Least expensive reasonable ebike

[cbr shadow]

After seeing my build (even though it's not even done yet) a friend of mine likes the idea of an ebike and wants to do a build himself. He doesn't have a lot of money and wants to keep it as inexpensive as possible, but still have an ebike that will last a little while if taken care of.
I was thinking the best way to go right now is Yescomusa 48v kit and a Ping battery.. what do you think?
He's thinking he'll use his current mountain bike (Specialized Rock Shocks, or something similar) I'll need to look into what material his frame/dropouts are made from.
What's the best value, least expensive ebike you can come up with that isn't total garbage? I've heard good things about yescomusa and about ping.

 

[Drunkskunk]

yescomusa sells toy boats, and pattio furnature, and has adds for cottencandy machines with popcorn makers for the picture. (top right pic seen here: ) http://www.yescomusa.com/skin/common_files/myimages/featured.jpg

They aren't an ebike vendor, the're a clearing house of everything. I might take a risk on the motor but I wouldn't recomend someone new do it without dedicated customer support from a vendor who knows and loves ebikes.

For rock bottom prices from someone who knows the buisness and has excilent customer servce, I'd recomend Cell_man at emmisions-free.com.
Ping for the batteries is great.

 

[John in CR]

Cheapest would be to pick up a used motor and controller (a 9C combo just went for $150 in the for sale section of the forum), HobbyKing's 4s hardpacks are in stock in the US warehouse and cheap (only under condition that he gets a real education on safest use of Lipo and has a place to keep the battery or the bike in a fire resistant location with a smoke alarm), buy a throttle, buy 2 cheapie multimeters (one to use voltage as a fuel gauge and the other to regularly check balance of the pack), and make some better than store-bought torque arms (needed regardless of frame material), get a good bulk charger set to a proper conservative cutoff voltage, and cannibalize a cell phone charger to use as a single cell charger to top off any cells.

That's for cheapest way into the game, and the first place I'd spend more money is on a good RC charger like an iCharger. If he's not the type who can be responsible enough for lipo, then go for a Ping battery or similar.

John

 

[lbz5mc12]

He could get the Currie electrodrive kit. The cheaper kit comes with 24v sla but he could always buy a better lithium battery pack. It won't haul ass but my roommate uses one and it holds up pretty well and he's not that careful with it. He could also buy a 16 tooth left side freewheel on amazon. This increases the speed from 15 to about 20mph. Also I don't know how reliable the batteries are on BMSbattery.com but they seem to have some pretty good deals even with shipping. There's a 36v controller and throttle combo on monsterscooterparts.com for $67.00 plus shipping. He could use this and get a 36v battery and over volt the motor. I over volted my Skyline and it's top speed is like 30mph now. The Currie kit is pretty easy to install unless he's using a full suspension frame. Also if he goes with Currie he'll have customer support and a warranty which they are pretty good about honoring. He'll just have make sure he doesn't tell them about any modifications if he needs to use the warranty.

 

[RyanTo]

He could get the Currie electrodrive kit. The cheaper kit comes with 24v sla but he could always buy a better lithium battery pack. It won't haul ass but my roommate uses one and it holds up pretty well and he's not that careful with it. He could also buy a 16 tooth left side freewheel on amazon. This increases the speed from 15 to about 20mph. Also I don't know how reliable the batteries are on BMSbattery.com but they seem to have some pretty good deals even with shipping. There's a 36v controller and throttle combo on monsterscooterparts.com for $67.00 plus shipping. He could use this and get a 36v battery and over volt the motor. I over volted my Skyline and it's top speed is like 30mph now. The Currie kit is pretty easy to install unless he's using a full suspension frame. Also if he goes with Currie he'll have customer support and a warranty which they are pretty good about honoring. He'll just have make sure he doesn't tell them about any modifications if he needs to use the warranty.

One of the problems I had with the Currie is it's so noisy it really bugges me. Also when I'm riding with or by others and I feel like I'm ruining the ambiance. I first bought the skyline but then got a mac kit from cell man. The Mac is so much better it makes the skyline/Currie drive feel inadequate now. The MAC so much quieter, less noticable, and has much better power. I can hardly even hear the MAC when cruising at 20 mph, and it jumps off the line. Sure, if he's on a really tight budget.. but also I noticed the added freewheel for the motor means a larger gap in the rear forks is required.. or atleast my skyline has too wide of a gap in back for my other motor kits. But, maybe other people have done it(add a currie to a regular bike)?

 

[veloman]

Methods has a bunch of slow wind 9c front wheels for real cheap. 20mph on a 48v pack.

 

[dogman dan]

There's a good idea. Get the front hub 2810, and a 48v 15 ah pingbattery. Save about 100 on other sources of genuine 9c motors. Really good choice if your area is notoriously steep hilly. Otherwise, your buddy might greatly prefer a motor with a faster top speed.

Long as he has you for support though, nothing wrong with the idea of going with the cheapest kit you can find, such as the yes com usa source. Or a used bargian on the for sale used section of the forum.

Some might suggest the sunthing battery as a cheaper alternative than ping, but I need to see a few more good reviews before we give him an A1 vendor rating.

Steer him towards a 15 ah lifepo4 with a bms, unless he's already well aquainted with RC lipo toys. If he's not got more than $500, then he needs to lower his standards and get a currie motor, like on the E zip bikes. Wallmart, ship to store. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ezip-Trailz-Men-s-Electric-Bike/15773448

But if he can squeak out a $700 budget, then a cheap motor kit would be better for the long haul. He could go with either lead or a very small lipo pack battery, and then upgrade to a good size long riding pingbattery later.

