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33 Comments

  1. That couldn´t´ve been better timed!

    At the Moment i´m exactly in the market for this!

    A few Things i like to know which would help me further:

    How practicable is it to convert the bikes back?
    If you buy a new bike ´re there Things you should be looking for?
    How does this work for a Trecking bike and7or a Trailer?

    1. The conversion if you do it yourself are easy both ways. Removing conversion will leave scars.

      Doing conversion to fat Tire bikes is the best!

      Right now surly brand makes a long wheelbase fat Tire bike that is called “the big fat dummy” (it is based off of thier dummy line cargo bikes)

      The big fat dummy can ride around in on snow.

      I installed several kits for local establishments here in nyc. Almost to a man (woman to be PC) they all prefered the fat tire bikes to the narrow ones for deliveries.

      I have no experience with the big fat dummy but the quality on thier other products is very good.

      And yes depending on load and with much much more bitterly drain you can use it to pull a trailer. But it really severely reduced range and motor life span.

    2. @ThoDan from the Author.

      I can easily remove the battery and ride the bike like a normal bike again with only the wheel hub as added weight.

      Would I convert it back again, probably not. It wouldn’t leave scars because everything bolts up to existing holes already on the frame. A note here, ensure the bikes you purchase have the holes already drilled out for adding a rear bike rack. There are little holes already tapped just above the rear axle. The battery/cargo rack bolts on to these.

  2. JWR – Since you added the product links, that’s helpful BUT I’d like to know exactly what brand, model and part numbers the author used for his conversion and the additional accessories he added. If you can contact him that would be useful information. (So would a follow-on article comparing whatever conversion kits are available and from whom; I’ve been looking at e-bikes as a very useful SHTF tool, and doing the conversion myself is the only way it will fit into my budget).

    Thanks

  3. What a great, and helpful article! I had never thought about doing this to the bikes I’ve rescued but I might have to rethink their future a bit. Thanks for the info and tips.

  4. This is a good article.

    A point to consider for those looking for more motorcycle needs is zero motorcycles they have many comparative lower cost options some only slightly more that total cost for ebikes.

    There are a couple of models with removable batteries.

    And there hasn’t really been a bad review of them.

  5. Btw I just checked and surly make a bike already with motor for cargo called “big easy” I can’t speak to it’s electonic side but the base frame is top notch.

    The general rule has been it’s better to buy bike and add a motor but for expedience or picking up to up grade…. Might not be bad

  6. I bought an electric bike several years back, and it has become a sore spot for my wife, But I keep it, know that now TSHTF, and we may soon need it more than ever, at about the same time I bought a bike trailer, a metal frame, with a canvas container, it’s pretty light, I haven’t bought spare tires and tubes for it, I guess that should be a priority in the near future. I’m guessing the writer and I are of the same vintage and background judging some of the lingo, I think for longer range I would consider extra batteries, or maybe a solar charging system attached to the trailer like a trunk cover. along with a charge controller to insure the batteries don’t over charge. This is a great article, with a lot of food for thought, I sometimes go to the dump, and find a really good bike, and have about three good ones I should consider converting one, or using one to make a tandem with my E bike, we used to make tandems when I was a kid with two bikes just for fun, I think now it would be quite handy, Blessings,
    Dave of Oregon

    1. @Dave Martin.

      Bike Trailer is on my list. Solar is also on my list. Imagine riding out to a farmer’s market with your bike and super light bike trailer, Shop, snack on some BBQ all while your bike is soaking up the rays on the flexible PV cells. Then, RTB on a full or nearly full tank of juice again.

  7. Clever and creative! Loved it. Thank you, Mark F!

    Nosmo asked a great question about part identifiers… Looking forward to news on those also!

  8. If nothing else but an e-bike will do, this is great, but folks may also want to check out add-on bike engines. In my opinion, the best system is from Golden Eagle Bike Engines – Google it.

  9. Excellent article.

    When I was a teenager, we knew motors existed for bicycles but I have only seen two installed over the years (small gas engines). A big battery solves the fuel, smoke and noise problem. Back then they were also riding “mopeds” which were squat mini-motorcycles that went under a certain speed (30 mph?).

    Do you know if a small e-bike motor can be converted to run a medium-large classic cruiser bicycle (gearing problem)? Do the conversion kits need the bicycle to be one-speed or multi-speed?

    1. There are several options to slap a motor on a bike.

      Some require cutting and rewarding a bit.

      Some just bolt on.

      There are even some that replace the hub of the wheel and “lace” the spokes into the rim.

      Some can be used on the front wheel even.

      It’s truly a modular pick your application area kinda like a Remington or Mossberg shotgun.

    2. @Red Baron from the Author, Mark F.

      The conversion kits come with a cassette, meaning it is set up for gears. That is one of the reasons I chose a Mtn. Bike, it has so many gears to play with for both different speeds and for cargo hauling.

