For anyone interested in green mobility, it’s hard to ignore the boom in e-bikes in recent years. If the preferred method for making the leap to electric is to buy a VAE, this solution remains expensive. The electric bikes offered by the majority of manufacturers are rarely less than 1,000 €. Electrifying a classic bike is a cheaper and more responsible alternative, as long as you know how to master a few tools.
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Like the automobiles, it is possible to electrify your little queen using conversion kits provided for this purpose. The practice is not really recent with companies like BionX offering this type of kit since 1998.
Why electrify your bike?
There may be different reasons for preferring electrification to outright purchasing a electrically assisted bicycle (VAE).
Do not give up a good bike and favor modularity
It is sometimes painful to part with a cyclist paid for several hundred (or even more than a thousand) euros for a eBikeespecially since even in the event of resale it will often be necessary to add a certain amount ofmoney to acquire an electric cycle. In addition, it is often difficult to find a shoe that fits in matter of comfort in the current offer of pedelecs. Choosing to convert means making sure you have a bike that suits you both in terms of comfort and looks! Finally, let’s talk about modularity. Conversion kits need to be fitted, but that also means they can be taken apart. It is therefore easy to replace the battery, cables or tinker with the bike itself. Something that will prove more difficult on all-in-one e-bikes.
Save money
By keeping your current bike and buying a conversion kit, you can save several hundred euros. This is also the case in a lot of scenarios where the bike is bought new, used or refurbished even if the saving is less. Conversion kits start at €200 but can go up to €800 in some cases for more powerful engines to go beyond the 25 km/h limit.
Take advantage of grants
In France, aid exists to encourage the transition to the cleaner mode of transport that is the electrically assisted bicycle. But did you know that this aid also concerns conversion kits in certain cities? It is indeed possible to be reimbursed 25 to 50% of the price of your conversion kit thanks to your local authority. At present, this bonus is valid for people residing in the cities of Paris, Toulon, Vaucresson, Courbevoie, Bordeaux and Lyon.
How to electrify your bike?
Today, there are two types of popular kits to electrify one’s bicycle : “wheel motor” kits and “pedal motor” kits. In both cases, a battery will be installed on the frame between the pedals and the front wheel, an area generally reserved for the bottle holder. It is normal to worry about the compatibility of his bikebut enormous progress has been made in recent years to such an extent that 90% of the models marketed today are convertible.
wheel motor
By far the easiest to install of the two engines, it is also the least expensive. It is assembled with few tools and little skill since it only requires dismantling its rear wheel and installing a new one, equipped with the motor. After this step, all that remains is to fix the battery (which is sometimes even integrated into the wheel) on the frame and wire everything to take advantage of a new thrust force! As for the controller to adjust the motor power and check the battery level, it is often available as aapplication for smartphones. Some manufacturers are still more conservative and prefer to add a separate controller, which may require a small additional step in the installation of the kit.
The wheel motor also has the advantage of being completely independent of the transmission, which makes it possible to take advantage of the maximum torque of the motor regardless of the chain ratio engaged. In some cases, the replaced wheel may be the one at the front, but this will mainly concern tricycles and folding ones.
crank motor
A little more complicated to install than the wheel motor, the crank motor is no less interesting. The main skill to have to be able to install it is to know how to disassemble the original crankset of your bike. Its operation is different from the wheel motor since it drives the chain and therefore the wheel attached to it. This engine is therefore dependent on the transmission and gear ratio. speed unlike the wheel motor. Its main advantage is its climbing efficiency which allows it to be up to twice as economical as its wheel counterpart.
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