Here are the specifics on my BBSHD + Motobecane Lurch Fat Bike Build. I hope these details help someone thinking about building a bike.
I selected the Lurch because the price, color and size were all what I needed. Plus, I love the lines on it! My research indicated it would work well with a BBSHD 120mm size too. In retrospect, my wife would have preferred a bike with a Bluto front fork.
My wife and I wanted a way to get deeper into the woods in search of funghi. Also, we live at the top of a large hill -- which kills the fun biking back from a trip to town.
Last year I built two mountain bikes with 1500 watt rear wheel motors from Ebay. I added some heavy lithium batteries from China. They worked OK at first, but, they are really heavy and not well balanced. They don’t handle our Western Colorado “hills†very well.
When I heard about the new BBSHD motor, I decided to build two new bikes… fat bikes that would take us up trails and into town efficiently. After building our mid-drive fat bikes, I don’t even want to look at those two rear-wheel drive bikes.
This first bike for my wife, a size 14 Black Motobecane 2016 Lurch X9 from BikesDirect.com . http://goo.gl/0sq6mV It came in a box that was totally beat up, but, the bike was pristine on the inside! After put together it weighed about 35 lbs.
We purchased all of the electric bike components from Luna and chose the Bafang BBSHD 120mm version. It was definitely the right size. Thanks to https://goo.gl/03KCZu and https://goo.gl/20lOIz for the guidance on that… We also ordered the extra spacer kit.
I didn’t have much experience with bikes and had to invest in some tools. I trolled forums and blogs, watched youtube videos and constantly referenced Zinn’s Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance. I will stick some of those links below.
Bottom Bracket Removal. It was hard to get the crank out of the bottom bracket! It required some swearing, grunting and a rubber mallet. I had to give it 110% to get it loosened. I needed a large and strong allen wrench, first, to get one of the cranks off. Then, a bottom bracket wrench to loosen the bottom bracket... and then a crank extractor tool thingie to remove the other crank. nearly took it to a bike shop to get the bottom bracket taken apart. https://goo.gl/q5PpTd has a good tutorial.
Installation of the Mid-Drive - It slid right in! I had to add lots of spacers on either side (definitely order an extra spacer kit for this build) I used all of them, half on the left side and half on the right. I put red Loctite in between all the spacers and blue “Loctite on all threads before tightening down. I also put a ball of Loctite Repair Putty where the motor touched the downtube (thanks Alan https://goo.gl/vhVMrY )
Note: I didn’t have a Bafang wrench, so I used a rag and a big wrench to tighten down the Bafang bottom bracket. I got a proper Bafang fitting tool later from Luna and was able to tighten it down even more, which pleased me. I Recommend you get one of these tools for your build.
I screwed on the Luna 42T Chain Ring instead of the Bafang 46T that was included. It works great, and gives enough torque to charge up the steepest climbs and enough teeth to go pretty fast on the flats.
The chain-line is this build’s weak link, but it works. First gear has a pretty rough angle, and I typically don’t use it. Initially this required two fixes:
#1) The chain that came with the bike was too short, it wouldn’t even shift into the first 2 or 3 gears. I needed a longer chain. So I bought a 10 speed KMC chain (I think that came with 116 links and I removed 4 of them to get the right size.) You will definitely need a chain tool to remove the links. Also a Parks Tool Master Link Plier is really pretty handy for taking chains on and off a bike. I was glad I had one of those!
#2) Once my chain was long enough, it liked to jump off the tracks on first gear… So, I added a N-Gear Jump Stop Chain Guide/Watcher 29mm - I installed this and it was too short to actually do its job, arrgh. I ran up to Walmart and purchased a little metal extender doohickey. (it was stocked with door hinges -- “2†zinc plated mending plates†and cost $1.) After installing that, it looked janky, but seems to work pretty well.
After that I did a lot of the standard stuff:
At this point, it was ready to take for a ride. I gotta say, this BBSHD mid-drive thing is a hell of a lot better than those wheel-drive systems. The weight, while heavy, is nicely balanced and I don’t notice while riding it. It has tremendous torque, is quiet, and doesn’t get too hot. I can easily go on a 20 mile round trip with my battery. I typically use Pedal Assist mode because I like the ride.
