Devon TRF Group Forum

pug · Clubman B

Ebikes and build kit's

jt · Powermonger!!

Legality if that concern's you - as that kit would not be.....

Won't be long before someone has an 'incident' with a 'dongled' bike or one built from a kit and it will 'complicate' matters for all of us - same with the lanes, once folks start bombing up bridal ways at 40MPH on one it won't be long before E bikes are treated like MC's and once again the minority of disrespectful selfish ****s will balls it up for the rest of us.

Mine is 250w, limited assist to 15.5 MPH but will still take my 14 stone unfit 52 year old carcass up any hill I point it at and will take me 30+ miles on a charge - if i wanted to go faster or further I would go back to my CRF - and that's kinda the whole point.

Pete · Expert

200w limit for solo bicycles
250w limit for tandems

This is the maximum power output you may have without incurring the need for a licence, registration, MOT, tax and insurance

The same motor is used for the 1000w model as the legal without paper work 200w version and I am sure it will not be long before people start circumventling the preset limits but you wont fool anyone if you are going faster than 15mph and the penalties are the same for lack of tax mot and insurance on your motorcyle

For off roading a mid mounted drive is necessary. Hub mounted motors are way too heavy and unbalance the machine.

Here is a website showing 22 different bolt on mid mounted e-motors

Mr Heath Robinson would be proud of some of the ideas and they show how neat the new Specialised or Trek mid mounted motors are by being designed into the machine.

jt · Powermonger!!

250 Pete

www.gov.uk/electric-bike-rules

pug · Clubman B

Thanks chaps and right good read there Pete I can see the point in the mid drive I was looking for about 40-50 miles range out of it mostly under power as I'm far from fit and this is what was recommended to me for Dartmoor roads and the odd green lane. so can anyone point me towards a mid kit that will do 40-50 miles mostly under power and fit my Trek 6500 SLR

-- Edited by pug on Sunday 22nd of October 2017 04:24:36 PM

John Harvey · Clubman A

It was 200W, raised to 250W in 2015 once we adopted the EU limit, maybe we will adopt the Swiss 350W limit in the future?

No issue with any ebike doing over 15mph, as long as the motor cuts out, arguably difficult to prove. Not sure about cycling speed limits on Bridleways though, is there one?

For off road Mid drives have many advantages over a hub motor the most useful is the ability to pull away on steep climbs using the bikes gears which is more efficient allowing a smaller motor, whereas a hub motor starting from zero will draw a much larger current and probably fail to pull away. From what I know the Bafang mid drives are good and probably the one to go for.

Tribey · Expert

Last week I followed a rearhub motored electric mountain bike along Lymington Road Torquay at a steady 30mph and I didn't see him pedal once!

It certainly got me thinking about them, unfortunately I couldn't see the make/model of the one I saw, but it got me very interested in the subject.

Nige · Expert

Pug SLR frame is very light, but only strong where it's designed to be. You need to think about this if fitting a high power mid dive unit.

Nige · Expert

This is what you need to do

Skip the first 10 minutes.

youtu.be/HIhfwjWuj-I

pug · Clubman B

Now that made me Laugh I can see the point in it an have the skills to build such a beast but grew out of that sort of thing back at the start of the 80s.