In case it's not apparent, compared to some of the other very informed comments here relating to the Montague, my comments are from a perspective of someone who has NEVER owned a high end bike. So, maybe I don't know any better then to ride the hell out of it and have a great time while doing so, while (largely) using the components it came with. On the other hand, I can see where you guys with top quality high end bikes get used to the hardware that comes with them, but lets not forget that sometimes "good enough" is just that, good enough, Even though not as good as it could be. I have yet to have anything break or let me down other then tires, brake pads, and the the usual wear points on any bike, and that's good enough especially considering I am running a 1000 watt mid drive e system on it, which it was never designed for.

The same goes for my Chinese $1500 fat bike, the most expensive bike by far I have ever bought! http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/mot ... tbikes.htm That price would be laughable in the high end bike world, but damn it takes a beating and keeps on ticking, and again, with e power added no less.

None of this really matters, as long as I'm flying the plane I do, the Montague is the bike for me, it fits in there that good. What I will continue to do is upgrade it as I go, when things break and wear out, and I get better educated, but right now I am blissfully ignorant

We need to have a new type fly in contest, something that involves STOL play plus a timed course for a bike ride, that would include getting it out of the plane and after the ride putting it back in and taking off again. Nothing can beat a Montague for speed.....in unfolding/folding anyway, pretty sure of that, I take longer to tie down then getting the bike out and riding off. I need to post a pic of a recent 9800' landing with the bike and full camping gear on board, and then flew off with a 8' long log tied on the lift strut as a souvenir, (and to clear the LZ). Point being, (deep breath) I have a 38 mph ebike that folds in seconds, is dead silent, has a 20 mile + range, (depending on speed, more) can climb slopes too steep to want to ride down (thanks to the Rohloff gearing spread, why it's worth it's cost) that still fits in a plane that cruises at 85 mph on 3 gph or less ( 2.5 to 2.7 gph actually at 8 to 10 K with about 75 mph indicated) on auto fuel and can land anywhere, oh yeah, the plane is the quietest thing out there also. So I tend to get a little defensive when people dump on my bike, but I DO appreciate the bike wisdom you guys have, and am willing to learn.

Hey courier guy, Inspired by your exploits, I purchased the Paratrooper Pro recently offered for sale on the board. Wonder if you could please post a picture or two of your Rohloff/BBSHD setup? I looked over the products on their websites and all is fairly clear except where/how the battery is installed. Will try the bike as is for awhile but your setup sure sounds appealing. Thanks in advance.
Blue skies,
Tom
KCMA

Will do, give me a day or so.

Meanwhile, I just had a crane job very near the Twin Bridges airstrip, and supposedly the sweet spot for the eclipse thing. They wanted me there at 7, and as it was a 2.5 hour drive for Miss Piggy, I took off late the day before and camped out over night. I took the Montague and got in a quick 8 mile ride from the camp site up the canyon until the trail petered out. I saw the remnants of a (very) old hydro electric system and the newer ag irrigation diversion. Very interesting and of course great scenery, in spite of the damn smoke. That's Borah and the Lemhi Range, biggest is Idaho, in the background. I sure spend a lot of time on alluvial flows, even living on one, I think I may name my next plane, "Alluvial Flyer."

Just a small example about how having a bike along, any bike at all, really increases the fun factor by letting you get out and reach areas you other wise wouldn't walk to. I have another job in the area coming up in "a couple weeks", the contractor said, fine, but it better not be during the eclipse road blockage they are forecasting. They were already setting up porta potties!

Mackay Res below.

Thanks, looking forward to the pix although I get some idea from the last pix above.
Best,
Tom

Courier guy: I'm also interested in putting one of these together. I've appreciated your posts, but can't say that I fully understand how to select the correct parts, and how to assemble them.

I was a pretty good bike mechanic as a part time job in high school. It's not that I'm not handy, I'm just not in touch with what is what in the bike world anymore.

If there are some threads on a bike forum you prefer to link to instead of creating this material from scratch, I'd appreciate it.

Alternatively, a list of parts, and where to buy them would be good.

I'm kind of sorry I didn't act on the bike for sale at Butte, but there'll be others. Sounds like it found a good home!

Great idea pinecone, much easier for me and more informative for anyone else interested. I got 12.5 miles in town riding today, running errands after parking the crane on tomorrow's job site, it's gotten so that seeing how many miles I've ridden on any given day gives me the same warm fuzzy feeling that making a log book entry does!

