does or did WE have a bad rep and why

[rbelisle1]

Ive read lots of post about WE hubs being sort of the bottom the of barrel. Ive read about charger issues and controler issues, burnt out motors But, on the ohter hand, Ive read about the same things with all of the other brands. I run a WE BL36 with 500 plus miles on it. No problems. I also run a rebuit EV global over volted to 36 volts, no problems there either. Are the negative comments about WE, just because of past issues or maybe they cant take overvolting or??????

thanks in advance.

 

[dogman dan]

I think WE is just as good, (poor) quality as most other stuff out there, but sadly lacks somebody like Justin at Ebikes-ca to push the level of reliability and service up to the next level. Last summer, a lot of vendors jacked the price up to the same as the crystalite motors and I don't think they were worth that. But now you can get em under $400 again shipped, so they fill a bargain niche pretty good. I don't know if they are better than the goldens or not, but as an entry level product they are ok by me. I liked my first brushed motor a lot, and bought another, but I havewn't tried the brushless one. At 36v they seem to be pretty reliable, once you get a good controller. Nothing but chargers and my own stupidity gave me any trouble untill I rode a motor to death in severely hot weather. I can't fault the motor on that one, uphill for a full hour in 110F is pretty harsh. There have been a few folks with frustrating experiences with controllers like the replacement one not working too, but that is what I mean by lacking somebody like Ebikes-ca. Stuff really ought to be tested before it gets sent to the customer. The factory can't be trusted.

 

[docnjoj]

My W/Es are quite old and were manufactured by Crystalyte about 8 years ago. They are brushed and still run fine as backups for my more "sophisticated" geared motors. They are still very quiet and reliable. My wife runs her original in a 16" front wheel of her Bike-e for about 8 years at about 40-50 miles a week! Something to be said for old tech!
otherDoc

 

[HornetB]

I have a new BL36.

I'm personallty quite happy with it but I also knew very well what to expect with the kit from reading here so my expectations were low. I understood that there was a very good chance of broken spokes, bent rim, maybe a bad charger. I was ok with that as I planned to replace the rim and relace anyway down the track. I got a very good price on a new but technically used kit ($180, it was open box, seen to be damaged slightly) so for me those risks were worth it. When it arrived it did have the slightly bent rim, dings in the rim edge and a flat spot (how it came from the factory and hence my good price). One spoke was stripped and some others bent. I replaced the spoke, trued the wheel and everything has been fine.

Now, had I purchased the kit brand new at full price expecting to unwrap, bolt on and ride i would have been disappointed and probably quite angry. I wouldn't have been happy with it as it arrived so I can see where some people's disappointment comes in, and justified too I think. Better packing might help the issue, or stronger rims and properly tensioned spokes may prevent some of the damage. But this is something that should come from the factory i think, it really does seem that they have a problem but yet they have done nothing to fix it.

Otherwise the kits itself has been quite good I think. The motor is strong, my controller is working fine and I've had no other issues. But I haven't done huge miles on it yet but I think it should be quite long lasting so we'll see what happens.

 

[dogman dan]

Yeah , what he said. For it to come in that condition may be ok when you pay around $350, but some vendors were getting like $550, and then it arrives with loose spokes and a charger that goes poof. At crystalite prices it should come serviced like one. I think the WE vendors should do just a bit of testing, like one 50% discharge cycle on the whole kit first, and true the wheel, then send it out. A good tech could do several kits an hour if he had the test rigs to run 4 motors at a time.

 

[Anonymous]

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[dirtdad]

WE is a good starter kit I would say. I have a BL36 myself. I agree with the above remark, they have no technical support. Their workaround seems to be that they give replacement parts with no hassle. I have gone through 2 controllers. Each time I call with a problem they just ship me a new controller. Now I have the new sensorless model. I even got one when I was slightly past the end of the warranty. They have a good customer database when you buy from them direct (http://www.werelectrified.com) as I did.

Limitations: It is front only, no disc brakes, thumb throttle only, at least right now. The SLA batts it comes with are good for maybe 100 cycles. If you are really going to use your bike to commute or whatever, plan on a new battery again soon. The rack that comes with the kit is very low end. The battery bag is pretty flimsy, but will probably last as long as the batts. The bag does not completely secure the batteries, they can rattle around on rough roads and even get disconnected. The controller is 36V 20A or so, not 50A as they claim. I and many others have reported burning out the controller when using it with 48V. Others report using 48V for a long time with no trouble. The motor works fine with Crystalyte and Infineon controllers, I have had them both working with the motor.

The current BL36 motor itself seems very nice. I have had 72V through it and it handled it fine, my speeds were around 33mph or so if I remember right. I have not had a Crystalyte 408 to compare with, but it seems pretty comparable by all accounts.

 

[dogman dan]

I'm very happy with my WE bike, but I never paid more than $350 for one. When gas was edging towards 5 bucks people had to pay whatever the vendor asked, and then often found out delivery would take months.! Not good, but that was a vendor issue. Once you get a fully functioning kit together it seems to last pretty good just like the other brands. It's just too bad all the kits get sent out without a simple test first. A garanteed no second sale way to do buisness to me.