Starting With The Right Bike

If you are wanting to convert your own bike, that’s great! While almost any bike can be converted to electric, there are a few important considerations to consider before you start the process.

While it is great to keep a much-loved bike on the road, it’s important to also be realistic. If your bike, for example, is rusty with barely working brakes and generally fairly worn out, it might not be an economically worthwhile experience to commit to an electric conversion. As well as adding extra power, there will also be extra forces applied to the bike and more demands placed on the brakes because of the extra weight and speed which an e-bike can produce. If you are in any doubt, send a photo of your bike to us here at Rev Bikes and we will objectively assess your bike and advise on its suitability for conversion.

If you are looking to buy a bike to convert then there are some choices which make the conversion much more straight forward. Our Base Bikes collection is a wide ranging selection of all types of bikes which are all ideally suited to conversion.

Aluminium and Steel are usually the most suitable for a straight-forward e-bike conversion. Carbon fibre is often not suitable for conversion in most situations, however, ask if you are unsure.

For mid-mount motors, standard BSA bottom brackets are ideal although other bottom bracket sizes can be installed with an adapter.

If you are unsure if your current bike would be suitable for conversion, send us a photo for an honest opinion. We have converted bikes for nearly 15 years. Our goal is to have customers who are delighted with their conversion.

For the installation of hub motors, the stronger the dropouts (where the wheel axle sits), the better. Hub motors can produce a lot of torque running through the axle. We include torque bars with all our 1000w & 1500w kits, it is critical they are used. The axle on the motorised wheel is extra thick, but is trimmed to fit standard dropouts, it is 10mm wide across its flat sides, which will fit in most dropouts (new bikes may require some paint in the dropouts to be filed away).

If you have “Lawyer Lips” (a concaved ridge around your dropouts, normally for ‘easy drop-out wheels), you’ll need to make sure the washers fit in snuggly and allow a flat tight surface for you to tighten your nut against.

You will be mounting at the very least an LCD display over the head-stem, and the buttons to control this are pretty slimline (can mount under gear shifters usually).

Optional controls to fit are a throttle (thumb style is standard, half twist is also available on request), which can sometimes clash a bit with gear shifters (we often fit thumb throttles on the left, as we have to move shifters towards the middle a bit, and this matters less for shifting on the front derailleur).

The other component is safety cutout brake levers. If you have integrated gear shifters and brake levers, or hydraulic brakes, we also supply a brake cutout sensor, rather than the lever, to fit to your existing lever. Mid drive systems also have a gear sensor cutout to feed onto the gear cable.

Ideally, it is best to keep the weight of the battery as low and central as possible, paticularly with bigger batteries. This helps to minimise any affects on the balance and handling of the bike. We have a variety of batteries to suit a wide range of different applications.

If you require longer range we have safe and reliable dual battery connectors. If you need a specially shaped battery featuring high quality, branded cells, contact us for a quote.

Rack Mount

If you are mounting a rack battery (usually for step-through style bikes, or cruisers), you will need some holes near the rear dropouts, and also on the seat stays, to bolt the rack legs and arms to. Mounting here causes the weight to be a bit high, which can affect handling, especially on bikes with a lot of flex. But sometimes there is just no alternative (not enough space in the triangle of the frame).Our rack batteries come complete with a rack which is still usable for other things on top, the battery slides in and out (and locks in of course). We also offer a handy bag with fold-out panniers which can be mounted on top of the rack, making the battery more subtle, while giving you great luggage space.

Frame Mount

Great for keeping the weight more central, better balance and weight distribution. For our frame- mounting batteries, it’s easiest if you have lugs on the frame which are designed for the water bottle holder, the bracket can usually screw straight into those. Sometimes to get the correct positioning, you will need to drill an extra hole into the frame (we use Rivnuts). Most bike shops could do this for a small fee.

If you require longer-range or specially shaped batteries, contact us for a quote.

Battery Bag

Some bikes are best suited to a battery bag. For example, on full suspension MTB's or smaller frames with limited space inside the main triangle, battery bags can provide an ideal solution, particularly if the bike doesn't suit a rack battery. Battery bags just look like regular saddle or top-tube bags, this keeps your bike looking more like a stock standard, regular bike - for those who prefer stealthy power! Bags are also lighter in weight and designed to keep the battery safe and protected.

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Forks

We only fit 250w motors in front forks, all other more powerful motors are designed for rear wheel mounting (with the exception of tricycles). Carbon forks will not generally be strong enough for any twisting force, we will not guarantee they won’t fail. Most other forks will be fine for 250w.

Suspension forks will be fine, so long as they are decent quality and in good condition. The standard dropout width of 110mm is the width allowed on the motorised wheel axle. Be aware you will not have a quick-release on the motorised wheel, you will need to undo nuts to remove the wheel (if that bothers you on the front, fit a rear wheel motor).

It’s generally fine to add a rear wheel motor to any bike, although the conversion can be a little bit more complicated, having to play with the gears. Our motors have freehub cassette mounts now, to suit cassettes from modern bikes, rather than the old style of screw-on freewheels.

If you don’t have the tools to get your cassette off the existing wheel, a local bike shop will help you, or we can supply a matched one fitted to your motor for about $50.

Disc Brakes

Our hub motors are all compatible with disc brakes. The included electric cutout brake levers are only compatible with CABLE brakes, not hydraulic disc brakes, but we do have BRAKE SENSORS which you can mount to your existing levers instead if required.

You may need a disc spacer to get the disc into the correct position on a hub motor (they do come with one, which you may or may not need to use), ask us about these if you need any extra.

If you have any questions about our kits and how they will mount to your bike, please give us a call, or email a picture of your bike (with name and model) to info@rev-bikes.com

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Starting With The Right Bike

If you are wanting to convert your own bike, that’s great! While almost any bike can be converted to electric, there are a few important considerations to consider before you start the process.

Starting With The Right Bike

Frame Material

Dropouts

Handlebars