Latest conversion in progress. Came across a used bafang front motor/wheel/tire for $45. They were taken off an Uber bikeshare ventture that failed, so they are good motors. I've not owned a cruiser bike since I was 14 years old, so I bought an inexpensive Hyper Commute from Walmart. I had the electrical parts laying around, but if I had to buy them new, it's about $90 for a controller kit with LCD display, brakes, sensors, etc. In the photo below, I stuck a $25 hoverboard battery in a frame bag to get the bike running. A bigger battery will cost a lot more.
Drawbacks right now are that the motor/wheel were designed for disk brakes, but the frame is v-brakes. I will have to change the rims to flat rims compatible with rim brakes, but for puttering around at 14 mph, the current brakes work. I'm a little concerned about a front motor without torque arms, but the forks are steel, and Uber did not use torque arms. However, I will add them later. The motor is also a bit loud. Classic ebike whime. The grey color of the frame is boring.
The original bike was not too heavy, coming in around 34 pounds. It's an easy ride on flat ground in assist level 1, probably about 100W of assist. The bafang climbs our local hills well under throttle. The high bars make for a novel riding experience. I could probably go pretty far w/o my seat getting sore. Put some tunes in the music player, and off we go.
