ConvoKitsThe library
25 guides. Drives, shells, speed classes, packs and the brief a workshop can use.
Buying guide
- What a conversion kit actually includesA motor wheel and a complete system are not the same product. The page should say which one you are looking at.
- What a complete conversion costsThe kit price is one line. The decision is the total, with the uncertain lines kept visible.
- Converting a folding bikeSmall wheels, hinges and a short front end. The kit has to fold with the bike, or you will fold it once.
- Cargo bikes and longtailsThe motor is the easy part. The chain, the brakes and the length of the frame are the job.
Technical explainer
- Front hub, rear hub, mid-drive, frictionThe drive type changes which part of the bicycle is being asked to cope, not just how the bike feels.
- What to measure before you compare kitsThe model name is a label. The assessment uses measurements, because two years of the same name can hide a different axle.
- Watts, torque, and the sticker that does not mean rangeContinuous watts, peak watts and newton-metres describe different moments. Mixing them is how a listing looks twice as strong as the motor you will live with.
- Cadence sensing and torque sensingOne motor notices that you are turning the pedals. The other notices how hard. The ride, the wiring and the price all change with that choice.
- Torque arms, dropouts and why the skewer is not the planA hub motor tries to rotate its axle in the frame. The torque arm is how that force goes into steel instead of into a nut.
- Bottom brackets: 68, 73, and the shells that are not BSAA mid-drive does not sit beside the bracket. It becomes the bracket. Width and thread are the fit.
- Wheel sizes, and why 700c is not a moodThe motor wheel is built for a diameter and a brake. The tyre you like does not retcon the rim.
- All-in-one wheelsMotor, cells and controller in the hub. No bottle-cage battery. Also no touring tank.
- Disk drives and seat-stay motorsTwo ways to add a motor without rebuilding the wheel or pulling the bottom bracket.
- Friction drives, dry roads and wet onesA roller against the tyre is the most reversible conversion, and the one most sensitive to the tyre you already own.
- Trailer motorsThe bicycle stays stock. The motor arrives on a hitch and pushes.
- Off-road kits, and why they are not a hidden street modePhoton Pro, the X1 and the big Bafang mid-drives are filed above the street classes on purpose.
- Geared hubs and direct driveBoth are rear motors. One is a gearbox in the hub. The other is the hub.
Safety
- Batteries, chargers, and why 'it fits' is not enoughVoltage and a connector are not a compatibility test. The safe question is whether this exact pack and this exact charger are the combination the system names.
- Brake cut-offs, levers and rotorsThe motor should stop driving when you brake. The lever, the sensor and the rotor all have to be the ones this wheel expects.
Regulation summary
- Great Britain: the EAPC points, in plain languageConvoKits does not badge a kit road legal. It checks a short list of published points and shows what is still open.
- Speed classes, from 25 km/h to off-roadThe class is a property of the kit as sold. The road you may use it on is a property of the country, and sometimes of the state or the canton.
Ownership
- When the record says workshopAn online estimate is a brief for a workshop, not a fitment approval.
- After the conversion: the record, not a certificateKeep the configuration, the charger model, the installer and the outstanding conditions in one place.
- The brief a workshop can actually useA screenshot of a family name is not a job. Measurements and the exact configuration are.
- Assist levels, displays and the programme in the controllerThe screen is not the motor. It is the way this generation of controller agrees to be talked to.