Hi Johnny! Love your work. I fully agree a mid drive is the way to go. I got pretty close to getting a donor bike, even shopped frames and thought of building one from the ground up. However, as fun as an egravel bike would be for me I decided it’s best (simplicity, cost) to just convert my daily run-about.
Mine is an SE Lager single speed, not fixie. I live in a downtown area and also use it on local paved paths and maybe gravel. In this case wouldn’t a hub motor be best? I‘d like to learn more about this kind of motor. Geared or dual speed hubs? Regenerative braking on direct drive, resistance and efficiency, top speed vs torque, noise? Anything else?
Much appreciated!
Joe K
As a daily commuter using a hub motor, I just want to remind people that knowledge that i got from this article.
(1) with a hub motor, changing a flat tire in the rear is considerably more work than with a mid drive,
(2) a larger hub motor will interfere with a large cassette (or freewheel), and thus limit your number of gears. If I were to start my project over again, I would strongly consider a mid drive.
Hey johnny, is there any pitfalls in converting a fixie to an e bike?
Personally I’d still go mid drive as I would be able to swap out the front chainring/rear cog to get the exact gear ratio I wanted 👍
Hey did you manage to hear back about your bike?