Electric Bike Conversion Kit

Karl Gesslein / March 2, 2015 I built an electric fatbike out of a $499 Bullseye Monster from Bikes Direct several months ago but it took me this long to really get it working right. Initially I had a lot of problems with the drive train skipping and the chain dislodging and getting jammed between the chainwheel and the adapter. After replacing the cassette with a SRAM PG-850 (nickel-plated steel 32-11) and adding a n-gear jump stop chain guide I feel like I finally have a build that is worth duplicating. The finest Single Track\Double Track snow machine I have built yet The Bullseye Monster is an electric fatbike...

Karl Gesslein / March 9, 2015 I’ve built a couple of AWD fatbikes out of my Boris X9 donorbike that I bought for $700 on BikeIsland.com, all have been something of a disappointment. I have to admit that this current build firmly joins my other AWD builds in the ‘disappointing’ category. It is a startling contrast to have a MAC motor and a BBS02 on the same bike with separate throttles and be able to switch back and forth in real-time between the two motors. While the front wheel motor is useful when the bike bogs down in deep snow and gets stuck, most of the...

Karl Gesslein / June 27, 2015 The cheapest fat-bike build I’ve made and the most fun to ride on dirt single-track The favorite bike of my collection previous to this build was the Sun-Kiss Deadeye Monster that I built specifically for single-track snow riding. I wanted to build something a little lighter that would be dedicated to single-track dirt and mud and not so much for snow. What I ended up with has quickly become the favorite trail bike in my 6 electric fat-bike fleet. It is a cheap and easy build that can be done in about 6 hours and will cost less than...

Karl Gesslein / August 5, 2015 Dark Matter – this Bluto BBS02 build provides the ultimate street legal trail-riding experience I have been procrastinating for months about buying a Bluto Front suspension fatbike to convert. When I finally broke down and did this build the results were astounding. The biggest problem I have found with the Bluto fork (review here) is how hard it is to go back to all my other rigid framed bikes for trail-riding after several weeks of riding Dark Matter.   When riding on snow you can carve up the trails like butter and when there is a few inches of...

Karl Gesslein / November 6, 2015 I wanted to build a gas car replacement for my 17 miles each way commute into town. After not a lot of deliberation, I settled on the Haymaker 1500 from Bikes Direct which was the least expensive (<$300 shipped) aluminum framed bike with a decent shock I could find. I didn’t do a lot of upgrades to the bike other than adding a rear rack and bag for holding my larger 25Ah batteries as well as adding a cheap ebay kickstand. I swapped the front brake with an Avid BB7 although for some reason I could not get a...