The basics

[Doug Stampfer]

For those of you that have added motors onto their existing bikes what are the basic things you would recommend?

I made the mistake of letting my wife ride my bike while on holiday & she's sold on them. Unfortunately for the amount of use it may get it wouldn't be worth spending big money on one so I thought I could throw a motor on the Giant trance I have. Having a look though it seems that bikes with curved downtube puts the position of the motor too low for anything off road. So I think a bike with a straight down tube would be the first consideration. Any more thoughts or considerations?

 

[Animalector]

For the BBS02 units it is 'ideal' to have a straight downtube, and a 68mm or 73mm threaded Bottom bracket. It's much more complicated with Pressfit and not worth stuffing with IMO. The TSDZ range of motors are torque sensing, and worked well on the road, it should be ok for the bush. it is similar in most ways to the BBS02, but slightly lower power.

Battery mouting is the most difficult task. Under-seat bags work well for the road, but bounce around. Backpacks get heavy, and pre-built in-frame batteries often don't fit. Duct tape is your friend for low cost, reliable, and secure mounting..

I guess it is like anything, you pay more for convenience.

 

[Waynemarlow]

Don't be put off by the low position of the TSDZ2 engine, in reality it doesn't seem to be a bother as much as I thought it would be. Its not much deeper than the chainring so although it does constrict the ground clearance, don't be put off. The TSDZ2 does have a couple of quirks in its IP ratings but we have learnt how to get around those such as a simple mod of taking off one cover and filling around the wire entry point with silicon or waterproof grease.

The other advantage of the TSDZ2 engine is the huge resources that have been thrown at it by some very capable software writers. The standard version although good is nothing like the hacked version which just takes it into another league, up there with the best of them. Everything from colour screens, total ability to change settings of every part of the setup, calibration independantly of each peddle and with the new totally wireless inter operation with the Garmins and mobile phones about to come on line, they can be as good as you can get.

The other huge advantage in my opinion is where else can you get a fully torque sensing motor complete with all displays and brake cutoffs if you want them ( we don't use them ) with noise levels less than the Bosch but above the Brose, with every component widely available to purchase should something go wrong, all for £ 265.00.

We seem to have also solved the battery mounting issues using common top tube bags, but you need to select a bag suitable for your frame.

If you want a bit of bedtime reading New "TSDZ2 Torque Sensor Central Motor" - Endless Sphere