Fat bike & Cargo Bike

[Bikengineer]

I've built and restored half a dozen e-bikes now mostly hub drives front and rear but so far haven't done mid drive or fat bike or Xiongda 2 speed. So I've bought a department store fat bike and am using it for parts with a Yuba Mundo frame and a BBS01. Will swap front end so Yuba has a 3inch tyre upfront and will rebuild rear rim onto a new IGH Nexus inter3 disc hub. Crank comes courtesy of Bafang kit.

3" tyre should fit in Mundo rear frame but the rims are 32hole. Am a bit worried that it won't be strong enough in cargo application with this hub. Obviously the Rohloff would be stronger but it's 6x the price and the rim is 32hole anyway. If it hub/spoke/rim fails how is it likely to happen. It's low cost but obviously I don't want to crash. Am using a BBS01 to keep it legal but will likely upgrade controller from 250W to 350W down the track. Should also minimise the force going into weaker hub.

Will then use the fat frame to install a rear Xiongda hub with roller brake which is much wider and should fill the OLD which is 175mm. Any suggestions on where I can buy a 26" x 50mm wide single wall rim with 36holes. Ive had no luck finding such a thing as most fat bike rims are 32hole or have staggered holes. Am thinking maybe using 2 standard rims and balloon tyres 2.35" on this frame as it will have the fork from Yuba after swap. New bars, seat, pedals and front brake and should be right to go.

 

[dogman dan]

Cool idea. I just keep thinking about a "fat" tire cargo bike, but more along the lines of a moped or scooter rear tire, and moped tire up front.

The main idea being a smaller rear wheel, but wide. And motorcycle durability of the tire. Along the lines of John in CR's bikes, but adapted for big cargo hauling.

 

[spinningmagnets]

I have collected several 36H fat rim sources from ES members and have posted them at the bottom of this article:

http://www.electricbike.com/2wd-fatbike/

 

[Drunkskunk]

The term "Fat Bike" is usually reserved for bikes with 3.7" or larger tires, and rims larger than 65mm, so you may be having trouble finding 50mm rims if you're looking for fat bike parts. if you can go up to 65mm on rim size, there are a lot more options available.

 

[Bikengineer]

Thanks folks.