Say you want to get a bicycle up and down hills with a minimal amount of pedal power. What do you do? The first option is simple: buy an electric bike. However, ebikes aren’t cheap. These days, the least expensive but still reliable ebike you can buy is Aventon Soltera 2.5, which costs around $1,200. You can rent an ebike, or find a city bike program that uses them, or, if you’re really lucky, find an ebike in a lending library.
Or you can just make your regular bike into an electric bike. That is, you can slap an aftermarket unit on your traditional bike, creating a motor-assisted ebike with little more than your bicycle and any of a variety of aftermarket power sources. What used to be a very niche field with only a small handful of offerings has become a cottage industry full of contenders and pretenders, and any number of startups offering a readymade conversion for your bike.
So how do you turn your traditional bike into an ebike? And what are some of the best offerings out there? We’ll walk you through it. If you don’t see anything you like, make sure you check out our guides to the Best Electric Bikes or the Best Electric Scooters.
Hot to Throt
Photograph: Ryan Waniata
Well, first, you need to decide what kind of conversion you want. There are two basic kinds of ebikes, pedal-assist and throttle, with many newer models boasting some combination of both.
Pedal assist is a mechanism that provides an added boost of electric power when you’re pedaling. Via the use of cadence and/or torque sensors (how fast your pedals are rotating and the power that’s being applied to them, respectively), pedal-assist units kick on at a certain point, making pedaling easier. Sometimes pedal assist can be so minimal, it’s difficult to tell just how much work you’re doing versus how much of the load your bike is handling.
Throttle units act more like a motorcycle or moped, allowing the rider to either twist a tube mounted near the handgrip or use a thumb-based knob to deliver immediate power to the wheels. Throttle-based ebikes can be ridden without pedaling.
When it comes to ebike conversions, where your power comes from and how it’s delivered can look several different ways. Some mechanisms deliver power to either your bicycle’s rear or front hub. Others are situated in the bottom bracket (that is, where the cranks meet the bike frame). And some newer conversion kits act something like a treadmill mounted to your bike, using rollers to help propel your wheel forward.
Roll the Clip
Photograph: Stephanie Pearson
Having said all that, it’s important to consider your level of bicycle know-how when it comes to what kind of ebike conversion you want to undertake. If you’re a wrencher, the conversion process is generally straightforward, regardless of the type of unit. If you can change a tire or swap out your cassette, you’ll probably be fine with a bit of trial and error and the help of YouTube tutorials. If you’re asking yourself, “What’s a cassette?” it’s probably best to visit your local bike shop and have a pro handle the work.
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