I selected the Lurch because the price, color and size were all what I needed. Plus, I love the lines on it! My research indicated it would work well with a BBSHD 120mm size too. In retrospect, my wife would have preferred a bike with a Bluto front fork.
My wife and I wanted a way to get deeper into the woods in search of funghi. Also, we live at the top of a large hill -- which kills the fun biking back from a trip to town.
Last year I built two mountain bikes with 1500 watt rear wheel motors from Ebay. I added some heavy lithium batteries from China. They worked OK at first, but, they are really heavy and not well balanced. They don’t handle our Western Colorado “hills†very well.
When I heard about the new BBSHD motor, I decided to build two new bikes… fat bikes that would take us up trails and into town efficiently. After building our mid-drive fat bikes, I don’t even want to look at those two rear-wheel drive bikes.
This first bike for my wife, a size 14 Black Motobecane 2016 Lurch X9 from BikesDirect.com . http://goo.gl/0sq6mV It came in a box that was totally beat up, but, the bike was pristine on the inside! After put together it weighed about 35 lbs.
We purchased all of the electric bike components from Luna and chose the Bafang BBSHD 120mm version. It was definitely the right size. Thanks to https://goo.gl/03KCZu and https://goo.gl/20lOIz for the guidance on that… We also ordered the extra spacer kit.
I didn’t have much experience with bikes and had to invest in some tools. I trolled forums and blogs, watched youtube videos and constantly referenced Zinn’s Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance. I will stick some of those links below.
Bottom Bracket Removal. It was hard to get the crank out of the bottom bracket! It required some swearing, grunting and a rubber mallet. I had to give it 110% to get it loosened. I needed a large and strong allen wrench, first, to get one of the cranks off. Then, a bottom bracket wrench to loosen the bottom bracket... and then a crank extractor tool thingie to remove the other crank. nearly took it to a bike shop to get the bottom bracket taken apart. https://goo.gl/q5PpTd has a good tutorial.
Installation of the Mid-Drive - It slid right in! I had to add lots of spacers on either side (definitely order an extra spacer kit for this build) I used all of them, half on the left side and half on the right. I put red Loctite in between all the spacers and blue “Loctite on all threads before tightening down. I also put a ball of Loctite Repair Putty where the motor touched the downtube (thanks Alan https://goo.gl/vhVMrY )
Note: I didn’t have a Bafang wrench, so I used a rag and a big wrench to tighten down the Bafang bottom bracket. I got a proper Bafang fitting tool later from Luna and was able to tighten it down even more, which pleased me. I Recommend you get one of these tools for your build.
I screwed on the Luna 42T Chain Ring instead of the Bafang 46T that was included. It works great, and gives enough torque to charge up the steepest climbs and enough teeth to go pretty fast on the flats.
The chain-line is this build’s weak link, but it works. First gear has a pretty rough angle, and I typically don’t use it. Initially this required two fixes:
#1) The chain that came with the bike was too short, it wouldn’t even shift into the first 2 or 3 gears. I needed a longer chain. So I bought a 10 speed KMC chain (I think that came with 116 links and I removed 4 of them to get the right size.) You will definitely need a chain tool to remove the links. Also a Parks Tool Master Link Plier is really pretty handy for taking chains on and off a bike. I was glad I had one of those!
#2) Once my chain was long enough, it liked to jump off the tracks on first gear… So, I added a N-Gear Jump Stop Chain Guide/Watcher 29mm - I installed this and it was too short to actually do its job, arrgh. I ran up to Walmart and purchased a little metal extender doohickey. (it was stocked with door hinges -- “2†zinc plated mending plates†and cost $1.) After installing that, it looked janky, but seems to work pretty well.
After that I did a lot of the standard stuff:
- Changed over to the Bafang Brakes
- Added the speedometer
- Added the gear sensor (I recommend you buy one of these)
- Added the throttle and on-off switch and computer.
- Hooked up all the cables and zip-tied them down
At this point, it was ready to take for a ride. I gotta say, this BBSHD mid-drive thing is a hell of a lot better than those wheel-drive systems. The weight, while heavy, is nicely balanced and I don’t notice while riding it. It has tremendous torque, is quiet, and doesn’t get too hot. I can easily go on a 20 mile round trip with my battery. I typically use Pedal Assist mode because I like the ride.
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