Hi,

I have just bought a Orbita Flex 16 folding bike. It is wonderfully made. It's a Portuguese brand that is making bikes since 1971 in their factories in Portugal. I preferred this one on the Dahons and other brands.

I want now convert this bike into an e-Bike and would like to know what I need, if there's a kit with battery or a wheel with motor and battery.

Dimensions between forks= 100mm
Tyres= 16*1.75

Here where I live there are plenty of hills and steep hills above 15% inclination or more...

So as I never did this I would like your help in choosing a conversion kit to put a motor and battery in my bike in order to make my rides more smooth and less swetty

Hope you all can help me out!

Some pics:

It's been said, and I believe it's true, that if you have a nice bike, don't ruin it with a motor. I've put a number of motors on bikes, but for me, it's usually about making a bike that no one wants to ride into a bike that's fun with electric power. If that's a nice bike, then leave it alone.

Here in the USA, I can buy a cheap chinese import folder with the battery hidden inside the frame for less money than it cost me to buy a motor and battery separately. The problem with folders is there's no room to mount a big battery and keep them folding. You need to look at them as shorter range vehicles. Being folders, you don't go very fast anyway. I do have a 20" folder converted to electric. Tried to keep it as a nice bike, and I like it, but an hour of riding is about all I can do unless I carry extra batteries in saddlebags.

Check on UK Electric Bikes l Pedelecs for advice on small hub motors. They have a lot of users that do conversions and order from European and Chinese suppliers.

So you are saying that is better to buy a Chinese ebike that will be cheaper than making the conversion of my bike to ebike?

I really noticed that a kit costs about $600
Plus $100 service.

Considering that a Chinese ebike with decent specs cost average $350 plus $100 for shipping and customs. This would be about $450.

So this could be a way out to have an ebike and don't ruin our non ebike folder.

I have saw this bike branded Qualisports from China. seem good but would like your views on it as I can't find any info in the web about it:
Qualibike - Qualisports technology Co.,Ltd

IMO, the challenge with small hub motors is they don't ascend very efficiently. Should you purchase one, make sure that you climb long hills at 50% of the max speed of the bike. I've got a 36V, 350w front conversion with a 17.5 a-h battery and I need to pedal like crazy on relatively steep hills. Try to test ride a bike like whatever one you're considering.

Over 15% degree hills, you will not be happy with a front hub motor. I've had them and a 350w motor can barely pull me (at 130 lbs) up 10 degree hills with me pedaling hard. Before you buy a kit, I highly recommend going out to "test ride" some ebikes with both hub motors and mid drive. For your application, I would only consider a mid-drive. You will burn up your hub motor. Don't waste your money on a hub or all-in-one; if you're serious about a motor, save up for a mid-drive kit or mid-drive ebike.

A Mid Drive replaces the crankset.. that provides more power for hills, shifting to low in back.


My LBS does Mid Drive Retrofits for about $1500, 350w motor.. Customers often hunters , modifying mountain bikes..

As someone who electrified a GT LTS-3 i can only advise you that you must do it! E-bikes are totally misunderstood, they can actually help you get fitter than a manual bike, how's that for starters..?!

Your bike looks like a great contender. How to proceed really depends on what you want from it. If you want a friend there to help you on the hills and spur you on, then i think a little 250w hub motor in a spoked wheel is the way forward. You won't need a particularly long battery so a 'Fish' type should go under the main tube, and give a nice low centre of gravity, as long as it's 3in girth will allow the bike to fold. Second to that, put it on the top of the tube.

More power and it'll have to go on the top. You don't want it on the rack with that bike as the front will be too light. Unless you go for a mid-mounted motor. Mid-drive would be best for medium power (500-800w). The motor should sit under the folding hinge just nicely. Mid drive is more sporty as it uses the gears - but your gearing is very short, so you'll be wanting to try and squeeze the biggest chainring possible on there..

Me, i'd wanna go high power, like a 1.5kw set up. A big 48v circa 1.7ah battery should go on the main tube, but you won't lace a big motor in that tiny wheel - no problem, the big boys in China make spokeless 16in hub motor wheels. You can put 3,000 watts in there if you like!

With mid-drive, gearing is your problem. With hubs, the size of the wheel doesn't matter because the computer will calibrate the motor to the wheel - you may still want a bigger crank though, i can say from experience that very fast pedalling knackers you no matter how hard you're pushing...

edit...

Oh, something i forgot - you show your front axle as 100mm. Yes but your rear axle is 130mm. Some small rear motors (200-350w) are a bit wider, and this is no problem on a big-wheel bike as you can bend the frame a touch to squeeze the hub in. However, your 'Flex 16' rear fork is too small for this and won't flex enough... The big rear hubs (500-3,000w) are actually narrower and will fit straight in.

If you're considering a front wheel hub with good power, i'm inclined to dissuade you. Medium power may be okay on a 'lean forward' bike but a short, tall, upright bike like that will only be good for low power. This might just be ideal though, and with a hub on the front you can have a relatively light battery on a pannier rack above the rear wheel for good weight distribution.

I think Iam going to have a problem to where I will be fitting the battery...
The main middle frame tube is very thisn and in a triangular shape.. the bottom is the base of the triangle with about 3 cm width and the top is the vertice of the triangle with 1 cm width so how to place a battery in this place?

In the saddle post I can't attach a frog kind of battery because I need to put it down when I fold the bike then in the back I have no rack.. in the front there's the handlepost that fold as well so ...

Practically I have no possible option to put the battery in the bike...

So before even consider to turn my bike to an ebike I need to figure this out.. I had not thought about this..

Any ideas??

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/s...AvOcEALw_wcB#/