Building the Perfect e-Bike
Jon Sully
10 Minutes
The story of how I designed, built, and finished the perfect electric bike (for me)!
Two years ago we found a Yuba Mundo for sale at our local REI. They’d had it for quite some time (it was a special order the customer ended up backing out of) and gave us a crazy deal on it. Of course, it’s also a crazy bike. The idea of cargo bikes is still on the rise, for sure, but it’s still an oddity in suburban Ohio.
Tl;dr: we still get lots of raised eyebrows as we ride around our town — entire family on board — and enjoy immediate access and unlimited parking to any of our town’s events. Having a full-size family cargo bike is an absolute blast.
Anyway, back to the story, the one thing I was sure of when we originally picked up the Yuba was that I’d convert it to electric. I’d been aware of various DIY electric-conversion systems at the time and already felt they offered some benefits over OEM e-bikes (more on this later), so, since we got such a great deal on a non-electric version, I figured why not!
I learned an absolute ton through the process of building up the Yuba and, while we still ride it constantly in the warm months, it’s a large rig to ride when I’m alone. So I decided to embark on a mission: use all of my learnings to build the perfect electric bike for myself when riding alone — either commuting or trails.
To OEM or DIY
This was a non-decision for me — after all I’d done and built in the few years preceding, it was DIY all-the-way — but it’s worth explaining why. I think there are a few major areas worth mentioning. Here they are in short:
Cost. Converting a non-electric bike to electric is always cheaper than buying an OEM electric bike. There are several economic reasons for this (some reasonable, some just corporate profiteering) but at the end of the day, doing your own conversion is just plain less expensive. An OEM electric bike tends to be on the order of 2-3x as expensive as converting a non-electric bike to electric. That’s a lot of dough!
Repairability / Replaceability. The secret that OEM electric bike manufacturers won’t tell you is that, while traditional non-electric bikes have been using the same parts for a long time and are highly serviceable, these newfangled electric bikes are not. Even from the large, reliable brands sold throughout bike shops in the USA (Trek, Specialized, etc.), getting parts to repair or replace components just two or three years old can be difficult or impossible. Most parts in these bikes are highly custom, very specific, and change every year. You can still get off-the-shelf, cheap parts for a 1995 Ford Ranger. But you can’t for a 2022 Trek Rail. 🤦♂️
Performance / Features. When you buy an OEM electric bike, you’re locked into that manufacturer’s opinions. That might be opinions about how fast you should pedal, how much help the motor can give you, and in some cases, how long the battery should last. You have no control over the software. And you won’t — it’s locked down for the entire lifetime of the bike. I’m… not a fan. Also, you’re locked into whatever motor and battery the manufacturer configures for that bike. Want a bigger battery? Sorry! Want a stronger motor? Nope! Maybe wait until next year’s version and see if we upgrade it. 🤞
Customization. Maybe the flip-side of the prior point, converting a non-electric bike to electric allows me to customize the details. I can choose my motor system and battery deliberately. I can even choose what sort of programming and software the whole thing runs! I have the freedom to enact my own preferences and opinions into my bike. That means I end up with a bike that better suits my needs, not the needs of the average focus group the OEM’s test on.
So… yeah… this was going to be a DIY conversion all along. But at least now you have a sense of why!
Choosing the Perfect Frame
The theme of this bike is going to be “solid”. I want a solid bike. I want it to be able to handle my weight, the weight of my e-bike system (motor, battery, etc.), and the weight of any cargo I might want to throw on, with ease. It won’t be a cargo bike, but I want it to be a tank. As close to indestructible as possible. And I also don’t care about weight; I’ll have an electric motor, after all!
That naturally leads to one thing: steel. Oh how I do love good old classic steel! A bit heavier than most modern bike materials, but stronger, more reliable, and absolutely timeless. But who makes modern steel frames anymore?
Surly. And they have every bit of personality to match my build.
Finally, I knew I wanted a rigid frame (no mountain-bike suspension) — again, going for the strength / tank thing here — but with full 29”, wide mountain bike tires. That lead me to a single Surly bike: the Ogre. A rigid, steel frame with tons of mount points for stuff, large disc brakes for safe stopping power, flat handlebars for comfort, and a short wheel base for easy maneuverability. Extremely strong, but super nimble. The perfect frame.
Getting your hands on an actual copy of an Ogre is another story, but I did manage to find one!
The Drivetrain
Again, both for familiarity and preference, I knew ahead of time I’d be installing a Bafang BBSHD mid-drive electric motor into the bike. But in line with the “it’s a tank” theme I was shooting for, I also decided to go with an internally-geared hub for gearing. After some thought and consideration, I opted for the Shimano Nexus 3-speed hub: it’s widely regarded as tank-like and able to handle some real abuse without issue. Since I planned on running the BBSHD at a fairly high wattage, the goal was to run gears that would handle it. That also allowed me to run a single speed chain — significantly beefier than a typical multi-gear chain.
The Ogre, like almost all of Surly’s bikes, has horizontal rear dropout slots. This is specifically because Surly anticipates many of its riders to prefer using internally-geared hubs. Handy! All I had to do was get my hands on a Surly Tuggnut (to prevent the rear wheel from sliding forward under motor torque) and I was set!
After popping on a “full-suspension” style stabilizer bar and a Lekkie OneNut (instead of the Bafang damage-your-bottom-bracket setup), the drivetrain was ready to go. Plugging in the 52V battery for the first time was like sweet victory.
