Electric tandem

[joelkan]

Good afternoon

I have borrowed a tandem for a couple of months so that my 16 year old son who has special needs can get out and about on a bike.
He is doing well with it but I’m doing all the work and very difficult going up hills.
I have been on an electric bike with pedal assist before and enjoyed it.
The tandem I have on loan is a 21/18” frame as my son isn’t very tall.
Does anyone know if I could get a similar tandem with pedal assist?
I have had a search and looking at around £4000.
Anybody any ideas?

[Bonefishblues]

https://www.tandems.co.uk/m3b0s110p0/Ta ... -e-tandems

[stodd]

You can do a conversion. We added a Woosh XF07 front hub kit (under £500) to a basic but enjoyable Viking tandem we had had for a few years (under £500 new). It doesn't allow us to roar round the countryside and wizz up hills, but it makes all the difference for fairly gentle riding and in particular help (not all the work) getting up hills.

See https://wooshbikes.co.uk/, good pre and post sales customer service.

If available I would add a motor with a little more torque; there wasn't anything legal around in appropriate wheel size when we converted.

If you do go for new, the Circe might do just what you need: £4000 from the tandems.co.uk site referenced above:
https://www.tandems.co.uk/m3b0s110p0/Ta ... -e-tandems
Any repairs after warranty or battery replacement are like to be pretty high on a bike like that.

[joelkan]

I got outbid on an electric tandem on eBay so have been researching buying a tandem and converting.
Would the mid motor kits be better than the hun kits due to the extra weight of a tandem and was looking at getting a 36v 15ah battery.
Has anyone got any advice please.

Thanks

[stodd]

You may have difficulty with a hub kit and tandem crossover drives.

Had to enter that in a bit of a hurry. You will get more advice on what sort of kit will fit and be suitable for what sort of bike from
https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/forums ... ussion.42/

One specific point on front drives. On regular bikes these can have poor grip at the front for gravelly hills. This applies much less on tandems because of the different weight distribution. Plus with a front hub motor you have two driven wheels which can really help with slipping: we have found that especially on slight uphill slippery grass tracks.

[reohn2]

I have a childback good quality KHS tandem in VGC(photos available) for sale cheap @ £350ono .
A front wheel e-kit would cost between £400 to £700 depending on battery size,which would be an easy DIY fit.
PM me if you're interested in the bike.

[Lodge]

There's a Hase Pino on eBay at the moment with child crank accessory included. That could be electrified with a front wheel motor relatively easily. We used to have a front wheel electrified Pino - they pull quite well due to the small wheel size. Four days left as of 17th June.

Being semi-recumbent it's very good to be able to keep an eye on a less able stoker up front.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143629128119?fbclid=IwAR27hOFmJ3wn5fLKJpFW6WUYkPh4m72DMJltudSkrnj12tSlaMiA1RgH_WY

[bikes4two]

Hub motors in the front wheel are quite a discussion point on forums with many saying the incautious can loose control of the front wheel under certain road conditions, but of course that applies to any type of cycle/cycling and an experienced rider will learn to negate the risk.

For solo bikes a 250w motor is considered a 'safe' power level for the front - arguably a tandem's weight distribution could tolerate more than 250w if you were one to go beyond the 250w threshold.

Another option that falls outside of the UK law is All Wheel Drive as in a hub motor on the rear wheel too. So if you were interested in knowing more, this youtube video is informative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHXQr2MPJS8&t=411s

[mumbojumbo]

Have you tried contacting Tandem Club-there must be some couples with electric experiences.Also there is a tradition of involving the blind,so they will be sympathetic to your lads circumstances.

[Trikesnbikes]

Fitting a bottom bracket kit shouldn't be a huge problem if you have crossover drive with square taper cranks the same as the kit you are fitting. You just fit your existing left hand crank and chainring instead of the kit crank. You might have to adjust the chain line by fitting a longer or shorter bottom bracket to the other end to line up the two chainrings. If the current and kit crank lengths are different you can also use your existing right crank with the chainrings removed (as the kit chainring will drive the rear chain). If you have straight through drive you would need an adaptor to be able to run two chainrings as most kits only run one chainring as standard.