Electric Bike Conversion Kit

July 4, 2017 by Average Joe Cyclist 2 Comments This is a guest post from 70-year-old Bob Seible, who decided to build an electric bike that would be tough enough to meet his needs. As I have written in my Guide for Fat Cyclists, most bikes are only intended for people up to about 220 pounds. Bob is in a higher weight class that that, so he wanted a good, strong bike – and he wanted it to be electric as well. Also, he was working to a pretty tight budget. So, this is the story of what he did. I found it very...

Karl Gesslein / April 1, 2015 Origin 8 Crawler with a nuvinci CVT hub 42lbs retail at $1500 but going for around $1100 shipped on fleabay. Seems like I’ve been getting a lot of emails about the Origin 8 Crawler fatbike with the Nuvinci hub from people wanting to do BBS02 conversions on it. Seems like a decent platform although pretty hefty at a claimed 42lbs, probably for the smallest frame size. 42lbs is the same weight that my singlespeed Deadeye Monster came in at WITH the motor installed. Add an extended axle BBS02 to the Crawler and you’re looking at mid 50lb range...

Karl Gesslein / February 3, 2015 After making 4 different electric fatbike prototypes out of Bikes Direct aluminum fatbikes I’ve decided to try a different route entirely. The new Storm fatbike is selling their entire fatbike with battery, charger and motor for a measly $499 (till this Friday 2/6/2015). Considering that I usually drop more than that on a motor or battery alone this is a screaming deal that just can’t be ignored. The last time I went shopping for decent 4.9 inch tires they ran about $130 each shipped, and for rims that wide the cheapest I can find is $50 each and...

Karl Gesslein / February 19, 2015 I added a Nexus 3 IGH to this bike after about a year of thrashing on it, and it was worth it. Review is here. I went for a ride on my newest build and was incredibly happy with the results. This is my third BBS02 fatbike conversion and I have to say it is probably the best yet. Although the donor bike is a single-speed Deadeye Monster, I found that with the proper gears in the front and the rear, the motor had enough speed range that I didn’t really need to shift. Riding along on...

Karl Gesslein / February 20, 2015 We’ve been promising this Dolomite/BBS02 build for a while and we’re happy to say it works beautifully. This is one of the least expensive BBS02 builds you can do yourself and without a battery it should set you back ~$700 and weighs in without a battery at 59 lbs. A BBS02 mounted fatbike. Yes please! The Mongoose Dolomite was originally incorrectly advertised on the Walmart site as an ‘Aluminum’ frame but now it correctly says ‘rigid steel’. The website also incorrectly lists the weight at 45 lbs but is actually 49lbs shipped and assembled (still 11lbs...