs at £6k to £8k?!

Performance upgrades like suspension or brakes are a different matter

Which is mostly where the money would go.

No, I really wouldn’t bother. I’d just ride as is and maybe swap anything I thought was really impacting negatively on the performance of the bike.

Unfortunately I think I’d find it difficult to put up with knowing I’d spent so much money, but ended up with e.g. a Fox 36 Rhythm (not even Performance let alone Performance Elite or Factory) and Code R brakes, wheels with 24 points of engagement.

Id considered doing this but was put off by the weak 2nd hand market.   I concluded that trying to sell many parts at very reduced prices wasn’t worth the hassle or financial hit.

High engagement hubs on ebikes can be a bit of a waste, the motor/crank has a freewheel. so never instant, and high engagement means finer teeth which can be at the expense of durability

Unfortunately I think I’d find it difficult to put up with knowing I’d spent so much money, but ended up with e.g. a Fox 36 Rhythm (not even Performance let alone Performance Elite or Factory) and Code R brakes, wheels with 24 points of engagement.

in honesty, I don’t see how it’s different from upgrading any other mountain bike, if stuff doesn’t work well / isn’t bling enough, just replace it. The only real issue is whether it’s more sensible to buy a higher specced model in the first place.

True, I guess the only difference is

they are mostly all making a decision to not offer frame only for some reason

like they don’t want people cobbling together their own eMTB for whatever reason.

like they don’t want people cobbling together their own eMTB for whatever reason.

To be fair, I suspect most of the mainstream brands, who are generally the ones selling e-mtbs, mostly sell fully-built non-assisted mtbs as opposed to frames. And where they do sell frames separately, they tend to be expensive relative to complete bikes. If a Trek Fuel frame is £2.5k – which it seems to be – then the ebike equivalent would presumably be £4k plus, which is a fair wedge and possibly quite a small market,

Have done it before… The only bits covered by the manufacturers warranty are the frame and anything proprietary anyway, everything else (including the motor) is covered by its own warranty, so doesn’t matter if you remove it and replace with something else (within reason of course, if you stick a dual crown DH fork on a bike designed around a 150mm single crown fork, that is more than likely going to void any warranty).

Didn’t bother going this route with my latest bike, albeit have immediately made a few changes based on my own preferences. I like Fox suspension anyway, but a custom tune in the fork (and got a GRIP2 damper to replace the stock GRIP damper, and also a Diaz Runt cartridge now too) has transformed the slightly underwhelming stock Fox 38 Performance, I changed the tyres, bar, stem, saddle, grips to my own preferences, fitted a longer dropper post, and swapped the 12spd SLX/XT drivetrain out for an 11spd Deore (it’s an eBike, cheaper consumables and I won’t miss the 10T cog) that I already had before riding it. Also fitted a 32T ring instead of the 34T to make the gearing more useable for me.

Now contemplating a brake upgrade though of course… So in the space of only a few weeks, most things have been replaced or upgraded now anyway, despite saying I wasn’t going to! ?

It obviously depends on your budget and what you consider high spec but I picked up a new Fuel exe with full xt and Select Plus suspension (so same dampers as Ultimates) for £4600 about 6 weeks ago.

It looks like prices have gone back up a bit but still not far off.

https://mtbmonster.com/trek-fuel-exe-9-8-xt-deep-smoke-2023

Just done it myself over the last few weeks to a Specialized Levo SL 2 Carbon.

Originally wanted an S-Works but the eye watering price (13k!) and lack of availability put me off, so ended up buying a ridden 5 times Carbon model for 4.5k and buying new/almost new upgrade parts from the classified:

Öhlins RXF36 M.2 Air 29 fork & Öhlins TTX2 air rear shock

SRAM AXS Eagle X01 gears & SRAM Reverb AXS dropper post

Traverse SL Carbon mullet wheelset fitted with Continentals tires: Argotal rear, Kryptotal front, tubeless

Traverse SL Carbon 800mm bars; Tune GT35 stem

I’d find it difficult to put up with knowing I’d spent so much money, but ended up with e.g. a Fox 36 Rhythm (not even Performance let alone Performance Elite or Factory) and Code R brakes, wheels with 24 points of engagement.

They mostly sound like good picks for an eeb.

Code Rs can be a little wooden and underpowered, but the 36 Rhythm chassis is stiffer than the higher models IIRC – and the Grip damper is brilliant.

BreamFree

Continentals tires: Argotal rear, Kryptotal front, tubeless

Something’s not right there…..

Something’s not right there…..

Exactly! :scratch:

I did it on a new style Levo SL Comp as I had nice stuff on two other bikes that I was stripping down and  / or selling. Just the cranks and headset remain.

I kept all the OEM stuff and will rebuild the bike with it when I come to sell it (unless I see a Stumpy Evo frame going cheap in which case maybe I’ll just build that up and sell it complete).