Last Piece of the Puzzle

Mixar

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Joined
Mar 29, 2021
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Hello,

Sorting out the last logistics of my first eBike build for both my wife and I.

I decided on a BBSHD and triangle battery from em3ev.

Now the last piece of the puzzle. The donor bike.

I picked up a ‘97 Gary Fisher Aquila off Craigslist for $170. Low and behold the seat post is seized. Like completely seized, so most likely that bike is not gonna work and that sucks.

Regardless, I’m still on the hunt for my wife’s bike. If used, well I’ll hit the used market for something that checks her aesthetics boxes and my logistic boxes.

Another Avenue I’m looking at is just getting two new bikes from a store and going that route. She’s always in favor of matching anyway...


So, my question is what donor bike would you guys recommend if you had to buy from a store?

Ideally keeping costs low, but could venture upwards of $4-500 range for the donor bike?

It seems anything else has huge sacrifices, and even at that price point not even everything wanted.

Ideally, disc brakes, largest rear cassette possible, non-fat bike, front suspension. Oh, and my wife is a huge stickler for “straight” bars. She hates how the tubes have angles to them. I have somewhat convinced her of modern geometry where the top tube is not horizontal, but no bend necessarily in the tube itself.

Things I’m looking at for example are,

Trek 820, GT Aggressor, Giant ATX.

We thought about going roadmaster from Walmart but A, it keeps going out of stock, and B, I see nothing but bad things about it on the forums here.

At this point, I just want a bike so I can order parts and start my conversion.

Used market seems just okay at this point, cost vs quality and condition.

I guess I should mention we will mostly be toting our kids around on trailers etc. up and down the country as we travel in our self converted camper van. Mainly gravel/dirt trails and concrete jungle. No crazy mountain biking, not until they’re older at least..
 
You might ck out Bike Island. Great folks and great prices;
https://bikeisland.com/index.cgi
 
Pulling out a stucked seat post is not much of a problem. Use a slide hammer puller. You can make your own, or rent one. If the frame is steel you can heat it, but don’t if it is alu. Use Gunk penetrating oil, pour a few ounces into the seat post then rest the bike upside down overnight. The hammer puller might destroy the seat post but it is easy to find a cheap replacement.
 
^this, or if you're not into the physicality wrasslin' part of it, just take it to your LBS, they have ways of freeing a stuck seat post.
 
I’ve done all of the above. The guy who I bought it from has been trying to get it unstuck for the past week. Apparently works on bikes.

Personally tried the slide hammer and the top portion came out but the post itself did not.

Took it to a shop and they tried and said only way was it have it milled at a machine shop.
 
Mixar said:
Oh, and my wife is a huge stickler for “straight” bars. She hates how the tubes have angles to them.

Smart lady.

I sometimes wonder how and why the entire cycle industry seems to have forgotten what a truss is and how it works.

You clearly have been looking at used bikes, which is good. That's how you'll find a decent bike that fits your budget and has a frame made out of straight tubes.
 
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