Originally Posted by
seibaatgung
I have the bike and am weakly considering converting it.
Well don't. Just no. Why would you even think about it? I'm not even touching the fact that for half what that bike cost you could have gotten a Salsa Journeyman, oops I wasn't going to go there. Seriously, a friction drive on that bike? You're going to have to find a cheap Cruiser or MTB, 30ish years old, and throw your assist kit on that. The cheaper the better, because everything will be steel. Steel is real ... strong.