DIY Fat tire E-bike build

[25ftup]

Purchased a gravity bullseye monster bike and installed a Bafang BBSHD 1000 watt motor kit with a 52v battery. Upgraded the Bafang 46t chainring to a Luna Eclipse 42T offset ring for better chain line and a little more climbing ability. Have somewhere around $2100 in the bike with the upgrades (rack, brakes, pedals, grips, and mud flaps). Watched a few JohnnyNerdOut videos and Park Tool on YouTube for basically everything I needed. Went together fairly smooth and easily. Did tons of looking before I decided on building one and what bike I wanted to convert. Very pleased with the build overall and everything is working great and after a little adjustment to the rear derailleur and a new chain the bike is shifting through the gears nicely!

Picked up the QuietKat cart on sale for $250 and it went on nicely and pulls great.

 

[25ftup]

Have drove the bike around a little bit now got a couple nice days. I think I’ve put 20 miles on it already. The bike will run around 27mph on a flat road without pedaling. Have gotten it up to 33 with pedaling. Also took in on a 12 mile ride today with limited pedaling and the battery handled it just fine and I had a few small drives on it before that as well, so very confident in the battery range. It is handling mud and sand great and has been a blast to drive around. Will definitely be driving it around all year.

Don’t mind the milk crate and weapon mount, was trying to find a way to carry my recurve without it going across the handlebars and I think this is going to work perfectly. Can send more photos or details of I how I set that up if someone is interested.

 

[PEEJAY]

Nice build! You get that bike off bikesdirect.com? im always lurking for building another one and seen that on there. They have some good deals.

 

[25ftup]

Nice build! You get that bike off bikesdirect.com? im always lurking for building another one and seen that on there. They have some good deals.

Yes I did. Didn’t need a crazy expensive bike for what I plan on using it for and from what I could find on it, the bike had decent components for that price. Upgraded to hydraulic brakes, new pedals and new grips. Want to add a suspension seat post and maybe newer saddle, but overall very pleased with the bike and how everything came out.

 

[BackSpasm]

Purchased a gravity bullseye monster bike and installed a Bafang BBSHD 1000 watt motor kit with a 52v battery. Upgraded the Bafang 46t chainring to a Luna Eclipse 42T offset ring for better chain line and a little more climbing ability. Have somewhere around $2100 in the bike with the upgrades (rack, brakes, pedals, grips, and mud flaps). Watched a few JohnnyNerdOut videos and Park Tool on YouTube for basically everything I needed. Went together fairly smooth and easily. Did tons of looking before I decided on building one and what bike I wanted to convert. Very pleased with the build overall and everything is working great and after a little adjustment to the rear derailleur and a new chain the bike is shifting through the gears nicely!

Picked up the QuietKat cart on sale for $250 and it went on nicely and pulls great.

Somehow I missed this. Great job! Very similar to what I built. You will love it more and more as the months go by!

 

[25ftup]

Somehow I missed this. Great job! Very similar to what I built. You will love it more and more as the months go by!

Thanks! I’m thrilled with it! Wish it was a little warmer right now so I could ride it a bit more comfortably haha. But very please with the kit I went with, would like to buy a second smaller battery later on for around the house. The power is unbelievable in the motor, I can see how guys pop chains with them.

Being so close to the lake (1.5 miles) I need to find a way to attach a couple rods to it now.

 

[Steve O]

Yes I did. Didn’t need a crazy expensive bike for what I plan on using it for and from what I could find on it, the bike had decent components for that price. Upgraded to hydraulic brakes, new pedals and new grips. Want to add a suspension seat post and maybe newer saddle, but overall very pleased with the bike and how everything came out.

Where did you get the motor and battery? I’m not super handy but I have a nice Specialized mountain bike I’ve often thought would be awesome to convert to electric.

 

[25ftup]

Where did you get the motor and battery? I’m not super handy but I have a nice Specialized mountain bike I’ve often thought would be awesome to convert to electric.

JohnnyNerdOut.com for the kit.

There are other websites that sell the kit, he also has a YouTube channel under the same name where he converts bikes and gives instructional videos on the installation

 

[BackSpasm]

JohnnyNerdOut.com for the kit.

There are other websites that sell the kit, he also has a YouTube channel under the same name where he converts bikes and gives instructional videos on the installation

^GREAT resource. I used his build along on YouTube to put mine together

 

[PEEJAY]

I used a lot of the same videos you did to learn probably. I wish more people understood how simple it is with a few extra tools than what most should already own. Now you can work on it yourself when you need to. Most bike shops won't touch an ebike unless they sold it to you.

My bike suspension seatpost is the suntour ncx. It's amazing and you can usually find them for under $100 shipped. either on suntours website or amazon if its the right seat tube diameter. Also look into the PEEK gear from Luna if they still have it in stock. that thing is a good part to switch on the HD since it comes stock with a nylon gear. if you are only using it for hunting and going slow youll probably never need to replace it but i bought it anyway so there's not a weak point.

 

[25ftup]

My bike suspension seatpost is the suntour ncx. It's amazing and you can usually find them for under $100 shipped. either on suntours website or amazon if its the right seat tube diameter. Also look into the PEEK gear from Luna if they still have it in stock. that thing is a good part to switch on the HD since it comes stock with a nylon gear. if you are only using it for hunting and going slow youll probably never need to replace it but i bought it anyway so there's not a weak point.

I have seen that seat post recommended a few different times now, so I’ll definitely look into that model. I also had not heard of that gear. I found it on the Luna website and may have to pick one of those up as well!

And I agree 100% on how simple it was. I went into this not really knowing a whole lot about mountain bikes, but I’m pretty confident I could build one with ease now. I bought one “cyclist tool kit” for around $60-70 and it was worth every penny. Using that kit, plus some tools I already had made taking apart and installing the motor a breeze.