This my electric Raleigh chopper conversion. Unlike others that I've seen, this uses a sensible 250W Bafang mid-drive motor allowing me to retain the original rear wheel with Sturmy Archer 3 speed gears and the iconic gear shifter.
This is what I'm doing (when I finish my MK1 marin rift zone and MK2 marin mount vision (my MK2 is my daily commute),but thats what I said " get a MK3 chopper and do it electric as couldn't bare to wreck a MK1 or MK2 chopper.well done.
If any bike makes sense being electrified its a raleigh Chopper. I had one as a kid rode it nearly everyday from 73 to 80. And I remember it was a heavy bike. Around 40lbs i think. But yes great work here.
An excellent build on a classic bike! You would hardly think it was an ebike as the battery is not really noticeable under the seat. Very impressed with the speed it's going. Have you altered the throttle settings to the controller using a lap top? With the recent release of new choppers by Raleigh this could start a trend! Very nice conversion I recently converted my 30 year old Marin mouse train bike with the same Bafang motor and it certainly brings a smile to your face!😂
Thanks for your comment. I wanted to minimise any changes to the overall appearance of the bike, so your comment about the battery is especially pleasing. It does look fast but it's all standard settings. I'm reluctant to modify the default settings in case I brick the controller. 😆
Lovely bike, I have the mark 4 in ultra violet because I was an original council estate boomer who always wanted one with a passion, when I was 10 but a father who didn't have the wherewithal to buy me one in 1969. The mechanical propulsion is no problem for me being a club racing cyclist all my life. You do know that the throttle is illegal in use on public roads ? If one is fitted, it should only be a walk assist to 3.7 mph, not above that speed as yours obviously is. Not knocking you though, I have a throttle on the wife's ado 20 air and have been in the engineering section, changed it to hybrid drive and maxed out the speed limiter. It will now get up to about 22 mph unaided on the flat ( where permitted obviously lol ) from a CE 250 watt motor. Apart from the squared off cow horns, your bike would pass for a mark 2 by anybody apart from a Chopper Aficionado. My Mark 4 hasn't got the speed of my Cannondale system six or my Cannondale Super Six evo but what it does have is fond memories of growing up in the 60's and 70's.
Hi, thanks for your comment. Like you, my parents couldn't afford a Chopper when I was young so I only got ride them in recent years. I guess this is why I'm comfortable with modifying the bikes, I'm not trying to recreate a replica of an original bike that I owned in my childhood. Congratulations on being the first person to notice/comment about the throttle 😀 Whilst you're technically correct, as this is a pre-2015 (2004) bike it could be considered exempt from the current e-bike legislation, but this is a grey area and I guess you could argue the case either way. Raleigh got around the rules on seat/sissy bar height restrictions on the MK4 by selling the higher MK2 style sissy bars separately, allowing them to be fitted by the customer. Would a MK4 modified in this way be illegal? The throttle can be disabled in seconds by unplugging the connector, but main thing is that if you ride your bike responsibly no one will ever pick you up on it.
Yes the wife's ado 20 air can easilly be made legal on the road again on the app by turning off hybrid drive mode because the pedal assist only, is always set at 15.5 mph, it is the throttle that takes it to 22 mph. When I was about 40 about 25 years ago, I electrified a racing bike with time trial bars on it. The batteries then were nickel cadmium. The motor was a high speed heinzman unit. The bike could cruise at 30 mph but I had to change over to a second battery half way to work after about 8 miles at that speed. The batteries age longevity wasn't very long then either. You are right about the police though, they are not interested in old farts riding sensibly, whether on an illegal e bike or not. They have larger fish to fry.
