I'm thinking of converting my wife's Novara Camera Pro to a mid-drive Ebike. This bike has an aluminum frame & drop handle bars. I'm looking at an ERad 500 W. motor and have not yet looked at batteries. I'm hoping for a range of 50 miles at an assist level setting of 1 on level terrain. My wife is about 160 Lbs. I'm completly new to this and looking for any advice and guidance this forum has to offer. Thank you.

One of the easier conversions would be a BionX rear hub. If you're new, and don't want to mess with all the problems of a mid-drive conversion, I would go the BionX route and let a dealer do the conversion. Some people enjoy the process of problem solving and trouble shooting that can happen during a self installation of a conversion kit... that's not me - I just want it on there and I want to ride away knowing that I have a very reliable e-bike. That was my experience with the dealer installed BionX. I ride the bike 4-5 days a week as a commuter - the system has been absolutely perfect and trouble free. I think you would get the range you are looking for from the BionX even though rear drive hubs are not as efficient as mid drives.

I do not have experience riding an aftermarket mid drive conversion. I've ridden several mid drive bikes that use the bosch mid drive. They are fantastic. However, bikes that use the bosch mid drive have OEM frames built specifically for bosch. the bosch mid drive is not available as a conversion kit.

there's mid drive motors too, replaces the crankset .. get more hill torque hub motors are for speed help.

Unless there are big hills and you want lots of assistance or actually want the motor to do all/most of the work going up the hills, I would stick with a rear nub system, for simplicity reasons if you don't really need mid drive. JMO

Agree with 350 in principle that a hub is great for flat terrain. Problem with your frame is that it's aluminum which means one or two torque arms for a rear hub or use a front hub if the fork is steel. Just for information, I built a 750w BBS02 mid drive with a 52V battery ($500 for motor kit, $320 for 52V, 10ah Samsung battery) and it was only slightly more difficult than front and rear hub conversions, just needed some bike tools that I already had.

My next set up may be a mid-drive unit... But, because I actually want to put in most of the pedal effort a rear hub is good enough for me, and so does the wife... She finds it great, good enough to give her that little bit of assistance she may need/want sometimes riding her bike so that it's a fun ride all the time, and not become a struggle/fail on some rides... If I wanted assist that would take me up all the hills around here without me putting in much/any effort I would certainly "need" a mid drive or about a 2,000watt rear hub...

350, the BBS02 that I converted has ten levels of assist (0 - 9) plus a throttle, so one has quite a menu of options. I built it to see what a 750w mid drive was like (might exceed 1000w since the controller is 22 amp and the battery 52V), but still prefer a light, pedal only MTB.

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions. One of the reasons I'm leaning towards the mid-drive is the aluminum frame is a concern for a hub mounted drive. I like the idea of the weight concentrated low and in the center of the bike. I've only had the opportunity to ride 3 types of Ebikes, 2 were different models of Pedego with rear hub drive and the battery mounted over the rear tire. I found them very fun but not very "bikey" more like a two wheeled motorized scooter. Then I tried an Erad mid-drive conversion on a fat tire mountain bike. This felt much more familiar and gave one the feeling of really riding a bike with a seamless assist.
My biggest concern here is the road bike aspect and the aluminum frame. Most of the ebike I've seen place a premium on upright non aggressive riding poster with large soft tires. As road bike riders we have placed a premium on light weight & low rolling resistance.
I would very much like to hear from anyone with experience on a road bike conversion.

I'm brand new to e-bikes and mostly hang in the folding bike forum, but wanted to try a motor assist on one of my road bike folders.. went with the BBS02 + 52v 11amp/hr battery and so far, couldn't be happier..

I installed it in a few hours and it is has met my expectations.. what I wanted was a balanced bike for general road riding in Marin County which has a fair amount of hills.. I chose a mid-drive so it could use my existing gear train to keep the motor spinning in its sweet spot to be as efficient as possible ..

The bike is an older Pacific Reach Road with some suspension front and rear running on 20" 451 wheels .. the dashboard contains 9 levels of assist + a thumb throttle.. in 50+ miles of shakedown, I rarely use the thumb throttle (100% assist) , but I ride mostly in the 4 to 7 assist level, basically giving me low to high 20's when pedaling at a normal high cadence ... the Bafang hub is very quiet, which was a major consideration for me.. and the best part for me, other than the power, is that with power off, the bike pedals normally with little drag .. so when riding with friends at lower speeds, I can just pedal along normally with power off.. I liked this system so much, I'm ordering another ..

Bruce, nice conversion, and that bag seems perfect for a rectangular battery.

A new use for the helmet there Bruce, that pic is a must for the helmet thread... Nice bike for a folder.

My conversion was a road bike (touring bike with drop bars) conversion. I run 28mm tires on 700c rims. No suspension steel road fork. Most of the weight of this system is the battery. As you can see, it is quite low and centered.



My bike rides exactly like a bike. I did not install the throttle, so it is pedal assist only. Your BionX dealer can dial in the settings on the console/controller to get the exact feel that you are after for each of the 4 levels of assist. The first 3 levels on my bike are "seamless." Level 4... when you press on the pedal, you feel a "smooth burst" of assist initially... then it smoothly continues on up to cruising speed. I had the dealer configure it that way.

Thanks! .. I just lucked out with the bag.. it came with the bike when I got it in 2006 .. never used it.. until now.. a bonus, there is just enough room inside at the front of the bag for my tool bag (tube, multi-tool, patch kit, tire irons, gloves and paper towel)..

Thanks, I'm liking it a lot! .. it's one of those road going folders that handles great and rides smooth .. an Alex Moulton is another .. I know I'm not alone, but now at Medicare age, reeling in the roadies that I couldn't even ride with before just puts a grin on my face..

With the drop handlebars, how would you mount a throttle? Esp. where it can be reached from both hand positions. The only thing I can think of is to cut apart a T pipe connector so that you could fasten it by the brake, then connect a rod to it so that you can push on it from the top bar position.

Or, would you just use it in pedal electric mode?

I would have had to attach an accessory bar for the throttle. Part of that was due to the shape of my bars (they are rather thick and the tops have a wide flat area) that wouldn't allow the throttle to be attached to a non-standard bar. I don't think I miss it. I haven't faced a hill yet that wasn't made significantly easier with pedal assist level 4. If it's steeper/longer than that... I don't know that "throttle mode" is going to get you up the hill. You have to remember, these are still bikes - not motorcycles. I think the mid-drives are the best climbers. However, I rode a 350 watt mid-drive up a 700' hill in Portland. It was a pedal assist only bike. I was still tired at the top of the hill... but I didn't have to walk the bike (which is what I would be doing even on my sub 20 lbs carbon road bike.) I think my 50cc scooter would have struggled up that hill.



So, while BionX has a throttle, I elected not to go through the hassle of dorking out my bicycle for something that I now realize I would never use. My bike is pedal assist only. I can easily change the pedal assist level or regenerative braking level on the console from the tops of my bars (where I spend most of my riding time) with my left thumb. I can do that using heavy gloves or even mittens. I can reach the console without moving my hands from the riding position. However, I have to move to a different position to use my brake levers... so, changing assist level is actually easier than braking. Thus, it's not a big deal.