 

[wesnewell]

I'd guess yescomusa sells more kits than anyone else in the US. Reason is probably price with free shipping. I've bought 3 from them since 02/2011. All are still working fine. I've got ~6k miles on the 48V 1000W kit and haven't had any problems with it even though I've been running it on 24s lipo (88.8-100.8V) with a different controller. I modded one of the controllers that came with a 500W kit from 30A to 42A and it;s still working fine after more than a year. They are basically the same parts as you would get with any kit. Motors are marked as Goldenmotor motors. The 48V 1000W kit provides the best value imo. The one thing I don't like about them is that they don't come with rim tape under the tire. You will quickly end up with a flat tire if you don't remove the tire and install some rim tape. I just used friction tape and it's held up good. While their tire is good quality, they were all 1.5" 85psi tires. I replaced those with 2.X tires anyway. Over time I also replaced the battery cable with 10awg wiring, a spark elimination resistor and a different fuse and connectors to match my battery packs. The original kits are pretty easy to install. The little 2A chargers they ship with them are crap, just like you get with most kits, but you likely won't use them anyway.
Whatever battery you decide on, make sure it is capable of a 30A draw, because that's the controllers max amp rating. Personally, I use nothing but rc lipo because it's smaller, lighter, more powerful, more configurable, cheaper, and easier to fix should there be a problem, than any other battery chemistry out there at this time.

 

[dogman dan]

Yes, the 1000w kit would need a big battery if you went with ping, or similar lifepo4. 30 amps is a pretty stout controller.

Another approach to inexpensive is to get a lower wattage kit. For example, the muxus gearmotor kit from Emissions Free. With just a 15 amp controller, a 350 watt gearmotor kit will only need a 36v 10 ah pingbattery. While the 30 amp controller would require at least 20 ah, or somthing much stronger like the lipo batteries.

Step one would be to determine what your buddy is more interested in, a fast bike, or just a little help that maximizies efficiency so the battery can be cheap.

 

[dogman dan]

Emissions free kit + 36v 10 ah pingbattery would be about $700 shipped. Still fairly pricy, but youd have about 20 mph for about 12-15 miles. With the gearmotor, you could pedal unpowered to extend range even farther.

 

[kentlim26]

least expensive kits, will start from 24v ebike kit, a Hub motor New one ? 24v hub motor weight will be also much lighter as well. Sure a least expensive kit ? will you mind the speed going around 30km/h or lesser ? what is the min range you will like to run ? my opionion, a least expensive will start from the battery, and the kit can be anything 24v. if you feel the speed is too slow, you can start to consider a 36v power, or more to 48v . Starting from 6 cells, 10 cells, or ?

ken

 

[wesnewell]

If I wanted a lower amp controller, I'd just cut one of the shunts inside the 30A controller to make it a 15A controller. But I tend to want more power rather than less.

 

[dogman dan]

Yep, that would tone down the 30 amp controller. But at that low a power level, the little gearmotor might make a better ride than a big dd motor with not enough power. That's the one good thing about some gears, you get to have a good take off from a stop sign despite the low power. Same applies to the noisy E zips. Low power but amazing torque the way they geared the curries.

 

[kentlim26]

yes, is the 24v currie pro. even with old battery can run bike up to 28km/h + . battery weight is already under 1kg for a excellent choice for least expensive ebike. maybe 24v currie is choice, hub motor is also a choice, cyclone 24v is okay. cyclone 24v is repaireable ! honest speaking, i do like currie very much that was more then 1 decade ago!,

kent

 

[dogman dan]

The currie can be a good choice for those on tight budgets. Real good for shorter distances. I couldn't stand to listen to one for a twice a day 15 mile commute though. In any case, that kind of distance requires at least $1200 budget anyway. For that distance, it's all about the cost of a big battery.

 

[lbz5mc12]

You know what I kinda like the noise my Currie makes. It used to annoy me but now when I fly by a pedestrian/other cyclist, I like to give it full throttle and make a lot of noise. It's kinda like "neener, neener, neener, I've got a motor and you don't". It's my way of getting back at all the "pure" cyclists that make fun of us for using motors. They don't talk that much shit during the summer because their mouths are too busy sucking wind in 100+ degree heat.

 

[veloman]

You know what I kinda like the noise my Currie makes. It used to annoy me but now when I fly by a pedestrian/other cyclist, I like to give it full throttle and make a lot of noise. It's kinda like "neener, neener, neener, I've got a motor and you don't". It's my way of getting back at all the "pure" cyclists that make fun of us for using motors. They don't talk that much shit during the summer because their mouths are too busy sucking wind in 100+ degree heat.

I still have yet to experience this. I've never got a bad reaction from a pedaler. And by the way, the 'pure' cyclists likely enjoy the work of pedaling, even in the heat. Why else would they do it? Sure, some less well off people pedal bikes because it's cheap transportation, but they likely aren't the type to get mad at you.

- Signed: Road cyclist as sport and ebiker for transportation

 

[lbz5mc12]

Actually the bike mechanic at my local bike shop went off on me about ebikes. Then he started bragging about his mustang. Anyways I was just trying to be a little humorous. I try not to go to the bike shop anymore and I've learned to do most of my repairs and maintenance myself.

 

[Jason27]

Most bike shops hate electric bikes. They just won't touch them.

 

[999zip999]

I go with 88v it took me 4yrs. from, lead, ping, Konion 60v-74v. than 88v A123 20ah. It took me 4 plus years. Me caveman sometime fast sometime slow. Buy a Ping and get a start 15ah plus. Cheapest way out there. Plug and play ungrade charger. SIMPLE.

 

[wesnewell]

Seeing all the problems reported on lifepo4 packs just confirms to me I made the right choice going direct to rc lipo.