Retrolectric bike

[rwm1962]

I have left the wife's Giant charging in the workshop but charge mine outside. Battery & charger under a big, upturned builders bucket if raining. Mine seems to have a good rep & is made from Samsung cells. Cost me just over £300 for battery.

 

[Pokitren]

Cheap batteries and power supplies from the far east are always a concern so sensible precautions like not leaving things unattended when charging are always wise.

The good news is that is that power supplies made anywhere tend to fail early in life so if its survived a little while then all should be good. The bad news and the cause of a lot of these failures is the charger part in the controller, as those that fail invariably have little or no short circuit or failed cell protection so they just keep trying to charge a battery that would rather you didn't, and once that happens the inevitable result is that you adhere to the first rule of electricity which is everything electric contains smoke and sooner or later it has to come out.

The biggest problem I find with anything made in China is that the price you pay bears absolutely no relation to the quality you receive and that is still true of things that are sold by companies in Europe and the US but still made in China. So as always buyer beware and do your research.

Have you tried playing at an online casino? I tried it on no deposit bonus games. I found out about them at https://betpokies.com - they give reviews of such chips.

The only thing worse than Chinese is Zimbabwe. I have used some of the Chinese stuff and it was just a waste of money. It's better to buy something more expensive, but it lasts longer, much longer.

 

[dirttorpedo]

I've thought about getting a swytch kit for one of my steel bikes.

 

[allenh]

I've thought about getting a swytch kit for one of my steel bikes.

I did look at them but there were a couple of things I didn't like about the concept with the cost compared to what I bought being the most off putting. My kit cost £391 where to get the equivalent from Swytch would be more than 3 times as much. At their cheapest their kits are still vastly more expensive and I'm not sold on the front motor design or the battery mounted high up on the bars with those kits.

This was only an experiment for me but I'm so pleased with the result thus far I've since bought a 2nd kit and using a spare ladies frame built another bike for my wife, so including all the new bits I needed to buy to complete this 2nd bike to Mrs H's exacting standards (lots of purple) I'm still nowhere near the cost of one equivalent Swytch kit and have 2 fully functional electric bikes.

So far the only issue I have found with my particular kit is where the bottle cage mounts were too low on my frame I needed to add more mounts. Because I was building from a steel frame base that wasn't particularly difficult using a 7mm drill and a rivnut kit and the frame I used for the wife's frame had no bottle cage mounts at all originally. Time will tell as to whether our initial happiness with our kits is well founded but so far so good.

I'll post some more pictures of both bikes later as were of for a ride along the coast on Sunday to give my wife's retrolectric Falcon a decent run.

 

[greencat]

I looked at the swytch kits too - and yeah, they are expensive for what you get, and generally front wheel motors aren't as well regarded as other options. But if you are looking for convenience or wanting to fit to a brompton, they might be a good buy.

 

[rwm1962]

The build is done. Moved the kit across from a 17" C16R frame that I've sold & put it on a 19" P7 which is better suited for me. I put standard SKS mudguards on but they're too skinny even for the 1.9" tyres so ditched the front for a plastic affair without stays & put a cut off rear mudguard behind the seat tube & cable tied a MTB mudguard to the rack. I've left the Crudcatcher in place as more protection for the battery. I may put disc brakes on it some time in the future. I've got an old disc wheelset so would just need disc forks.

 

[Peachy!]

Mr @allenh , what kit did you use?

 

[allenh]

Mr @allenh , what kit did you use?

Its one from ebay @Peachy!. This one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393238937263

 

[allenh]

Well so far so good with this thing. I've liked it so much I've built another for my wife which we took out on its maiden voyage today. She deliberately went out and found every hill she could and couldn't get over how good it was at hill climbing.

I've not put that many miles on mine yet but so far battery usage has been minimal even including the new found Queen of the mountain actively seeking every incline she can, its going to be interesting to see what the range is before I have to re charge it but so far using a relatively light bike seems to be really helping with the range.

 

[dirttorpedo]

I did look at them but there were a couple of things I didn't like about the concept with the cost compared to what I bought being the most off putting. My kit cost £391 where to get the equivalent from Swytch would be more than 3 times as much. At their cheapest their kits are still vastly more expensive and I'm not sold on the front motor design or the battery mounted high up on the bars with those kits.

This was only an experiment for me but I'm so pleased with the result thus far I've since bought a 2nd kit and using a spare ladies frame built another bike for my wife, so including all the new bits I needed to buy to complete this 2nd bike to Mrs H's exacting standards (lots of purple) I'm still nowhere near the cost of one equivalent Swytch kit and have 2 fully functional electric bikes.

So far the only issue I have found with my particular kit is where the bottle cage mounts were too low on my frame I needed to add more mounts. Because I was building from a steel frame base that wasn't particularly difficult using a 7mm drill and a rivnut kit and the frame I used for the wife's frame had no bottle cage mounts at all originally. Time will tell as to whether our initial happiness with our kits is well founded but so far so good.

I'll post some more pictures of both bikes later as were of for a ride along the coast on Sunday to give my wife's retrolectric Falcon a decent run.

Interesting experience. When I've looked at mid drive kits the prices without batteries were approaching $800 USD while the swytch kit I recall being around $500 USD if you pre-ordered. I also like that the swytch kit is low impact, while a mid drive or rear drive takes a bit more effort. I agree that the front wheel drive isn't ideal - I wouldn't do it on a cargo bike. But definitely like the idea for an old mountain bike or hybrid.