Basic bike changes

First of all I wanted a bike for people my age. I'm over sixty and my main concern when I started ride again was stability. I wanted a bike I felt safe on. I tried a mountain bike and fell on my butt. I tried a cruiser and it was better but still not quite right. Either my legs were to short or my knees didn't seem to feel right pedaling.

I began to experiment. What I ended up with on the test bike is full size 26" cruiser frame. I exchanged the rear wheel for a twenty inch rear wheel from a child's bike. That got me lower to the ground and the bike feels much more stable. Especially since my feet easily touch the ground on it.
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I found the pedals hard to handle on the top end so, I switched the crank for the one from the 20" kids bike and it was much much better. I also used the chain ring from the kid's bike. It sets the bike up for a lower gear ratio making it easier to start out. Since the motor comes in shortly after the lower gear is not a real factor except for starting and hill assists. It is great for both of those.




The smaller rear wheel also gives lots of room for a motor mount. I changed out the handle bars to the kid's bars just because I could.