One on the battery installation I came up with: https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewt ... &start=475

And the main one on my first and second Montague builds :https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=74781&start=25

LUNA CYCLE is my preferred vendor, (www.lunacycle.com) just don't expect them to pick up the phone, and get educated on the ebike forums first a bit. Other wise its like someone calling up Aircraft Spruce and asking them what kind of bolts you should buy for your whatever plane, they don't have time to get everyone up to speed on things! Endless-Sphere, the general ebike forum, is a great source of info, it's all there, just search for it.

Thanks for the links courierguy. Will check them out. And lunacycle is not too far from me for a mid-day drive; may visit and be able to report back.
Best,
Tom

Read the courierguy links; thanks. The subject of where/how to carry the battery in my 182 come to mind? I don't think that I would want the battery on the bike in the back. Would probably have a 'bag' type holder and put it under my front seat. That way I could feel it getting hot and jettison it out the window (over unpopulated areas, of course). I also have a Lipo Stanley starter/charger battery that I may carry.

Any thoughts on this appreciated...

Another question: are the Rohloff and Bafang BBSHD entirely independent? That is, could you do one without influencing the possibility of doing the other? And if you were budget strapped and wanted eBike capability, how would the current rear derailleur work without the Rohloff? Thanks

Blue skies,

Tom

Big bucks for higher end components gets you better looks and less weight. Usually more precision and sometimes more durability.

Often, mid or low priced components are stronger and more durable, but heavier.

On a folding electric mountain bike weight does not matter in this context, so low to mid range components are probably better.

BTW I am also a BIG Bikes Direct fan, having owned about 4-5 of their bikes so far. Great place for a knowledgable bicyclist who can adjust and assemble to buy a bike.

Hi All,

Well I bought the Paratrooper Pro listed on the forum and have already ordered a helmet, more comfy seat; detachable pedals and am looking for the steering post Octagon extension, but the 4 in. one may no longer be available. Will call Montague tomorrow and see. Also the front wheel Skewer got bent in transit and am hassling with UPS over reimbursement. The $$$ are starting to add up! Ah, the joys of owning another vehicle.

The Paratrooper Pro has 3 x 9 = 27 gears. All those combinations are way beyond my little brain. Lots of these gear combinations are the same or close. Thus the allure of the 14 nearly evenly spaced Rohloff gears albeit very expensive.

In looking at adding the BBSHD for eBike capability and the Rohloff rear hub for 14 speed easy shifting, I looked for a gearing comparison chart and found one on the Rohloff site. My conclusion is that one loses the five lowest gears at the low end by installing just the BBSHD which has a 46 teeth chain ring vs the 44 (pretty close) on the Paratrooper Pro. The gears you lose are pretty much equivalent to the 5 lowest gears on the rear derailleur or on the Rohloff. Buying the Rohloff would give me those lowest 5 gears back. But that's at $350 per gear! The 9 gears that remain look fairly evenly spaced to me. So how would this do? I guess that I can try and ride with the Front on the largest ring and only change the Rear gears to simulate the situation?

Does having the eBike capability (BBSHD) make it more difficult for shifting the gears on the rear derailleur? How would one do the shift? Normally? Any advice appreciated.

I don't plan on doing anything extreme so I was thinking that maybe just the BBSHD mid-motor will do for now and someday when I win the lottery or the Euro plunges, I can get the Rohloff.

I will be taking my daughter to LAX on Tuesday and was thinking of visiting lunacycle. Anyone ever do this? Worthwhile?

Any comments appreciated. Thanks

Blue skies,

Tom

Hi all

I have a Rohloff on my Bike Friday NWT Silk - only owned it a couple months now and only have a couple of 100 km's on it, currently laid up after knee surgery last week. Also have the Gates Carbon Drive, it's an expensive combo but worth every cent so far.

Lot gearing / Rohloff info here:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/harris/rohl ... sions.html

The hub is bullet proof and will last me the rest of my life, if the bike frame dies, just move it to the next one.

All the best.

PS: https://www.bikefriday.com/folding-bike ... d-tourist/

They had the pink one on the floor, but it was too small for a 6'4" guy, so I had to wait for mine in cub yellow and built to size for me. Excellent customer service.

Thanks for the info Oz. Wow those Bike Fridays are not cheap!

