Electric Bikes - Electifying a Footbike
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cedricbosch
10-30-08, 12:25 PM
Saw one of these at Interbike. They're fun to ride, but the first thing I thought was- Put an electric motor on it! Could you fit a hub motor on the rear wheel?
http://www.bikematters.com/picture/img_1003%20medium.jpg?pictureId=1490054
It looks like you can mod a Footbike to be electric, a quick search brought up this video from youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDkvaNBKY9A
I don't know what kit he's using but it looks like a standard front hub motor with some sort of custom battery pack or at least one I haven't seen before.
Depending on the model of Footbike you buy you'd have to buy either a 700C or 26 inch size hub motor kit and just mount it on the Footbike like you would any other bike you're modding. Except on a Footbike where you mount the controller and batteries would be in a different place.
As for the rear wheel i don't know what size it is or if they make hub motors in that size.
EDIT: A little more searching took me to this place http://www.gopednation.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3373304
(http://www.gopednation.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3373304) apparently he is using a Crystalyte Conversion Kit.
Could you fit a hub motor on the rear wheel?
Yep. I'm not sure of the size of that rear wheel but it looks to be 16 inch or maybe 20 inch.
You can add a regular 16 inch or 20 inch, (whichever size fits) "front hubmotor wheel" made for a bicycle.
You'll have to figure out where to put your controller, throttle, and battery but that shouldn't be too hard.