When you’ve converted as many bikes as we have, you grow accustomed to seeing a multitude of hybrid, flatbar road, comfort and mountain bikes coming in for electric fitouts. As a result, it’s always a real treat to work on something completely different. By this standard, we really got lucky when Luke brought his Specialized Fatboy in to us a few weeks ago.

The Bike

Fatbikes have become popular in Australia over the last few years. They’re now used for everything from recreational cruising, to high performance off-road use on surfaces that conventional mountain bikes just can’t handle. That said, a great many fat bikes have been chosen simply because they’re so radically different to conventional models. It was this appeal that made the Specialized a bike that Luke wanted to ride everyday.

The Specialized Fatboy is one of the better entry level fatbikes available today, with a lightweight alloy frame furnished with a dependable wheelset and rugged componentry that makes it more than suitable for the rigors of off-road use. It also sports a very comfortable riding position that affords good all round vision and predictable handling. These features gave it great potential as a high powered e-bike.

The Conversion

The main challenge with converting any fatbike is finding a suitable hub motor and wheel combination. Up until recently, a custom wheel build was required. However, fortunately we’re now able to offer a Solarbike 1000 Watt rear wheel kit made specifically for use on fatbikes which greatly simplifies the process.

Battery placement was the next consideration. The 48V Tiger Shark style battery can be mounted centrally within the main triangle of the frame to allow for optimum weight distribution, however Luke preferred to have a rack style battery fitted given that he planned on using the rear carrier to mount pannier bags. This choice also allowed a larger capacity 48V 17Ah Panasonic Lithium Ion battery to be fitted to give this high-powered machine a range of around 35 kms on a charge with a cruising speed of between 40 and 45km/h. Pretty blistering performance we think you’ll agree!

The Verdict

We’ve electrically converted a handful of fatbikes in our store over the past couple of years but few have been quite as exciting as this one! It goes to show that there are a great many possibilities when you choose to custom build an electric bike. So if you’ve got a specialist e-bike build in mind why not drop in and see us at our Fremantle store to discuss our great range of conversion options.