BMSBattery/ECityPower Experience

[Lurkin]

Meanwhile, BMS Battery have ignored my email correspondence regarding their 9C clone, resulting in purchasing a Leaf Motor.

 

[MastaKebob]

The bare motors don't cost very much. If you want more speed, buy the 36v Q128 motor on its own when they have it in stock. When it comes, swap the cores, which is very easy on those motors because the side-plate is held on with 6 screws. With your motor wheel and bare motor in front of you, it's about 10 minutes work to change them over. When you're happy with your new motor, you should be able to sell your 48v one on Ebay for nearly what you paid for it.

Honestly, for now, I'm good with it as it. I'm in an urban environment so I don't expect to have many chances to get up to full speed.

And the pickup from a standstill is nice.

 

[emotate]

Just for comparison. I did a bike with the exact same 48v battery from BMSbattery but ordered the 36v 201rpm q128h 700c rear wheel per advise on this forum. Got a 25A controller and CA3 from Grin. The bike does 23MPH on the flat and 18 up a grade. Am adding the TDCM BB torque sensor with Aux pot on the CA3 this week. That setup is really sweet.

 

[MastaKebob]

Emotate: Thanks for the response. I'll keep an eye out for a higher wind 48v or 36v replacement.

Question for everyone:
1) Does the Max Speed setting do anything? It defaults to 25kph (only displays max speed in metric), which is ~15.5mph. I've up'd it to the max (72kph), but the engine still cuts out around 15.5mph. Is this the controller speed limiting me, or is this because I have the 201 wind and thats all the motor can physically do?
2) What P settings should I use? Most don't seem to matter (pedal assist related), but P1 and P5 seem important. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

 

[d8veh]

The controller limits the bike to the speed set. The 48v 201 rpm Q128H does 19 mph with a fully carged 48v battery. With he battery half full at a voltage of about 48v, the maximum speed will be 16.5 mph.

Have you set the wheel size correctly? Did you check the speed with a GPS?

 

[MastaKebob]

The controller limits the bike to the speed set. The 48v 201 rpm Q128H does 19 mph with a fully carged 48v battery. With he battery half full at a voltage of about 48v, the maximum speed will be 16.5 mph.

Have you set the wheel size correctly? Did you check the speed with a GPS?

Wheel size is set correctly, haven't checked with GPS. Battery is at half, so that explains that. Thanks!

Now time to route wire and start water proofing.

 

[MastaKebob]

Build almost finished, just have to route/hide wires and waterproof.

http://imgur.com/3GqbMu0

Decided to zip tie wires to the frame and coil any excess wire in a small frame bag.

 

[heatwave]

I purchased from BMS Battery about a year ago. Similar experience in the ordering process. it takes a bit of back and forth and a bit of time, but everything worked out great in the end. As long as you are prepared and expect the order process to be a little more bumpy than a typical US supplier, you shouldn't have any problems. i got the 9c clone with the S12SH 35amp controller and the 48v10ah battery with aluminum case. At first when I built it, i did about 80% of the work to test it out then it ended up in my storage closet without being used for about 10 months. I recently moved into a House with a garage so i have a lot more space to work and was able to fine tune the rest of the bike and really dial in everything to get it just right. I've been riding it about every single day and I absolutely love it. All my friends I have shown are asking me to either buy it from me or build one for them. It tops out at 30 mph which is plenty fast and lots of torque to accelerate typically faster than cars do. This thing really is a beast and for the price it outperforms most prebuilt bikes that are a thousand bucks pricier. I wish i didn't cheap out on the bike itself however. I bought a low end full suspension bike and upgraded all the parts on it. The amount of money spent upgrading i could have just bought a decent bike. however where i am at now the bike is really coming together and i have an amazing time every time i ride it. so point to my story is that yes I would order from BMS Battery again as they have great prices and selection. Just expect delays in the ordering process. Im too ADD to proofread so sorry for any errors. Cheers!

 

[MastaKebob]

After about a month of riding, the BMSB-built wheel had spokes coming loose like crazy. After every other ride there'd be 2-6 spokes that were completely loose (could re-screw the nipple on using my fingers).

Took it to the shop to get rebuilt. Needed new spokes custom ordered from Phil Woods.

Recommendation: Don't buy motors pre-laced into a wheel from BMSB. Just get the motor and build it into a wheel when it arrives. Yea, might be more expensive, but you'll offset some of the wheel building costs on cheaper shipping from China.

