Electric bicycles - who buys them?
Discussion
Other than the forks, you've described bike ownership. Gear cables stretch & are pennies, bearings wear out - no manufacturer is producing quality bearings, they just about all fit cheapy stuff like SKF. Oil, adjustments, cleaning, the occasional mishap like whacking the mech on a stump is just routine occupational hazard. For 2,500 miles per year, you're getting a good return on your investment, not shoring up a lemon.
I took a punt recently and bought a bafang kit, the only legal options, the BBS01 250w, with a small 10Ah battery. My work will fund half of it from a 'well being' allowance, so it was about £350 all in.
I've installed it on the bike i tow my daughter on. Intention is to attach her bike, ride on the roads / up hills together and then let her ride herself down them again, or on relatively flat off road bits until she's a bit bigger.
The kit is ugly, and has its limitations, but I think for the price it will cost me, its quite well suited. Biggest draw back for me of this particular motor is the low top speed (pedalling cadence), I like to spin a bit faster, but the assistance drops off I think around the 75rpm mark ish. Not there on the motors above 250W, but I wanted to remain legal.
I can't quite justify the cost of a real e-bike at the moment, so this will have to suffice for now!
I've installed it on the bike i tow my daughter on. Intention is to attach her bike, ride on the roads / up hills together and then let her ride herself down them again, or on relatively flat off road bits until she's a bit bigger.
The kit is ugly, and has its limitations, but I think for the price it will cost me, its quite well suited. Biggest draw back for me of this particular motor is the low top speed (pedalling cadence), I like to spin a bit faster, but the assistance drops off I think around the 75rpm mark ish. Not there on the motors above 250W, but I wanted to remain legal.
I can't quite justify the cost of a real e-bike at the moment, so this will have to suffice for now!
Dog Star said:
INNO389 carriers - really good and heavy duty. I feel much happier with bikes - electric or not - on the roof with those. They’re much sturdier and more secure.
If using a tow all mount I carry our e-bikes on a Thule Velocompact 2 - this is rated to 46kg so again it’s a batteries off job (our Canyons are 20.3kg each without battery).
The INNO seems OK, the bike still wobbles a bit though, always worried it's going to snap!If using a tow all mount I carry our e-bikes on a Thule Velocompact 2 - this is rated to 46kg so again it’s a batteries off job (our Canyons are 20.3kg each without battery).
It was the only one I could find that took over 22kg, bike is just a smidge over 22kg with battery removed, it's a not the lightest!
Any tips for getting the bike up there? I currently use a step ladder but not sure where to actually hold the bike when lifting it, scared I'm going to drop it and destroy the roof and side of the car.
benny.c said:
I genuinely have a car that I shove my bike in the boot of that costs less than one of those! 
cml24 said:
I took a punt recently and bought a bafang kit, the only legal options, the BBS01 250w, with a small 10Ah battery. My work will fund half of it from a 'well being' allowance, so it was about £350 all in.
I've installed it on the bike i tow my daughter on. Intention is to attach her bike, ride on the roads / up hills together and then let her ride herself down them again, or on relatively flat off road bits until she's a bit bigger.
The kit is ugly, and has its limitations, but I think for the price it will cost me, its quite well suited. Biggest draw back for me of this particular motor is the low top speed (pedalling cadence), I like to spin a bit faster, but the assistance drops off I think around the 75rpm mark ish. Not there on the motors above 250W, but I wanted to remain legal.
I can't quite justify the cost of a real e-bike at the moment, so this will have to suffice for now!
That’s the best way to do it in my eyes, don’t spend a fortune, know how everything works. The bonus is that you can normally fix anything on a Bafang pretty cheaply. You’ve also got a decent base bike there so don’t worry about it being ‘ugly’, certainly looks better than 95% of diy e-bikes.I've installed it on the bike i tow my daughter on. Intention is to attach her bike, ride on the roads / up hills together and then let her ride herself down them again, or on relatively flat off road bits until she's a bit bigger.
The kit is ugly, and has its limitations, but I think for the price it will cost me, its quite well suited. Biggest draw back for me of this particular motor is the low top speed (pedalling cadence), I like to spin a bit faster, but the assistance drops off I think around the 75rpm mark ish. Not there on the motors above 250W, but I wanted to remain legal.
I can't quite justify the cost of a real e-bike at the moment, so this will have to suffice for now!
And even with factory bikes costing thousands, the performance won’t be far off what you’ve just built and in many cases will be markedly worse.
I’ve built Bafang mid-drives using 250, 500, 750 and 1000w and they have all been great fun with zero issues to date.
cml24 said:
... Bafang .... Biggest draw back for me of this particular motor is the low top speed (pedalling cadence), I like to spin a bit faster, but the assistance drops off I think around the 75rpm mark ish....