      Rear Wheel vs. Front Wheel Kits:
      Pros and Cons on the front wheel kits. I’ve read and talked to front wheelers. They are “easier” to do conversion kits, BUT, remember, where most of your weight is, on the rear tire. This means you are more likely to lose traction or burn out on the front tire and go down. My recommendation is to stick to a rear wheel kit.

  10. Great article on alternate forms of transportation.
    Where I’m at, most places I need to get to in town are ~ 6 miles or less.
    I can be up in the woods in about the same time.
    When I saw a commercial for the QuietKat E-Bike, I looked it up and saw the prices.
    Yikes!

    Then I found similar bikes thru Wally World.
    5-7 hundred gets a pretty nice one. Even a fat tire model is only 775.
    Free shipping too.
    Just my $.02.

  12. our family has 2 e-bikes and a 3/4 size folding e-trike. the trike is a conversion with a front hub motor. bought the motor, wheel, batteries, controller, etc. as a kit. easy for first timers. the trike has a big basket between the rear wheels and a smaller basket mounted in front of the handle bars. we created a padded bag for the basket that protects what we are hauling. as it is taller than the basket, it increases what it can carry without spillage at every bump in the road. goes 14mph on paved roads without any fiddling with the governor. the’s fast enough to take corners on 2 wheels–which you should not do (ask my how i know!).

  13. We splurged for factory Ebikes last year. The Rad Wagon is what we ended up with, at $1400 each. Really like ours, which are currently painted orange for safety. Rather than a big box bike for conversion, our Rad Wagons have stretched out frames, with running boards alongside the rear wheel with a seating frame for a passenger behind the seat.

    https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/radwagon-electric-cargo-bike

    Thanks for writing this great article. E-bikes are a preppers friend. Some say they are able to stretch out a battery charge with lots of supplemental pedaling to a 100 miles per battery charge. Buy a spare battery and you are talking about some serious range capability.

    Bikes easily bypass traffic jams during mass evacuations. A life saver. And if you can be 20 miles away in an hour, that is pretty darn good IMO. In 2.5 hours being 50 miles away is even better. I’ve sat in one or two traffic nightmares that long a time.

    There are some nice folding model bikes that fit in pretty tiny places like small car trunks. They work just fine. Something to think about if you work in the big city.

    Thanks again.

  14. I have a Pedego cargo bike. Purchased as a pre-loved gem, and worth every penny. Pedego makes many fine electric bikes, including a 3 wheeler for those who need more security and balance. Bikes-all bikes- are stealthy, fast, and fun. You can literally sneak up on cats sleeping in the sun. They offer good, healthy exercise, and an option that beats walking. If I were still commuting to a downtown office job, I would definitely keep a folding electric bike at the ready. Especially if a subway or commuter bus was required to get me back and forth.

  15. Great article. Would have liked to learn more about adjusting the limiter. Although the legal aspect was mentioned guessing it was omitted for liability issues ? Sadly people fly around my town and the speed limit is rarely enforced.

    There are long stretches of road with no sidewalk. Trying to pedal down them only invites morons in pickup trucks to take dive bomb runs at you. A burst of speed to make it to the next sidewalk would be extremely beneficial.

    Was looking at electric motorcycles for a while . Harley-Davidson just came out with their version. . . . $30,000 !!! Think I’ll take a crack at building my own ebike first 🙂

    1. @sirlancelot hereto forth known as “Evel Knievel” from Author, Mark F.

      The display the kits came with is called the SW-900. It has about 15 to 17 functions you can adjust or turn on-off. This is where you can bypass speed limiters and PAS systems. I got officially “clocked” at 42 miles per hour (complete with my head tucked down) on Sigsbee Island Naval Base, MWR, Key West, in 2018, I got an a** chewin’ but it was worth it. They were more surprised and thought it was cool.

  16. 3 years ago I bought 2 GT Mariner foldable bicycles (1 is none…). They worked so good I bought 2 panniers, 2 locks, 2 lite systems. Then I bought 1 Velar Foldable bike trailer: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B3HMH2I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
    This fit perfectly on 1 of the bikes and works great. Now I am in the process of installing a rigid solar panel as a shade cover to the trailer (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JX61QJ5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I will attach that to my Suaoki 400w lithium “generator” (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M260BAN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1) which has an embedded solar charge controller, lithium battery “generator” (lithgen), and AC inverter. What I like about the Suaoki is that I can solar charge the lithgen at the same time that I AC discharge it to my ebike batt. I have a left over foam-cell mattress topper that I am cutting to fit the bottom and sides of the trailer for safe travel of the Suaoki lithgen. Now if I travel alone I can put the extra batt in the trailer, plug it into the lithgen and charge it at the same time the solar panel is charging the lithgen. When my main ebike batt is discharged (around 20 miles), I will now be able to swap to the newly charged spare and begin charging the main batt for another 20 miles. With one 100w solar panel I have already tested I can charge the 400w lithgen in about 4-6hrs. After 2hrs of riding I will probably be ready for a 2hr rest anyway…

  17. Any experience with putting a generator on the other wheel? You could recharge the battery on long downhill stretches. I’m not sure how feasible it would be for pedaling to recharge the battery as the generator will have resistance when charging requiring more exertion.

