Canadian
Pickup truck / minivan
Glen Ellyn, IL
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55
Published: 2024-04-15
This is a Madsen cargo bike which I electrified using a GMAC kit from Grin. It can fit 3-4 kids or a bunch of cargo and serves those purposes well. I’ve also used it to replace solo car trips in the 5-10 mi range that would be a bit much for a regular bike.
This was my first ebike conversion (and first ebike in general) and was pushing the limit of my technical knowledge/skills but despite a moment or two of wondering what I got myself into I think it turned out well. I was on the fence about getting a GMAC or a cheaper option but I have to say I love the regen! Anything to lessen potential bike maintenance, and I’m consistently getting ~10% regen with only minor hills which is more than I would have expected.
The technical challenges
The main technical challenges I faced were (don’t laugh) having to solder the baserunner wires to the battery wires, having to stretch the rear dropouts apart by a few mm, and having to come up with a solution for battery placement. I had never soldered anything before so this was a first for me, but I got it done and it seems to work ok!
The rear drop out issue was my biggest challenge - I was expecting the motor to fit (knew it would be close but I must have mismeasured the rear dropout width a bit) and thought I had made a big mistake in attempting this project when it didn’t fit. Fortunately it was easier than I expected to spread the dropouts by a few mm using a threaded rod.
I ended up choosing a battery from EM3ev because I wanted a higher capacity, but it didn’t fit in the water bottle space so I had to construct something that mounts the battery under the seat (the triple bob helped a lot!). That ended up working out nicely because I also hid the baserunner down there for a fairly discrete set up overall.