Manufacturers/Dealers to Gravitate Towards

[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.

[docnjoj]

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.

Astroflight makes great motors and has our recumpense (Matt) to build and sell them. Truly a can't go wrong experience for RC motors. All made in the USA. Can't beat that with a stick!
otherDoc

[ohzee]

I had mentioned I have been trying to buy a BMS from evassemble. 23 days ago I paid and was told it's a custom item so +10 days.
At about 2 week mark i was told it's done Ill get a DHL tracking # and will see it in 3-6 days.. So a week later I send emails but get
no responses.. I am able to get them via the chat on their web page , but it's all broken promises and excuses.. Today I tell them
to cancel if they cant get me a tracking # in 24 hrs and I get this message below.

I look up the weather where evassemble is in GuangZhou China.. Raining hot , but the worse weather seems to be Beijing 8+ hours north of them.

I am soo close to just washing my hands. I need a 24s BMS for my newly built battery so I can try it out. Luckily I have another 20s
that's 100% so I am not hurting to bad , but it's a new toy and I want to play..

Anyway any thoughts on the comments below ? Is the statement just BS or could there be some truth to it ?Thanks

Hello Ohzee,
I just call you to explain the issue. It's a typhoon in our destination and have heavy rain in the last five days so we can not issue any order cause we are afraid that goods may get wet which is big trouble for electronic products. According to the weather report, it will be sunny again with effection of the typhoon for heavy rain. So we will be office on even weekend of this week and try to issue all orders include your parcel. It's really a bad sitution for the weather issue. But since it's out of our control and we concern more about safety arrival then any products which will suffer wet trouble so we have to send them after the heavy weather.
We aplogize for the inconvenience but it's really important we can make sure our products will arrive to our clients without demage.

Please confirm if we can issue out the shipment on next two days and we will make operation as per your will.
We are aplogize for the inconvenience of the local weather in the recent few days.

Best regards,
Michael Cheung

skyp:evassemble
http://www.evassemble.com <http://www.evassemble.com>

[ohzee]

So looks like I may have been wrong in my assumptions here. evaassemble lists their location on their web site as
Panyu District,GuangZhou,China. Yesterday my package was picked up in TAO YUAN - TAIWAN . Today it's out
for delivery in Ohio. Now that's how you ship something never seen it that quick.

Anyway when they said bad weather I looked up GuangZhou and thought wtf, but yea if they are really in Taiwan I
could see the issues. So I paid for the BMS on the 5th of July and should recieve it Today 27 days later. Guess that's
not to bad. Will report how the BMS works out for me supposed to be a custom build.

[ohzee]

.

[ShreddinPB]

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.

I had the same experience.. we ordered at the same time hahaha

However, mine showed up missing the orange battery holders, and the wrong charger (220v)
They did send the battery holders after, but only sent 12 instead of 16...
I gave up after that

[ShreddinPB]

I had mentioned I have been trying to buy a BMS from evassemble. 23 days ago I paid and was told it's a custom item so +10 days.
At about 2 week mark i was told it's done Ill get a DHL tracking # and will see it in 3-6 days.. So a week later I send emails but get
no responses.. I am able to get them via the chat on their web page , but it's all broken promises and excuses.. Today I tell them
to cancel if they cant get me a tracking # in 24 hrs and I get this message below.

I look up the weather where evassemble is in GuangZhou China.. Raining hot , but the worse weather seems to be Beijing 8+ hours north of them.

I am soo close to just washing my hands. I need a 24s BMS for my newly built battery so I can try it out. Luckily I have another 20s
that's 100% so I am not hurting to bad , but it's a new toy and I want to play..

Anyway any thoughts on the comments below ? Is the statement just BS or could there be some truth to it ?Thanks

Hello Ohzee,
I just call you to explain the issue. It's a typhoon in our destination and have heavy rain in the last five days so we can not issue any order cause we are afraid that goods may get wet which is big trouble for electronic products. According to the weather report, it will be sunny again with effection of the typhoon for heavy rain. So we will be office on even weekend of this week and try to issue all orders include your parcel. It's really a bad sitution for the weather issue. But since it's out of our control and we concern more about safety arrival then any products which will suffer wet trouble so we have to send them after the heavy weather.
We aplogize for the inconvenience but it's really important we can make sure our products will arrive to our clients without demage.

Please confirm if we can issue out the shipment on next two days and we will make operation as per your will.
We are aplogize for the inconvenience of the local weather in the recent few days.

Best regards,
Michael Cheung

skyp:evassemble
http://www.evassemble.com <http://www.evassemble.com>

I am waiting on one of these
http://makibox.com/

If you read the blog, he talks a lot about it being the worst typhoon season in a long time.
Not making excuses cause my dealings with evassemble was not great

[tink242]

I bought a 36v rear geared motor kit from Doug Daut at Electric Bike Solutions and I have been very happy with my ebike and with Doug's service before and after the sale. Doug is an Ampedbikes dealer and the kit is from Ampedbikes. His website has a lot of information www.gocarlite.com

I suggest emailing or calling him before buying. He can help you get the right setup.

