The end of BionX?

justin_le

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Hey everyone, I caught wind that just this week BionX has [strike]filed for Bankruptcy[/strike] entered receivership and has effectively shut its doors for the time being while looking for a buyer:
https://www.grantthornton.ca/en/service/advisory/creditor-updates/#Bionx-Canada-Inc

I'm rather of mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, their newer 'D' series motors (asides from noise issues) were quite unique with surprisingly good performance specs, among the best torque and power to weight ratio of any DD ebike hub motor on the market. It was really cool to see another Canadian company that had been one of the early pioneers of hub motor conversions still still around and innovating after more than 15 years.

On the other hand, they also developed their system around a closed and proprietary architecture, making it impossible for end users to used 3rd party batteries, or even get replacement or repair parts when they switched from the I2C to CanBUS communication protocol. That's the main reason that we never dealt with BionX kits, and is something that I always cautioned people against. What do you do with a proprietary setup when the company is no longer in business or discontinues support for that particular model?

Bicycles last for decades, and there's no reason that ebikes can't last for decades too. If BionX does indeed shut down completely then there will be 10's or 100's of thousands of BionX powered bikes out there with no support or upgrade path with things fail. The popular Bosch and Shimano systems are no different. While it's unlikely that Bosch would go bankrupt any time soon, there's nothing saying that the corporate forces at Bosch might note decide that the ebike business doesn't have the same revenue to risk as their many other ventures, and they could just pull the plug too.

I'm curious to hear more about people's stories good and bad with BionX setups. I know that it's far from the kind of kit that is popular by most the ES audience but at least here in Vancouver I still see far more BionX powered ebikes on the streets than any other single brand.
 
Also, part of why this news stings a little bit for me is that I had just completed a pretty exhaustive study of Statorade as a motor cooling solution in both the BionX PL350 and 'D' series motors, and was hoping that we could have our first proper OEM customer for this after our 3 years testing and R&D. Have a read at the attached .pdf document and tell me this wouldn't have been a perfect pairing.


BionX_Statorade_TN.jpg
View attachment Proposal for Statorade with BionX.pdf


It would have been a sweet little partnership, since it could increase the power and performance at thermal rollback of their motors by a substantial percentage with minimal additional cost to BionX and no change at all to their manufacturing process. And who knows if with the right marketing that might have resulted in a boost in interest and sales for the BionX system.
 
just today a email from nycyewheels.com came with a discounted sale on bionx kits. Coincidence?
 
A few days ago at my LBS I sat and talked for a while with one of the mechanics as he fitted a new Bionix rear hub motor on a beautiful cargo bike and I jokingly said something about those being the ones customers had to bring to them for repair or the warranty was kaput. Seems like a problem is the majority of bike shops selling ebikes know how to pack them in a box and send them back for repair and aside from that don't know or don't have a desire to repair them, push the Shimano-Bosch-Brose stuff heavily. Might be a good idea for some of them to dive into fitting motors that don't have proprietary systems and don't brake the seal warranties.
 
When I was originally looking into adding assist to my bike, more than a decade ago, BionX was top of my list, as it did everything I wanted to do just like I wanted to do it--making my legs "bionic", just making my own pedalling more powerful, basically making up for the power I couldn't make myself anymore.

Money was the main reason I didn't go with them, but once I began really reading around about all the many options, I found the proprietaryness to be a problem--I've been a service tech for a lot of things, officially and otherwise, and stuff you can't get parts for or help with how it works so you can fix it anyway on your own, is stuff you don't want to have to depend on. So even if I'd had the money, I wouldn't have gone with them (and went the DIY route instead, learning a lot more than I ever expected to).


Fast forward to a few years later: When the Cycle Analyst v3 came out supporting TorquePAS, it looked like it might be the solution--because even if Grin went away and the CA wasnt' available to buy or fix, I'd still be able to just bypass it and use it with a throttle like I always had. Events led to me receiving a setup that I put on CrazyBIke2, but I damaged stuff upon installation and didn't get the torque sensor setup and working; eventually the CA itself was killed by a wiring short, and I never really did get to try it out the way I wanted to.

Fast forward to today (literally): Now I have TorquePAS on the SB Cruiser trike via the CAv3.1 / TDCM, and generic controllers/motors that can be serviced or replaced easily. I still have to fine-tune it, but that's mostly time and maybe some custom interfacing / bypass wiring and electronics to get around features that either don't work like i want them to or don't yet exist. (but I can service those myself, since I'd be building them myself).


