Another BBSHD Off Road Build

Well guys,
Thanks to all that helped contribute. Over the last several weeks I have been planning an off road only build. The key factors was selecting the right kit for of road use, and had to be sturdy for a 250lbs Clydesdale Weekend Warrior. I am 95% complete still waiting on my battery to arrive. The bike I purchased on Craigslist is a Specialzed Epic Comp Disc. https://bikeindex.org/bikes/31529. I purchased the kit from EM3EV have nothing but great things to say about my experience so far. They are great about answering questions and providing a bunch of technical details. A couple of notes about ordering from EM3EV that you might not be aware of. One shipping cost was around $150 and they use FedEx. 2) They shipped the kit before the battery. Right now it's about 10 days since I received my kit just waiting on the battery. Kit came in from Air and I would suspect that the battery came into California by AIR but now needs to be routed via Ground. Again not 100% verified.

I wanted to point out a few tips for those that were looking to do a similar frame on the issues that I ran into. The build was quite simple.

Key Pointers:
Bike Selection:
I used a Cross Country Frame I made my decision based on the Triangle. I wanted to put a triangle battery and did not want to use the water bottle screws to secure a huge battery. Although important it should not be the deciding factor. When I do this again I will base my primary decision on heavy duty frame. Due to all of the extra weight you will be adding an ENDURO or DOWNHILL frame would have been a much better option. I would also recommend a Full Suspension bike if your primary use is for offroad.

Having the right tools:
Make sure you have the right tools for the job. Print out a template of the battery you want to use. Make sure you measure the length of your bottom bracket, and make sure you understand if it's a thread in FSA 68-100mm BB or Press Fit PF30. BB
Typically found on bikes newer that 2012. Don't buy cheap china tools unless you know exactly what you are getting. If not go with a more expensive Park Tool tool.

Three most important tools for the job are 1) Crank Removal Tool 2) Bottom Bracket Removal Tool and 3) Bafang crank installation tool. Alan wrenches, spanner tools are probably in your tool box but with out the above mentioned tools your gonna struggle.

I have verbiage on the pics. Key notes is make sure you have some bottom bracket spacers to allow clearance for the chain stay. Even on my very mild cross country build with tires that were less that 2" wide I still needed Bottom bracket spacers. I would order an assortment of .5, 1mm and 2mm spacers. You might not need them but it would suck if you have everything and then cant get the job done right. My local bike shot gave me a bunch for free.

For those that have a BBSHD how tight do you tighten the crank arms? That's the last part I need to do is tighten down the crank arms? It looks like there just wedged in? How do you pull them off? Do you need a bearing remoal tool? Do you pull the bolt and tap them out with a mallet? I dont want to tighten them down as I dont know what adjustments I still need to do. Also the gear selector only shifts one gear? I need to figure out what I did there.

There must be specs for tightening, and if you don't get them tight enough, they'll loosen and maybe ruin the interface. For me, tightening them a lot (by feel) has always worked. To remove you just need to remove the bolt then use a crank puller.

square taper cranks are usually tighten to 25-30ft lbs.. grease the threads and axle tapers.. I also got the lekkie shorter cranks for reduced pedal strikes.. they are torque to 50-60Nmeter and have built in extractor..

efMX Trials Electric Freeride said:

square taper cranks are usually tighten to 25-30ft lbs.. grease the threads and axle tapers.. I also got the lekkie shorter cranks for reduced pedal strikes.. they are torque to 50-60Nmeter and have built in extractor..

Click to expand...

Thanks. I dont have a tool to use my torque wrench on the crank but I will on the arms. If I notice that I'm having a lot of pedal strikes I will probably consider the shorter cranks.

How does.my chain-line look? Am I looking at it correctly. Looks a little off to me.

You'll know if it starts dropping the chain.

Off hand I'd say you might have some trouble, it looks like you could use a few more mm of offset.

