ARod1993
100 W
So I was screwing around on AliBaba earlier today and stumbled on this listing:
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/26-inch-250W-or-350-W_60107310010.html?s=p
Frame styling looks remarkably similar to that of a Stromer ST1, complete with wide flat downtube that looks like it hosts a removable battery pack. Pack size seems to be limited to 36V10Ah (unless someone wants to build a LiPo pack that fits into the same form factor with more cells), and the controller appears to be mounted externally to the back of the seat tube. There doesn't seem to be a throttle in the default configuration; instead there's 5-level PAS and a proprietary LCD display displaying battery use, speed, and miles traveled. Drivetrain appears to be a basic 21-speed low-level Shimano setup, but the bike does come with disk brakes. The listing quotes $650 FOB per unit, and I've confirmed that the seller will actually charge that price. There's only one catch: single-bike orders apparently must go by airplane, which brings the shipping costs up to another $600-700, and so the bike now costs $1300-1400 shipped, which moves it out of the range of an eZip replacement into the realm of a low- to mid-range LBS e-bike. You can get them shipped by boat, but only in a 20' shipping container, which makes the whole thing uneconomical unless you buy in bulk. A shipping container containing 100 of these things would run you about $60k, meaning that a group buy or e-LBS could get them for about $600 apiece. Thoughts?
http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/26-inch-250W-or-350-W_60107310010.html?s=p
Frame styling looks remarkably similar to that of a Stromer ST1, complete with wide flat downtube that looks like it hosts a removable battery pack. Pack size seems to be limited to 36V10Ah (unless someone wants to build a LiPo pack that fits into the same form factor with more cells), and the controller appears to be mounted externally to the back of the seat tube. There doesn't seem to be a throttle in the default configuration; instead there's 5-level PAS and a proprietary LCD display displaying battery use, speed, and miles traveled. Drivetrain appears to be a basic 21-speed low-level Shimano setup, but the bike does come with disk brakes. The listing quotes $650 FOB per unit, and I've confirmed that the seller will actually charge that price. There's only one catch: single-bike orders apparently must go by airplane, which brings the shipping costs up to another $600-700, and so the bike now costs $1300-1400 shipped, which moves it out of the range of an eZip replacement into the realm of a low- to mid-range LBS e-bike. You can get them shipped by boat, but only in a 20' shipping container, which makes the whole thing uneconomical unless you buy in bulk. A shipping container containing 100 of these things would run you about $60k, meaning that a group buy or e-LBS could get them for about $600 apiece. Thoughts?
