[GRMNT] decided to bring his grandpa’s beautiful road bike into the future by making a sleeper e-bike conversion.
Going into the project, [GRMNT] didn’t really know what he was working with, but it turned out grandpa had good taste and was rocking a Bianchi. No stovepipe bike boom stuff here, only high quality Tange steel. After cleaning off the years of grime, it was time to rebuild a second-hand Bafang mid-drive electric motor for the electric boost for the ride.
We really like the custom solenoid-powered display that [GRMNT] built into the handlebars for an excellent electromechanical readout of the battery charge. Coupled with the hand-built battery pack inside a leather case and hidden motor actuation button, this build looks slick without screaming e-bike.
We’ve covered some other conversions in the past including this one using an electric skateboard motor or this plug-and-play kit. If you’d rather power things with your bike, you’ll like this hack that can make everything bike powered.
So… it has all the drawbacks of an e-bike, but at least it lost the advantages provided by road bike in its original state.
I’d say it’s a 10/10 YouTube™ Project.
#MORE
I love that this is done for craftsmanship and nostalgia only, not because it makes a lot of sense in the end.
Maybe there are different types of “sleeper things”.
This is the kind of “sleeper” in a sense that it used to sleep for a long time and then got restored, and then modified. More like a rare find that got restored to fully shinyness.
But then there is the “sleeper” that still looks like old crap, but has a hidden trick. Like a crappy vehicle but with a powerful engine inside.
That would have required to hide the batteries in the frame, to keep the dirt and to hide the motor. But this is not that video
If he wanted a true sleeper, he should put the motor and battery inside the seat tube like those cheating competition bikes.