My Bafang Ultra Mountain Bike! Frey AM1000

The suspension was definately too loose for a 110kg guy. Added around 10-15% more air to both shocks. Both require a shock pump. Front to 100psi and rear to 130psi. Now it’s perfect. Outside temps hover around 10C so therefore it’s best to adjust pressures while the bike is being kept outside. Battery is always stored inside in 20C and charged only when room temp is reached. These things become more important by the day when temps are dropping here in the North.

FlyingFinn said:

Got my FAT1000 yesterday. Been driving around nearby dirt and backroads. Very nice and happy with the quality and how smoothly the PA works. Only minor issues are that Bafang display drops battery percentage too quickly if I’m using thumb throttle. Battery percentage drops from 95% to 65% instantly when thumb throttling. It never recovers above 70% even if I change to Eco mode level 1. This happens even if I use the thumb throttle for one minute! Battery’s own indicator still shows full 5/5 bars.

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How much were the taxes? Im from Finland as well, im thinking about buying the upcoming Frey CC.

:thumb:

devean said:

How much were the taxes? Im from Finland as well, im thinking about buying the upcoming Frey CC.

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The customs tax and VAT are included to EU in the 550€ shipping cost. No import declaration by the customer was required. It arrived straight to my home door by a freight company (Kaukokiito). Building the bike took 1 month and shipping 40 days by land freight to Finland.

Just order and start waiting for the bike to arrive. Easy and hassle-free. No paperwork required.

It's super easy ordering at Frey. Great response and no extra taxes. Delivered to my door here in Belgium. You don't need a middle man.

Im going to purchase a Frey AM1000 and wondering if anyone could give me tips for the purchase, for example is there any spare parts I should request, or any mods I should look out for? I am a bit of a noob with mountain bike parts, but I love the look of this bike, so pumped!

This is the current configuration which I will be getting shipped to Australia:

Bafang Ultra 48V 1000W mid drive system with throttle;
48V 21AH Samsung 35E cells powered big capacity battery;
ROCKSHOX YARI 160mm air suspension fork;
ROCKSHOX DELUXE RL rear suspension;
MAGURA MT5e 4-piston hydraulic brake with power cut function for ebike use;
SHIMANO XT M8000 11 speed group set;
MAXXIS 27.5*2.8" mountain tire.
Price is 3120USD not include shipping cost.

Thank you in advance!

SpeedHunter said:

Im going to purchase a Frey AM1000 and wondering if anyone could give me tips for the purchase, for example is there any spare parts I should request, or any mods I should look out for? I am a bit of a noob with mountain bike parts, but I love the look of this bike, so pumped!

This is the current configuration which I will be getting shipped to Australia:

Bafang Ultra 48V 1000W mid drive system with throttle;
48V 21AH Samsung 35E cells powered big capacity battery;
ROCKSHOX YARI 160mm air suspension fork;
ROCKSHOX DELUXE RL rear suspension;
MAGURA MT5e 4-piston hydraulic brake with power cut function for ebike use;
SHIMANO XT M8000 11 speed group set;
MAXXIS 27.5*2.8" mountain tire.
Price is 3120USD not include shipping cost.

Thank you in advance!

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Get extra mech hangers for sure. If it were me I would try to upgrade the fork to pike or lyrik if you're going to use it for true mountain biking. A wired-in headlight is a nice option if you will be riding in the dark at all. An extra headset is a convenience too as they are kind of a PITA to match and order and the neco is decent enough. Personally I prefer the 17.5AH battery as the bike is already heavy and the range on the 17.5 is already plenty - also the 21 will protrude - I even removed the handle from mine as it was irritating my knee as it also protrudes). I also ordered a complete extra set of suspension bearings since these are also frame-specific and would be a PITA to source later. Does that help?

:thumb:

SpeedHunter said:

Im going to purchase a Frey AM1000 and wondering if anyone could give me tips for the purchase, for example is there any spare parts I should request, or any mods I should look out for? I am a bit of a noob with mountain bike parts, but I love the look of this bike, so pumped!