A possible new option:

Luna is having an anniversary sale (pre-order only) featuring a total BBS02 Kit with 48V Shark 13.5 AH Panasonic Lithium Battery for $750. Comes with 3amp barrel charger. Sounds like a good price and the power is max street legal and I plan on riding my bike on roads, streets, often in CA.

It has several critical advantages over its popular big brother the BBSHD

It is 3 pounds lighter than the BBSHD

It totally falls within federal legal limits of an Ebike

It's smaller in size than the BBSHD which means more stealthy

It has more custom chainring options available

It has been around longer so it is a proven platform

Lower amps means longer range

Some add ons:

Black Luna Right Twist Throttle $12
52 V Shark 13.5AH $75
Gear Sensor $45

Any advice appreciated. Please talk me into or out of this item.

Thanks,

Tom

The very well regarded BBSHD is the latest version of the Bafang drive system, it address cooling concerns the 02 has when improperly operated (lugging it down for extended climbs), simply staying in a gear to let the motor rev higher can sidestep this issue. The BBSHD seems to be pretty idiot proof and hard to kill, the much deeper cooling fins on the case help it shed heat better, plus other internal changes, something to do with the armature I believe. Simply put, for heavy duty use, the HD is the hands down winner. If you use the HD the same as the 02, it uses no more power, if you perform more work it WILL use more power, so increased range out of the battery for a 02 system is a little misleading. In practice though, if you have that extra power on tap, chances are you will romp on it a bit more often so yeah I guess all things considered you'd use a bit less power with a 02.

The 02 is not physically smaller, not enough to matter, it is 3 lbs lighter for sure, and that's why I used one on my first Montague build. I was up to speed (ha ha) on the keeping the revs up/not lugging it too much thing, so had great service out of it until I saw the newer Paratrooper Pro model plus got educated on what the Rohloff hub could do for me. The usual thing we pilots have to deal with all the time, more power= more weight, forget the more money part! For my local trail riding on very rough and rocky trails on my fatbike, I have the HD, while the Montague sees a lot of road riding (16 miles yesterday) It is also my trail bike when on flying trips, so HD again. But......

I am in the process of building up a third bike (my 5 th ebike build. sold two of them, I've decided I "need" a minimum of three apparently) that will live in the crane, for use as a dingy, a way to get off the job site and maybe across town and at times even the 14 mile trip up to where I live. I doubt I'll use it for any serious trail riding as I have the fattie for that, so I jumped on the Luna sale for the BBS02 package deal, and it should be here today, it's a great value. I prefer the thumb throttle on the left, counter to all my motorcycle experience, as my right hand is then freed up for shifting. It's easy to get used to. I don't use the ebrake sensors (that cut off the motor when braking) as I simply stop pedaling and use any throttle while braking, duhhh! Leave them off, one less thing to mess with. When shifting just pause pedaling for a second and use no throttle, simple. Same with the gear sensor, not needed and not used by me at least.Both Bafang units have more then enough chain ring options to do whatever you need. I could care less what the Fed limits are power wise, (the federal guv has better things to spend it's time on then my bike drive, Korea comes to mind) I also don't let them tell me how much power I can use in my car, but I do drive and ride responsibly when around others, but yeah the 02 is legal when you get pulled over by the Federal Bicycle Police!
Go 52 volt for sure.

Thanks courierguy; you are a great asset on this forum. And I bet you swing a mean crane or do lifts or whatever it would be called. I can understand your need for 3 bikes!

"I doubt I'll use it for any serious trail riding" That's me; around town; to the airport; out to the beach (8 mi and flat), paths and semi-improved roads while airport camping (maybe to town if there is one) and the one hill up to my house that is a challenge. Don't really want to go that fast so as to scare myself; can do that in the plane! So you sold me on the deal. Thanks a lot.

Blue skies,

Tom

Here how I carry my battery/batteries, it freed up room inside the plane. I can charge inflight also.

I know this is an old thread, but wanted to drop a note to it.

I wanted to make a folding bike to toss in my 206, and this thread lead me down the path of rigging up a Montague Paratrooper with a mid-drive electric motor. Anyone else who finds this thread and thinks its a good idea. After you get the Paratrooper, this guy has great youtube videos. He also consults and sells all the things you need to make it happen:

https://www.johnnynerdout.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9u_LtxGiPI