Help selecting best equipment for a beginner

Recently had my Neo Xtrem stolen. I'm totally sold on eBikes, have to replace it, and have a couple dollars from insurance to attempt a DIY. I have enough budget to build my own, but I have no tools or build expertise. I'm patient and can learn, but don't have a garage - so I can't buy a ton of tools or equipment.

I'm hoping this community can help me buy the right materials for my build. I'm optimizing for:
- Simplest possible install, lesser the complexity and fewer the required tools.. the better
- Stealth (not super stealth, just not wildly noticeable)
- Fewest amount of tools needed
- Higher quality
- Faster is better, but not necessary
- No need for more than 15 mile range
- No preference on pedal assist and/or throttle-only mode

My budget is $2500 and I don't have a bike yet, but would like to buy one new from BikeDirect.

I'm 90% onroad as a use case. 10% of my time I hit light trails. About 20% of my commute includes a light hill. My total commute is 1.5 miles each way. I live in CA.

I'm comfortable either going with a mid-drive or a hub-drive, though both installs look to be roughly similar complexity.

If I could buy everything from two places (bike retailer, ebike supplier with an all-you-need-kit), that would be ideal and I'm ok if I need to pay extra for it. I doubt it's possible if I also strongly prefer inconspicuous batteries, eg. water bottle style, but that all you need in one kit would be great.

I've narrowed my search down to a BBS02 750w or Crystalyte 1000W rear hub.. but I'm willing to leave those two behind for a better suggestion. Thinking a Motobecane Fantom 29er as the bike.. but I'm willing to do something else. But, I know enough to know that I don't know enough to proceed without (hopeful) help from some experts.

Essentially, I'm a blank slate and wanting to try the simplest possible DIY as I move from a pre-made bike to DIY world. I'm also aware that the best answer, given my situation, might be to buy another premade bike.

Lot's of info here.
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=66302

Thanks for sharing. I did read that thread already. Good info, but not quite what I was looking for.. still, if that is the extent of input from the community I'm still appreciative as everyone here is volunteering time and not getting paid. Based on that thread, I should add my height and weight: 5'9, 155 to this one.

There's a wide range of kits listed in the US link. Any of them is suitable and will get you 30mph on a 48V pack. I've got ~ 15K miles on mine now.

A 1000w kit from Grin is a good idea. You've got the budget, no need to go to Amazon or Ebay.


Personally, I would not want a mid drive for city riding, unless I was going to ride slow in low gears all the time. A hub motor will be a more convenient ride, leave the bike in high gear, start pedaling when you get to 15 mph.

There are 2 types of stealth. hard to see, and hard to hear. Unfortunately, Ebikes that are good at one aren't so good at the other. Direct drive hub motors are near dead silent. Your tires will make more noise than the motor with most kits, and you may be able to sneak up on small animals on the trail. But they are generally the size of a dinner plate. Quiet stealth, but not visual stealth.
Geared hub motors are can often hide behind the disk brake and the gears, or at least look like an internal gear hub. But they don't know how to be silent. While some can be more or less quiet, you aren't going to sneak up on anyone with them. Visual stealth, but not quiet stealth.

Bad kits are almost non existent. Almost any kit is going to be of passable quality. But for higher grade, there are really only 2 brands to look at. Crystalyte, and MAC. and as it happens each represents a different form of stealth.

The Crystalyte is a direct drive motor. They make about as much noise as a ceiling fan, with the exception of some growling while under load. With only 1 moving part, they are near bullet proof in terms of reliability. they are a bit heavy, but you can abuse the heck out of them for years, probably decades, without issues. I have 8 years of extreme abuse on one without a single problem yet. Here's one: http://www.ebikes.ca/shop/conversion-kits/crystalyte-rear-hs-kit-basic-throttle.html

The MAC is a geared drive. while it's known for being a rather quiet geared drive, it isn't silent. The latest version is extremely robust, but it does have moving parts. The MAC may be the only geared drive that can be used hard off road. Here's one http://em3ev.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=36&product_id=138

For the range you want, a ~48V10Ah battery will do. For those, I would go for the batteries offered from Em3ev.com. The best choices are those that fit in a triangle frame bag, or those that mount on the bottle cage mounting points. http://em3ev.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&path=35

This is great - thanks for the recommendations! I'm certainly going more for visual stealth than sound stealth. The Crystalyte seems like the right fit.. thanks again.

