tbh, the nature of the beast means that everything has to be wired up properly. Anyone starting an electric bike project should have a firm grasp on the basic principals of electronics, ohms laws etc. This is all 17yr old science class education stuff anyway. Without this background it's very difficult for others to give you good enough advice.
but yeh, as to the op, potentiometers generally have 3 pins and by swapping one round you go from 0-5k to 5-0k, just check it with a multimeter.