EM3ev MAC 50 volt kit with battery

[headwind]

Another friend has been bitten by the e-bike bug! This means that kabbage's Avanti commuter now has at least 7 indirect offspring. While they're all rear geared hub mountain bikes, there's quite a range of approaches used. This latest one uses the EM3ev kit (MAC50V1KWLTBAT), the most unique aspect of which is the use of the 18650 cells for the battery.

The battery is a work of art! Tucked inside a triangle bag, it is nicely integrated into the bike and doesn't attract attention. The controller also fits into the bag, making for a very neat setup, however it does get quite toasty. Therefore it will probably need to be relocated before summer. With 18.5Ah, it makes for a great long-distance plug'n'play commuter battery. The charge rate is quite low- 2 hours to recharge after a 25km trip. However, this isn't really a problem since the battery is happy to sit on the shelf at full charge (unlike RC LiPo). The only real drawback to charging is that I'm told the fan in the charger (which is always on, despite the lack of heat while charging) is quite loud.

And the bike's performance? Damn, it's fast! I guess 40A @ 50v will do that!! I only had a quick ride but the acceleration and top speed was fantastic. It's owner says it blitzes up steep hills, easily able to maintain over 35km/h. However, the electronics are dissapointing on a few levels. The twist throttle has very poor modulation, it feel like it's either on or off, making it very hard to hold a constant speed at part-throttle.The 3 speed switch partly compensates, but it is nonetheless by far the worst throttle control of the 5 or so e-bikes I have ridden. Also, there are concerns about the quality of the wiring and controller- an early failure was due to one of the pins backing out of the connector.

The MAC motor also has quality issues. It has a lot of wobble on it (both sideways and up/down), making it unable to get the disc brake properly adjusted. My friend is also worried about its effect on lifespan of bearings etc. This has been reported to EM3ev, who, now seem to be ignoring my friends' emails, which is very disappointing.

The bike is running a ridiculously wide rear tyre. He's not fussed by it, but apparently it's because EM3ev's wheel choice is limited to either puny (and weak) or very large. It only juuuust fits in his frame.

Verdict: the battery is brilliant, everything else is not.

 

[rider95]

I have a mac 10t kit from EM3ev also their is very little side to side and no up down movement from my motor , but yes it is a pain trying to get the rotor to fit you have to space it out from the hub using washers or spacers . Also the Alex rim that came with my hub Lasted all of 50mi on just paved bike path first one spoke broke then another all the spokes came lose . So I had to have it relaced to a new rim which as been great, as for Paul answering your E-mail lol good luck I have been waiting 2 weeks now from my last e mail to him and when he did answer my mail I couldn't get a straight answer from him about how to safely charge my battery I have saved all my e mail exchanges with him their kind of funny . But that said Paul did refund some $600 over a battery I bought from him it was bigger then he told me it would be and it just wouldn't work on my bike I forwarded it to another customer

 

[Mundo]

I have to agree about the spokes that come on the EM3ev kits....I hit a small pot hole and lost three spokes. I repaired the wheel, the next small pot hole I hit broke 5 spokes. Since then the wheel been re-laced, seems to be ok.

 

[headwind]

as for Paul answering your E-mail lol good luck I have been waiting 2 weeks now from my last e mail to him

It's always frustrating that some companies respond immediately when you are a potential customer, but once they've got your money suddenly they're nowhere to be found

 

[JoeyJoJoJr]

I purchased the same kit. Have had an issue with a clicking noise but Paul has been responsive and has sent out the parts necessary to fix the problem as soon as he had a reasonable idea as to what the problem was.

The kit itself isn't too bad, controller and battery are excellent, motor is pretty good and seems to handle the power well. I agree that mine has a bit of play which appears to be due to the spokes not tightened properly. Should be easy to sort out once my main issue is fixed. I've found the connectors to be quite good quality apart from for the hall sensor and some of the controller accessories which I will replace when waterproofing.

