Project Bandit

Target: Brodie Bandit 'hard tail' circa 2003

History: Vancouver city commuter 2003 - 2009, retired to the suburbs (aka garage) March 2010

Specs: 18" frame, 26" rims, thumb shifters

Plan: Convert to electric assist DIY.

So the day has finally come to take the next step towards converting my bike to electric. I'm still researching options but am leaning towards one of the eZee kits from ebike.ca. I would like to keep the total project cost under $2000 and as this is meant to be a prototype/learning experience will try not to get to hung up on technology choices and keep battery/motor size choices as reasonable as possible.

I still have a number of questions/decisions around motor type / size, battery size and type.

I visited a couple of bike shops in the valley after doing some research online and they both carried and suggested Bionx systems they could order in for roughly $1700 - $2000. They indicated the actual conversion process would be pretty simple.

Being a DIY type I prefer the 'open' nature of the eZee bike system vs. the closed nature of the Bionix system. I just stumbled on the Endless Sphere forum which looks like a great research resource.

Time to find a conversion kit/motor for the project.