[ohzee]

I had mentioned I have been trying to buy a BMS from evassemble. 23 days ago I paid and was told it's a custom item so +10 days.
At about 2 week mark i was told it's done Ill get a DHL tracking # and will see it in 3-6 days.. So a week later I send emails but get
no responses.. I am able to get them via the chat on their web page , but it's all broken promises and excuses.. Today I tell them
to cancel if they cant get me a tracking # in 24 hrs and I get this message below.

I look up the weather where evassemble is in GuangZhou China.. Raining hot , but the worse weather seems to be Beijing 8+ hours north of them.

I am soo close to just washing my hands. I need a 24s BMS for my newly built battery so I can try it out. Luckily I have another 20s
that's 100% so I am not hurting to bad , but it's a new toy and I want to play..

Anyway any thoughts on the comments below ? Is the statement just BS or could there be some truth to it ?Thanks

Hello Ohzee,
I just call you to explain the issue. It's a typhoon in our destination and have heavy rain in the last five days so we can not issue any order cause we are afraid that goods may get wet which is big trouble for electronic products. According to the weather report, it will be sunny again with effection of the typhoon for heavy rain. So we will be office on even weekend of this week and try to issue all orders include your parcel. It's really a bad sitution for the weather issue. But since it's out of our control and we concern more about safety arrival then any products which will suffer wet trouble so we have to send them after the heavy weather.
We aplogize for the inconvenience but it's really important we can make sure our products will arrive to our clients without demage.

Please confirm if we can issue out the shipment on next two days and we will make operation as per your will.
We are aplogize for the inconvenience of the local weather in the recent few days.

Best regards,
Michael Cheung

skyp:evassemble
http://www.evassemble.com <http://www.evassemble.com>

I am waiting on one of these
http://makibox.com/

If you read the blog, he talks a lot about it being the worst typhoon season in a long time.
Not making excuses cause my dealings with evassemble was not great

yea I can say that in the end I am happy with evassemble. they did loose me for a week , but guess that happens.
Anyway so far the BMS and the charger have worked as expected. Now I need to actually use the battery to test.
Anyway on a 1-5 id give eva a 3.769 and rate them good.

As stated before somewhere where they show their business is different then where it actually shipped from so
that's why the typhoon stuff seemed off.

[docnjoj]

Since these threads talk about the better suppliers and manufactureres, agniusm and his kits for A123 20 AH cells should definitely go here. Great design, delivery and it does the job!
otherDoc

[cheetor]

Yet another very happy Lyen customer here.. very much liking my new 12FET 4110 controller!

[cal3thousand]

I want to safely run 24S on a HT3525 using a Lyen Controller. Would it be best to get a 12FET and modify it or get a 18FET to start?

[cheetor]

I want to safely run 24S on a HT3525 using a Lyen Controller. Would it be best to get a 12FET and modify it or get a 18FET to start?

That all depends on how much power you want to run, you could get by with a 6fet if the battery current and phase current were set low enough.

[zeiler]

Although I am new to this forum I was pleasantly surprised to get a reply from Justin at Ebikes.ca when I queried him about my requirement of a e-bike battery for a Hookah system.

I only asked for advice as I am located in Malaysia but in spite of him knowing I would not be a customer, since i need a 24v battery sourced in East Asia, he replied courteously with the advice I wanted.

It must cost a lot of time to do these things for us and I was impressed!

Thumbs up for Ebikes

Zeiler

[Eascen]

I'll post my +1 for electricrider.com, ordered the kit a few weeks ago, arrived about a week later, the wiring *may* have been out on the motor but I shorted the reverse and everything went perfectly till I noticed my pack cut out way before the voltage dropped enough. After spending plenty of time on the phone with Dave, I disassembled one of the 36 volt packs (38.4 if you count 3.2x12) 20ah and was quite impressed with the overall build quality. Turns out of the 12, 11 were at 3.2, and one was at 2.7. A bit more talking and I'm sending it back for repair (easy to do working with a US company), and they even offered to reimburse me for return shipping. They're also going to assemble a slightly modified 12v20ah pack to fit in my frame, which should top me off at just below 90v, and while the packs are rated at 98a draw they have a 50amp auto reset breaker (which is easy enough to remove), but then the BMS will be limited to 60A.

He sighed a bit when I mentioned I'm about to rip it apart to oil cool the motor, but I promised I wouldn't send it back for repairs.

[geeeyejo1]

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.

I just received my Yescom kit (from LAshop.com) and actually was very impressed with the wheel build - heavy what looks like 12 gauge spokes, nice alloy rim - haven't checked truing yet and of course "time will tell" but initially I'm giving them an A for effort!