Manufacturers/Dealers to Gravitate Towards

[wesnewell]

I don't think he's saying that at all. And here are the specs from there website;
LiFePO4/Lithium Ion/Lead Acid 900W Battery EV Charger. 12V40A, 24V25A, 36V18A, 48V15A, 60V12A, 72V10A, 84V9A, 120V5A
He says he gets 8.1A at 100V. That's seems right in line with the specs to me. Maybe even a little better. One reasopn the shipping takes longer is because these units are custom adjusted per order. Although I'll admit 2 weeks to ship does seem longer than it should take. Others ordering from them have had faster ship times. As for testing them, well I test everything I buy before I use it. Maybe I shouldn't trust any vendors.

[neptronix]

Not sure if i ever posted here. I do regularly talk crap about certain vendors in the past. Now it's time to give props.

1) Cell man / emissions-free - put up with my endless questions via email, always had my back with support issues & replacement parts, knows his products in and out ( he's the engineering type ), offers great prices & good stuff, and is very flexible with shipping types/costs as well. >5 orders with this guy now.

2) Ken / itselectric.ca - always willing to chat a little pre-sale and make sure you're getting the right thing. Real helpful to the community, and decent prices too.

3) Gary / Golden Motor Canada - was straight up with me when i called him and said i was from ES and quizzed him on the phone about the new Magic pie 3 and other stuff before he had even announced it. Even answered the phone on a hockey day - that's dedication. I know he had some dirt dumped on him, so did Golden Motor China, but i wanted to particularly throw him props for selling the external magic pie motor, which is very underrated.

4) ( i forget his name ) / FalconEV - though i read a bunch of mud slinging on ES about this guy, he was an interesting guy to talk on the phone with, like Ken, interested in making sure you get the best thing possible. The FalconEV bag he sells is my favorite eBike purchase of all time. He also sells a motor that is supposedly quicker than the Crystalyte 5xxx but never got any airtime on here. The guy needs to get his web site in order, but i give him the thumbs up for our dealings over the phone.

5) Lyen / Lyen.com - Very helpful & extremely fast to ship things out. Even covered a DC-DC under warranty and paid the shipping.

6) Hobbyking - Holy crap, according to their system i have had 15 orders with them. They seriously haven ever let me down, other than the very typical RC lipo dud rate ( about 10% of the packs will have a funky cell ).

7) ProgressiveRC - my favorite local alternative to hobbyking. Fast shipment, and great stuff for sale.

Sureelectronics - for selling legit meanwells on eBay at a good price.. quick shipping too.

[sn0wchyld]

I'd also add Hyena, chain reaction cycles, sickbikeparts.com and leaderhobby.com if they arn't already here.

1 (almost 2) dealings with hyena, but he's an open honest bloke, even having been pretty sick recently he still managed to hold the Australian end of the 540x group buy together, and when I opted to pull out (chose to go with mid drive for my next build) refunded my money promptly, particually since he had another late comer that wanted to take my place. The HT35 I got off him was well packaged too. has answered all my dumb noob q's along the way.

2 orders from CRC so far, both arrived fast to AUS (about 1 week) with their free shipping option. all well packaged.

1 order with sickbikes... but quick and great prices.

Same goes for leaders. they seem to be one of the few online retailers still stocking the 8085 and 80100's. contact them before ordering though, as I ordered a 8085 and a 80100, expecting them to ship them separately given the 80100 was listed as out of stock, when they weren't. I'd have just ordered 2 80100's had I known.

I've also had good dealings with lyen (2) and hobbyking (12 ). lyen made a mistake with my first order (shipped with the wrong connectors) and when I emailed him to ask what could be done his reply was basically sorry about that, the correct stuff has been posted today!

Hobby king has been great. the usual 10% funky rate (1 completely stuffed pack that was refunded, and 2 others that have cells that dont hold charge well, loose about 10mv a week or so). Cant argue with the price. ever.

[Lessss]

After 11 pages and 28000 views perhaps a mod should collect each M/D here and create a poll. Yes/ no should this m/D be added to the Sphere recommended list yet, and then make a sticky with a recommended list

[The Stig]

After 11 pages and 28000 views perhaps a mod should collect each M/D here and create a poll. Yes/ no should this m/D be added to the Sphere recommended list yet, and then make a sticky with a recommended list

x2

[parabellum]

After 11 pages and 28000 views perhaps a mod should collect each M/D here and create a poll. Yes/ no should this m/D be added to the Sphere recommended list yet, and then make a sticky with a recommended list

Good idea

[auto_bike]

Ampedbikes is good. I have 2 of their kits and have done 3 builds. The kit itself is reliable and shipping is quick. The sla pack lasted about a year before I had to replace a couple. The motor and controller seem reliable. Their tube batteries are a mess though. Great concept and appearance/performance, but they had bms issues for a while, are always backordered and can't keep.up with demand. Took months to get mine. And now it tends to cut out randomly so I'm unsure about it right now.

[The fingers]

I also like Amped's front DD SLA kit. I also recommend getting a Save A Battery 36 volt charger/maintainer and a Sunlite double kickstand.

[tofuuu]

I can reccomend emissionsfree/cell man. Took a little longer for parts to dispatch but everything looks properly packaged and checked.

[Kelp]

I recommend AVOIDING MXUS from Changzhou Hua Yu Xin Feng Motor Co. I tried to buy a kit directly and was initially impressed by very helpful Flora- sales consultant, but when it came to purchasing via the AliExpress portal Mr Jin Pan,[ Flora's boss it turned out] wanted to hike the price from $450 to $700! No explanation offered. Welcome to Chinese commerce I guess!