This is the current configuration which I will be getting shipped to Australia:

Bafang Ultra 48V 1000W mid drive system with throttle;
48V 21AH Samsung 35E cells powered big capacity battery;
ROCKSHOX YARI 160mm air suspension fork;
ROCKSHOX DELUXE RL rear suspension;
MAGURA MT5e 4-piston hydraulic brake with power cut function for ebike use;
SHIMANO XT M8000 11 speed group set;
MAXXIS 27.5*2.8" mountain tire.
Price is 3120USD not include shipping cost.

Thank you in advance!

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My list:

1. Gear shift sensor
2. Extra hangers for rear mech (I ordered 5pcs)
3. Kickstand (good to have, as it can be removed/attached easily)
4. Wider/narrower tires (I took 4.8”s as snow tires for my FAT, you can go up to 3.0”)

That’s what I would order as well.

Tom

Hey guys, does the motor disengage during gear changes? I just rode a custom e bike today with a Bafang Mid Drive 48v1000w kit installed and it was quite jarring how the motor cut out when I changed gears... THanks

SpeedHunter said:

Hey guys, does the motor disengage during gear changes? I just rode a custom e bike today with a Bafang Mid Drive 48v1000w kit installed and it was quite jarring how the motor cut out when I changed gears... THanks

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If the gear change sensor is installed, yes, it cuts the power when you shift to prevent damaging the chain and sprockets. Some people don't like the gear sensor and disconnect it, but then you have to manually reduce power when shifting (what I do with my BBSHD).

SpeedHunter said:

Hey guys, does the motor disengage during gear changes? I just rode a custom e bike today with a Bafang Mid Drive 48v1000w kit installed and it was quite jarring how the motor cut out when I changed gears... THanks

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I removed the gear sensor from my Bafang Mid Drive 48v1000w eMTB. I also removed the rear-brake sensor for the same reason. Standard good shifting practices are warranted just like with a non-e bike. With this configuration I get consistently smooth, silent shifting. Reprogramming the controller helped in this regard, as I shortened the time the motor takes to ramp down after stopping pedaling and this results in a much smoother cutoff than the abrupt instantaneous cutoff triggered by the sensors. I left the front brake sensor as front brake usage always seems to coincide nicely with the need for instant power cutoff and I don't even notice it.

Another trick is if you pedal backward, the motor will stop instantly. This is especially useful on a technical off road trail to keep from getting launched over the side of a cliff.

Forget about the bikes, I want some reviews of that hotel dining!

But seriously, if I had the budget for a $4K+ bike, Frey would def. be on the short list.

I've read that int'l shipping costs $700 to $1K however. Is this true?

I paid $800.00 for the bike shipping, which is by Fed Ex. As I am building my own batteries, I did not have to pay the additional $150.00 to ship a battery via UPS.

Front and rear suspension, what a fantastic luxury. And I believe there is at least one full suspension model with a rear rack option.

Even though a class 3 like Juiced or Surface604 can legitimately get to 29-30 mph top speed, as opposed to the bafang ultra's 34 or so mph, they don't offer full suspension.

Biktrix is an option but they don't offer a rear rack like Frey does.

How are your batteries doing? Is Frey using quality cells and chargers?

:thumb:

Sinbord1981 said:

Yesterday I did 44 miles with my local cycling club on road. At the end of the ride I had 43% battery remaining and a range of 39 miles left. I was only using Eco assist levels for most of the ride, although the last two miles to home I was on Sport Level 5 and hit 45mph on slight downhill run. I know it’s an off-road bike but do occasionally ride it on road with my club just to see whether I’m still getting the range. It was also very windy yesterday but the AM1000 was rick solid

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always very nice videos !!!! really nice

it could be that newer DPC18 displays include a setting for a 52V battery. but normally the DPC18 calculates discharge capacity based on voltage of a 48V battery. fuel gauge and percentage level won't be accurate at all. this means 43% on a 52V battery might be only 10-20% discharge capacity left - about 44-46 volts i guess - almost empty. using a 52V battery i highly recommend to switch to voltage mode not percentage mode using a DPC18 - being able to estimate your remaining discharge capacity. a better way is either a smart bms (eg neptune15) or another display (eg eggrider) which can handle 52V battery discharge capacity.