 

[versa]

I purchased the Em3EV Mac 10t 50volt kit earlier this year with the Alex DX32 Rim, I did dent the DX32 rim, but to be fair I hit a full curb at 25 mph. I replaced it with a new DX32 rim and relaced the old spokes and have not had a problem. Its got 600+ miles on it so far. I am very happy with it. I commute 16 miles round trip to work most days on it at 22mph avg.
The only problem I have is the 14AH battery in the trianagle bag is slowly ripping a hole in the top of the bag. Either it is too heavy or I tightened it too much. I haven't tried any other ebikes, but I do agree the half throttle on the em3ev bike does seem to be mostly on or off. Not much variation, so I use the 3 position switch.

 

[emcee]

I have a had an em3ev kit for about a year now. When I received the kit the motor axel wore a hole in the triangle bag. I let Paul know, not expecting much, but he sent me a new bag and a tester. The only thing I am disappointed in is the throttle. I have a habit of letting it snap back to zero. This caused an issue because the stop is very weak. I fixed it by putting a machine screw in place of the stop. I agree modulation has room for improvement but with practice it can be done. I slipped the clutch playing around with phase current and hit too hard off the line. I think I was running 150a phase. It got progressively worse over the last few months so I have recently replaced it. It was cheap to repair and took about 30 min. Three weeks ago I hit a very deep pothole at full speed, 65km/h and broke two spokes. Ordered some from ebike.ca as they close and replaced them. Other than the throttle I can account all of my problems on either my stupidity or inattention. No complaints with the kit. I do not have a battery from Paul I built a custom 14s 10p pack out of Samsung INR-18650-29e.

 

[cox308]

Reading this makes me a bit worried since I just ordered a kit from them.

Does anyone know if Ev3em was using the Sapim 13awg spokes in the failures above^^^ or is the Sapim an updated spoke they now use as of 2/5/15?

Would it be as adviseable to have the wheel rebuild with 12awg spokes before I even try the stock set up? Please advise.

Mahalo!

 

[cox308]

Reading this makes me a bit worried since I just ordered a kit from them.

Does anyone know if Ev3em was using the Sapim 13awg spokes in the failures above^^^ or is the Sapim an updated spoke they now use as of 2/5/15?

Would it be as adviseable to have the wheel rebuild with 12awg spokes before I even try the stock set up? Please advise.

Mahalo!

To ansewer my own question:

I got in touch with Paul about my consern and asked if I could get my wheel with 12awg spokes instead of 13awg. He replied that 13awg is the biggest they offer and ever since switching to Sapim spokes be a has not heard of any more broken spoke issues.

 

[joepah]

Reading this makes me a bit worried since I just ordered a kit from them.

Does anyone know if Ev3em was using the Sapim 13awg spokes in the failures above^^^ or is the Sapim an updated spoke they now use as of 2/5/15?

Would it be as adviseable to have the wheel rebuild with 12awg spokes before I even try the stock set up? Please advise.

Mahalo!

To ansewer my own question:

I got in touch with Paul about my consern and asked if I could get my wheel with 12awg spokes instead of 13awg. He replied that 13awg is the biggest they offer and ever since switching to Sapim spokes be a has not heard of any more broken spoke issues.

Poor spoke quality and assembly seem to be a very common problem with Chinese supplied wheels. Instead of waiting for the inevitable, just removed the tire and check the spoke nuts, spoke poke, true and tension when you get the wheel.. If you're not up to that take it to an LBS.. It will be worth the time and money up front.

 

[headwind]

Poor spoke quality and assembly seem to be a very common problem with Chinese supplied wheels. Instead of waiting for the inevitable, just removed the tire and check the spoke nuts, spoke poke, true and tension when you get the wheel.. If you're not up to that take it to an LBS.. It will be worth the time and money up front.

+1

My experience isn't with these guys, but anyway I had a bit of a saga keeping the wheel true. Turned out it was due to weak spokes that were laced incorrectly.

If I'd got the LBS to fix these problems while I was building the bike, it would have saved a lot of hassle.