After coming back from a long tour of France I decided it was time to put a motor on the Pino. I had mulled it over for some time and, because a new ‘e-pino’ is horrendously expensive, I decided to fit a Bafang ‘Fun 8’ mid-drive motor. In the UK we are legally limited to 250W maximum power.
I bought the motor and battery together, from ‘Aliexpress.com’ and ordered it from China, as it’s cheaper than using a European supplier, but delivery times are longer. If you are in a hurry for the kit, a UK or European supplier will get it to you sooner.
The battery is a 36V 17.5Ah. Cable brake levers come with the kit but sensors for hydraulic brakes are available. The standard chainring seems to be a 44T but at a pinch and with an adapter plate, a 38T could be fitted. Larger rings are not an issue.
The left-hand Hase crank with freewheel and the motor sitting under the BB shell. The original battery lost much of its performance after 4 years good use, so the one here is a new replacement, but 13Ah, not 17.5Ah of the original.
The Hase crank has a square taper axle – in what I call a ‘square, square’ pattern. The Bafang cranks supplied in the kit are ‘square, diamond’ pattern, so, in order to retain the Hase freewheel, you need to source a ‘square, square’ right hand crank. These are available as a Tandem Captain’s crankset from SJS Cycles. You will have to buy the crankset, as they don’t sell individual R/H cranks.
The ‘Square, square’ hole in the Thorn crank matches the hole pattern in the Hase Pino freewheel crank. Our Pino is 2011. Hase may now use a different crankset, so it’s worth checking before you buy.The Thorn, right-hand crank from SJS Cycles and the 44T covered chainring. You can specify different sized chainrings but we’ve found, coupled to a Rohloff with 15T sprocket, it’s a good size that allows us to climb well and keep pedalling up to 25-30mph.The SW102 controller/display on the left bar. This is not the standard display that comes with most kits but there’s no suitable place for the stock display on the Pino, so I ordered this smaller unit. I added the lumps to the buttons, as selecting up/down on the unmodified rocker switch was tricky with gloves on. Changing power levels is very easy using one’s thumb on the up/down buttons. The cable goes down the inside of the bars for a tidy look. I used bar tape to cover the brake lever clamp as it was uncomfortable in its natural state.The display is very simple with just a power level (1-5), speed, odometer (which I never bother with) and battery capacity indicator. Holding the ‘Up’ button down switches on the rear light – powered from the motor. Our front light is permanently on from a hub dynamo.The thumb throttle at the bar-end on the right bar. I used a stumpy bar-end to support the Rohloff grip shift but as it is effectively on the left, I bought a left-hand grip shifter, so the changing order was not reversed, as it would be with the stock right-hand shifter. A second bar-end fitted lower holds a Topeak Dry bag for my iPhone which I use to navigate and track rides with. The charging cable is connected to a power bank in the pocket behind the stoker’s seat.There’s a lot of accessories on the bars. Left to right… Display/control, Ergon grips, bar-end, bell, 3 x water bottle cages, camera mounts front and rear, bar-end for phone holder and waterproof case, Rohloff grip shift on bar-end, Ergon grip, thumb throttle and mirror.The magnet mounted to the brake lever and the sensor, mounted to the brake lever body so that pulling on the brakes cuts the power to the motor. I used the very useful mouldable glue ‘Sugru’ for the job. It sets in about 24 hours, so a little tape was necessary to keep all in place while the glue set. The brake sensors were extra, but the cables fit in place of the cable brake levers supplied with the kit. All the cables on the kit have different colours for matching male/female connectors as well as different pin patterns, so it’s pretty well impossible to make a wrong connection. I have since replaced the hydraulic brakes with cable ones, and therefore switched the levers for the ones that came with the kit. These have built-in sensors.The wheel sensor and magnet on the rear wheel. These need to be fitted and aligned well, as if they don’t work, the motor will cut out after a couple of minutes if it’s not registering any rotation.
Extras
The Rohloff chain tensioner.TRP Spyre cable operated rear brake and Rohloff ‘click box’. I needed to fit the rear rack with a rearward extension to prevent my heals hitting the panniers when riding.Karon uses a Topeak cross-bar bag to keep a few items that are easy to get to.The original Spinner Grinder forks on the bike needed a thorough service so I removed them and replaced them with new Spinner 300 forks now supplied by Hase. These are actually about 20mm longer than the originals. With plenty of time, I stripped the originals, cleaned and re-greased them then put them aside. Recently the 300s became very sticky and inefficient, so I put the originals back on and have cleaned and re-greased the 300s ready for the next swap. It’s a 20 minute job to swap the forks.
