Newb...What do you recommend?

bonefish

1 mW
Joined
Jun 30, 2018
Messages
13
Location: Florida, USA
Desired max speed on level ground. 35 mph
Desired max range at what cruising speed. 30miles@20mph
Preferred bike wheel size, or wheel size of bike you want to convert. Most common kits are for 26" wheels. 26" wheel
Brake type of motor wheel. Disc or not. Vbrake
Rider weight. 210lbs
Terrain. Exp: mostly flat, some short hills under 20% grade, I want to climb mountains, etc., etc. Flat Florida Ground
Budget. $1750

The sticky recommends a steel walmart bike. But we all know.... Walmart bikes suck. and a ebay kit from China and my experience with the gas China kits on ebay have been futile. SO what do you recommend given the following info. Thanks,
 
True that wallbikes are sh*t, but Chinese hub motors are good, DD drives especially. Not high tech, but simple and durable as long as you don’t feed them to beat motorcycles on a start.

Suggestion: A used, quality bike with a large frame to build on. A cheap Chinese kit from ebay. Building your own battery with quality cells, is much better than buying a ready made battery at budget price. You will find here on ES, all the info as what to buy and how to build.
 
Thanks for the help, but I think I'm going to pass on the ebike and/or ebike build. I just read this article which is from where I live and it states that their going to ban ebikes from the sidewalks.

https://www.newsbreak.com/florida/estero/municipal/0NdaEOUZ/electric-scooters-could-be-banned-from-village-of-estero-sidewalks
 
Shouldn't be riding on the sidewalk anyway, ebike or not. What, were you planning on riding down the sidewalk at 30mph?
 
Yep. If you plan to ride sidewalks, may I suggest a powered wheelchair or mobility vehicle. :twisted:
 
MadRhino said:
Yep. If you plan to ride sidewalks, may I suggest a powered wheelchair or mobility vehicle. :twisted:

15mph with 45 mile range:

Zoome-R418CS-4-Wheel-Mobility-Scooter.jpg
 
Could always move to Missouri...
https://youtu.be/LfEJae4Zp8Q

:lol:

(Kinda mad that Luna doesn't offer it anymore, actually.)
 
E-HP said:
MadRhino said:
Yep. If you plan to ride sidewalks, may I suggest a powered wheelchair or mobility vehicle. :twisted:

15mph with 45 mile range:

Zoome-R418CS-4-Wheel-Mobility-Scooter.jpg
This is the kind of vehicle that is commonly allowed to ride the sidewalks. Yet I find it is way too fast to be safe for this purpose. Here it would have to be limited to 10kmh (6mph).

I am not for speed or power limitations of vehicles in general, because I find that trafic speed limits are enough restriction. Yet, sidewalks are pedestrians territory, and some who are using mobility vehicles don’t have full brain capacity. :roll:
 
HK12K said:
Shouldn't be riding on the sidewalk anyway, ebike or not. What, were you planning on riding down the sidewalk at 30mph?

That's fine as a general rule in some or even most areas but far from a good absolute rule for all areas. Sometimes a sidewalk is a fine place to ride an ebike - especially if you are going to travel well below 30mph. Just because a bike can go 35mph doesn't mean it must go that fast on a sidewalk.
 
yes. here in the valley, there are a number of bike paths that are only on teh sidewalk (which is rather wide), such as along greenway going around a "mountain", where your other alternative is to ride in the narrow lane with 60mph traffic (on a purportedly 40-45mph road).

there's other places like that, too, where it's essentially impossible to ride anywhere other than the sidewalk, unless you want to die. :/

there are even places where it's "illegal" to ride anyplace other than the sidewalk. (some spots in tempe come to mind, unless they've changed it since i was last there, quite a long time ago).


but that all aside, there are spots i have to ride my trike on the sidewalk, slowly, because there's no way to go the direction i have to go to get some places, without first crossing several busy lanes of fast traffic, with no actual crossings within some distance either way...and then after going down the road a short distance, to get where i was going, cross all those lanes again, with no actual crossing. or else ride a mile or few all the way around the "big block" just to get a few hundred feet the other way. :/


i generally wouldn't ride on a sidewalk being used by pedestrians at the time, for a number of reasos, but if it's unused there's no reason not to. ;)
 
wturber said:
HK12K said:
Shouldn't be riding on the sidewalk anyway, ebike or not. What, were you planning on riding down the sidewalk at 30mph?

