Bafand BBSHD ongoing parts availability

[klongyaw]

I have two five year old BBSHD mid drives, with about 10,000 miles on each of them. I love the setup which works perfectly for my needs. I don't see a new motor that is appealing. I'd like to keep this running as long as possible. I have 2 questions.

1. What is most likely to break in the future?
2. Will parts be available?

The motors are on recumbent trikes. Mostly pedaling, with some throttle on hills and when fighting car traffic.
With panniers and gear, each trike weighs about 100 pounds, 200 pounds more when I sit on it.
I am running the mid-drives with 52 volts at a low level of assist, 200 to 300 watts output.
I mainly ride rail trails, all types of surfaces. No extreme riding.
I greased the motor after 1 year with synthetic Mobil grease, and re-grease the final drive gears each year.

Should I buy some replacement parts now to have when I need them? What is most likely to break?

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[Diggs]

I too run a BBSHD that's getting close to 10,000 miles. I opened it up at 9,000 miles even though everything was fine. I cleaned and regreased (Mobil) but there wasn't anything else to do. I have a spare nylon gear for it (which is about the only part you need to keep on hand) but it wasn't needed. I'm sure in the future I will have to replace bearings but they all seem to be stock bearings available just about anywhere.

There are so many BBSHD drives out there that even if Bafang doesn't offer spares in the future I'm sure someone else will step up to fill the niche. In turn, I see so many builders turning up the amperage to failure point that I'm expecting "used-parts only" BBSHD drives to be plentiful in the future.

 

[klongyaw]

Diggs, thanks for the reply. The main part I am worried about is the controller. Does it fail often?

 

[neptronix]

The controller is the one part that's replaceable with a general purpose part.

 

[klongyaw]

OK. I did an internet search and most of the listings are currently "Out of stock." That was my concern.

 

[tomjasz]

There are some important changes and differences. Some shops, like California ebike in Benicia are good sources with an excellent knowledge base and awareness’s of changes

 

[OlderGiantFan]

I too run a BBSHD that's getting close to 10,000 miles. I opened it up at 9,000 miles even though everything was fine. I cleaned and regreased (Mobil) but there wasn't anything else to do.

Isn't that wonderful, so stress free.

 

[Kilo_me]

Just sharing as a daily rider. About 9435km (5862 miles) on my BBSHD in roughly a year, commuting and general riding here in the Netherlands in all weather.
Motor's been faultless and still smooth.
Only stuff I've replaced is normal bike wear, chains and brake pads mainly, nothing on the motor itself.
I grease it every 1500-2000km or so.

Anyone else here actually riding theirs every day rather than now and then?
Always nice to hear from people putting real km on these.

 

[furcifer]

Just sharing as a daily rider. About 9435km (5862 miles) on my BBSHD in roughly a year, commuting and general riding here in the Netherlands in all weather.
Motor's been faultless and still smooth.
Only stuff I've replaced is normal bike wear, chains and brake pads mainly, nothing on the motor itself.
I grease it every 1500-2000km or so.

Anyone else here actually riding theirs every day rather than now and then?
Always nice to hear from people putting real km on these.

I paid car insurance so I don't ride much in the winter, but I put 100km/week on mine in the summer just for fun.

I leave mine outside all year and ngl corrosion and water have been the biggest problem. I've got a 500D display with a bad (-) button, a modded controller that went runaway (it powers up then after about 3 seconds it dumps 3000W to the back wheel, crap your pants kinda fun) and a couple XT90 connectors that corroded and shorted out (salt on the roads in the winter kills connectors).

The BBSHD itself is bullet proof. Internals are clean and after 5000km look like the day I split it open to grease it.

In all my reading I don't think I've ever seen anyone "wear one out" yet. Isolated problems for sure, but never multiple issues that can't be fixed for much less than a new one.

 

[HY10]

Around 10k km my HD needed the short pinion shaft ,the c clip broke out and damaged the teeth on the largest gear resulting in a cluncking sound each rotation of the pedal