Flatbed moped conversion, engine recommendations (Completely new to this)

[mrvandalay]

Hi Everyone!

First of, I appreciate the posts and advice on this site. Thanks for great content!

I am completely new to e-bike conversion, but not completely new to mopeds or electronics. I am looking to convert a motordriven flatbed moped (50 cc) ), see picture, to an electric engine driven flatbed moped.

What type of electric engine set up would I look for in this case, and what alternatives do I have?

Furthermore:
Since the moped have pedals, it would be an ideal solution to be able to pedal the bike as well, when needed (although possibly heavy).
Would it also be able to charge the engine battery while pedalling?

Thanks for any tips and recommendations! Sorry for any novice phrasing and/or questions.

[ncmired]

Greetings, and welcome to the forum - is that a 2-stroke Fälg & Eker Flakmoped? By the look, I'd guess it is roughly 60-70 years old. I'd then wonder if it has a market / collector value that would outweigh ripping it apart for an electric conversion.

Anyway, depending on your fabrication resources, it could end up quite the job to incorporate one of the existing mid-drive electric bicycle motors (drivetrain removed and side-swapped for one thing), then the job of incorporating multiple gears (with the right ratio range) would be another. Does the gas motor have a 3-speed gearbox? There are bicycle and wheelbarrow electric wheel hub motors but rarely are they multispeed, and they might be ineffective for you depending on the load and terrain.

You'd not get any regenerative battery recharge while pedaling, unfortunately. You probably have already, but I'd probably ask a vendor like Ettansmopeder.se if they know of anyone that has gone down this path already.

Personally, I've no experience and am just armchair speculating.

[AZguy]

FWIW pedaling to charge isn't terribly practical just from the numbers - we just don't generate enough power

Let's say you are athletic enough to generate 200W and 3/4 of that is going to propel the bike leaving 50W to charge the battery and aside from the inefficiencies even a smaller 750Whr battery would take 750/50 = 15hours to charge... in reality it will take longer than that since regen systems don't tend to be terribly efficient and that machine would most likely be better suited to 1000-1500Whr (or more) of battery

There are downsides to systems that regen too... they create drag all the time so without power it will always take a lot of work to pedal, likely not practical on that machine

Regen makes the most sense on much heavier vehicles that are going a lot faster than a bicycle, especially with lots of braking

Most electric bicycles don't have it, typically only found on bikes with rear direct drive hubs and even most of those don't have it

[Mike_V]

Mister Art Vandalay Industries?
Why, you did not state your goal, is this an art project ? Marketing?
Likely fine Swedish steel construction. Weight?

[AZguy]

I think many of these one and done posts are just AI bots "learning"

Not saying Vandalay is (or isn't) one, but I'm certain that some portion are - some are quite obvious when you view the posts through that [skeptical] prism... That's likely also why so many have locations that are foreign and posting in english on english forums - that way the "real" people give some latitude to the somewhat stilted language...

[ncmired]

Bots? Is that the banging on the forum front door I hear?

"There are currently 2163 users online. 14 members and 2149 guests."

[Retrorockit]

I don't care who or what posted this. It's an interesting bike.

[Retrorockit]

I doubt if you would want to go very fast on that. No idea what it's using for brakes. I would just hub motor it. Put a cog on the disc brake flange. Simple, effective and reversible. maybe you could just reverse 2 wires and run t backwards for drive on the left? The freewheel would be backwards though. It's very nice the way it is.