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Old ebike ramble

(12 posts)

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  1. Dave
    Member

    We've got a Shimano STEPs equipped city bike that is roughly five years old.

    It has done some hard duty, first to tow a double trailer on turbo up and down the side of the Pentlands for a couple of years, then when the kids moved up to a longtail it became a prime choice for riding into the Pentlands to the start of hill runs, or out to Livingston for work.

    I'm over 100kg these days so it is taking a pounding and the wheels are in notably poor condition, so I started pricing up some parts to build new ones.

    Then I started thinking, okay, we've got these short travel "city" suspension forks where you can see each fork blade moving independently under hard braking. It's also a squeeze to get 2" Big Apples under the mudguards. Wouldn't it be nice to replace them with rigid forks? This is relevant to the new wheels because a lot of tapered MTB rigid forks are also "boost" spacing.

    Now we're looking at quite a big investment (150-200 for a fork, 300+ for wheels). So naturally your mind starts going towards the ebike motor (it seems superficially OK, although it also sounds like something is rubbing 100% of the time)... and the battery isn't the freshest... and the handlebar controller has been smashed up so much that you just have the little underlying microswitches exposed (but they still work).

    Now I haven't spent too long on this, but it doesn't seem like you can just pop on Amazon and get an E6000 motor that is new stock and warrantied. Possibly you could pair up a friendly LBS and get them to do a rebuild that they would stand behind but think of the labour cost on what is, at the end of the day a bike which only cost about £1400 to begin with. There doesn't seem to be a nice generic motor that fits the E6000 mountings (including even the Shimano E6100 updated version).

    So now you start to think OK, am I really going to do the fork and wheels on a bike which could be one broken sensor away from disaster. We could pop down to Hart and get a nice new Gazelle and have a new warrantied motor and electrics (or Decathlon and have a cheapo version of the same).

    But then five years from now...

    Posted 2 months ago #

  2. Dave
    Member

    In contrast, I'm just about to break down my better half's steel frame Croix de Fer and send it off for a birthday respray. It's about 20 years old but it's been no effort to replace a bottom bracket here, something else there, it will probably still be good in another 20 years.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  3. bakky
    Member

    In the same position I’d be picking my favourite wheel size and buying a Swytch kit and parts - which is what my wife rides fitted to a sentimentally-meaningful MTB she was given by her late Father. Taking the wheel, cables, sensor etc from bike to bike feels like you could find some good middle ground here and avoid the cycle (ha!) described. I rode it back to Fairmilehead from Currie the other day after a slight range overestimation on the Urban Arrow meant I needed a charge (we’d gone to EICA and then down to Curry via Heriot Watt and Curriehill and I wasn’t going to make it home with both heavy weans on board for WoL > Colinton > Home). I was impressed with the power of it, and the batteries are pretty portable these days.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    “and the wheels are in notably poor condition“

    It’s discs so rims should be ok

    Spokes slack?

    Well they shouldn’t be…

    Can’t remember what hubs that has

    Generally, if adjusted when there’s play at the rim and stripped/cleaned/greased occasionally, should last a while (if decent quality in first place)

    Posted 2 months ago #

  5. mcairney
    Member

    Another way of looking at it is you've got 5 years of use out of a bike that cost under £1500 making it less than £300/year.
    I'd probably be thinking of going for a new Gazelle and having that live for another 5 years and keep it as a spare/hack bike until it dies completely but then again I'm a sucker for new shiny-shiny.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  6. Arellcat
    Moderator

    “and the wheels are in notably poor condition“

    It’s discs so rims should be ok

    Think Nihola specified the bike with Shimano Deore throughout, so the hubs will be good old cup and cone. The rims might be tired if the bike has been loaded a lot - but unusability would usually be down to outright failure, such as corrosion or cracking around the spoke holes; I had that happen with one of the rims on the torpedo.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  7. Dave
    Member

    The wheels could just be rebuilt I think, but they are quite narrow rims (it comes with something like 35mm tyres, but I like 50mm) so it's more appealing to put new ones together and stash these in the cellar as spares. It's that combo of the spokes/nipples not quite being tight enough while at the same time getting a bit corroded.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  8. Dave
    Member

    Another way of looking at it is you've got 5 years of use out of a bike that cost under £1500 making it less than £300/year.
    I'd probably be thinking of going for a new Gazelle and having that live for another 5 years and keep it as a spare/hack bike until it dies completely but then again I'm a sucker for new shiny-shiny.

    Yeah, it's far cheaper than a second car for sure. I just don't like the idea of them being sort of disposable like this.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  9. chdot
    Admin

    “but unusability would usually be down to outright failure“

    True

    Replacing rims not that expensive

    Worth it if Deore hubs

    Posted 2 months ago #

  10. Dave
    Member

    One thing I will say, I've been rebuilding an old Pearson Touché fixed bike for a while and rode it up to Balerno this afternoon and the exertion level was savage! Really makes you realise how much the ebikes help make it comparatively effortless.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  11. chdot
    Admin

    “It's that combo of the spokes/nipples not quite being tight enough while at the same time getting a bit corroded”

    Yeah, likely road salt

    If nipples are too seized to remove, then that’s an additional problem, though some people just cut them all out and use new spokes

    Hannah at Cycle Service recommends linseed oil (boiled) - as do other people

    Posted 2 months ago #

  12. Arellcat
    Moderator

    I also use linseed oil when wheelbuilding or installing a new spoke in an existing wheel.

    Posted 2 months ago #

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