A friend from my distant past contacted me a few days ago to let me know he had electrified a Schwinn trike. He used the Swytch kit which powers the front hub, but every time I have researched this kit it’s out of stock. So, after I show you what he did, I’ll show you the kit I would use, which is just a little less money than Swytch. So here’s what Glen (coincidence?) did:
The Swytch install took him about 1.5-2 hours. In his own words…
The kit comes with a new front wheel, with motor pre-installed. Get a tire on the new rim and it’s ready to install. Then you mount the battery to your handle bars, and run a connecting wire down to the motor. Then, run a second wire to a stationary sensor that you mount on the frame adjacent to the pedals. Then, you mount a ring with small round imbedded magnets to the pedals. Once you turn the battery on and set your desired power, you get on and start pedaling. The engine immediately responds. Stop pedaling and you stop the power…pedal faster and motor increases speed. The power setting controls the amount of assist that is generated in response to pedal speed. I’ve found the mid setting gives me adequate power and speed and excellent range.
The big benefit for me, I just turned 77, is that you are forced to pedal to activate the power assist, no pedal, no motor, pure and simple. Also, with the battery turned off, I sense very little difference in pedal power required from the standard wheel being installed. I’ve included pictures below, that I think will give you an idea of the simplicity of the setup.
The lights on the left show battery charge and the light on the right is the power setting.
The wires I’m not using are customizing the setup. They do have a optional throttle kit, where you don’t have to pedal, but that would defeat the exercise factor I was looking for.
So, a single connecting cable to the motor.
And, a single cable to the sensor. You can see the ring that mounts on the pedal and the sensor reacts to the rotation of the magnets.
OK, so that’s how Glen did it. Seems pretty straightforward. But instead, I would go with this Bafang kit and Joyisi battery:
BAFANG 8fun 48V 500W Front Wheel Hub Assembly Motor Kit 26 Inch Front Wheel Electric Bike Kit with P850C Display ($310)
plus a
Joyisi 48V Ebike Battery 13Ah Lithium Battery for 500W Bike Motor Conversion Kit ($265)
Glen says the price he paid is similar to the prices shown above. There will be a bit more installation work to be done with the Bafang kit since you’ll need to find a place to put the controller and battery, and then connect everything up. Swytch appears to simplify this aspect of the conversion.