instructables
A Commuter's Electric Bike
by ctstarkdesigns
I thought that it was about time that I share my
electric bike build that I have been using for the past
4+ years to commute to and from work. I know that I
don't have all of the steps here to build this bike from
the ground up but I thought it would be cool to share
some of the things I have learned along the way while
I have worked the kinks out of the bike. At this point I
have put 3,400 miles on the bike with the current
batteries. I have gone through four rear tires, three
A Commuter's Electric Bike: Page 1
front tires, three sets of pedals (out of choice), three
sets of brake pads, and have added new lights and
other small fixings along the way. Much of the bike
was built with reused and repurposed materials; the
batteries, the battery boxes, the battery balancing
cables, the racks, pannier bags, and the bike frame
itself. This helped keep the total cost down to about
$400 to build the entire bike.
Step 1: Find a Bike

The first step in building your electric commuter bike look for something that is sturdy, affordable, and
is to find the actual bike you want to use. I was lucky comfortable for day-to-day travel. I took some
to find a 23" steel Trek with a Rockshox front snapshots of a few examples available in my area
suspension for only $75. You are going to want to right now. I preferred to use steel since it is more apt

to handle tension and compression without fatiguing frame. I needed plenty of room to build my battery
the metal, it also has a bit more give on bumpier storage box which holds not only some of the
sections of road. One of the most important factors for batteries but also the motor controller, a shunt for the
my bike choice was the center triangle of the bike computer, and the battery management system.

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Step 2: Determine the Motor Type / Wattage
I decided that I wanted the motor to be a hub or "pie-
pan" motor where the wheel itself is driven by a
brushless DC motor. I also wanted the motor to be
mounted in the rear since I was planning on having a
fair amount of mass up front with batteries and my
simple to install on a non-electric-specific bike frame,
and are relatively inexpensive compared to other
options. I purchased a 1000 watt motor with the
intention to push it a bit beyond the 1000 watt rating
and closer to 1,500 watts. This would be enough
power to get me up the multitude of hills in my area
while allowing me to do some nice cruising along the
roads without pedaling too crazy. The motor I
purchased four years ago is no longer available under
its previous name "Aosom" but I am sure that there
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panniers to hold my work stuff. There are, of course,
loads of options when it comes to selecting a motor to
power your bike. You have all types of mid-drive,
friction, and hub motors to choose from. I selected a
rear hub motor since they are notably trustworthy,
are plenty of other options out there. I posted a
snapshot of my current motor, the order I placed for
the motor four years ago, and something that should
be comparable that is currently available.
**Note** Using a motor of this capacity might be
illegal without proper registration and paperwork in
your state. Just saying...
Step 3: Find Some Batteries
A friend of mine is extraordinarily well versed in the
world of lithium ion batteries and was given a pile of
batteries from a number of wrecked Ford C-Max
hybrids. He went through preliminarily testing the
majority of the batteries with a multimeter to
determine which ones were holding a constant
charge and put aside the ones that seemed to be a bit
less than adequate. The "less-than-adequate"
batteries still were plenty useable but might have
been a bit puffed out or were holding a bit of a lower
thirteen of those pairs together in series to produce
the correct voltage to run my bike's motor. Since the
batteries have a max voltage of 4.2v, a 13 series
battery would produce 54.6v total. Although, my
motor is 48v a max voltage of 54.6 is acceptable to
power the motor and will cause no damage as long
as you are not running the motor at that voltage for
long periods of time... which you can't because the
batteries drain as you run the motor.
I ended up testing each battery by setting up a simple
load test using a piece of nichrome wire with alligator
clips on either end. I would short the battery with the
nichrome wire and use a multimeter to see how the
A Commuter's Electric Bike: Page 4
voltage than the others. They were not suitable for
another larger electric vehicle but would be plenty
suitable for smaller applications... say, an electric
bike?
My friend gave me a fair amount of batteries that I
could go through and load test. I needed 26 total cells
for a 2P13S battery. That means that I wanted to
connect two cells in parallel to each other to produce
a battery with a greater capacity and then connect
voltage dropped over 20 seconds. Any batteries that
took a significant dip in voltage from fully charged
would be marked with an "X" and put to the side. For
those of you battery gurus out there, I am sure that
this is crude and very rudimentary but it worked great
for my purposes and has worked well to determine
which batteries aren't up to snuff for my bike. I ended
up pulling out about 40 decent cells that could be
used with my system. I used 26 of those 40 and put
the rest to the side for backups later on down the
road. If everything went as planned I would have a
nearly 55 volt, 24 amp hour battery pack that could
easily power my bike for at least 10 miles.
Step 4: Build the Battery and Test
As I mentioned earlier, I built the battery with two
batteries in parallel (doubling the capacity) and then
13 batteries in series. I ended up cutting 18 gauge
insulated wire in 3.5" sections, stripped the ends off
of them and then used 1/4" eye connectors crimped
on to both ends of the wire. The eye connectors slip
over the top of the batteries stud and then the nut is
tightened down on top of that but before I did that I
needed to also have a jumper cable that would go
from one pair's positive lead to the next pair's
negative lead, wiring them in series. I also needed to
add in a longer lead for a battery management
system (BMS), which I'll explain in the next step. I
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used a long piece of silicon insulated cable for the
final connectors that will be plugged into the charger
and/or the motor. This long wire will come from the
battery's negative terminal and positive terminal and
was then soldiered to an XT60 connector. The
connector's female side was soldiered onto the
charger I decided to use, a Luna Cycle 48v charger to
charge the entire battery. This would not only allow
me to adjust the rate of charge (1amp - 5 amp) but
would allow me to decide on the capacity of the
charge and would also work with the BMS to balance
the batteries at the end of the charging cycle.
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1. XT60 connector 1. Example of batteries all wired in series - this was for a different electric
2. BMS bike I bought for $20... that's for a different instructable.

