Driverkpk said:
Theres a 95' trek 850 track xc chromoly frame available to me what do you think of that bike for conversion??
Like This One? If so, I give it thumbs up for a 20mph bike.
If you need to go faster, you can add front fork shocks, shock absorbing seatpost, cushy seat, big tires. But at less than 25mph, you won't need to unless you are offroad or highways are extra-crappy where you live.
Disclaimer
I'm going to offer you my own personal version of "advice". I'll attempt to normalize my advice and try to keep my own personal prejudices out of it. Please, don't anyone read this and take offense or feel there needs to be a counterbalancing editorial statement from the other side - I'm not selling anything, I'm just trying to illustrate what the experience of building an ebike is like and what kind of decision making the ebike builder must go through as they quest for their Ideal Machine.
Motor/Controller/Battery
My personal experience is that with most motor equipment (regardless of type), most controllers, most batteries, at 48-52 volts you want to be right around 20-25mph. Why? This gives you the best compromise between speed and range. Much beyond 25mph, wind resistance becomes such a dominant drain on your battery that range drops dramatically.
Hubmotors are a good way to start. They are tolerant of overloading and don't require you to make any complicated mechanical changes to the bike. Most people will recommend a rear direct-drive hubmotor. Get one with a matching controller that is compatible with ebikes.ca Cycle Analyst. You don't want to have to figure out the wiring for a motor that doesn't match the controller, and you want the motor vendor to support you with both parts.
You can take liberty with what kind of battery you buy and match to the motor and controller, as long as it's the voltage specified for the controller. But it doesn't hurt if you buy the motor, controller and battery as a complete package. ebikes.ca is a good vendor for that, but there are plenty other vendors that offer complete packages. A front motor is OK for simplicity, but front motors are usually lower power than rear motors.
You must plan on buying torque arms, whether you go with a steel or aluminum frame. Buy them from the same vendor you get the motor from.
Absolutely plan to buy a new 7-speed freewheel if you are doing a hubmotor. Otherwise, your pedaling will stop being effective at 14-18mph. The stock crankset on that bike looks nice, like you can easily swap out the chainrings. You will eventually want to do that also. Being able to contribute power by pedaling at 18-25mph gives a huge boost to range.
First Electric Ride
Other than the new freewheel, don't buy anything else until after you have test-ridden the bike under electric power. You will want to come up with a "standard test course", ride your bike on it with a full battery charge, then post your results here. What you end up with for performance is going to dictate what your next purchases are. You will want to get feedback from E-S members on your results and figure out "what's most important to do next" from those test results.
What do I mean? Well, if you can't reach your speed goals, you'll want to prioritize "going faster", so you will buy things like new 11-28T freewheel and bigger (48-52T) chainrings. You might want to swap out for a smoother, higher-pressure road tire. (you'll want that anyway if you get knobbies on the bike but you want to do road riding)
If you DO reach your speed goals, then you'll want to plan to swap out/upgrade the brake pads, true up the wheels, make sure the tires/tubes are perfect, fill them with slime or stan's, and start thinking about charging, range and desired performances.
Build For Your Mission
If, like me, you plan to use the bike for commuting, you will want to immediately add fenders and rear rack. I like the SKS german fenders and the low-cost TransIt rear rack from PerformanceBike.com
Bike lights suck. Search the forums here for better lights. So far, I've found the best lights for ebikes on ebay.com. I power my headlight from the main pack and my taillight is a bright "regular" flashing bike taillight with two AA batteries. I don't yet have any good side lighting (although that's in the plan).
I like Schwalbe tires best, especially the reflective sidewall. But there are other good tires mentioned here, the CST Cyclops and Kenda Kwest stick out in my mind, but I don't think either has reflective sidewalls.
I use a plain pannier on the rack to carry my stuff to/from work. It's not optimal because of the added wind resistance, but the bike "trunks" that sit on top of the rear rack suck bad, and the pannier has interior compartments that are beautifully organized to hold tire patches, tire tools, CO2 cylinders, etc. I can also get a decent, usable pump into the pannier but not into the bike trunk. Someday I'd like to switch to a bike trunk but so far I've not found anything that I like as much as the pannier.
Good luck and please keep us posted on your build progress. Even just getting the bike and adding fenders or rack to it is progress!