I like to upgrade the parts on my bikes as a reward for putting in the miles I done in the past 40t years of hand cycling. I needed to replace my SLA 36vlt batteries on the Road Race Powerpod so figured it was time to investigate the possibility of going with a Lithium Battery. E-bike kit was having their Christmas sale so looked into them
At first I ordered a 48vlx10ah lithium with a delivery 4 weeks away. During that time I thought the 10ah was not going to do what I wanted so called to talk about it. Dan mentioned they had a 48v x 20ah for 67 dollars more so went with that. I saved a couple hundred dollars on the the battery. It arrived without a cover so had a waterproof one made that cost 30 bucks by a friend I know. It weighs 10lbs less than the 36 x 15 SLA's I had on before and has 12 more volts with another 5 AH added. Big difference and is much sleeker looking than the old SLA's.
I hate the Avid BB7 disc brake Freedom Ryder puts on their bikes due to the faunky stopping power they have and how much travel is in the brake lever. It goes to almost the handle before any type of braking is applied. Speaking with Fuentes, he suggested going with the hydraulic/mechanical cable TRP puts out. That brake is for road bikes and F/R uses a Mountain brake setup, so again the travel of the brake lever would not be efficient.
Instead I went with their new TRP Spyke mountain disc brake and exchanged the 160mm disc with a Shimano 170mm disc.
Man it changed the whole response on the bike. The 48v gives plenty of torque with the 20ah giving me over 40 miles of battery life and the Spyke brake stops it on a dime. That brake is the best thing I've put on it.
This is probably my last bike after all the years of riding and, of course, the many I still have left to do. I think the only stuff left on it that are original is the frame and cranks. Other than that, it's all custom.
So those with faunky stopping power on their F/R, switch over to the TRP Spyke disc brake and add a Shimano 170mm disc; it'll change that big time.
At first I ordered a 48vlx10ah lithium with a delivery 4 weeks away. During that time I thought the 10ah was not going to do what I wanted so called to talk about it. Dan mentioned they had a 48v x 20ah for 67 dollars more so went with that. I saved a couple hundred dollars on the the battery. It arrived without a cover so had a waterproof one made that cost 30 bucks by a friend I know. It weighs 10lbs less than the 36 x 15 SLA's I had on before and has 12 more volts with another 5 AH added. Big difference and is much sleeker looking than the old SLA's.
I hate the Avid BB7 disc brake Freedom Ryder puts on their bikes due to the faunky stopping power they have and how much travel is in the brake lever. It goes to almost the handle before any type of braking is applied. Speaking with Fuentes, he suggested going with the hydraulic/mechanical cable TRP puts out. That brake is for road bikes and F/R uses a Mountain brake setup, so again the travel of the brake lever would not be efficient.
Instead I went with their new TRP Spyke mountain disc brake and exchanged the 160mm disc with a Shimano 170mm disc.
Man it changed the whole response on the bike. The 48v gives plenty of torque with the 20ah giving me over 40 miles of battery life and the Spyke brake stops it on a dime. That brake is the best thing I've put on it.
This is probably my last bike after all the years of riding and, of course, the many I still have left to do. I think the only stuff left on it that are original is the frame and cranks. Other than that, it's all custom.
So those with faunky stopping power on their F/R, switch over to the TRP Spyke disc brake and add a Shimano 170mm disc; it'll change that big time.
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