I'm passing on the Phoenix Brute, which sounded perfect for me. That guy is scary!
I would too. That sounds like a very unfortunate phone call.
I found a Shuck on amazon. 500 watt geared 36/48 volts 265-325 rpm, rated current 11 amps max current 22 amps. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0868 ... T0SW&psc=1
Found a battery if it will plug in. 48 V 20 AMP https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088R ... 4QGU&psc=1
I need torque bars. Should I put two on? AM I DOING ANYTHING WRONG? The generic Chinese Motors are very similar, are they not? Kinda rolling the dice?
Well cheap motors are OK. My current ebike originally had a "Yescomusa" kit, which is about the cheapest possible setup you can have. I have since upgraded the controller, added Cycle Analyst v3, added PAS sensor, and upgraded the throttle.
The rims and throttles tend to be weakest link in very cheap kits. You get these heavy, but poorly built, rims with thick spokes. The thick spokes tend to loosen up over time and will break, but if you periodically check your spoke tension then you'll be find and you can get a lot of miles out of them. Plenty of people have, just have to be aware. Throttles will wear out, but they are not difficult to replace as long as you are comfortable changing connections.
A inexpensive brand that people seem to have a lot of luck with is ebikeling. I wouldn't mind having one of their "waterproof" kits.
Since you can replace and upgrade components it's not a bad idea to go with cheap kits as long as you don't mind tinkering. A mechanically inclined person with basic tools and a multimeter shouldn't have a problem.
The advantage to spending more money on a better quality kit boils down to features, build quality of the wheels, better/easier to use connections, and small things like that.
The place to spend your money, if you are on a budget, is on a high quality battery. This is the heart of the ebike and cheap batteries can ruin your week. Internal shorts and other problems can shorten the battery life and even cause fires. So you don't want to skimp on the battery.
I don't have personal experience with Unitpackpower, but they have a decent reputation for producing inexpensive batteries. They are a manufacturer and not a reseller, which is a plus. I've heard of a couple fires, but now they claim that their cells are individually fused. I don't know if this is a new thing, but it's better then most other cheap brands.
They produce batteries with generic "2500mah" Chinese cells as well as name brand cells from Sanyo/Samsung/Panasonic. The name brand cells are much more desirable. I am sure that the generic cells are not terrible, things have improved quite a bit over the years, but I would still want the name brand ones if I had a choice. They will usually tell you in the description, if it is something like "Powerfull 2500mah cells", then it's using generic cells. If it's name brand cells they will tell you the brand. They also have warehouses in the USA that are stocked with some of their batteries, which should (in theory) help speed up the process.
If I was to buy a battery today I would try to order one from Em3ev. They produce the best batteries that I am aware of and are not significantly more expensive then other battery manufacturers. However I don't know the shipping situation for them, since everything is kinda jacked up for imports/exports right now it may be a problem.
I need torque bars. Should I put two on?
One is fine, unless you are doing regenerative braking (which most kits don't support). Especially for lower power motors. If your fork is steel and you are using a 250 watt class motor you can get away without them, but I would want to have them on anything more powerful then that.
https://ebikes.ca/product-info/grin-products/torque-arms.html
These are the best quality torque arms that I am aware of. It's what I use and they are very beefy.
Grin (ebikes.ca) produces some of the best kits you can find, but they are pricey.