Here's a bit of a write up on my two DIY EMTB bikes.
I live in Margaret River West Australia and mainly ride downhill slopes with a bit of singletrack trail riding.
Put a bit of weight on a couple of years ago , and combined with my age ,67, just got sick of riding back up to the top of the hill, so decided to put a Tongsheng 500W TZSD into an old 2006 Giant Trance frame.
I loved it, so much fun, but the old geometry wasn't really conducive to going down hills at speed, and with the Tongsheng's power even going up hills at speed would cause the front wheel to wash out on tight bends.
I bought a cheapish RST Killah 200mm coil DH fork , with 27.5" wheel and that transformed the bike into something else. Still not as slack as present day DH bikes but much more compliant going up and down hills. With a 26" on the back it has good accelleration . I then had to put 200m rotors and XT brakes on it to keep up with the pace. Its got plenty of clearance , only have a scrape on the steepest of rollovers . 10.5Ah battery , plenty of capacity for 60-90 minutes of climbing and descending .
It has a 34 tooth chainring and 9 speed cassette.
I enjoyed the Giant so much I decided to keep my eyes open for a newer dedicated DH bike to motorise. Very fortunate to get a rare 2016 Morewood Makulu DH bike. I saw the crowdfunding site for the Italian Bikee Lightest emotor , only 1.6 kg and able to be installed up out of the way . I signed up, but a year later they still havent delivered, and I wanted to get the Morewood going so bad, I bought another TZSD . Again 500W , but 100mm BB length to suit the wider BB on Morewood. 10.5Ah Battery is mounted under downtube , and no problems at all with clearance , again only steepest rollovers a chance of contact with the motor. 152mm cranks as the BB is low , as on most DH bikes.
This bike is a bomb, it took me a little while to get used to the slack geometry , you have to use more of your body to steer it downhill, but its so fast and so much fun.
I put a bit of money into this bike , DT Swiss wheels, XT brakes, full fork service (Fox 40) , dropper seat , etc.
It has a 38T chainring with 10 speed cassette. The chainline on the top 3 gears isn't great, but a homebuilt chain guide keeps it on, and I always carry a spare chain.
Only problem is that its way down on power compared to the Giant. I still want to get a workout, so I only use Level 1 of 4 on the Giant - it takes the real grunt out of uphills, but I still get to work up a sweat.
On the Morewood I have to use level 4 to get the same power . Despite asking questions I've never been able to find the reason.
A friend thinks the later model motors have different torque sensing settings compared to the earlier motors. It could also be the display units as they are different - VCLD5 on the Giant , VCLD6 on the Morewood.
I've ordered a controller and display flashed with the Open Source Firmware which should solve the power problem and give me a lot of fine adjustments to the motors characteristics.
I'm very happy with these bikes, I've gone on rides with guys who are 30 years younger than me, on ebikes that cost a hell of a lot more and they cant keep up with my unrestricted motors . I use the Morewood when I'm mostly doing downhill stuff and the Giant when I'm rock-hopping or tight singletrack.
I live in Margaret River West Australia and mainly ride downhill slopes with a bit of singletrack trail riding.
Put a bit of weight on a couple of years ago , and combined with my age ,67, just got sick of riding back up to the top of the hill, so decided to put a Tongsheng 500W TZSD into an old 2006 Giant Trance frame.
I loved it, so much fun, but the old geometry wasn't really conducive to going down hills at speed, and with the Tongsheng's power even going up hills at speed would cause the front wheel to wash out on tight bends.
I bought a cheapish RST Killah 200mm coil DH fork , with 27.5" wheel and that transformed the bike into something else. Still not as slack as present day DH bikes but much more compliant going up and down hills. With a 26" on the back it has good accelleration . I then had to put 200m rotors and XT brakes on it to keep up with the pace. Its got plenty of clearance , only have a scrape on the steepest of rollovers . 10.5Ah battery , plenty of capacity for 60-90 minutes of climbing and descending .
It has a 34 tooth chainring and 9 speed cassette.
I enjoyed the Giant so much I decided to keep my eyes open for a newer dedicated DH bike to motorise. Very fortunate to get a rare 2016 Morewood Makulu DH bike. I saw the crowdfunding site for the Italian Bikee Lightest emotor , only 1.6 kg and able to be installed up out of the way . I signed up, but a year later they still havent delivered, and I wanted to get the Morewood going so bad, I bought another TZSD . Again 500W , but 100mm BB length to suit the wider BB on Morewood. 10.5Ah Battery is mounted under downtube , and no problems at all with clearance , again only steepest rollovers a chance of contact with the motor. 152mm cranks as the BB is low , as on most DH bikes.
This bike is a bomb, it took me a little while to get used to the slack geometry , you have to use more of your body to steer it downhill, but its so fast and so much fun.
I put a bit of money into this bike , DT Swiss wheels, XT brakes, full fork service (Fox 40) , dropper seat , etc.
It has a 38T chainring with 10 speed cassette. The chainline on the top 3 gears isn't great, but a homebuilt chain guide keeps it on, and I always carry a spare chain.
Only problem is that its way down on power compared to the Giant. I still want to get a workout, so I only use Level 1 of 4 on the Giant - it takes the real grunt out of uphills, but I still get to work up a sweat.
On the Morewood I have to use level 4 to get the same power . Despite asking questions I've never been able to find the reason.
A friend thinks the later model motors have different torque sensing settings compared to the earlier motors. It could also be the display units as they are different - VCLD5 on the Giant , VCLD6 on the Morewood.
I've ordered a controller and display flashed with the Open Source Firmware which should solve the power problem and give me a lot of fine adjustments to the motors characteristics.
I'm very happy with these bikes, I've gone on rides with guys who are 30 years younger than me, on ebikes that cost a hell of a lot more and they cant keep up with my unrestricted motors . I use the Morewood when I'm mostly doing downhill stuff and the Giant when I'm rock-hopping or tight singletrack.
