Bafang BBS02 Vendor & Reliability Poll

Please indicate Where you purchased from and what your experience has been with the BBS02 Kit

  • I purchased my BBS02 Kit from EM3ev.com

    Votes: 10 23.8%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from lectriccycles.com

    Votes: 4 9.5%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from california-ebike.com

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from Ballarat Ebikes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from elifebike.com

    Votes: 3 7.1%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from aliexpress

    Votes: 6 14.3%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from Greenbikekit.com

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from conhismotor.com

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from hi-powercycles.com

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from bmsbattery.com

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • I purchased my BBS02 kit from "Other"

    Votes: 11 26.2%
  • I have never had a problem with my BBS02 Kit, and have ridden over 1000 kilometers/600 miles

    Votes: 13 31.0%
  • I have never has a problem with my BBS02 Kit, but I have ridden less than 1000 kilometers/600 miles

    Votes: 11 26.2%
  • I have had to send my unit in for warranty work or replacement after 1000 kilometers/600 miles of us

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I have had to send my unit in for warranty work or replacement with less than 1000 kilometers/600 mi

    Votes: 4 9.5%
  • I have had problems related to or had to replace the controller

    Votes: 6 14.3%
  • I have had problems related to the internal gears/hardware wearing out prematurely

    Votes: 3 7.1%
  • I have had problems related to the display/head unit

    Votes: 7 16.7%
  • I would recommend this kit to my friends and family

    Votes: 29 69.0%
  • I would not recommend this kit to my friends and family

    Votes: 3 7.1%

  • Total voters
    42
I bought from two sources. EM3ev and Lectric. I would use EM3ev or California eBikes again. EM3ev and California eBikes always have the latest from Bafang. When it comes to programing that's a good thing and when it comes to warranty having a USA repair center is a plus for EM3ev. I would recommend the BBS0x to friends and family, but with reservations. Buy from one of the two, EM3ev or Cali eBikes.

A part of those reservations would be to dissuade power users and MTB from using this motor. IME and IMO it's best suited to commuting and medium duty.
Sadly Bafang changes suppliers and gear quality can vary.

Sadly there is no competition, yet. I wouldn't even think of buying from one of the discounters, except possibly CNE. There are still 5 screw cases out there inspire of the fact that the latest are 7 screw.

EDIT. I'd ask for the serial number to make sure it's a current build.
 
I bought mine from conhismotor.com.
The first one was completely trashed from the get go, and clearly untested. I had to pay an extra 100$ to get another one.
It has been working good so far, I have close to 1000 KM on it. I consider this motor very light/medium duty as well and is the perfect commuter for me (aside from the crappy PAS system).
I think the secret for reliability is to keep it as close to factory setting as possible, and not do too much trail. One only has to disassemble one to see why...
 
The BBS02 was my first ebike experience, and I used it for about 3500 km without any serious issues. By which I mean, issues that weren't exclusively my fault, since I fried a controller when I built a faulty programming cable. The replacement controller has worked flawlessly.

I've since transitioned to a Mac hubmotor with a Grin/Infineon controller. I'd say the BBS02 does what it's supposed to reasonably well, but I've learned that I'm just not a fan of either through-the-drivetrain drives or PAS control. I just want to control the motor with a throttle, without interruptions for shifting.

It's straightforward to set up and use, and reliability has been fine for my unit, so if it's appropriate for someone's style of riding I'd recommend it. I'd also recommend EM3ev, who have been responsive and helpful when I've needed it.
 
I've put "no fault" as the fault I had (fried controller) was entirely my fault when reverse engineering the serial coms.

It's a great little commuter that continues to serve me well in this hellishly hilly area.
 
Although I am very early in the Bafang experience, thus far I have not been disappointed by the products (or prices) received from elife bike (the 750 w motor) and aliexpress (the 48v battery). Although I was dealing directly with Chinese vendors, both were very helpful and respectful throughout the process and all items arrived as advertised and in a timely manner. However, I would like to give a HUGE shout out to Doug at California e-bikes :D :!: :!: , for his youtube videos and personal correspondence regarding installing the Bafang on my bike - his information and encouragement were priceless and he directed me to endless sphere and it's incomparable wealth of e-bike information.

