There are always people who are not satisfied with their ebikes, some of them want a bigger motor with a higher power, some want a bigger lithium battery for a longer range, and some may need a better brake system like hydraulic brakes to ensure safety… Or you just simply want to convert a bike into an electric bike.
This post might be the most comprehensive one by far, that covers the range of parts that you can upgrade. And things you should notice before making any decisions of upgrading.
First of all, we need to take a look at an e-bike, to know all the parts of it
Mechanical Parts
- Frame
- Front and Rear tires
- Rims, hubs, and spokes
- Fork(rigid or with suspension)
- Head Sets
- Stem and handlebar
- Saddle and seat post
- Fenders(Mudguards)
- Crank and crank arms
- Pedals
- Chains and chain guards
- Cassettes
- Brake lever and brake pads
- Derailleur
- Horns
- Grips
- Rear carrier or front cargo
Electric Parts
- Hub Motor or Central Motor
- Lithium battery with 18650 cells
- Controller
- Display
- Pedal-assist sensor
- Headlamp and tail light
- Battery Charger
Now, most demands happen within the range of electric parts like the fact that electronics are the key to an e-bike.
Motor
There are 2 kinds of motors available on the market,
- Hub motor
Hub motor can also be divided into 2 kinds, geared motor, and direct drive motor, the first one is much more popular, so we’ll just focus on this kind.
Power and Voltage
These 2 parameters are the key to evaluating the performance of a motor, usually, the voltages are 36V and 48V, and power from 250Watts, 350Watts, 500Watts, 750Watts even to 1000Watts
Things to notice: There are 2 things you need to be careful of, voltage and open size. For voltages, it is usually recommended to have the same voltage on the battery, controller, and motor, i.e. 36V on 3 of them. Open size is the distance between *** to put motor, a bigger motor with a bigger open size can not fit into a frame with a smaller open size, should check and clear before you buy a motor.
- mid-drive motor.
Compared to geared hub motors, the choice of mid-drive motors is much narrower. The most famous DIY electric central motor conversion kit would be the BAFANG BBSHD kit, how good is it?
Powerful, motor power up to 750watts even to 1000watts
Easy installation, not only because of the process to install or to convert itself, but also because there are tons of videos on youtube to teach people how to install, and guideposts on blogs and forums like endlessphere. It is popular because of the next reason.
Cheap, it is much cheaper than mid-drive motor systems like Borsch, Shimano Steps…
Because it is a BB-mounted system, so you don’t mind bothering with open size like the hub motor, instead, you should focus on the BB size. Of course, you need to check the voltage too, but only the battery, because the BBSHD conversion kit includes a motor, a controller and torque sensor(both of them are integrated inside the motor), a display, they are adjusted and unified previously, so the battery is the only thing you need to take care of.
Battery
The core and vital part of an electric bike.
A battery, lithium battery in most cases, usually consists of major several parts
Lithium Cells
For ebikes, the most common capacities are 2200mah, 2500mah, 2600mah, 2900mah, 3150mah, 3400mah and etc..
Cell Holders
A device to hold and organize all the cells together
BMS(Battery Manage System)
A battery management system is comprised of several functional blocks like a state machine, temperature monitors, real-time clock, cell voltage balance, cell voltage monitor, a fuel gauge monitor, and cutoff FETs.
Shell(Battery Box)
There are many kinds of shapes available on the market, such as Silver Fish, Hailong, Eel, and so on, which can be divided according to the mounting position: a downtube, up tube, rear carrier, behind the seat post, with the merging of scout bikes, there are even batteries that mounted under the seat.
Usually, people upgrade their battery in pursuit of a longer range, so you might need a bigger battery box, cells with higher capacity, and a BMS for a bigger battery(i.e. if you upgrade from 36V to 48V ).
Controller
A controller is like the brain of e-bikes.
The most important parameter of a controller is current, and there are 2 kinds: rated current and maximum current. Rated current is usually not a problem, maximum current is the one that really matters because its standards for the capability to deal with hard work like going uphills, rapid boost that needs big current, and high power.
So it is quite obvious that when someone asks to upgrade his controllers, he wants a higher maximum current. Let’s take these 2 controllers to compare as an example,
The second controller has a maximum current of 20 Amps, which means it can hold a maximum power of 960 watts(20a*48v), 20% more than the first one.
E-Bike Displays
Many call them bicycle computers, yeah that makes sense. It allows you to set parameters and also displays the status, and data of the ebike.
The reason that people want to upgrade their displays is quite different from other parts like batteries or controllers etc., it’s not about performance, it’s about the outlooks and functions.
For instance, there are several kinds of displays available on the market
- LED display
- LCD display
- TFT display
And with variable shapes.
A very common choice of upgrading the display is from LED to LCD, as you can finally see what is going on, your speed, how much battery capacity remains motor temperature…which you can not find on a led display.
Pedal Assist Sensor
Without this tiny pas sensor, you can not even ride an e-bike in Europe.
The first kind is the power assist sensor, which works according to the speed of the bike, usually mounted on this position of the electric bicycle, it doesn’t feel natural, but it is cheap.
The other kind is a torque sensor, mounted on the bottom bracket(BB), it works according to the torque that people give to the bike when pedaling, and because of this reason, it feels natural.
The disadvantage is, that it is has a much higher price than the power assist sensor.
Does it worth the money to replace the power assist sensor with a torque sensor? It really depends on how do you ride your e-bike: if you are a pedaling enthusiast, then it is definitely worth the penny; if all you want is to push the throttle and go, that doesn’t seem necessary, might as well put that money for a better motor.
Charger
A 48V 3A charger definitely charges faster than a 48V 2A charger, and it is 50% faster.
Throttle
Your preference to use throttle makes that decision of what kind to choose, thumb throttle, full throttle, half throttle, just pick one of what you feel most comfortable with.
Brake Lever
Nowadays, most brake systems on ebikes are disc brakes. Common ways to upgrade are from mechanical to hydraulic brakes, like Tektro HDE350 entry-level, Shimano, Magura, do a little research before you buy.
Last but not least, we stock and sell quality electric bike parts and accessories, you can buy what you need from us.
Sales Manager at Jieli Electric Bikes.
Near 10 years experience in electric bike industry, researching/marketing/promoting e-bike is my daily life.