[teklektik]

Another vote for Ilia at ebikessf.com .

Truly great customer service, almost instant cross-ship of warranteed controllers, etc. Good telephone advice - and really good prices on BMCs and controllers. Wheel builds are great quality and warranteed for life.

Ilia is in the middle of opening a new store, but he still manages to juggle all that with great service.

[Kuzumoto]

After 11 pages and 28000 views perhaps a mod should collect each M/D here and create a poll. Yes/ no should this m/D be added to the Sphere recommended list yet, and then make a sticky with a recommended list

x2

x3

[amberwolf]

Anybody that has time to make such a list and post it is welcome to, and then any mod can sticky it real quick once the long hard work is done.


I highly recommend the list format to include links to the actual posts that recommended any particular source, so people can see why without having to read thru this whole thread to find it.

[Kuzumoto]

Anybody that has time to make such a list and post it is welcome to, and then any mod can sticky it real quick once the long hard work is done.


I highly recommend the list format to include links to the actual posts that recommended any particular source, so people can see why without having to read thru this whole thread to find it.

+1

[The Stig]

Anybody that has time to make such a list and post it is welcome to, and then any mod can sticky it real quick once the long hard work is done.


I highly recommend the list format to include links to the actual posts that recommended any particular source, so people can see why without having to read thru this whole thread to find it.

+1

x10^6

[farshidjh]

Long time reader here. Made my commuter booster thanks to Adrian's directions viewtopic.php?f=28&t=22187

Now I'd like to switch to a direct drive hub motor (perhaps a 9C). Due to weather I get to use the bike few times a week and that only in summer.

Can one from europe (preferably Sweden) recommend where you get a cheap setup that works as cheap as it gets (<300)?
I don't want high speed, have my own HK battery pack. A throttle and ESC and an already 'put into a rim motor hub' 500w will do.

[puddleglum]

anyone know anything good or bad about Evassemble? Are they reputable or not?

[amberwolf]

Try searching for the name on ES, and read up on the many posts and threads, then make your own decision about it.

Personally, I don't trust them, based on what I've read, but never done business with them myself.

[The Stig]

anyone know anything good or bad about Evassemble? Are they reputable or not?

it took ages to receive a sensorless controller from them and then I didn't end up using it.

[Recumbent Bicycle Source]

Would be nice if you could buy kits without wheels, because all the Chinese Wheel builds are crap. Venting? Rant? No just fact. I've yet to see a good Chinese Wheel build.

[hardym]

With regard to Ev-assemble (or evassemble): I ordered a 16S headways 12 AHpack from michael, and it arrived a bit later than expected. I was able to call and confirm that the delay was due to chinese new year. The pack is still new with only 300 miles, but it still delivers 40A to get me comfortably up my hills. Note that most packs including ping can't produce a 3.5C rating for steep hills or wicked abusive acceleration.

[ElliottE]

This is a good thread, but many of the links and references are quite old now, and I'm thinking it might be good to do an update of the best vendors who are currently operating, and their current status as far as being good... or perhaps not so good?

In particular, I'm personally interested in the best vendors for various kinds of motors. I'm currently looking into designing a mid-drive mountain bike, and have been researching multiple vendors, and considering the pros and cons of mounting a hub motor in a mid-drive configuration, as compared to using something like a BMC scooter motor, or an "R/C" style motor such as Turnigy or Scorpion. Any and all real-world info and experience with different motors and vendors would be very helpful.

Reliability is my #1 concern, and one thing that has me worried is that the level of quality control appears to vary considerably from manufacturer to manufacturer. It would be nice to have a short list of the best, high-quality vendors who make motors that are built to last.

[amberwolf]

There is no one list. Vendors change frequently; some get better and some get worse, some oscillate back and forth, and manufacturers do sometimes too. Some like Crystalyte are very hit-and-miss, sometimes with a super product design that gets built shoddily, or at least some batches are, and sometimes with well-built badly-designed products.

Best you can do is read the experiences of people (in this thread amongst others) who have gone the route you are thinking of going, and see if you still wanna go there.

As for a shortlist of good vendors to buy from once you figure out what you want, there've been a few threads discussing that but it may take some digging to locate them.

[Cali E-Bike Rider]

New company that would be a huge pick up for a bike shop or electric bike shop: Motiv Electric Bikes. They are a newer company that I know is looking to branch out and find more dealers. Offer a great bike for a cheap price and when I contacted them with questions they were very nice and helpful.

Just a thought but I think these guys would be a great fit for any retailer.




I owned an Amped kit for a little over a year and I loved it until it decided to stop working and Danny and his wife were not the easiest to get ahold of for any parts and they ALWAYS seemed to be sold out of everything and I had to order about every kit they had.

I went ahead and bought a fully assembled (Motiv Electric Bike) and I am thrilled with it. I would never go back to a kit style of E-Bike again just because of how clean and well designed this Motiv bike is. I dont have wires hanging all over the place and have to worry about covering my controller. Everything was thought of with this bike and I cannot be happier.

Amped was Good but this Motiv E-Bike is excellent. Cost more but in the long run this bike will save me money

Good Luck everyone

(Moderator edit: merged your two posts as you don't need to keep advertising like this. Your new post wasn't but two posts and two weeks apart, on the same page. Please stop.)

[Confab]

Are there any reliable European kit/battery sellers? I'd prefer not to risk the Customs charges.