Building an eBike

Our son Aditya Bhaskara has built an e-bike from scratch by using the motorised back wheel from a 2008 electric bike that I had (and was not being used), he started the project in Sep 2020 & completed the e-bike in Oct 2023, probably worked on it actively for about 15–20 days, with several month gaps because he was waiting for parts / got busy with studies / lost interest.

As a father, I’m proud of my 16yr old son who had the motivation, passion to build an eBike, researched for required materials, sourced them, designed the chassis & did all the wiring to finish the eBike.

Finished eBike, using 2008 Yo Byke Motor, used front wheel assembly purchased by Shivajinagar, chassis designed & made at local welding shop, spray painted by professional

Genesis, 2008 model electric bike

Aditya started this project from a 2008 model Yo Byke (shown in video below), he first purchased new controller, motor & re-wired everything to Yo Byke (old chassis & front wheel), it took him about 3months to reach this stage, then he wanted to build the entire chassis from scratch.

v0, Dec 2020 Checking Controller & Motor

v0, Dec 2020 Test Drive

Chassis Design

Aditya used an online 3D design tool for designing the chassis, with battery holder below the foot rest area, then took the print outs to local welding shop for getting the structure, later we went to shivajinagar seconds market (used vehicle parts) to buy the front wheel fork assembly, then started wiring it up for second time with new chassis.

Jul 2021 — Sep 2021, re-wired the controller, battery with new chassis.

Painting

Aditya got busy with his 10th Standard exams & moved to a week boarding hostel for his 11th / 12th classes that put the nearly ready eBike pending to be painted for over a year. Painting work was done in Oct 2022 at a professional paint shop as he was particular of getting a good finish — he again used his design tool to come up with multi-color combination, then a new seat (of Bullet Bike) was purchased in 2023 & the ready eBike by Oct 2023.

Video above was shot during festival, Aditya riding his eBike on the road in front of out house, a proud moment for all of us at family.

Learning

An idea that started with just an exploration of what could be done with a 2008 motorised wheel? has led to rebuilding the eBike, and in my view such a free flow, without a predefined timelines, budget to finish the product brings about the creativity in the child, helps them learn

• Outside of their textbook / curriculum
• Overcome the challenges they would face in a project
• How to source the required items — new, old
• Build perseverance

Myself & Lakshmi (my wife) both are happy that we were able to provide the learning environment for our son.

Thanks for reading this story.

Bhaskara & Lakshmi