I know why BionX (and the other companies) go the totally-proprietary route, just like many other companies in other product classes do; it's easier to ensure eveyrthing works together, it costs a lot less to support it, and it keeps customers with that company by requiring they get spares and new stuff from them for compatibility.

And that actually makes them more attractive to a lot of customers, while it drives off some others.


Still, I wish they werent' going under--they've been innovative and driven a lot of people to ebikes that wouldnt' have otherwise gone that route.
 
Breakdown of BionX D-Series (motor interior pics)
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=90037

ESyguK.jpg


7jJUtI.jpg


OHM_2016_XS750_2015.12.01_WEB.jpg
 
A few years ago BionX had some problems with the BMS or battery electronic boards. Also the motor controller was prone to errors.
Most of the e-bike dealers in my area discontinued theire products because of that.
I don't know if this also was the case in canada or other countries, but thats how it was here.

Another reason for the bankrupt might have been the price, which was MUCH higher compared to other e-bike systems (a D-motor kit costs 2000USD). It was probably to high for most potential customers.

Justin i am pleased to see that you have put the D-motor on the dyno, and kudos for your effort with the FF tests!
I would never have put FF into this motor because of the plastic cover, but as you demonstrated the thermal flow got improved and it makes sense 8)

I would have some questions, but i think thats not the right place..
 
Ala Niner bicycles recent "bankruptcy" it seems to be in the big business world a way to shake out the sheets and doesn't necessarily mean it won't exist anymore. Hard to tell without an statement from them and supposition is usually not the best way to get the actual facts. I would imagine that one will be forthcoming.

That said the only dealing I had with BionX, other than a test ride down to my car at Dirt Demo years ago to get some extra clothing and I thank them for that, was an OHM I bought cheap that worked well enough for a friend that used it to do a 3 mile commute to his school. It was a 350 IIRC and was pretty gutless on the hills especially compared to today's offerings. But what really made me sit up and take notice was when it stopped working and I took it to an OHM dealer for service. Long story short they ended up giving us a "deal" on a whole new motor and battery which was about twice what we got the bike for. Couldn't be fixed they said. Or bothered to be is the way I interpreted it. Rather than junk the whole bike the current owner decided to go for it. But even with the new motor it still was pretty gutless with a limited range to boot.

Although e bikes are finally gaining popularity globally all you have to do is look at the spec's of the "major" brands and how many Bionx equipped bikes do you see? Other than OHM and Elby not a lot. It does appear that their d500 kit is popular with the cargo bike set but at a price that is twice as much as other hub systems that are only slightly less powerful and way less obvious.

Obvious electronics is a deal killer to lots of folks that want their e bikes to be as stealthy as possible which means integrated battery systems and small motors. Much of this is driven by the mid drive market which can somewhat be masked so it looks like a regular bike but it really baffles me why this feature is so important? Is it vanity that people don't want to be tagged as an e biker yet they are? Really the only reason I can think of is that by being "stealth" you can skirt the access rules but that is a street to nowhere. It really reminds me of the old "fat girl" saying. Personally I came out of the motor assist closet years ago and could care less what others think about it.

But as mentioned the whole proprietary deal is not attractive to me and many others. That is why we are more about open source and working within those parameters opens up way more possibilities and as Justin said potential for e bikes that have long lives and are not just kicked to the curb when the newest and bluest tech advancement comes along. In fact we in the "kit' market are apt to be able to adopt advancements way before the manufactured market is able to. A for instance are the new 21700 batteries that are coming along. Seems like they will be the next big thing. Easy enough for us to adapt to but how about all those integrated, proprietary systems out and about? Will the manufactures retro batteries to fit the old models? I think not and the only way to get on the new bus will be to cast off your old bike and buy a whole new one. There is a chance that you can pass on the bike and keep it in the loop but how long will the manufactures support them with parts, especially batteries that won't due well sitting on warehouse shelves long term anyway. Time will tell I guess, just glad that there is a Grin on my bikes.

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He likely has no desire to do so but Justin sure would be a great guy to take over the Bionix brand under the Ebike.ca moniker, if that somehow happened it would be a great thing for the Ebike owners in general I'd think. Bionix is sold in some great bike shops and if they had access to reasonably priced quality kits, parts, batteries and most importantly support to repair motors in house that would be super. As ebikes continue to become an attractive, viable and necessary form of transportation that kind of system is going to have to evolve one way or another. There needs to be comprehensive accredited Service School like car mechanics have, Justin would be a great guy to oversee that type of thing with his level of knowledge and dedication to 2 wheeled electric transportation.