Cheers for now,

Gus

PS: since this initial post my controller went out, after less than 5 miles of round the neighborhood testing. When I contacted elifebike they told me to ship it back to them at my expense ($25), they would send back to Bafang factory for repair and I would pay for shipping back to me ($25). When I purchased the BBS02, they advertised it having an improved controller.

I have ordered a replacement from Lectric Cycles, based on the favorable reviews I have read on here.
 
Bought mine from a local ebay seller and its done 2400 trouble free miles (3860 Km) so far.
Half offroad trails and most of the on road miles have been steep hills.
 
Hello, not sure how I add my purchase to the survey results, however here is my story. Purchased the Bafang BBS02 48v 750w kit from eLife Bike through an Ebay ad in April 2015. Date stamp on the drive indicated it was manufactured in January 2015. Item was shipped from China via FedEx. The kit arrived very quickly (Canada), in great condition and was exactly as expected. Communication with the seller was great with all questions answered quickly. Installation was a breeze.

Over the course of the summer 2015 (May, June, July, August) I logged about 1700 km commuting to work. Over the winter months the bike was stored in my unheated garage. Battery pack was stored in my house, and charge monitored at about 75-80% capacity. This spring I was not able to commute as much as I would have liked. Over the last few months I have added another 600 kms (total mileage ~2300 km).

Unfortunately a few days ago after riding the bike, I placed in the garage and forgot to turn off the battery. The next day while working in the garage on my car, the motor started crackling/sizzling for about 5-10 seconds and then I saw a puff of white smoke from the motor. Disconnecting and digging out the controller, I found the underside of the controller board fried. Not sure what caused it. Uncertain if related, however on the day of my last ride, the C961 display was showing an Err 12 code when pressing the pedal assist mode (ie, if in mode 1 and pressing the '-' button; or if in mode 6 and pressing the '+' button). At the time shutting the battery off/on cleared the code and allowed me to ride.

I am quite disappointed with the durability of the Bafang BBS02. I was expecting a much longer service life. I have since ordered a replacement controller from EM3ev and hope it will last much longer. Depending on the durability of this second controller I may reconsider buying a third. Although the controller is available for about $90 US. With exchange, shipping, duty and taxes, the replacement controller is costing me close to $200 CDN. If I have a similar issue, I'll likely experiment with a third party controller or look at a different system entirely (private message me if you know of a controller that works well with the BBS02).

When the BBS02 was working I was completely satisfied with it. From my experience however, I think the electrical components on the board are either of low quality or not properly spec'd for a 48v 750w system.
 
+1 emax ebikes but a 36v bbs1. 5,850 km no issues - have added a colour display from Luna and a 25a 3077 controller from em3ev. It's starting to get a little creaky but nothing some grease or a possible bearing change won't fix. It has a fairly hard life with 40km commute averaging 30+ kmh.
 
Paul at EM3EV stood by me with a full refund and even return shipping for my failed BBS02.

He was grizzly - he wanted me to pull it apart and mess with it given the cost of shipping ... but the motor had only been a few kms and really not even stressed, it was even a despec'd 18amp controller (500 Watt) BBS02 and it failed on a flat trail. I thought this was unacceptable quality and did not want to implicate my incompetence as part of the problem by messing things up further by attempting my own repairs with my limited skills. It turned out to be the controller apparently - although there was definitely mechanical "graunching" before it failed inidicating mechanical stuff to my simple mind rather than electrical bang.
BUT, at the end of the day he stood by me and I was not out of pocket :)
My feeling was that the unit is fragile and given the failure after only a few test rides on the flat that
I wanted to put business his way with a replacement BBSHD - but he did not want to deal with me.... Perhaps he thought I was messing him about - but in fact I was the one who was messed about by a crappy faulty product and I didn't appreciate the attitude I got ... this was tempered by the appreciation for the full refund!
I purchased from Ewan/e-max in Australia who has been great - very easy to deal with. I was foolish though as I should have asked him for a price as his web-site includes Aussie GST.
 
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