My friend Dermot (from England) pointed me at these forums, and I have been lurking a while. I decided to post info on my current project.
I started with a 17 year old steel frame Nishiki mountain bike that I had lying around. I added a 500 watt Goldenmotor rear kit, some fenders from Planet Bike, and a rack for the battery pack. The standard rear caliper brakes were replaced with a V-brake setup.
I am currently running a 36 volt, 12AH SLA pack (kind of heavy and underpowered, but it's what I could afford for the moment). I had originally ordered the regenerative braking controller, but Goldenmotor sent me a standard controller instead (they said the regen controller was being sent separately from China - must be going on a slow boat, because it has been almost two months and I haven't received it yet).
The motor itself is great - it pulls me along at ~20mph with no problems, and has plenty of torque.
The rim that came with the rear wheel kit, however, was completely hopeless - thin and weak, with a flat spot where the ends came together. 
The fit and finish of the rear wheel left something to be desired as well - none of the spokes were tensioned correctly, and I had to tighten everything up before I could mount the kit on the bike; even after that, the wheel started wobbling badly after three weeks of riding. I ordered an Alex rim, and (with the help of one of my coworkers who is a big bikey nut) laced up a new rear wheel. That's when we discovered that one of the spoke nipples that came with the kit was stripped out (it looks like it came that way from the factory) - and, since Goldenmotor uses an odd size spoke (none of the bike stores in the Chicago area carried anything close to this size), I had to have the last spoke re-threaded to use a standard nipple. The new wheel works great - completely true, with no "grabby" spots on the rim brakes.
The front hub is a Sturmy-Archer "dynohub" with drum brakes (the generator/drum brake hub was on sale, cheaper than the drum brake only hub). The drum brakes are great! I will use the generator in the front hub to run some LED lighting (through a big enough "supercap" to keep the lights on for a while if I am stopped). Yeah, I know I could run the lights from the primary battery, but I want to have lighting at night if my battery goes flat and I have to pedal home. :?
Future upgrades include replacing the wimpy motor phase wires with something a bit more robust, going to a 48 volt regen braking controller, and a LiFePO4 battery pack.
I started with a 17 year old steel frame Nishiki mountain bike that I had lying around. I added a 500 watt Goldenmotor rear kit, some fenders from Planet Bike, and a rack for the battery pack. The standard rear caliper brakes were replaced with a V-brake setup.
I am currently running a 36 volt, 12AH SLA pack (kind of heavy and underpowered, but it's what I could afford for the moment). I had originally ordered the regenerative braking controller, but Goldenmotor sent me a standard controller instead (they said the regen controller was being sent separately from China - must be going on a slow boat, because it has been almost two months and I haven't received it yet).
The motor itself is great - it pulls me along at ~20mph with no problems, and has plenty of torque.
The rim that came with the rear wheel kit, however, was completely hopeless - thin and weak, with a flat spot where the ends came together. The fit and finish of the rear wheel left something to be desired as well - none of the spokes were tensioned correctly, and I had to tighten everything up before I could mount the kit on the bike; even after that, the wheel started wobbling badly after three weeks of riding. I ordered an Alex rim, and (with the help of one of my coworkers who is a big bikey nut) laced up a new rear wheel. That's when we discovered that one of the spoke nipples that came with the kit was stripped out (it looks like it came that way from the factory) - and, since Goldenmotor uses an odd size spoke (none of the bike stores in the Chicago area carried anything close to this size), I had to have the last spoke re-threaded to use a standard nipple. The new wheel works great - completely true, with no "grabby" spots on the rim brakes.The front hub is a Sturmy-Archer "dynohub" with drum brakes (the generator/drum brake hub was on sale, cheaper than the drum brake only hub). The drum brakes are great! I will use the generator in the front hub to run some LED lighting (through a big enough "supercap" to keep the lights on for a while if I am stopped). Yeah, I know I could run the lights from the primary battery, but I want to have lighting at night if my battery goes flat and I have to pedal home. :?
Future upgrades include replacing the wimpy motor phase wires with something a bit more robust, going to a 48 volt regen braking controller, and a LiFePO4 battery pack.