I could see somebody like Amberwolf teaching classes too, people who have a knowledge of electronics and applying that to bicycle transport are obviously already of value, a whole bunch of you guys know a whole lot about this stuff.
 
It sucks to see an original die, but i won't miss them.

Bionx was the first kit i saw in late 2008 in California, when ebikes were just starting to get popular.
Local dealers were asking $1000 for their 250w or was it.. 350w? kit. And that's without battery.
There was nothing else on the shelves of the local stores to compare to.

Not being ready to fork out ~$1700 and not knowing about other options out there, i wrote off the whole idea of the ebike for an entire 2 years until i came across a video of the killacycle in late 2009, and got inspired to look up DIY ebike stuff and found ES in early 2010 and bought my first geared motor kit from cell_man for $150.

Sure... the bionx kit was a nice package... but what did they expect, asking those prices and then asking insane prices for replacement parts on top of that.

That works when you're the only game in town, but not when you have 1000's of competitors in 2018.
 
If Justin could get BionX for pennies on the dollar, he would make a fantastic company out of it.

Perhaps there are even some govt grants in Canada to promote keeping the company there.

BionX quality with user programmability and open source for batteries would make a winning combination.
 
Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh said:
yay! rakesh achieved his company's mission statement

Wrong company.

The Grin AnyAxle is a far better product than the BionX along with the other systems they sell which I consider to be all well thought out and tested by tech and time. I see no advantage in them taking it over and like I said above it is unsure if this is just a re-structuring scheme or a full on stop and sell of their operations Globally.
 
I've always admired the Bionx products. Early on, they had a form of torque sensing that could not be beat, and had come up with some really innovative products over the years. Their packaging was clean, neat, and integrated unobtrusively into most bikes. Unfortunately, they kept a closed system and didn't play nice with others.

Bionx was the Apple of the ebike world. Seamless products that work great.. as long as you only do what They want you to do with the.
 
Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh said:
yay! rakesh achieved his company's mission statement

Ha ha. I don't think that anywhere in the list of BionX's troubles did the phase "competition from Falco" show up, but it's funny to see how this stuff plays out.

My own relations with BionX started off on a bad note, back before they were called BionX but instead the small Quebec company EPS (Electric Propulsion Systems, ugg). This was in 2004, the only other direct drive hub motor we knew was Crystalyte, so I was quite excited to hear about a new motor option, designed and made in Canada to boot. I was planning to build an electric assist unicycle for one of my senior design projects in engineering and tried to get in touch with them for a spare motor, thinking that they'd be keen to help out on an innovative student project. Possibly supply/donate an old motor prototype to the cause?

Needless to say, my outreach was totally and summarily rebuked in a way that stung a bit.

So, they weren't my kind of company to deal with, and that produced some motivation to position ourselves as an anti-BionX. Open and non-proprietary hardware. Friendly and helpful staff, eager to accommodate anyone experimenting and using things outside the box rather than forcing them into a box. I'll admit to taking some pleasure every time I heard of QC issues or hiccups in the BionX line, and would always preach the benefits of non-proprietary for anyone who would listen.

Meanwhile they continued to get more and more traction and sales through bicycle stores, while the number of bike shops who wanted to deal with kits from us continued to dwindle. Regardless of what you say about pricing, the fact is that for normal bicycle stores they were the only real option for a retrofit kit available and supported through standard bike shop distribution channels. No one else seemed to compete with them at that level.

I had something of a change of heart about BionX when I saw there 'D' series motor and appreciated that they were taking risks with original engineering design. And for anyone who read the paper at the top of this thread or looked at the motor simulator results, that 'D' series motor has performance specs that are in a class of their own, well ahead of other DD hubs on the ebike market.

The only reason we then had any connection with them last year is because one of the staff who worked at Grin ended up moving to Ontario and getting an engineering job at BionX. He convinced them to come meet and visit our shop to see if there was any collaboration potential and I suggested that Statorade + BionX could be an awesome step.

The news on Monday was apparently a surprise to everyone there.
 
justin_le said:
I'm curious to hear more about people's stories good and bad with BionX setups. I know that it's far from the kind of kit that is popular by most the ES audience but at least here in Vancouver I still see far more BionX powered ebikes on the streets than any other single brand.