The Programming
After experimenting with several screens over the years with the Yuba, I knew I’d go straight to an EggRider for the Ogre. It’s tiny and discreet while still being the most technologically-capable screen around. This allowed me to setup my programming without having to swap cables and plug in a USB adapter. I just punched in the numbers on my iPhone and hit ‘save’!
The specific programming this bike runs is my own, “Sully’s BBSHD Programming (for people that like pedaling)” which I developed originally on the Yuba. It’s sublime. And I was pleasantly surprised with how it became even simpler on the 3-speed hub. The notion of a “happy cadence” is already fairly simple, but only having slow, medium, and fast gears for that cadence to operate in meant the whole riding experience was really quite easy. Pick your cadence, then just choose slow, medium, or fast… then just enjoy the ride!
The Accessories and Details
It all comes down to fit and finish! Let’s start from the front and work our way back.
First, as you probably saw in the previous image above, I added a Surly 8-pack rack (v1). Again, the bike theme is “built like a tank” with a smidge of “bikepacking”, so having room for stuff is important. One of the handiest things on the Yuba is the giant front basket for easily holding whatever you want to throw in there! I wanted a similar experience on the Ogre. Just, smaller. The 8-pack rack is the perfect ‘smaller’ platform, doesn’t make the bike any wider, and mounts a Lone Peak Micro Rack Pack perfectly. It’s a frunk for your bike. There’s even a bit of room behind the bag to strap other stuff to, if needed.
Moving slightly back, we can talk about the front fork itself. One of the things I love about the Ogre is its dedication to mounting points! The Ogre’s front fork has so many bottle cage mounting points. In this case I’ve added an open cage to each side (with room for another) and setup an AirZound on the left. The AirZound is essentially a micro air-horn, charged by a bike pump, made specifically for when you need to get a driver’s attention through their window. It’s very, very loud.
Moving upwards a bit, the cockpit is fairly tame. I wanted to keep the riding experience mostly simple, so there aren’t too many gizmos on either side. On the left, the EggRider (which, with my programming, I don’t touch most rides), a bell for pedestrians and other bikes on bikeways, a kill-button for the motor (tap while shift), and not pictured here, a Mirrycle mirror for seeing behind.
The right side is even simpler, just the rotary shifter for the Nexus 3-speed and the trigger for the AirZound, though it’s rarely tapped.
Both sides rocking extremely comfortable ergo grips with wings for that sweet, sweet palm support.
Finally, the middle cockpit itself features a Lone Peak Kick Back bag for little things and a Lone Peak Canteen bag (in black) for…whatever!
Getting to the core of the bike, the headline visual of the whole project is the custom frame-bag. Donuts. So many donuts.
This bag was actually custom designed by myself and Rogue Panda specifically to fit and hide the battery on this build. Again, my top priority is for this bike to be a tank, but the second is to have that “bikepacking” look. Bikepacking doesn’t generally have batteries. So I wanted to hide the battery away in a safe compartment — away from seeing eyes, but also away from the beating sun if I want to leave the bike out in the sunlight while I walk around a farmer’s market (etc.).
The bag turned out absolutely perfect. The battery fits in the lower compartment with some room to spare, and the upper compartment has its own floor — meaning it’s its own full storage space! And there’s a ton of room in there. It’s like having two whole frame bags in one. Rogue Panda killed it on this build.
Finally, worth mentioning, the Ogre has bottle cage mounts on the bottom side of the down-tube. This is both where the BBSHD’s stabilizer bar bolts into and where I added another bottle cage (the black bottle you can see above). Luckily, that location and bottle have perfect tire clearance! Though I will likely swap this over for some kind of storage bottle rather than a water bottle in the future because mud is a thing!
I need not mention it too much but here’s the final design and configuration of the motor itself, including a drip-point on the cabling itself, a set of heavy-duty aluminum MTB flat pedals, and our previously-mentioned Lekkie OneNut!
Finally, moving rearwards we have a new Brooks B17 saddle, a simple rear rack from Topeak, and a very neat rear bag also from Topeak. While it looks like your standard touring rack-topper, this one actually has large pannier bags that fold down. I think this is super neat and a great way to save space (and looks) when not in use! Very cool product.
And yes, a kickstand. Although in reality, the Ogre frame wasn’t built with kickstand mounting points. It just so happens that one of the other frame features they built in (for other types of gear-sets) happens to line up perfectly with Trek’s Bontrager rear kickstand! How great!
The reality is that kickstands are extremely useful for touring and commuting bikes. And they’re completely out of the way when riding rougher terrain anyway. After having a cargo bike with a giant 2-point stand for so long, I couldn’t not have a kickstand of some sort!
Some extra details — here’s a shot of the rear hub connector along with the Tuggnut (yay for beer-openers!) keeping everything locked in:
And one more of the motor, now from the other side, revealing the giant rubber bash-guard protecting the motor against just-in-case rocks! Also featuring the previously-mentioned mud-risks of the lower-mounted bottle 😅.
And that’s it! I’ve built the perfect electric bike (for me). Fully flexible, built like a tank, far cheaper than OEM (with better features!), heavy on the bike-packing cues. Made for solo rides to anywhere, carrying whatever I want.
The Electric Ogre.
P.S. — one fun image from along the way: using your cargo bike to tow your project into the shop. Don’t see that every day! Worked great 😁