Re the recommendation for a Grin 1000W kit, I did some googling but couldn't find out where to buy these. Could you share a link?

http://www.ebikes.ca/

The Site www.ebikes.ca is Grin.

Sorry about that, figured you had the link to Grin Technologies.

Sorry - that was my mistake, should have done better hunting for GRIN on Google. Thanks for the link - found the kit recommended. I think I need more time than I have to do this all correctly, so I'll probably go the premade route again.

Buying the kit, finding the right/compatible battery, controller and battery case in a stealth configuration - from different vendors - and then making sure that everything is compatible with the bike is a little too much for a guy who can't take the chain off a bike today. I'm sure I could learn all this, but I don't think I have the time to do so correctly.

Perhaps in the future, there will be a full end to end vendor that sells:
1\ Pick your ideal bike (hardtail, road bike, etc)
2\ Pick the compatible engine kit
3\ Pick the compatible battery (options)
4\ Pick the compatible battery bag
5\ Order the necessary tools for the job

I think I need that level of guidance to approach this hobby initially, which is why after considering doing DIY twice now, I'll likely go the premade route again. ES is an awesome resource full of some of the most (esp. time) generous people on the internet.. thank you all for the comments, thoughts, and help.

Before ordering from anywhere, look at performancebike.com I find they have the best prices for any bike/components of anywhere, there is always a sale going on, the big one ends today, % 20 back if you are a team member. so for being a team member $ 30 you get % 20 back to spend later on tires , tubes, etc. Fuji has the best components for any price point .

B.T.W.

For a electric hub motor, you will need a bike that has 135mm rear dropout spacing, for a easier build. You can get a road bike , it just , Needs, to be a newer Disc Road Bike, and there are plenty of them on the market right now. Fuji has a number of Road Disc/ Cyclocross Disc / Gravel Road Disc, bikes.

demeyer1 said:

I think I need more time than I have to do this all correctly, so I'll probably go the premade route again.

Buying the kit, finding the right/compatible battery, controller and battery case in a stealth configuration -

I'll likely go the premade route again.

Click to expand...

If you can drive an hour north check out this guy http://gocarlite.com/shop/?product_...-desc&view_as=&product_cat=&post_type=product he converts name brand mountain bikes for well under $2k, bianchi, khs, etc. He's been doing it for years, i have one of his kits, he's legit. You could probably try before buying, may be worth a call.

There's a more well-known company in that area, maybe California ebikes? but it's hard to beat gocarlite's prices, good luck

To be honest for pure plug and play ease with reliable quality componants you can't go far wrong ordering from Paul at
http://em3ev.com/store/

It can be a one stop shop. He supplies bbs02 750 and geared hub motors. He has exactly what you want.

Only real downside is he is in China for shipping cost/times.


Also don't bother buying a brand new bike. Get a nice secondhand one. Trust me weight doesn't really matter too much by the time you get battery on etc. the weight is almost doubled anyway. Most people recommend steel bikes but you can get away with aluminium if you use torque arms.

There are lots of ebike shops in the SF area. Don't waste your time and money ordering from China. Personally I wouldn't have either of your choices of motors. If I was going to do a diy build, and I've done more than a few, I'd go for a 48V 1000W kit off ebay that you can get delivered to your door free in a couple of days, and 10ah of 12s rc lipo from HK west usa warehouse that weighs ~7 lbs. and can easily be mounted about anywhere you want. Or if you don't like rc lipo, then there are several US based places to order battery packs from. For such a short commute, you don't need to break the bank. There's no need to spend more than $500 plus the cost of a bike, which can be had for under $100 used or under $150 new. I've done over 10K miles on my $99 Mongoose. Assuming you work 5 days a week, That's over 12 years of commuting.