I built this bike to meet very specific needs I have. I have a chinese 2 stroke bike that I ride for serious distances. I wanted one that gave me a little exercise without wearing me out… (two heart attacks you know).
The gas bike is noisy… The diy franken-chopper is quiet. I can even speak to people on the side of the road and get their response.
The gasoline bike runs at a pretty good clip… the Diy ebike runs about the speed of a reqular bike with a good rider, which im not. About ten miles an hour even up some pretty good hills.
The gas bike beats the ebike on range since it is pretty infinite.
The ebike beats the gas on ease of build. The gas bike was a real challenge to get working. The ebike with friction drive was a go in a couple of hours.
The ebike beats the gas on maintenance. I use friction drive so the only maintenance is a new tire now and then.
Specifications:
Bike is a used 26" bike… the rear wheel is a 20" coaster wheel from a child’s donor bike. The same size wheel is on both my bikes. The twenty inch wheel gets me lower to the ground making the bike much more stable and also easier to drop my feet when I need to just move it around a little without pedaling.
I switched out the crank and chain ring from the small bike to the larger one. the shorter throw of the crank makes it much more comfortable.
The motor is a 24volt 350 watt brushed electric motor from a schwinn motor actually made by curry. The drive wheel is a wheel made for bikes i found on ebay. You could also use foot pegs from a trick bike or anything else round. The drive wheel I had welded to the motor sprocket then I reinstalled it. Wasn’t much to it really.
The bike with Batteries on it was too unstable for me. I have a little brain damage that is only going to get worse. I built a small trailer from the front tire of the donor bike and one other 20" front wheel I had laying about. The trailer’s short tongue adds a lot of stability to the bike but it isn’t nearly as top heavy as a trike even without the trailer.
The batteries are two inexpensive lawn tractor batteries. I haven’t had enough time to test the range but I expect them to be over ten miles easily.
Since I made the attached image I have changed the tire on the trailer so that they are both the multicolored type. I call this my clown semi-chopper
