Converting a city bike with coaster brake to a mid drive motor

[joe_]

Hi all.
I have a city bike with foot pedal brakes (coaster brakes) I have been looking around and it looks like the tomsheng tsdz2 is the only mid drive motor that will work with coaster brakes.
My other option is to put rim brakes on the bike and then I can use the newer model B.
Does anyone have any experience that they would like to share

 

[DieselTech]

Myself I've never owned a ebike yet, it's on order!!!

But I build motorized bikes with gas engines alot, I would totally get away from the coaster brake, they are nothing but trouble in my opinion.

I would much rather have rim brakes, but you could also update to disc brakes.

I also think you are going to want or need brake cutout switches/levers to kill motor power under braking.

I think you would be better off going to the other style, mid-drive, with the possibility of some added cost. I also think it would be a safer ride if the coaster brake is out of the picture.

I maybe totally wrong on this, but I threw a couple things to think about.

 

[joe_]

I live in Denmark. Nearly all bikes here have coaster brakes (and internal gear hubs) and no-one has any problems that I have heard of. Not sure about electric bikes though.
What do you mean when you say other style mid drive?

 

[HumanPerson]

I live in Denmark. Nearly all bikes here have coaster brakes (and internal gear hubs) and no-one has any problems that I have heard of. Not sure about electric bikes though.
What do you mean when you say other style mid drive?

Welcome to the forums Joe

 

[DieselTech]

I live in Denmark. Nearly all bikes here have coaster brakes (and internal gear hubs) and no-one has any problems that I have heard of. Not sure about electric bikes though.
What do you mean when you say other style mid drive?

What I meant, isn't there 2 different mid-drives, 1 for coaster brakes & 1 for non coaster brakes? Or is it just software programming/tuning?

 

[munirider]

Not your best option, how about one of the other two bike there in your picture. I see one of them has disc brakes, that would be your best option.

Is that a three or five speed coaster brake hub?

 

[joe_]

The one with disk brakes is not mine. The other one is my daughters.
The tomsheng advertise that they work with coaster brakes.
The internal gear hub has 7 gears.

 

[Hoggdoc]

The one with disk brakes is not mine. The other one is my daughters.
The tomsheng advertise that they work with coaster brakes.
The internal gear hub has 7 gears.

Sure they do, but they don't tell you won't be able to stop the bike from the speeds their motor will push your too. I strongly suggest you not convert any bike that doesn't at least mechanical disc brakes and better if they are hydraulic.

When you add the electric motor to the bike you also add considerable weight to the bike due to the motor, controller and most of all the battery. The heavy the mass you are trying to stop the more braking energy you need. Yes you may be able to add disc brakes to your current bike but the cost is pretty high because of all that would need to be changed.

Look around for another donor bike.

 

[DieselTech]

It's also getting that time of year, where you can buy really nice bikes off of market place or craigslist for pennies on the dollar.

 

[munirider]

It's also getting that time of year, where you can buy really nice bikes off of market place or craigslist for pennies on the dollar.

I don't know if they have craigslist in Denmark but there probably is something similar. And yeah especially good deals on 26" wheel mountain bikes. Since everyone has gone to 29ers and 27.5s