Mission Endure 76: The First Test of our DIY E-Bike
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The last couple of weeks my son and I converted my 16 year old Trek Navigator hybrid bike I had stored in my garage into a Do It Yourself (DIY) Electric Bike. I haven’t used my bike lately because my knees have arthritis and I am in pain the rest of the day whenever I ride very far. 10 years ago I was riding several days per week and loved it. Our house is located very close to the trailhead for the Goshen Trail, which connects to over 150 miles of biking and hiking trails that cross the Illinois suburbs of St Louis. The trails are all converted small scale railroad spurs, so they are all very flat, most of them have bridges over major roads, and they are well maintained. We have had some nasty winter weather for the last couple of weeks and it was very nice Sunday, so I took the bike out for its first test run. It was awesome. I set the pedal assist on 3 out of 5 and pedaled about half the time. I wanted to see how long the battery would last. After 12 miles I still had half of the battery left. I recharged the battery last night and it took 3 hours to charge. It worked better than I thought it would for a DIY project. I can’t complain with an average of 16 mph on an old hybrid fat tire bike
Converting the bike to electric drive was really a very easy process that took about 3 or 4 hours of tinkering with the bike to complete. It actually isn’t complete yet, because I want to move as many of the pieces to the bike pack on top of the rack as possible. In the photo above, the metallic looking bike controller will move back into the bike pack along with many of the wires and connections. We should end up with 2 wires running from the front wheel to the bike pack, and they will be zip tied to the bike frame and won’t be nearly as noticeable as they are in this photo. The system works great now but I want to clean it up a bit. The hardest part of the build was ensuring we had the right parts for the conversion. I have provided a parts list below that includes links to where we ordered the parts. Some of the links are affiliate links to Amazon, and I will receive a small commission if you order from there, and if you do you won’t be charged any additional charges for my commission. To be honest, we typically order from Amazon if we can because it is hard to beat their supply chain system and return policies. Most of these electric parts are made in China and it helps to be able to make returns through Amazon rather than work with a return department in a place far away.
Here is a list of the items we used:
The Battery Pack we ordered from Jehu Garcia at JAG35.com. We have been following Jehu in YouTube for years and got he idea for the DIY E-Bike from Jehu. The batteries are recycled scooter batteries. You know the old green scooters you used to find all over in downtown areas. Most of them have been abandoned and the batteries are available to use on projects. The Battery Packs are about $65-$100 for a pack of 30. Our Bikes use 1 pack of 30 batteries, but we bought several more to use as backups and to use on other projects.
The Front Wheel and Hub Motor. We found a supplier of the 26” Bafang Front Wheel Hub Motor online. It comes with an Electric Brake, but since my bike is old it wasn’t rigged for the E-Brake. I may install it later, but for now my old brakes still work. The Bafang Front Wheel Hub Motor and tire cost about $45.
The Bike Rack. I had an existing bike rack on my bike, but we ordered this one off of Amazon for my son’s bike. It is a pretty nice bike rack for $30, and is a good addition to any bike whether or not you want to electrify your bike or not.
The Bike Bag. The Bike Rack provides a platform to mount the Bike Bag on that holds your battery pack in a nice, soft and weather free place. I really like this bike bag. Mine was 15 years old, so I ordered this one as a replacement and I am very happy with it. It cost about $33.
The guts of the E-Bike is the Controller Kit. We bought this one off of Amazon for about $100. We actually paid a bit more, but the price has come down. This kit included the actual controller, the handle grip throttle, and the E-Brake lever (which we didn’t use).
XT30 Connectors. We started from scratch on this bike build. Connecting batteries, controllers, and all the other items that do along with this build means you need a lot of connectors. These worked really well. For $14 you get 20 pair of connectors.
XT60 Connectors. The batteries we bought from Jehu came with XT30 connectors, but the XT 60 connectors are larger and beefier and we liked them better. We ordered them from Amazon and got 10 pair for $14.
XT60/XT30 Connector Adapters. Because we like to work with the XT60 Connectors better we needed to order these adapters. 2 pair were $9.00 We probably ordered about 10 pair.
XT30 Parallel Cables. My son and I are both big guys and we wanted the ability to wire 2 batteries at a time for double power or distance. These are unnecessary if you only want to use 1 battery pack. My test run was done with 1 battery pack. 2 Pair for $10.
Helping Hands. We are not very good at soldering, so we ordered this small vise to help us hold the wires in place as we soldered them $12.
Shrink tubing. When you are doing a lot of soldering it is always good to wrap your soldered wires in shrink tubing. We bought this kit and it worked well and should last for many E-Bike Builds. $11. You can use electrical tape for a less elegant solution.
Silicon Wire for soldering. This is the wire we used to make all of the connections. At Amazon you can get 25’ of wire for $21
Soldering Station. This is something you will need if you do any soldering, not just on your E-Bike. $50
Motor Connection Cable. We used this cable to connect the Hub Motor to the Controller. The Hub Motor comes with its own connector, but it is only about 6 inches long. This cable connects that 6 inch long cable to the Controller. $13
Motor Extension Cable. We decided to relocate the Controller to the Bike Pack with the Battery to keep all the delicate electrical parts in a protected case. This cable is long enough to allow the Controller to move to the Bike Pack on top of the Bike Rack. In the photo above we did not move the Controller yet. We have the Motor Extension Cable on order and will move the Controller when the cable comes in. $13
Total cost of the E-Bike build after you find a bike you want to use was $413. Compare that to the average cost of a new E-Bike of about $1,000 and I think the DIY E-Bike is a bargain, especially if you have an old bike lying around that you want to do something with to inspire you to ride it again.
This project sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. If you are interested in building your own E-Bike I would go to Jehu Garcia’s YouTube channel and watch his E-Bike video. It is really a very simple process that he does in 10 minutes. It took is 3-4 hours for the first bike and about an hour on the second one. Anyone can do it!