2016 Electra Townie 7D with BBSHD and 52V Carbon Shark

[Rossinonte]

Thank you Luna Cycle for all your great customer service and support. This was my first build with a new Electra Townie. I installed a Bafang BBSHD 1000W Mid Drive Kit: Bottom Bracket Size: 68mm (Standard), 46T Steel Chain Ring, Luna Full Color Display, Thumb Throttle, Mid Drive Gear Sensor for Derailers Magnetic sensors for brake levers, Carbon Shark 52v GA 13.5ah Battery.

Kryptonite New York U Lock, Thudbuster seat with Sunlight C9 Cruiser Saddle. Replaced stock tires with 2.35" wide Bontrager XR3 knobby tires (barely fit), front rear lights, bells and whistles... Cruises at 20 mph all day.

[Rodney64]

Welcome to the forum Rossinonte. Looks like a nice ride.

[flyingpylon]

Very nice. Looks like you did a good job with the cables/wires etc. Do you have any photos that would show that in more detail?

[Philly]

Looks awesome! We have almost the exact same setup... but I love that color frame with the black accents... sharp! How do you like your seat? And, how exactly did you run your gear sensor? In your photo, it looks like the cable is not going through the unit???

[mingo]

Thanks for sharing your pic! This is the exact same build I'd like to do, but I've never done this before, so it would be greatly appreciated if you can post more detailed pics of the components installed and maybe a bit more details on what's involved. I'm leery of the work needed on the bottom bracket. I'm fairly mechanically minded, but the first time, there can be a lot of trial and error, that's where forums like this help noobs get it right. Thanks for any help you can offer.

[Louis]

Start here for all sorts of help! http://electricbike.com/forum/forum/...and-kits/bbshd

[Louis]

The good news is, everything is straightforward with the build you want to do. Nothing special outside of the instructions in all the available videos. With the old BBS02 manual and the videos on taking the crank off and installing the motor are just plain simple on this bike. That's what makes it the cool choice. o to the BBSHD section here. And to the lunacycle product pages and select the links. All the details and photos are there.

[mingo]

Thanks for your help. I'm going with this setup on the Electra Townie and I think I'll spring for the killer whale battery.

Will the Luna wrench also work to remove the original bottom bracket?

[Louis]

Will the Luna wrench also work to remove the original bottom bracket?

No, you'll need a tool, a socket, to do that. As well as a crank puller.

https://www.amazon.com/Tinksky-Mountain-Bicycle-Bracket-Extractor/dp/B00ZTF0AC4/ref=sr_1_16?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1470846308&sr=1-16&keywords=bike+crank+tool

[spinningmagnets]

Mingo, if you can get a good pic of the Townie with the Killer Whale pack mounted, I might be able to use that picture in the Killer Whale article, If you're interested...Something with an uncluttered background?

[mingo]

The timeline may not work for you. It'll probably be sometime in september.

[Trailinator]

I'd like to do a conversion on my GF's Electra Townie, but she is quite fond of her coaster brake. Is there a way to retain that (or a similar backpedal brake?)? Also, are all the Electras 68mm and BBSHD-friendly?

[flyingpylon]

To retain the coaster brake on your GF's Townie you'd need to go with a front hub motor. And depending on the power of that motor and whether the front forks are aluminum or steel, you'd need to include torque arms to be safe (steel is stronger than aluminum). But a front hub motor will be the quickest and easiest.

To do a BBSHD or other mid-drive and have a rear brake, you'd need to swap the rear hub to one that uses another brake type such as a roller brake (Shimano) or drum brake (Sturmey-Archer). But both of those will require a lever, the rider can't back pedal to activate the brake.

Townies may all have a 68mm bottom bracket (not 100% sure) but other Electras may have different sizes.

[Louis]

I did a 750W and 1000W front Direct Drive on aluminum forks, BUT with two torque arms. General advice is stay at 750W or smaller. That said the 1000W has been beat on, and with two Grin torque arms all is good. The Amped Cycle version form Luna I think is the best Luna has to offer.

[Rossinonte]

Apologies. I never checked my responses till now and I'll try and address your questions:

1)Flyingpylon: I'll make a build thread shortly for that Lunacycle $50 credit offer! I promise lots of pictures.

2) Philly: This is my first cruiser/dirt trail bike and thought the fatter tires and suspension seat would help but I think the stock Townie seat made me sterile (at least it made me feel my testicles were missing. After reassurance from my girlfriend they were still there, I got this Cloud 9 seat from a recommendation on a post I read. I'm not well endowed in the rear end and those big cushions help a lot. For some reason the front end still gets a little bit numb but definitely better than the stock Townie seat. Electra tech support recommended a new saddle would be ideal if you are concerned about back pain or smoothing out the ride. They recommended a Serfas RX saddles, they are have extra cushion and a cut away center to reduce pressure on the tail bone and disperse the recoil from a bumpy road.
https://www.serfas.com/products/inde...les/rx-saddles This will be my next seat. Highly recommend the thud buster Long Travel for those with back issues.