1. Looks a bit like a bomb, but it's safe. I used an old wheelbarrow tire
tube to hold them all tightly together.

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1. Luna Cycle Charger, specifically designed for Li-ion batteries

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Step 5: Gonna Need to Store Those Batteries!
With 26 of my batteries put together to make my
completed bike battery I now had the problem of
safely storing them but still making them accessible
to check in on them from time to time... they did come
out of a wrecked car after all (yes, I know, lithium ion
batteries can "vent with flame" if not properly cared
for). The batteries are heavy and add a fair amount of
mass to the bike. I planned on putting a pannier rack
on the front of the bike with all of my work clothes,
lunch, and what not, so that location was out of the
picture. Also, the front end is a particularly bumpy
area of the bike and half of my commute is on bumpy
dirt roads with lots of hills. The motor in the rear
weighs a fair amount, so I didn't want to put ALL of
the weight back there with the motor... think wheelies.
I needed to put some of the mass more near the
found for free to attach the bottom of the front board
to the bottom board. I did the same thing for the back
board, closest to the bike seat. This made for a nicely
rigid box that fit SOME of the batteries, 12 out of 26 to
be exact. To hold the batteries in place and to prevent
bouncing around I used a couple of pieces of foam
that came in the box I received the charger in (waste
not want not!) and put them below the batteries to
prevent jarring them. I then I used a piece of hook-
and-loop strapping from an old sleeping bag stuff
sack to make a retaining system for the batteries. I
epoxied both ends of the strap to the box so that they
could wrap neatly around the batteries in the box and
hold them in place.
So... 12 out of 26 batteries fit in the center box along
with the motor controller, the shunt for the computer,
and the BMS. That means 14 more batteries needed
to find a cushy home to call their own. I had a pile of
scrap plexiglass that a friend gave me that I thought
would make a rigid, lightweight storage box for the
back of my bike. The motor came with a somewhat
cruddy, but solid pannier rack which happened to fit
A Commuter's Electric Bike: Page 8
center of the bike so I started with building a box in
the center triangle of the bike frame. The box has to
fit the depth of the batteries (3.5") but also cannot be
so wide that your legs are going to hit or you are
going to be uncomfortable pedaling the bike. The box
was just shy of 4" wide which left enough room for the
batteries and connectors but didn't impede my
pedaling. I used U-bolts to connect the top board to
the frame. I slipped an old piece of pneumatic hose
on the U-bolt to help prevent marring the frame too
much (it is steel and I didn't want it to rust). I also
attached the bottom board with one U-bolt and then
used one of the existing water bottle cage braze-ons
to attach the bottom of the board. The front vertical
board was screwed to the top board and then I made
an "L" bracket out of some stainless steel strapping I
perfectly on the back of the bike. I attached a piece of
scrap plywood to the top of the rack and then began
the design of the plexiglass box. I used the same
scrap foam in the box to help insulate the batteries
from bouncing around and used a heat gun to fold
and form the plexiglass to shape. I then used some
Gorilla tape (honestly the stuff is amazing) to help
seal the seams up tight. The cap for the box is also
made from a piece of plexiglass and some velcro
holds it tight to the box. I drilled one hole in the cap so
that the cables can come out of the box. You'll see in
later steps that I had to modify this so that I could run
the BMS wires out of the box, a really cool step by
the way. The plexiglass box has a small, thin board
on the interior that helps make it even more rigid and
allows a stud to pass through it, then through the