Get the USB programming cable (about £10 on Aliexpress or a bit more on Ebay / Amazon) and the Speeed (sic) phone app. Then it's very easy to change the assistance profile.Loads of guides and suggested settings around.
I may have a site change coming up at work which means I will have an 18 mile round trip. I drove it the other day and it took me 45 mins to drive due to traffic so thinking of cycling instead. I'm pretty fit and run most days however this causes a different problem for me which I discovered when I previously commuted by bike to my current site (10 mile round trip). I found that by the end of the week with 2 x cycles per day plus an hour run I was shattered and my running training sessions really suffered.
I believe my work do a cycle to work scheme and the new site has secure cycle parking. I'm looking for a bike in the region of 1-2K and probably in the format of a road bike rather than an MTB. Are there are recommendations in this price range? I already have a road and MTB bike so would be open to a conversion kit for one of these too if price was alot better.
I believe my work do a cycle to work scheme and the new site has secure cycle parking. I'm looking for a bike in the region of 1-2K and probably in the format of a road bike rather than an MTB. Are there are recommendations in this price range? I already have a road and MTB bike so would be open to a conversion kit for one of these too if price was alot better.
fiatpower said:
I discovered when I previously commuted by bike to my current site (10 mile round trip). I found that by the end of the week with 2 x cycles per day plus an hour run I was shattered and my running training sessions really suffered.
Just asking to make sure here, did you properly set up on the bike? It might be something you're more than knowledgeable about but being tired from a couple of five mile commutes made me want to double check.Don't take it the wrong way, that plus running plus maybe being on your feet all day might add up, or you might have my problem and when a ride is only five miles you do it flat out like it's a time trial
Just wanted to ask as I see a lot of people commute on a bike the way it was wheeled out of the shop door and it genuinely makes the difference between five miles being like a short walk or a tour de France stage.
highet said:
Battery on my volt alpine just packed up completely (bought it 2nd hand but it's about 4 years old) - volt want £600 for a replacement !!! Ouch !!!
Sorry to hear that. https://www.electricbikebatteryrepairs.co.uk/
Maybe worth a go? I know the Bosch e bike batteries are a bugger to fix and lots of places won’t touch them, but maybe the Volt ones are easier to repair.
highet said:
Battery on my volt alpine just packed up completely (bought it 2nd hand but it's about 4 years old) - volt want £600 for a replacement !!! Ouch !!!
I have a similar tale of woe. After charging my Bosch Powertube 500 off the bike, with all the green charge leds lit, I inserted it back into the bike to find there was no response when I tried to switch it on. After removing the battery from the bike and performing a reset, there was no indicated life on the green leds. I hooked the battery back up to the charger and again, no response with the leds failing to illuminate. I’m convinced after 954 miles and just over 2.5 years, the fault was in the Battery Management System (BMS), rather than any failure of the cells.With no way of doing any diagnostics yourself, you are forced to take the bike to your local Bosch dealer. They need the bike because the testing port is on the Purion display. Long story short, with the 2 year warranty expired, the dealer couldn’t resolve the issue and I ended up forking out £650 for a new Powertube.
I now have the old Powertube at home, probably fully charged and no way of trying to repair it. I’m also not even sure if I should dispose of it in its fully charged state so it’s sat in the garage at the moment. No doubting the Bosch system is very good but it can turn expensive when it goes wrong.
Konan said:
Just asking to make sure here, did you properly set up on the bike? It might be something you're more than knowledgeable about but being tired from a couple of five mile commutes made me want to double check.
Don't take it the wrong way, that plus running plus maybe being on your feet all day might add up, or you might have my problem and when a ride is only five miles you do it flat out like it's a time trial
Just wanted to ask as I see a lot of people commute on a bike the way it was wheeled out of the shop door and it genuinely makes the difference between five miles being like a short walk or a tour de France stage.
I think it’s fairly well setup as I’ve done a few 40/50 miles rides on it. It was usually by the Thursday that I started to feel it especially as Thursday is usually intervals night at running club. So I’d have done 8 x rides by then. Don't take it the wrong way, that plus running plus maybe being on your feet all day might add up, or you might have my problem and when a ride is only five miles you do it flat out like it's a time trial
Just wanted to ask as I see a lot of people commute on a bike the way it was wheeled out of the shop door and it genuinely makes the difference between five miles being like a short walk or a tour de France stage.
I did have the same problem that you do in that I used to try them flat out. When I did that I’d be shattered by Wednesday usually so I backed off a bit which gave me the extra day.
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