Hi Everyone,
While I've been to this forum many times over the last couple of years I still consider myself an e-bike newbie, so I hope you'll have patience with my simple questions.
I built (converted) my first e-bike about a year ago and have been riding it for my commute (8 miles each way; 5 days a week) for the last 4 months. When I finally took the plunge to buy the parts to convert my bike, I was nervous about sinking too much money into something I might not use enough (that concern is now resolved), so I went with something pretty conservative (cheap). I bought this kit (the 36V version):
http://elifebike.com/peng/iview.asp?KeyID=dtpic-2013-9T-FNM6.74VME
I also bought a battery off aliexpress that claimed to be 36V 15ah. For the first few weeks I was getting 16 miles on a single charge and not even having to pedal. Now, I get 16 miles if I do a fair amount of pedaling so it's clear the battery has degraded fairly rapidly. I was expecting at least 1000 charging cycles, but it's been less than 100 so far.
Anyway, now that I've given you a sense of my setup, I wanted to ask my main question: where am I going to get the best bang for my buck in terms of upgrades for my bike?
I'm mostly happy with the bafang front hub motor (it has gotten a little noisier, but no other signs of problems). I know the controller is about as cheap as they get ($12). For that motor would I see any gain from buying a better controller? If so, which one would you recommend? Or do people actually mod these controllers (without blowing them up) with altered shunts, upgraded mosfets, etc?
I know I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get a new battery eventually, so any advice there would be helpful too. The one I have now is about like this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/36V15AH-Water-kettle-bottle-battery-Lithium-Ion-Battery-for-Electric-Bike-rechargeble-battery-with-BMS-charger/32628061251.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.264.oGDVVR
I like the look and portability of the water bottle batteries, but I'm not actually convinced you can squeeze enough cells to get 15ah in one of those.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.
While I've been to this forum many times over the last couple of years I still consider myself an e-bike newbie, so I hope you'll have patience with my simple questions.
I built (converted) my first e-bike about a year ago and have been riding it for my commute (8 miles each way; 5 days a week) for the last 4 months. When I finally took the plunge to buy the parts to convert my bike, I was nervous about sinking too much money into something I might not use enough (that concern is now resolved), so I went with something pretty conservative (cheap). I bought this kit (the 36V version):
http://elifebike.com/peng/iview.asp?KeyID=dtpic-2013-9T-FNM6.74VME
I also bought a battery off aliexpress that claimed to be 36V 15ah. For the first few weeks I was getting 16 miles on a single charge and not even having to pedal. Now, I get 16 miles if I do a fair amount of pedaling so it's clear the battery has degraded fairly rapidly. I was expecting at least 1000 charging cycles, but it's been less than 100 so far.
Anyway, now that I've given you a sense of my setup, I wanted to ask my main question: where am I going to get the best bang for my buck in terms of upgrades for my bike?
I'm mostly happy with the bafang front hub motor (it has gotten a little noisier, but no other signs of problems). I know the controller is about as cheap as they get ($12). For that motor would I see any gain from buying a better controller? If so, which one would you recommend? Or do people actually mod these controllers (without blowing them up) with altered shunts, upgraded mosfets, etc?
I know I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get a new battery eventually, so any advice there would be helpful too. The one I have now is about like this one:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/36V15AH-Water-kettle-bottle-battery-Lithium-Ion-Battery-for-Electric-Bike-rechargeble-battery-with-BMS-charger/32628061251.html?spm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.264.oGDVVR
I like the look and portability of the water bottle batteries, but I'm not actually convinced you can squeeze enough cells to get 15ah in one of those.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.