That's fine as a general rule in some or even most areas but far from a good absolute rule for all areas. Sometimes a sidewalk is a fine place to ride an ebike - especially if you are going to travel well below 30mph. Just because a bike can go 35mph doesn't mean it must go that fast on a sidewalk.

He's using the fact that it's going to be illegal to ride on the sidewalk as a reason not to get involved with e- bikes at all. Infer what you will, but it sounds an awful lot to me as if he planned to do enough sidewalk riding that not being able to do so became a complete dealbreaker.

I'm not above riding on the sidewalk if the situation dictates it. Done it many times when riding in the road on a particular route would be legitimately unsafe, especially when towing my kid. I do so at walking speeds or slightly above knowing full well that it's both illegal and more likely to get me hit while crossing a driveway or intersection though. Not talking mixed use paths here, I travel on those plenty, but the sidewalk is reserved for pedestrians unless absolutely necessary.

For the most part though, no, bikes shouldn't be on the sidewalk under most circumstances. For a variety of reasons.
 
Ebikes not allowed on sidewalks in Illinois, but like others have noted, given a choice of riding on a four lane road where the speed limit is 45 mph or the sidewalk, , I'll take my chances on a ticket riding on the adjacent sidewalk.

When we were down in Florida riding some of the inter-city bike paths, I did see a couple of gas powered bikes in some of the more rural sections. We saw supermarket electric trikes everywhere, including sidewalks. I can't see how a Mayor could ban those from sidewalks.
 
Well, it is true that different places are different situations.

Here we have sidewalks in the cities only, usually occupied by lots of pedestrians. Other than small accompanied children, bicycles or any kind of vehicles are strictly forbidden, except for mobility vehicles for the handicapped. Even rolling toys like skateboard, rollerblades, scooters; are not allowed on the sidewalks.

But, we have a lot of cycle paths, and where there are none, the streets are allowed to everyone. Small towns and countryside have no sidewalks, but most have cycle and pedestrian paths. Ebikes are not controlled for speed and power, so anyone who prefers to ride with trafic, can ride the trafic speed and rules. I find it much safer and practical, when your bike is built for that of course. Let’s say that the police is much more tolerant for fast bikes on the streets, than slow bikes on sidewalks.
 
where I live Calgary, Canada, city started to paint yellow lines on many sidewalks making them pathways for bicycles and pedestrians.
many , many sidewalks are hardly used in many cities in Canada with kilometer streaches with no human in sight.
is no brainer for me -
if I have a busy two line street in rush hours and empty sidewalk next to it , what would you choose to ride?
sidewalk of course, speed is another matter.
obviously I dont ride sidewalks in downtown of course.
as I said city by painting yellow lines encourages cycles to use sidewalks
I dont understand why not if pedestrians are rare.
Police dont give a damn , they have serious issues to deal with.
 
Good News...... The proposed ban of ebikes on sidewalks is going to be south of where I live, and If I travel thru that section I can always travel on the bike route on the side of the road.