BionX is the only system that I know that allows me to use a 48V 30A controller as a perfectly legal "250W Pedelec" in my country.

The BionX regen is excellent.

The first ebike I ever rode was a BionX upgraded bike 10 years ago. The system was way to expensive for me in the early days, but after their 2011 market desaster (making the new 48V batteries in China and almost every single battery failed + lots of problems with their 4.x and 5.x software versions) inventure stock BionX bikes got dirt cheap over here for some years.

I bought plenty of them :)

There is also a small community in Germany that "hacked" the CAN bus and with the tools available many things became possible. Legal throttle for EU, voltage from 5V to 12V for the lights, motor temperature shown in the display, free programmable assistance modes, free programmable max regen and max power amperage (useful if you use cells with high energy density), obviously no speed limit for those that like it that way and many more.

I fact BionX is more configurable than many Chinese controllers if you know how.

There are also improvements to give mechanical support to the freewheels of the early motors (freewheels are a pain in the ass) and lots of possibilities what you can do with their batteries. extenders are easy, but there are options to bypass the balancer in the 48V units (which is shit) and even experiments with bypassing the current entirely.
Afaik someone even sells their own BMS for BionX now (never seen one in real life)

I do have around 10 BionX motors, most of them I bought very cheap (incl. sensor and 48V 30A controller!)

I never bought a new battery (except when they came with the bike), I had been lucky with some used batteries, I was able to fix some, and with some I was less lucky. I fried one BMS which was my fault.

So overall I'm quite optimistic that my BionX bikes will last another 15 to 20 years. And after that you can open the motors and use them like any chinese motors with a external controller.

I even managed to upgrade my street legal 45km/h BionX sPedelec with a BionX d series motor.

Next project is s solar trailer, nut this is just for fun.

It's sad that there has been so little love for Bionx in this board. They have some things that are made really good. Even the first motors worked well with 9x or 10x gears and standard disc brakes, the built a hub motor with 3x internal gear hub, they have excellent regen function, I like their rather small display (sorry Justin, but I would never put that brain drain / CA monster on my bike handlebar), the new version even runs without display. Their SL motor was innovative (3.4kg) and their d-series is quite innovative, too.

Sdaly their stuff also has flaws. The old motor controllers got killed at high speed downhill, their sensor gets lose if you use to much oil (which many people do), you shuld switch on and of the system while riding, their connector is less than ideal.
The SL motor overheats quickly, the d-series can be noise and is almost impossible to open.
Some software versions have been flawed (imho everything from 6.2 is good)

On the other hand a 10 year old BionX system with 36V battery and old BionX motor (CAN bus) is compatible with their newest stuff....

In the end BionX is a story about bad quality, bad support and the whish to make much money very quickly without keeping the focus on high quality engineering. They wanted to grow as quick as possible, the wanted to earn more money producing their stuff in China (36V batteries have been built in Germany, afaik, and even today many of this batteries electronics still work fine)

Bosch on the other hand focused on quality and support. They also hade some failures in the early system, but they replaced or repaired it quickly. I don't like their system, but they sell millions of them and people and sellers are very satisfied and this is what counts in the end...


s_Pedelec.jpg


Specialized1.jpg


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BionX_Zusatzlager1.jpg


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A 500D hardtail, programmed for 28 mph, was unmatched for power by any of the more than 50 CA-legal OEM bikes that I've ridden, and several friends share the same experience. If a different dealer had been selling them, there would be at least three more sold.
 
I've only seen one in the wild. I was riding on the main road with my mxus 3k and I noticed him coming from a side street on my right. He was going a bit faster then normal and I knew. I twisted my throttle b/c I didnt want no chit chat. Well red light and chit chat, saw the funky wheel and the light turned green and I decided to let him go, so he pedaled and went and flew. Something caught my ear when he spoke.

"You dont have a speed limiter on that do you"
I said nope strictly throttle.

I still think about that convo
 
I have two Bionx 350 watt kits that came on Yuba cargo bikes that became a lot less useful as their batteries aged and we moved from a flat area to the top of a hill. Only one is still installed, and as much as it sucks to come back up the hill, on flat ground the assist has a more fun/natural assist feel than our brand new Bosch powered cargo bike or my Tsdz2. The real killer was their battery replacement cost, it just isn't worth it to pay that kind of money for new batteries on a system that feels like old technology - that's what pushed me into this whole DIY world.