    1. Some e-bikes already do this, without the need for a separate generator. It is a design feature called “regenerative braking”.

    1. Bryan,

      Good question, I looked into your fancy Montague folding bikes. From what I can tell, if you have another way of attaching the battery or get a different battery altogether, it can work. There are batteries you can purchase that mount inside the triangle of the frame. If you go with the standard rear bike rack/battery like we did, no, it will not work.

      That said, look at batteries that do attach to the frame. They may work just fine for your applications. The reason I didn’t go this route is three fold:

      1. The panniers: When attached, hide/obscure the battery located just under (inside) the rear rack making it harder to tell I’m on an e-bike especially when pedaling.

      2. The batteries. At the time, the batteries that mount on the frame inside the triangle only went up to 750w not 1k.

      3. Takes up too much space. Batteries that mount inside the frame takes away space for my water bottle and tire pump.

  19. A trailer like for a kid might also contain a big Lead Acid battery (physics lesson elided) that could get you hundreds of miles.

    The point here is if it is the mothership or shuttlecraft.

  20. Author’s Comments:

    Folks, thanks for all the wonderful comments. These are the parts I used on the e-bike conversions:

    Rear Wheel Kit: https://www.amazon.com/JAXPETY-1000W-Electric-Bicycle-Conversion/dp/B075L77QLQ/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=1000+watt+ebike+conversion+kit&qid=1590365435&sr=8-3

    Battery and Rack: https://www.amazon.com/Joyisi-el%C3%A9ctrica-bicicleta-cargador-el%C3%A9ctrico/dp/B07F8QCWCR/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=ebike+battery&qid=1590365631&sr=8-6

    Panniers (Love these for shopping, etc): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003D4EYL6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    Bike Crank Extractor (Only need it if you add the PAS device. I would not add that again as I control the amount of energy better by using the throttle like a motorcycle, but it’s your call): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0716NX7KC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    Tool Bag: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A3W8FFM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    Extra Wide Saddle Seat (For us casual and non-competitive riders. This worked so well for my 49.5 year old rear end. I can stay in the saddle for a few hours with no issues. There are cheaper ones out there. Bell makes one that is about half the price, but I can’t find it on Amazon. Here is a link to another brand. Most important is the width – 13 inch): https://www.amazon.com/Worksman-Extra-Comfort-Saddle-13-Inch/dp/B0018CD0JC

    BMX Handle Bars (I know for you purists out there it is sacrilege to put BMX handle bars on your Mtn Bike. I’m not a hard core hill climber though, so this works way better. I did this mod because of my back. I don’t have a bad back, just a worn out one from being in the military and LE. That said, I can handle about 30 minutes on a standard Mtn Bike. Being bent over puts pressure on my lower back and wreaks havoc on my carpal tunnel. Yeah, I am that broke up. I found by installing a 30 dollar BMX bike handle bar that it set me back up riding straight. Ahhh, that comfort. That made a world of difference for me. Think tactical Mtn bike with “cruiser” bike comforts): https://www.amazon.com/Black-Ops-MX359-BMX-Handlebars/dp/B000AOZ1FA/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=bmx+handlebars&qid=1590366699&s=sporting-goods&sr=1-6

    The larger bars are also great for adding a basket. I know – a basket? Did I mention it comes in tactical black?: https://www.amazon.com/ANZOME-Removable-Handlebar-Detachable-Mountain/dp/B078HD1PQS/ref=sxin_8_sk-bs-1-na_c4d890ef23ed397632e3b231facf6f48645cbed4?cv_ct_cx=bike+basket&dchild=1&keywords=bike+basket&pd_rd_i=B078HD1PQS&pd_rd_r=94797682-fdf1-404e-bbec-f72fdbf0f23d&pd_rd_w=hhodW&pd_rd_wg=yepHy&pf_rd_p=9d0c6e1f-0fc7-4db2-9d9c-9e8c089e106c&pf_rd_r=YRJKZH6XD3HJH9ASD6QF&qid=1590366922&sr=1-3-19adb3fb-fdf7-40db-b78f-c677b04bb4de

    If you are like me, you may have some broken and worn parts on you. We need to think in terms of “over-the-hill-tactical.” We may not be able to TAB, ruck, run and tumble like we used to, but with some “ADA”-style comforts, we can still hold our ground and that is what I wish to relay to all of you out there. Doing these mods on our bikes was an absolute game changer.

    Wish you all the best, and I am open to questions, follow ups, and even some complaints.

    Mark F.

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