2.5) Philly: as for the gear sensor you have great eyes! You are correct, the cable is not going through the sensor. This is an installation problem I ran into which I'll cover in a the build thread. The stock gear shift cable has a metal crimp at the end. I cut off the crimp so I could feed the cable through the sensor per the instructions. Mistake. I pushed the cable into the sensor and had difficulty. I pushed harder and the a strand of the cable began unwinding. It kept following the cable and the one strand kept unwinding as I manipulated the cable. I thought oh well, plenty more strands. I cut off the rebel strand and tried again. Same problem. Now two strands started unwinding. Long story short, I lost about 6 strands and couldn't feed the cable through. Had to go to the LBS to put in a new cable. I asked them to run the cable through the sensor. They tried a few times and ran into the same problem and gave up. That's why the cable isn't run through the sensor today. I don't know what to do next.

3) Mingo: Louis is right. Straightforward. If an idiot like me can do it, you can do it. The only thing the videos don't show is the use of the spacers. I'll also cover this in the build thread with pictures but in a nutshell put the motor on the BB. Shove it in tight and push it up to the frame all the way. With the Townie, best to do this when the bike is upside down so gravity works for you. You will notice the motor will touch the cable bushing that comes out of the frame. For the BBSHD, don't worry about it. It's just touching plastic and is not interfering with the cable. The next thing is put the locking washer on hand tight securing the motor against the frame with those prongs that stick out. Next put in those small screws that hold that plate. For the BBSHD on the Townie, I had to use spacers on these screws cause the screw holes were not deep enough. All I had to do is put an extra spacing washer on these screws. Hand tighten first to test for depth and for God sakes don't over tighten and break the screw. What a PITA! During this test your will see what size spacer to use. The kit comes with larger BB sized spacers for unusual BB widths. If you do use the spacers, don't put them on the side with the bracket thingy with ridges on it cause those ridges should be touching your frame. I didn't have to use any of those spacers for the Townie. Luna has great build video (thank you!) but I wish there was a video for the use of the spacers.

4) Mingo: I don't know about the killer whale as you can see from my photos, there is lots of room for a bigger battery. I ride a lot of bumpy trails and even bumpy roads and would recommend a battery holder with metal on the back (these don't need the plastic reinforcement recommended by Luna). Also a velcro strap to hold the batter in just in case. I used an allen wrench and crank puller obviously to remove the pedals. Then used two wrenches in opposing directions to remove the BB. So simple. The bigger the wrench, the easier.

5) Trailinator: I can't speak for all the Electra line but for the Townie, the BB was measured with a micrometer to be 69.76 mm and I bought the 68-73mm BBSHD which fit perfectly (except for spacers needed for those screws I mentioned).

and an update:

After riding for a few weeks using the stock crank arm frisbee made of lead (I think it has 46 teeth) the chain would fall off at the worst moments especially at the bottom of a hill when your about to down shift and go up. After reading numerous posts, I bought the Luna Eclipse (42 teeth). I was worried about top speed. With my stock lead frisbee I maxed 33 mph on the Townie 7th gear and with the Eclipse ring I max out at 30 mph with a little more hill climbing low end torque. So far no chain jumps and I declare this problem solved. Blingy chain ring eh?

I'm still experiencing a minor problem with acceleration. As I push the throttle, about a second or two into acceleration, the motor cuts out for half a second then continues accelerating. Anyone else have this issue?

Another problem, my speedometer began to turn on and off intermittently at seemingly random rides. At first to resolve this, I disconnected the sensor by unscrewing the connector and that solved the problem. After a couple of weeks of doing this, the sensor just stopped working. (You know this cause the monitor shows 0 mph and there will be an engine symbol on the left. Also the red LED sensor will be off.) A quick email to Lunacycle and they sent me a new sensor (such awesome customer support). The new sensor worked for 3 rides consistently then started to fail. I'll keep you updated in case anyone else is having this issue.

Enough posting. Time to ride!

[Dshue]

To get the cable through the shift sensor spin the sensor in the direction the cable is wound while pushing the cable firmly.

[stevec]

Rossinonte, Question did you need to add any extension cables for the Banfang kit to fit the Townie?

[mingo]

thanks a lot for the very helpful detailed responses. when you start your build thread, please post a link here so we can follow it.. thank you.