I also found an ebike I'm interested in shown in the pict. below
aCLIoFU

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/aCLIoFU" data-context="false" ><a href="//imgur.com/a/aCLIoFU"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It is a Trek Marlin 7 with a CSC 1500Watt motor and a Joyisi 52Volt battery pack.

https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/mountain-bikes/cross-country-mountain-bikes/marlin/marlin-7/p/28789/

https://www.amazon.com/CSCbike-Electric-Conversion-Brushless-Gearless/dp/B07Y39JYX9/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=1500+bike&qid=1581645509&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Joyisi-Battery-Lithium-Charger-Protection/dp/B07PQMMVNF/ref=sr_1_11?crid=2N5SIJRN466FE&dchild=1&keywords=52volt%2Bebike%2Bbattery&qid=1581642190&sprefix=52volt%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-11&th=1&psc=1


What do you think of this that has about 75 charges on it for $500?
 
Is it close so you can ride it first? Only thing I might worry about is the battery.
 
He lives about 20miles from me. Waiting to hear back from him if I can test ride it tomorrow.
Looks like it has value in it though.
The bike retails for $799
the 1500watt converstion kit goes for about $300
and the battery goes for about $450.
He put two torque arms on it.
He wants $500 for the whole setup.
He said the battery has 75 charges on it and the reason why he is selling it is because he wants to get a fat tire ebike......

Anything in particular I should look for?
 
Damn good price. That's for sure. I would trust your gut when you see this guy. If he knows about the bike and kit. And if it seems like he actually built the bike maybe you are ok. I would be wary.. He is giving it away..
 
If it runs, buy it!!

Can't tell if the controller is on the rack or in the bag by the battery, but in either case, I'd relocate it so it gets air circulation.
 
If the battery doesn't reset when you give it full throttle, it should be OK. Even if it does, you would pay more than $500 just for a new bike and motor. The big risk on these things is if it's stolen or if the battery wants to explode.
 
Just got back from the guys house. He said he would meet me at 1:00 and then he sells it to a guy right before I get to his house. It was about a hour trip there and back. Anyway, he had cigarette stains on his teeth and didn't appear to take good care of his house or himself, so I'm not sure how well he would have built the bike. I found another one but this one is even further from my house. It is not as powerful, but looks to be of good quality. It is an a2b orbee and he wants $550 for it. Not sure If i want to drive the distance and have the same thing happen. Here is a picture of it. What are your thoughts on buying a used ebike? What should I ask or look for when I meet with the owner?
a3sYH4H.jpg
 
the a2b series are proprietary stuff (including the battery electronics), so if any part of it fails you wind up hacking it or replacing all the electrics to get it going again. :(

they're not bad bikes, just that i don't think there's really anywhere to get any new electric parts.

there are several threads about various versions of a2b bikes, including some complete electrics replacements.
 
bonefish said:
Location: Florida, USA
Desired max speed on level ground. 35 mph
Desired max range at what cruising speed. 30miles@20mph
Preferred bike wheel size, or wheel size of bike you want to convert. Most common kits are for 26" wheels. 26" wheel
Brake type of motor wheel. Disc or not. Vbrake
Rider weight. 210lbs
Terrain. Exp: mostly flat, some short hills under 20% grade, I want to climb mountains, etc., etc. Flat Florida Ground
Budget. $1750

The sticky recommends a steel walmart bike. But we all know.... Walmart bikes suck. and a ebay kit from China and my experience with the gas China kits on ebay have been futile. SO what do you recommend given the following info. Thanks,

hello from another universe :lol:

20mph for 30 miles is fairly simple. 20mph = about 500-600W. 30mi = 1.5 hours so about a 1kwH battery would suffice. 35 mph is probably not achievable with the 1000W ebay kits. Cyclone 3kW or CYC is good for that and more.

battery is main expense. im done with 18650 and ebike designed batteries; too much premium built into them for me so too expensive. im looking into quality good and many remaining cycle EV/LTO industrial batteries that would give me crazy amps and that $100 per kwH. unfortunately, i wont start that project until march. if you can wait till april, i can report on that. but if you cannot get 1kWh and 52V+ and make sure battery/bms can do 3kW max continuous or maybe 2kW at minimum. shop around for good deals.

yeh, dont get propreitory crap. bike looks nice but is a dud for sure. 35mph requires a good motor.
 
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