Stretch-e

HuffnPuff · Nov 26, 2018

I picked up this long black cruiser recently. It was a custom build for a high school students final year project. All powder coated and nice neat welds. It was going cheap as not quite in rideable condition so I snapped it up and plan to put a electric mid drive on it that I’ve been looking for a home for since I got hold of it cheap, not working and attached to an awful folding bike.

As bought the ape hanger bars were not holding in the stem and looked funny raked back far enough so you could reach them and steer. Pity, as they were also powder coated. Also the chain is about half a link too long and keeps skipping on the rear cog.

I’ve dummied up some bars to see if they will work and switched the steel stem for an alloy one. I need to get hold of the right diameter tube stock to finish the bars off. As it stands the bars are too long, and I’ll take feedback on the shape too, it is a first draft.

Chain tension has been helped by popping a spare chainring in between.

The e-bike stuff will take some working out as the battery currently won’t do anything. It’s showing 0 volts so might just need a sneaky charge to bring up the voltage enough that the standard charger recognises the battery. Otherwise it’ll need replacing I guess.

clamdigger · Nov 26, 2018

Nice find ! Looking at the bottom bracket , I guess the mid-drive motor will rest on top? That's a good thing for ground clearance. Do you have plans to go with a multi-speed rear wheel ?

HuffnPuff · Nov 26, 2018

clamdigger said:
Nice find ! Looking at the bottom bracket , I guess the mid-drive motor will rest on top? That's a good thing for ground clearance. Do you have plans to go with a multi-speed rear wheel ?

I think the motor will mount nicely behind the cranks on top of the frame. So far I’ve only ‘kinda’ test fitted. No plans for multi speed rear as there is no derailleur hanger, but it wouldn’t be a difficult conversion as the hub was originally a 10spd setup.

crazydave58 · Nov 26, 2018

You have some interesting challenges there...hope it works out for you..

HuffnPuff · Dec 20, 2018

I received a bottom bracket adaptor in the mail and got to switching the cranks. half way through I remembered the cups need to be knocked out. Being a bit late at night decided bashing at a large metal echo chamber with a hammer wasn’t conducive to domestic bliss so have put it in hold for tonight.

Plenty to do around Christmas time, it’s not going to be a quick one.

HuffnPuff · Mar 10, 2019

I’ve had some time to play with this. It’s now rideable with the new bars and the motor fitted. Took some filing of the existing brackets to fit it, and currently (pun intended) the battery is held in place with zip ties. Need to tidy up the bars and paint and route the cables neatly.

Test ride: it’s a monster. I’ll need to think about the gearing as it’s too tall for hills and the motor is only 180w so not very powerful. It gets along at a fair clip on the flat though.