Introduction

I would like to take this moment to welcome you to the documentary of my first ebike build.

A Brief History:
(skip to the next post for the ebike)
I became interested in electric bicycles approximately two years ago when gas began going above $4/gallon. It was at this time that I purchased a used mid-90's specialized Rock Hopper mountain bike from craigslist. It was in decent shape for the $100 dollars I paid for it and it came with a decent cable lock. Little did I know at the time that it was slightly too small for me and would require several additions to make the ride more comfortable. It had a racing style hard saddle that I replaced with a factory one and I needed to buy a riser stem to take some weight off my hands. Then I decided if I was going to go any considerable distance I should add some clamp on bull horns. Finally I bought a Planet Bike Superflash and a Fenix L2D flashlight for my headlight and tail-light. This finally brought the total cost of the bike to around $250, not to bad for getting back in the saddle after 6 years. After all this, as a starving college student, I couldn't justify the expense of an electric kit just to run errands around town.

Then the worst happened, last August I totaled my beloved 40mpg toyota Echo. Alas, now I couldn't justify the expense of new car(no comprehensive, stupid me) and still had to get to school 15 miles away. I know what you are thinking, "15 miles? That's easy." I would agree with you, except for the fact that the first one and a quarter miles is a 6% grade hill and if I wanted to get to school for a full day of class and not smell like I had just wrestled a bull I needed an alternative.


Queue electric bike. Fortunately I had access to about $1000 for new transportation and I had two options. 1) buy a junker car and still pay for gas, insurance and likely repairs that would result or 2) buy an electric kit. Obviously I chose #2 otherwise you wouldn't be reading this.

Now I had plenty of options when it came to electric, but since I had to get over that hill I had to have PLENTY of torque. I could go with a high powered hub motor but Cali has that whole "no greater than 1000W" law and I would have had to over volt a lower Watt one to get over that hill, possibly damaging the motor in the process or I could go with a chain drive bike that could use my bikes existing gearing to give me the torque I needed for the hills and the speed on the flats. I went with the chain drive because I like the best of both worlds.

Up next: The Kit