dequinox
10 kW
I acquired a giant frame a while back (probably over 2 years ago, $15), with the intent of incorporating it into some sort of cargo-bike build. It's steel or chromo, and is rather large (maybe 20" seat tube).
Well today I spotted this little gem:
So I went, I saw, I haggled down to $140 (the bag is wrecked...let's face it). Now it hangs from my shop ceiling alongside the frame:
Now, what to do with it...
Option 1: I have a 1000W rear ebay/amazon kit I got used for $80.00, so there's that.
Option 2: Attempt to salvage parts from the HI-V (my first build) and cobble together a freewheeling crank mid-drive.
Option 3: Legit stokemonkey, or stokemonkey-see, stokemonkey-do copycat setup.
I'm open to opinions, and I know a few of the pros/cons of each option. For example stokemonkey means you have to pedal, there's not a freewheeling option as I understand it. The hub motor will lack torque enough to clear some of our nastier hills around Eugene. The salvage operation is going to mean a lot of custom work... and will probably creep in cost.
With any of the above options, I'll be stripping the paint off both and giving them a unified color scheme, which I haven't figured out completely yet. Powder coating for sure, since I'm lucky enough to have the access.
Now I need to decide on a fork also... I can cobble together the rest of the parts easily enough, but this frame has a particularly long head tube. I have a 700C fork, but would need to splice it with an extender and weld it. I've also considered that a suspension fork of semi-decent quality would be ideal... and 26" wheels would be best for now since I'm going V-brake until I upgrade to discs.
Thoughts???
Well today I spotted this little gem:
So I went, I saw, I haggled down to $140 (the bag is wrecked...let's face it). Now it hangs from my shop ceiling alongside the frame:
Now, what to do with it...
Option 1: I have a 1000W rear ebay/amazon kit I got used for $80.00, so there's that.
Option 2: Attempt to salvage parts from the HI-V (my first build) and cobble together a freewheeling crank mid-drive.
Option 3: Legit stokemonkey, or stokemonkey-see, stokemonkey-do copycat setup.
I'm open to opinions, and I know a few of the pros/cons of each option. For example stokemonkey means you have to pedal, there's not a freewheeling option as I understand it. The hub motor will lack torque enough to clear some of our nastier hills around Eugene. The salvage operation is going to mean a lot of custom work... and will probably creep in cost.
With any of the above options, I'll be stripping the paint off both and giving them a unified color scheme, which I haven't figured out completely yet. Powder coating for sure, since I'm lucky enough to have the access.
Now I need to decide on a fork also... I can cobble together the rest of the parts easily enough, but this frame has a particularly long head tube. I have a 700C fork, but would need to splice it with an extender and weld it. I've also considered that a suspension fork of semi-decent quality would be ideal... and 26" wheels would be best for now since I'm going V-brake until I upgrade to discs.
Thoughts???