Hi All,

I just signed up to this forum. I am looking into purchasing a electric kit for my bike. However I am running 700c rims which are not the right size to use since the kit only suits a 26" bike. I am looking at evpower.com.au for my kit. The guy suggested to talk to a bike shop however the guy said it could not be done. The only difference between these rims is 4 spokes. Has anyone successfully respoked a bushless hub motor from a 26" wheel to a 700c rim?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

If not then I will have to look at a 26" bike to do this.

Regards

Nicholas

4 spokes different, you mean like going from a 36h rim to a 32h rim? 36h 700c rims are available too, and I don't see why putting a motor into a different rim is any different. A bike shop could certainly make it work unless there's something extremely abnormal about the motor.

Which motor is it?

Hi,

The e-bike kit I am interested in located at: http://www.ev-power.com.au/-Bike-hub-motors-.html, is a 36V 500watt brushless hub motor which is installed already on a 26" wheel. I have already emailed the client who is selling this and explained my bike has 700c road rims. What I thought he meant was to transplant the brushless hub motor from the 26" rim to my existing 700c rim. The difference between both rims is 4 spokes and I think 4 inches. The guy at the bike shop seemed rushed but said it could not be done. I am thinking it possibly could be done. 4 spokes does not sound like much of a difference. I was wondering if someone has faced this problem and actually did the swap without any troubles.

Regards

Nicholas

I believe it could be done with the right spoke pattern, but not in any decent fashion. A quick search shows that might be a common sentiment: http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-276332.html

You can certainly purchase a 32h rim and putting the motor into it will work just fine, but I would suggest against attempting to reuse your old 36h rim. If the wheel is any good, just keep it around or sell it off :)

Have you considered alternate motor brands? Crystalyte is a very similar motor, but theirs are designed around a 36 spoke design, which would make for a stronger wheel. I'm not certain about the availability of the various brands in Australia, but seeing if this (or another) is an option might be good, too.

One last thing i'd just like to ask which you've probably done already, but you've checked the OLD on your bike to make sure the mountain bike sized axle will fit (or can be made to fit), right?

All of the bike shops you ask will probably tell you that your hub and rim have to have the same number of spokes holes, and will refuse to assemble a wheel with a mismatch. It's just not a good idea.

But it's easy to buy a rim that has the same number of spoke-holes as your hub, and then have a shop put em together. No problem there, at all.

Hi Abneycat,

My problem is this bike was givin for free to me is worth quite a bit of money. It would be ideal to convert to electric as everything is high quality. It has racing rims on it. The kit at evpower.com.au is based an hour away from where I live which was surprising as I did not know. I would like to use my bike instead of dishing more money out to buy a cheap 26" bike to put the kit in.

The other thing is this kit from evpower use a LiFePO4 battery which is the best battery you can get on the market.

I tried the link but it did not work.

I have had a look at Crystalyte, Phoenix and EVO kits which look good. However they dont sell them with the LiFePO4 battery which can be charged alot more times and overall the kit I'm looking out comes in cheaper.

I am not sure if the 26" axle will fit into the bike. That is something I will have to figure out.

I am going to arrange to phone the guy at EV Power to determine my options, hopefully we can come to some kind of option that will work for me.

Regards

Nic

In regards to the other kits, Crystalyte is available from http://www.ebikes.ca (http://www.ebikes.ca/) piece by piece, so you can build it how you like it (including the LiFePO4 batteries and motors pre-built as 700c wheels), but it seems you could save quite a bit on shipping and skip needing to buy in $Canadian, so these Evpower kits could do pretty well if they were what you liked.

You could pick up a nice rim for your bike without breaking the bank too, I hope you get it worked out :)

I bought a Hub Motor on a 26" Rim and the local (Huntsville, AL) bike shop removed the motor and put it on my 700c Rim. Lucky both rims had the same number of spokes. It did take a few weeks until they could get the right size spokes. I got it back a few weeks ago, and since it is just starting to warm up enough for me to ride. The bike shop did suggest that I return soon to get the spokes adjusted.

Good luck,