plywood on the rack so that a large hand nut can be
tightened on to it holding everything in place but still
really easy to remove. The whole thing is water tight,
insulated, and overall a perfect fit for the bike.
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Step 6: Fitting It All in and Closing Up the Box
You can see in the first picture that I placed the motor
controller on the top of the center box, above the
batteries. This is where the controller has lived since I
built the bike. From that point I had to make a few
additions to the box including a shunt for the
computer and a battery management system to keep
the bike from randomly catching on fire as the lithium
ion batteries "vent with flames" (I just love saying
that). I went totally low-tech on the door for the box
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and just used a couple of strap hinges and a piece of
plywood as the door. I used a long bolt and a wing
nut at the bottom to keep it all closed up but easy
enough to open and charge the battery. I ended up
painting it all with some leftover Rustoleum aluminum
colored paint, which has done a nice job keeping it all
preserved.
Step 7: Computer Monitoring System
I needed some way to keep track of how much juice
my battery had while I was riding it and also what the
current state of charge was for the battery before
taking the bike out for a ride. There were some really
nice computers out there such as the cycle analyst
but I couldn't justify spending $100+ on a simple
device. I found this nice Bayite computer on Amazon
for a walloping $15. The computer came with a 100
amp shunt that worked perfectly with my set up. It is
not weatherproof so I needed to do some modification
and ended up building a really simple case to hold
onto the computer and keep it mostly waterproof. I
used some more leftover Plexiglas along with some
bolts and stainless steel piping I had kicking around.
It is attached to a sturdy base that was attached to
my bike's stem. It is removable but I have never had
the necessity to take off the computer. A sample of
the batteries state of charge is taken through the
shunt, which is found in the center triangle box (see
the wiring in the image but use the directions that
come with the computer).
I ended up ordering my BMS from Aliexpress since I
was having a really hard time sourcing one from any
other location. It was darn inexpensive and showed
up in a few weeks. It's pretty self-explanatory but the
overall premise is that you have a lead from the BMS
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to each individual cell of your battery (remember that I
doubled the capacity and made two cells into one by
wiring them in parallel). The BMS monitors and
balances the entire battery system by drawing down
the voltage of each cell so they are all equal at the
end of the charging cycle. By the way, you need to
have a charger that can handle this type of balancing.
The Luna Cycle charger does handle this with no
problem and you will see the voltage dropping while it
remains plugged into your bike after it is done
charging. The charger I received with the motor
DOES NOT balance the battery but will instead
charge it in bulk until the battery with the highest
voltage hits the threshold allowed by the BMS. This
does limit the overall charge of your bike but it
prevents the oh-so-scary "venting with flames" and
also gives a world of extra life to your bike. Get the
right charger! I ran the BMS' leads to the back battery
using a 16 pin connector that was reused from a
wrecked Honda insight. I was able to soldier the
leads from the cells to the female end connected to
the box and then ran the leads to the male end
leading to the box... looks really cool and has been
extremely functional, especially when I have had to
take the box off to change out cells (which has only
happened once).
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1. Short sections of stainless steel pipe 1. All lit up!

