Thread: Ebikes for hunting

Ubcos are ok for farm tracks etc, but being without any clutch they do have a tendency for the front wheel to lift when climbing steep hills, and then you don't have two wheel drive as one wheel is off the ground.
Riding them in steep country is a different technique to riding a petrol two wheeler but they are very quiet when compared to the petrol. The newer ones have sealed hubs so the water thing is less of an issue.

A E-mountain bike can pretty much go anywhere a normal mountain bike can go, you still have to pedal but you will not burn as many calories. They are a heavy bike to ride when the batteries go flat.
Center mounted motor is a much better way to go than hub too, more weight forward and the motor drives through the gears, so you can get balance speed and torque better compared to a direct drive.

One option is to get a bafang kit, if you are halfway skilled in diy you can retrofit it on a normal mountain bike in a few hours. I have fitted a two of them.
It has a throttle in addition to pedal assist, so you can just sit on it and roll along, but with this you aren't supposed to ride it on public road, you can leave the throttle disconnected and it will still work as a pedal assist. These kits can be very grunty, a 250w isn't overly strong, makes it feel like you have a tailwind but wouldn't be much help on a steep hill, a 500w really throws the bike forward as the assist kicks in, again this level of power is verboten on the road. They also go up to at least 1000w. This would be cargo bike territory, it would eat batteries fast and would probably flip a mountain bike on a steep track.

Originally Posted by longshot

Ubcos are ok for farm tracks etc, but being without any clutch they do have a tendency for the front wheel to lift when climbing steep hills, and then you don't have two wheel drive as one wheel is off the ground.
Riding them in steep country is a different technique to riding a petrol two wheeler but they are very quiet when compared to the petrol. The newer ones have sealed hubs so the water thing is less of an issue.

A E-mountain bike can pretty much go anywhere a normal mountain bike can go, you still have to pedal but you will not burn as many calories. They are a heavy bike to ride when the batteries go flat.
Center mounted motor is a much better way to go than hub too, more weight forward and the motor drives through the gears, so you can get balance speed and torque better compared to a direct drive.

One option is to get a bafang kit, if you are halfway skilled in diy you can retrofit it on a normal mountain bike in a few hours. I have fitted a two of them.
It has a throttle in addition to pedal assist, so you can just sit on it and roll along, but with this you aren't supposed to ride it on public road, you can leave the throttle disconnected and it will still work as a pedal assist. These kits can be very grunty, a 250w isn't overly strong, makes it feel like you have a tailwind but wouldn't be much help on a steep hill, a 500w really throws the bike forward as the assist kicks in, again this level of power is verboten on the road. They also go up to at least 1000w. This would be cargo bike territory, it would eat batteries fast and would probably flip a mountain bike on a steep track.

Awesome bro. Do you have pics @longshot of your ones
So would you recommend the 500W one?

Originally Posted by JemO

Awesome bro. Do you have pics @longshot of your ones
So would you recommend the 500W one?

Depends what sort of country you want to take it and how far and how much you want to pedal. If you are just going where a quad would go, you should be all good with a 500w. One thing with the bafang kits is that the front chain ring ends up further outside the bottom bracket then when it is just a standard bike, so you end up with a fair bit of cross angle in the chain when you go to the larger rear sprockets for more torque. Most of the time that is fine at higher speeds because you don't want to be pedaling really fast anyway, and on the flat you don't feel the need for extra torque when the motor achieves that for you.
You can get an aftermarket dished in ring and if you get a low tooth count aftermarket ring this helps.

If you want to go in steeper stuff, it might stall a bit here and there if you have a load on, and old mate with the knees may have to hop off and push. I will get a photo up when I get a chance to take one, hopefully later tonight.