Rubbee

The offer

What Rubbee actually is

Rubbee is one configuration from Rubbee, made in Lithuania, filed here as a friction drive. The family is X, generation Catalogue. Lithuanian friction drive. A powered roller presses the rear tyre. Lift it off and the bike is a bicycle again.

In the box, as this record has it: Friction drive, Mount, Battery in the unit on complete kits. Still required before the bike moves under its own assist: Tyre with a usable tread, Seat-stay or dropout mount. A cheaper advert for the same family name is not this list. If the battery, the charger or the throttle differs, it is a different configuration and it gets a different page.

Street versions are sold to the 25 km/h class. Wet-weather grip is a workshop question, not a listing checkbox.

The price on the card is the maker’s published figure in EUR, or Maker list when no figure was published. Allowances for a missing pack, a charger and workshop time sit in the complete-cost band. They are not a second product and they are not a promise that a random pack will talk to this controller.

The bicycle

The frame this motor is asking for

Rubbee lists Rubbee against Hybrid, Folding, Mountain bicycles, for Commuting, Leisure. Wheel sizes on the card: 700c, 26, 27.5. The mechanical interface is No axle change. Brakes are disc.

This architecture does not replace the axle or the bottom bracket. The question is whether the mount — roller, rotor, seat stay or hitch — has a flat, strong place to live, and whether the tyre, the disc or the seat post is the one the maker designed for.

Pedals stay. This configuration is a bicycle with assistance, not a motorcycle conversion. Sensor on the card: cadence. Cut-off on the card: 15.5 mph. Throttle: not fitted.

The numbers

250 W is not the whole story

Continuous rated power for Rubbee is 250 W. Claimed peak is not stated separately from the continuous rating. Torque is not published as a crank or hub figure. Manufacturer stated. Motor mass is not published. System mass, once the named parts are on the bike, is Friction drive, Mount, Battery in the unit on complete kits.

Peak is a short claim. Street rules, including the Great Britain check on this site, use continuous rated power and the speed at which assistance stops. A controller that can be unlocked does not change the record of the motor as sold. Rubbee is filed in the 25 km/h class: 250 W pedelec class used across the EU, Great Britain and Australia.

In this class the useful comparison is torque and mass, not a bigger watt sticker. A 250 W torque-sensing mid-drive and a 250 W cadence hub do not feel alike, and neither of them becomes legal somewhere else just because the sticker matches.

Pack and charger

The motor is not a finished electrical system

Rubbee is sold as a motor. Voltage class is 36 V. Energy in this offer: no watt-hour figure in this offer. No battery model is invented to fill the gap. The complete-cost band holds an allowance so a finished bike can be budgeted without pretending a pack was included.

The charger follows the pack, not the motor slogan. Budget the charger once the pack model is fixed. Similar voltage, a connector that happens to fit, or the word universal is not a match. The controller in Included controller expects the pack the manual names.

If you already own a pack, the workshop question is the continuous discharge rate, the connector pinout and whether the battery management system will talk to this controller. Those three are not on a watt sticker.

Friction drive

How Rubbee uses this layout

Friction drive. Rubbee presses a roller into the tyre instead of rebuilding the wheel or the bottom bracket. Lift the roller off and the bicycle is itself again. That is the appeal, and the limit.

Grip is a tyre question. A slick in the wet, a soft sidewall, or a roller that meets the tyre at an angle will slip or chew the tread. Pressure, spring range and a square contact patch are the install, not an accessory.

Noise and a small flat spot on the tyre are normal topics for this architecture. They are not a reason to pretend it is a hub motor.

The workshop

Specialist, even if a shop is doing it

Rubbee is marked specialist. An online fit is a brief. The stand still has to see the frame. Cargo, long chainstays, unusual dropouts and this architecture are why the automated check stops.

Warranty as published: Maker warranty. Term is on the invoice.. Labour in the cost band is separate from the offer. A brake service the bike already needed, a new chain, or a hanger alignment is not folded into Rubbee’s price to make the total look neat.

The sensible order is measure, then mount, then connect, then the first assisted roll in the stand. Connectors are keyed for a reason. The torque arm, the axle nuts and the connector boots are one inspection at the end, not three trips.

After it is on

The first month, and the parts that wear

Look at the tyre where the roller runs. A flat patch, a glaze, or a chunking sidewall means the pressure or the alignment is off. Carry the right tube. The roller is not a licence to ignore a soft tyre.

Keep the named charger with the pack you actually fitted. Store the pack cool, part-charged if it will sit, and not in a hallway that is your only exit. Rubbee’s display, if one is included, is paired to this controller generation. A screen from the next family is not a spare.

My Garage on this device can hold the configuration, who fitted it, and what was still open. That note is for you and for the next workshop. It is not a certificate. If a later notice lands on this configuration, the record is where it should show.

Read next to it

• HillTopperHillTopper · Friction drive · 20 mph
• GboostGboost · Friction drive · 25 km/h

From the library

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.