2. This base is attached to the bike's stem
3. Weathersealed to keep water out
4. Had to find a way to poke the on/off button for the little blue light so I can
see the voltage at night too

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3 1 2 4
5

1. To the computer 1. BMS leads to rear battery

2. To the computer
3. Blue wire is lead from BMS
4. To battery
5. From battery

1. You only need enough leads to connect each battery in the back box, I
needed 12

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Step 8: Fixings to Make Your Ride That Much Better
There have been a lot of things I have learned about
commuting to work on a daily basis using my electric
bike.
Lights: One of the most important things I have
learned is visibility, you can NEVER have too many
lights or reflective things on your bike. I have a nice
bright blinking red light on the back of my bike from
Planet Bike and two blinking lights on the front of my
bike, one attached to my mirror and one additional
one on the handlebars. I also use my large light for
night time mountain biking to light the way. More light
is better, no matter what.
Pedals: I have a mostly rural commute with three
miles of dirt roads and lots of hills and then three to
five more miles (depending on the way I go) of
moderately busy roads. It's nice to have some very
sturdy pedals, especially with how heavy the bike is
with the motor, batteries, and work stuff that I bring
with me. I was able to scavenge some heavy-duty
BMX pedals from a bike being tossed out on the curb.
Sturdy pedals make you feel more comfortable and
confident.
Mirror: I like to know who is behind me at any given
moment and a mirror is really the safest way to check
it out. I ended up getting the little mirror I use on my
bike as a gift a number of years ago but never put it to
good use. I like it because it folds out and gets out of
the way when needed and it also has a small blinking
LED light that works great as a backup just in case
one of my other ones kick it.
Kickstand: The bike is not light and with a fully
loaded set of panniers it can tip over easily with a
conventional kickstand. I ended up purchasing a
but that is half the fun!
A Commuter's Electric Bike: Page 15
really nice kickstand on Velo Orange for about $30. It
is worth every cent.
Panniers and Pannier Rack: The beauty of using
this bike is that I can bike in with my work clothes on
(I am a middle school teacher, so they are not too
fancy) and not end up a sweaty mess. I still need to
carry a lot of stuff into school and I needed something
sturdy but easy to remove. I had an old rack that I
recovered from a junky bike I found on the side of the
road. I was able to retrofit it to fit the front of my bike
using a bit of stainless steel strapping and a longer
skewer for the front wheel quick release (I ended up
using a rear-wheel quick release). The pannier bags
are vintage from the late 90's but they work great and
are made really well. I am sure you could score both
a rack and a set of bags used or on sale.
Tires: The final thing I want to remark on are the
quality of your tires. I have had this bike up to 40 mph
on flat ground and with its inertia you don't want a
random exploding tire. Recently I started using
Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. They are not cheap at
$50 but they are well worth the piece of mind.
Seriously, I spent more on one tire than I did for the
BMS, computer, and kickstand combined.
Staying Warm: Even on a relatively warm morning
moving at 30 mph can make a 50 degree air
temperature feel like it is well below freezing. I have
taken my bike out while the air temp was in the single
digits and you can imagine how cold it gets. I use all
different pairs of gloves, coats, and hats depending
on the temperature. When it is really cold I use super
insulated mittens, a balaclava and thin hat over that,
fleece pants over my work pants, two coats, and ski
goggles... I think you get the point. Stubborn? Yes,
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1. Velo Orange double kickstand 1. Pannier bags from the 90's!

1. Steel strap to hold rack on to bike 1. Well worth the $

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1. Nice and bright for night riding

Step 9: Ready to Roll!

I hope that this instructable gives a good picture of
what I think works as a fantastic electric bike for
commuting to work. I have put a lot of miles on my
bike and can honestly say that, even on the coldest
days, I enjoy riding to work much more than driving.
There's something to be said about seeing the sun
rising through the woods while you are noiselessly
cruising on a dirt road. You get a bit of workout to
wake you up before you arrive to work and have
something to look forward to when you need to head
home. If you have any questions or comments do not
hesitate to reach out to me. Thanks for reading!

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