I recently re-watched the video of Justin's torque sensing unicycle build, and I thought, hey - it looks like Grin can put a torque sensor into a hub motor.. am I wrong about that?
 
I'm a small but longtime Bionx dealer. Bionx unveiled lower wholesale pricing for mid 2017 and later pre season orders as well as open stock through Bionx Ca or Hawley (their US distributor). They had planned to announce a $500 retail price cut on all kits on March 1 2018 which allowed current dealers the opportunity to sell through old stock they had purchased prior to the wholesale/retail drop. $1,299 for a 350W with their smallest battery was going to regain them some sales lost to mid drives and completes in my opinion. Especially with a 3 year system wide warranty.

I just refused delivery of a kit on Thursday I had ordered from Hawley in advance of the March 1 retail price drop.

Bionx claimed record breaking pre season orders. They had also received $3 million from the Canadian govt for alternative transportation efforts.

I've always enjoyed selling Bionx. I enjoy their ride quality and the awesome torque sensor that so smoothly applied power. Every customer that I sold one to simply loves the system. I just put a brand new battery on our shop light duty cargo bike and it's moving like new. I just installed a new battery on a customer's 10 year old system that was still completely viable. Sure they had hiccups along the way but they've always taken care of their (my) customers and their techs were really knowledgeable. The remote support was awesome as was the upgradeable firmware.

I hope they live on in some form. I would like it if that form supported selling replacement parts like battery boards with a little more open source mindset.

I was fortunate to find the German engineered canbus flasher device which allowed me to unlock speed limits. That was fun, much nicer to ride a bike with a motor that just spins out instead of bouncing into the hard limit over and over. I welcome any recommendations for complete hub drive conversion systems that wholesale to brick and mortar shops.
 
I get frustrated customer requests monthly. Sad...
 
This German company claims to have build a replacement BMS for defective BionX batteries:

https://www.akkudiagnose.de/e-bike-akku-diagnose-reparatur/bionx-akku-reparatur-fuer-e-bike/

Never seen one for real, so no experience from my side

There are many companies that replace old cells for a reasonable amount of money, but it is not so difficult for DIY types either. If you can build your own battery you can also replace the cells in a BionX battery.

It's said that those offer quite professional service:

http://www.liofit.com/bionx-reparatur/

A brand new 48V 555Wh battery with 134p Panasonic 18650PF cells incl. BMS and 3 year warrenty is/was around 600 Euro in Germany. It's not cheap, but also not out of the world and inline with other companies.

New batteries are also much more reliable than the 2011 versions of their 48V battery.

The balancer is shit, imho.
 
markz said:
"You dont have a speed limiter on that do you"
I said nope strictly throttle.

With BionX you can have both. Torque assist and throttle (its a small thumb throttle, so maybe nor ergonmicaly perfect if you wnat to ride on throttle continously)

Speed limiter can be removed if you have than CAN tools or know someone who has.

BionX D runs a bit over 50km/h in 28" wheels with a 48V battery and does so quite well.

BionX 500 HS runs up to 70km/h n 28" wheels with a 48V battery and a low air drag bicycle (for s short time, will overheat quickly under that condition)
 
justin_le said:
BionX_Statorade_TN.jpg
Proposal for Statorade with BionX.pdf

Very nice work. The P series is significantly cheaper than the D Series and has less problems does not need special rims. With ferrofluid thermal capabilities are quite similar to the d series.

It would have been a sweet little partnership, since it could increase the power and performance at thermal rollback of their motors by a substantial percentage with minimal additional cost to BionX and no change at all to their manufacturing process. And who knows if with the right marketing that might have resulted in a boost in interest and sales for the BionX system.

Despite the 48V 30A controller BionX is able to sell their BionX motors as 250W systems in the EU. It's the same motor as the 350W or 500W motors in US, just a different sticker. I assume they are allowed as 250W systems because of the thermal throttling (which is a bit pointless because highly depended n parameters). If they can't seel the motors as 250W systems in EU their market over here would be almost zero.

Can you tell me which of your own(external) controllers did work well with the BionX D series motor?

Are there any problems with ferrofluid interacting with electronics in the motor? I assume it is conductive, isn't it?
Any corrosion on magnets and copper coils after long time usage?
Will it dry out over time?
 
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