:thumb:

Sinbord1981 said:

kulmer01 said:

How are your batteries doing? Is Frey using quality cells and chargers?

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Sinbord1981 said:

barbarossa said:

always very nice videos !!!! really nice

it could be that newer DPC18 displays include a setting for a 52V battery. but normally the DPC18 calculates discharge capacity based on voltage of a 48V battery. fuel gauge and percentage level won't be accurate at all. this means 43% on a 52V battery might be only 10-20% discharge capacity left - about 44-46 volts i guess - almost empty. using a 52V battery i highly recommend to switch to voltage mode not percentage mode using a DPC18 - being able to estimate your remaining discharge capacity. a better way is either a smart bms (eg neptune15) or another display (eg eggrider) which can handle 52V battery discharge capacity.

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Cheers Barbarossa. Yeah it’s all an approximation really and changes in real time depending on how hard you’re riding it and what mode your in. All I know is that I can squeeze out almost 70 miles on mine in the road in Eco 1 or I can put it in Sport 5 off-road and do the battery in an hour and 20 miles. It is a nice high capacity battery and just takes a bit of managing depending on what ride you’re about to do. The Frey batteries do seem pretty good though and I’m happy with both of mine.

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Cheers Sinbord1981
yes, of course these things are never 100% exact but in the case of 52V it is not exact at all :wink:

i can only talk about the Frey AM1000.

battery:
Reention Dorado Max, 505mm , 80 cells maximum. 52V = 14s/5p = 70 cells or 48V = 13s/6p = 78 cells. cells are Samsung 35E = 3500mAh/2.65V low/8A cont or LG MJ1 = 3500mAh/2.5V low/10A cont (newer batteries with Samsung cells). in reality the Samsung also does 10A without immediate overheating. type of cell is decoded printed on battery i think, attached fotos, L35=LG, S35=Samsung. cells never got really hot - even not at 45A cont (i have the 48V LG-cell version)

bms:
no rocket science but a good standard bms. 30A rated, but also does appr. 50A peak and around 45A cont (my own test results, somewhere over 50A it cuts off). cells are well balanced.

charger:
the charger is ok for me. to be honest i use it for all my batteries. one of the potentiometers changes voltage (but of course you have to open it) so you can use it eg for 54.6v and 58.8v (48V and 52V batteries, and even higher voltages). i think this is the "Chinese standard model" - sold at many voltage/ampere levels - just with different pot settings. so hey i am flexible testing packs with different voltages. it charges with 5A (exactly measured mine was 4.78A using 54.4V charging voltage charging my 48V battery) so it is also fast. fan is a little noisy but it is ok.

connection cables frame/battery:
seems to be AWG12, which is absolutely ok i think

all in all battery and charger work well, nice built, nice quality cells, never had any problems...

:thumb:

I need some advice on the frame sizes. I usually fit the "small" sized frames when purchasing bikes but the Frey bikes only come in medium or larger sizes. I am 5' 5" tall. Ivy thinks the medium will fit but reading through this I see some people that are 5'10" and the medium is a good fit.

As a very general rule of thumb, for mtb sizing:

Small: 5'5" and under

Medium: 5'6" to 5'10"

Large: 5'11"+

XL: at least 6'2" or 6'3"

You might be able to make a size medium work. It's probably possible with a shorter stem (which will make steering noticeably quicker), and perhaps a shoe with a slightly larger heel for a little bit more standover. I definitely know riders who are 5'5" and 5'6" who can ride a small or medium, depending on geometry and personal preference.

Normally I'd recommend a test ride but obviously that's not possible with this model. I recommend finding an mtb with similar geometry, esp. reach and standover, to see if the geometry at least works for you.