flyingpants
1 mW
A few years back, the Currie eZip sold for $500 on Amazon, or as low as $350. It's since been discontinued. The Sondors was meant to be a $500 ebike. The Sondors Thin with the front suspension is now $1039 USD. Almost all online ebikes are in the 1500-2000 range or even higher. It's worth pointing out that you can buy a motorcycle that can go 250km/h for some of these prices.
If a hub motor is $80 in China, and a motor is just some coiled wires anyway, and battery cells are dirt cheap, then why can't I buy a full e-bike kit (including battery) for $200? Or a full e-bike for $500? It makes no sense. The ideal is to have quality components for cheap. Instead, we get either something overpriced, unreliable, unassembled, wires all over the place, taxed, etc..
I am well aware that these prices include overhead such as warranty, shipping, etc. That is really no excuse, e-bikes have been around for many years now. It doesn't have to be this way. You can simultaneously have good quality, and cheap. Someone should have had the bright idea to figure out how to sell some decent low-mid range components by now, and cut out all the middle-men, because as I've stated, we all know the true cost of the components. (The same applies to bicycles in general, actually.) That's what Sondors was supposed to do. Clearly it's possible, as the Currie eZip did it. The only thing you can find on Amazon now for that price are Chinese bikes from Ancheer and the like (which are possibly not too bad).
In my case, I'm looking at getting a BBS02 because of the climbing ability. With the 13.5Ah battery, it would cost me $1300+ CAD and that's without paying tax at the border. Can't afford that! I could use a hub motor, but then there's the weight, imbalance and overheating problems of a hub motor.
So to keep it cheap, I'll just stick to a smaller hub motor, light battery, and pedal up hills? (which kinda defeats the whole purpose of having an ebike, but it's still fun to cruise around..)
I was considering getting a Tesla welded pack from a forum thread here, it would have cost about ~$200 CAD for 360Wh.. then a cheap hub kit from Amazon is also ~$200 CAD, so we're already at $400 total for something of questionable reliability. That's a lot of money spent for an old 26" Raleigh mountain bike.
I've seen guides on how to make your own packs from YouTube, but I'm not very skilled so I can't do that.
I am looking to purchase a 24-36v hub motor kit (just motor, controller & throttle) for around $150 CAD, and a battery for about $150 CAD. Are there any such options available, or do I have to pay many many hundreds of dollars?
If a hub motor is $80 in China, and a motor is just some coiled wires anyway, and battery cells are dirt cheap, then why can't I buy a full e-bike kit (including battery) for $200? Or a full e-bike for $500? It makes no sense. The ideal is to have quality components for cheap. Instead, we get either something overpriced, unreliable, unassembled, wires all over the place, taxed, etc..
I am well aware that these prices include overhead such as warranty, shipping, etc. That is really no excuse, e-bikes have been around for many years now. It doesn't have to be this way. You can simultaneously have good quality, and cheap. Someone should have had the bright idea to figure out how to sell some decent low-mid range components by now, and cut out all the middle-men, because as I've stated, we all know the true cost of the components. (The same applies to bicycles in general, actually.) That's what Sondors was supposed to do. Clearly it's possible, as the Currie eZip did it. The only thing you can find on Amazon now for that price are Chinese bikes from Ancheer and the like (which are possibly not too bad).
In my case, I'm looking at getting a BBS02 because of the climbing ability. With the 13.5Ah battery, it would cost me $1300+ CAD and that's without paying tax at the border. Can't afford that! I could use a hub motor, but then there's the weight, imbalance and overheating problems of a hub motor.
So to keep it cheap, I'll just stick to a smaller hub motor, light battery, and pedal up hills? (which kinda defeats the whole purpose of having an ebike, but it's still fun to cruise around..)
I was considering getting a Tesla welded pack from a forum thread here, it would have cost about ~$200 CAD for 360Wh.. then a cheap hub kit from Amazon is also ~$200 CAD, so we're already at $400 total for something of questionable reliability. That's a lot of money spent for an old 26" Raleigh mountain bike.
I've seen guides on how to make your own packs from YouTube, but I'm not very skilled so I can't do that.
I am looking to purchase a 24-36v hub motor kit (just motor, controller & throttle) for around $150 CAD, and a battery for about $150 CAD. Are there any such options available, or do I have to pay many many hundreds of dollars?