I have a heavy duty racing bike all steel. 700 wheels it has 7-speed cassette
I would like to convert to E-bike
should I do rear wheel or front what the pros and cons
I would greatly appreciate any recommendations of the type and manufacturer

I've had great success with BBS02's, but think hub motors are superior for street travel unless the routes contain extremely steep hills. IMO, rear motors are better unless there is a compelling reason like an IGH, belt drive, cargo bike or whatever to use a front conversion. Perhaps the most important decision is the size of the motor; watts can range from 250 (3.5 pound minis) to multi-thousand (25 pound behemoths).

If you go hub motor, do rear wheel, It just avoids any problems with the fork breaking on you. It will probably mean you can't re-use your cassette, but I'd pay $30 for a freewheel vs having to worry about going over the bars.

The BBS02 mid drive will cost more, but is a lot easier to wire up than most inexpensive kits. It's just a matter of placing the battery and putting the display, throttle and brake levers on the handlebars. And then you can re-use the whole rear wheel/cassette.

If it is a racing style bike with dropped bars, you're going to have to think about how you want the controls. Kits are mainly designed for flat handlebars.

Looks like the batteries are one of the biggest costs.
https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/rds/...698333076.html

Bike does have drop bars couldn't imagine riding a bike without, old school
I guess having brifters makes it worse


I contacted a local builder this is Canada everything expensive, it does not look too bad

as it includes batteries I think I would rather go rear wheel

https://ebikebc.com/product/d50-comp...sion-kit-500w/

Interested on conversion kits too

I'd usually recommend a rear hub, but your tyres are too thin for any conversion, let alone a rear hub. Unless you want pinch flats every time you're out you'll want a tiny motor in the front wheel and a bottle battery on the down tube, with oversize tyres at least 1.5 ins.
Then after your first ride you'll realise you've got totally the wrong handlebars for the job.

I like to convert my MTB in to an e-bike and have 2 Motors available, 36V 500W Motor and 48V 500W Motor, boot Bafang. Witch one should I use for the Bike and way?

Use the one for which you have a matching battery. (48V or 36V). The battery is half the parts cost of a conversion - more if you are looking for long range.

If you don't have the battery, 48V is fractionally more efficient, and typically pack more Wh in a given case size.

I will build the Battery my self, i got a lot of brand new LG 3500 mAh 18650 Cells

Im curious where you got this idea. I have been running a rear hub motor just fine on 700C tires and my city has some really bad road surfaces in spots. I think this depends on how much you weigh...

My hat is off to you. If you have the skills and equipment to safely assembly a battery pack, why are you asking about 36V vs 48V?

I would expect anyone with those skills to answer that question far better than I can.

Well Nigel, I build or better said rebuild a lot of battery packs already but this where battery packs for Notebooks which are actually the same thing just smaller. To know how to build a battery pack doesn’t necessarily mean I also know a lot about motors, but actually you have answered my question already in your first replay by saying a 48V motor is more effective, I just missed it.

Thank you for your advice, it helps me a lot

D34, depending on your needs, power, light weight if you need to carry or transport the bike, etc, an inexpensive direct drive system may be appropriate (consider a Leaf 1500w which I haven't tried, but is rated highly by many users); otherwise a Bafang 500w (see ebikesca) or Mac (em3ev) much lighter geared motor may be suitable.

I built something like that. I'm practically the only one that built and regularly rides a drop bar road bike though (for 4+ years now).

Biggest problem: Nothing will fit on your handlebars. Drop bars have a larger diameter than flat bars, so you can't bolt anything on. I use an on/off throttle (a doorbell actually) as I just use the motor as a high speed boost - its low torque high rpm, so the on/off works fine for me.

How big a tire can you use? Bigger the better. I think 35-40mm would be ideal. You can go skinnier, but of course you'll need higher pressure and bumps are harder at higher speed (and your bike is heavier).

That motor doesn't list its RPM - you really should know that so you know what you are building. I think that is critical.

Get a hold of Matt at EMPowered Cycles and see if he can make a sensible kit for your bike. A modest mid-drive at 36v will prolly be all the wheels and chassis can handle, long term. Bafang 8Fun BBS01-B will be right around 350w, but will pedal assist quite nicely up to 25mph, or more depending on controller.

If Matt does not want to play, Grin (ebikes.ca) will assemble a BBS01-B kit. So will Dillenger - Iris will help you through the process.

I weigh 66kgs, and use a full rear hub motor, which is heavy to the tune of 9kgs - not the little thing with a pair of chordless battery motors in it. It also depends on battery weight (almost 200 cells weighing a further 10kgs) and i'm not talking about rough surfaces, i'm talking about taking a 90 lb bike over kerbs, bricks, tree roots, stairs...

So at this level one has a whole spectrum of duty to consider, and a 700C tyre is gonna be suitable only for the lightest of duties from my perspective.