 

[emotate]

Interesting experience MastaKebob. My experience has been quite different. The wheel I bought for my first build was from a U.S. company that buys motors from China and laces them into wheels domestically. It came apart just like yours. It was seriously out of true from day one. It had burs around the nipple wholes in the double wall that gave me multiple flats before I found the problem. It was bad. I then did three more bike conversions with wheels from BMS batteries and they were laced solid and all of them true. Go figure. It is probably more about the experience and/or emotional state of the guy working the day your wheel got built as the company and country you buy it from.

I would suggest either taking any new motorized hub wheel from China or the U.S. to a bike shop to be trued and dished or get a spoke wrench and learn how to do it yourself on your bike. You don't need a truing stand. I did and it is pretty basic. Lots of Youtube videos showing how. There are a few North American vendors with stellar reputations that are probably an exception to the above and not only do excellent lacing but use higher quality rims and spokes. They also cost a lot.

 

[TheBeastie]

After about a month of riding, the BMSB-built wheel had spokes coming loose like crazy. After every other ride there'd be 2-6 spokes that were completely loose (could re-screw the nipple on using my fingers).

Took it to the shop to get rebuilt. Needed new spokes custom ordered from Phil Woods.

Recommendation: Don't buy motors pre-laced into a wheel from BMSB. Just get the motor and build it into a wheel when it arrives. Yea, might be more expensive, but you'll offset some of the wheel building costs on cheaper shipping from China.

Yeah I have bought two prebuild wheels from BMSB years apart and both where just thrown together and the spokes loosen up and break really quick. Looking at your rim it looks like the exact same rim they sent me, those rims are really ordinary quality as far as I am concerned, they are blank with no name/brand they are super entry level, they seem like the rim thats normally strictly reserved for the poorest of the poor for farmers etc in China, I bought a 'budget' brand name rim from chainreactioncycles and it was still 5 times better quality, all black with stylish writing on it etc, crazy thing is that it was still good value ordering from the USA from Australia.

Shipping a complete wheel from china ends up being a big box, comparatively a small motor/controller etc ends up being a much small box thus cheaper shipping.
If folks still want to source gear from BMSb it still makes more sense to order the motor etc and get some one locally to build it, seriously I absolutely bet my life with max conviction you will save money and have a much better wheel in the long run.

I rebuilt my wheel my self with spokes and rim sourced elsewhere about 6 months ago and its been great.
Looking back at BMSb's wheel builds its like they are so bad that I can't help but ponder that they actually have a secret policy of deliberately building the worst wheel possible as punishment for ordering a prebuilt wheel from them, but I can't understand why they would want to do that but seriously and honestly the evidence suggests this is the most logical conclusion.

 

[Ykick]

I’ve often wondered about the Chinese wheel builds they send US customers? TBH, the fact they suck for many of us might just be that Chinese people generally weigh much less than caucasian cultures?

Perhaps Chinese wheel builds work just fine for the majority of customers in China?

140lbs rider is much less stress and wheel load than 240lbs. Plus, the fact we over volt this shit to much higher speeds…

But anyway, as I just mentioned in another reply - For my purposes I've yet to see a Chinese built hub motor wheel worth the extra cost to ship it.

 

[emotate]

Interesting. The builds I did with BMSB wheels were done on the cusp of winter and the people I did them for have yet to ride them hard. None of them are light weights. I may be in for some serious issues come spring.

 

[Ykick]

Interesting. The builds I did with BMSB wheels were done on the cusp of winter and the people I did them for have yet to ride them hard. None of them are light weights. I may be in for some serious issues come spring.

Maybe things have gotten better (I doubt it) but now might be a good time to start practicing your wheel building chops?

Lucky for us, 1-cross hub motors are probably the easiest wheels to lace compared to 3/4-cross stuff. But if you’re new to truing, definitely take time to get comfortable with any bicycle wheel at your disposal.

Read up as there’s a pretty good master thread for wheel building but for a quick start, I use 13/14ga "single butted spokes" from Danscomp (gotta call and ask for those, give ‘em lengths). Rims - Alex DM24 for 26”/20” and Sun CR18 for my 700c/27” efforts.

 

[cwah]

Any good or bad review from EUEXP from aliexpresa orders?

 

[A..dam]

Did anyone actually check if those cells match Panasonic NCR specs?
The green plastic battery wrap might be fake, so actual testing of batteries is a must.
https://bmsbattery.com/ebike-battery/734-36v116ah-bottle-ebike-battery-pack-with-charger-battery.html
Thanks, A

 

[motomech]

Yes, they use the real thing. It's been documented both here and @ Pedelecs UK.