The HD is pretty powerful and unless you have a lot of hills near you you won't need the lower gears. If you do you might want to consider getting a chain guard/guide. A bottom bracket mounted chain guard might kill two birds with one stone, they are about as thick as that spacer. Otherwise you can get a post mounted one that goes about where your front derailleur was.

You other option would be to upgrade to a 10s drive train and get a clutched derailleur. That XTR rear is pretty dope but you don't really need a long cage derailleur when you're just running 8 speeds. The extra slop tends to spit the chain going over bumps. Shimano makes a short cage derailleur for down hill bikes that would work well in this application. If your budget allows for it it's something you might want to consider it the chain guard isn't enough.

I got most everything setup. For off-road this is awesome. I can not advocate strong enough how well the gear sensor is working out. The small delay in the motor cutoff in switching gears is well worth it. I wasn't used to having to stop pedaling before switching gears and all the banging and clanking when I forgot to stop pedaling. Now I don't have to worry about.

Also using the eggbeater display is great. The pedal assist and the way it's set up is more than adequate in helping to get up steep trails. I keep it around 4 and swap up or down. It really helps to know the trail so your more efficient but it works great. I like how you can really dial in the level of effort required to pedal with using the 9 adjustment levels. You can really dial in the level of exercise you get. Im Trying to stick to below 4.

My minor gripes about the BFANG BBSHD kit from EM3EV.
1) Triangle battery fits per template but the battery pack they use is huge and very little thought if any behind there selection. It's like a totally generic bag. It would have been awesome if they put a small access port or zipper so you can QUICKLY access the charging port and or power button.
1a) There is no access port for the battery lead wires through the battery bag. You got to create a small hole in the bag to draw the wires out of. Not a big deal but still.
2) if your using the eggrider app you can't use the battery app at the same time. one of them crashes. The battery app on the EM3ev triangle pack via BT is very cool.
3) a better chainring and or options should be part of any kit BBSHD. I could not have used the stock chainring without using spacers and really messing with my chainline.
4) for off-road use the gear sensor should be included. Can't see using this kit off-road with out it your gonna brake shit or just really compromise how you ride.
5) the position of the charging port on the battery is in an awkward position and not easy to get too. Would be much better if it was easliy accessible when unzipping the bag.
6) Wiring loom is way to long. I have at least 1ft of extra cabling that I need to ziptie and makes it look less than. Ideal.
7) clicking sound when you roll the bike backwards. This really defines the whole "Cheapie China" experience. From what I understand this is totaly normal but still. Come on BFANG.
8) wow is it heavy. Couldn't lighter materials have been used. It's just really really heavy. So is the battery pack.
The Good Stuff:
Most of these are minor when compared to the cost savings of a real eMountain Bike. Also all of the cons are easily offset the great experience you get. It really is very smooth. Not nearly as jerky on the throttle as my last rear hub setup. It's a torque monster. It's like a goat and can climb anything. The PAS really works. Which is awesome in allowing you to adjust the level of assistance especially if your trying to get some good exercise.
The Gear sensor IMO is a must have very smooth in changing gears and relieves a lot of the stress when changing gears while continuing to pedal. (Obviously don't change gears while going uphill in the small chain ring)

Some pics of the battery I selected the white stuff is just a covering to protect the battery. I just never pulled it off. Notice the size of the bag it's HUGE!. I had to stuff it in the triangle.

Completely finished bike.

So far so good. Loving the gear switching sensor. Just need to tweak the settings a bit as the throttle is a bit jumpy.

geosped said:

efMX Trials Electric Freeride said:

square taper cranks are usually tighten to 25-30ft lbs.. grease the threads and axle tapers.. I also got the lekkie shorter cranks for reduced pedal strikes.. they are torque to 50-60Nmeter and have built in extractor..

Click to expand...

Thanks. I dont have a tool to use my torque wrench on the crank but I will on the arms. If I notice that I'm having a lot of pedal strikes I will probably consider the shorter cranks.

Click to expand...

bbshd torque specs :