Motor kit selected, now battery time

[johndoe]

I want to take a seconds to say thank you again to all of you for helping me with my first e-bike. I seriously would not have been able to do this without you guys!
And thanks to Dogman for replying with such detailed info!

Ok so I have picked out the motor kit Aotema...

Now it's battery and case time.
So I have this thing where I want to know I can go very far without pedaling should the need arise. So I need to get something that's 36V and has 20Ah capacity...
I believe that should take me about 30 miles with no pedaling at ~20mph?

So... Ping is obviously the easy way out but is too expensive. My budget is max $450 ( I have to buy a case and rack as well)...

So I have been reading about these "Headway" cells on here and it seems they are pretty good. From what I understand they are individual batteries that I would have to connect together to get the voltage/ah that I need?
How can I calculate how many of these single batteries I will need? And what do you guys think of me going with this option? Would it be that much cheaper? I saw some pics on the battery building thread, and while I do not know the details yet, I think I should be able to cut out some holes with a drill in a cutting board, glue/tape the cells together, attach a BMS etc... So what do you guys say?

Also, what bag/rack can you recommend? I was thinking of going with the Topeak slide-on one but there are so many different version of the slide-on and I am not sure which one has the ideal dimensions to carry the controller and 36v20ah batteries.

 

[MattDog]

I really doubt you can even build an A123 pack for $450...let alone a Headway which would be $700-$900 easy...depending on your flavor of BMS.

You're going to be doing either prismatic LifePo4 ala Ping....or NiMh in your price range.

Unless someone here on ES has a used pack....I'm thinking Ping is your boy.

 

[johndoe]

Got it, thanks. I guess Iw ill have to spend $550 on a Ping then?

What do you guys think of Lau Chan/Emma.
They seemed really nice in the email correspondence that I had with them and assured me that they would take care of me if any issues came up.
Price $450

 

[MattDog]

If you're overvolting or going 48v then Ping I think still sells his 48v 10ah batt for $348+70 ship=$414US....obviously the more cells/ah/beefier BMS=more $$

If you're staying at 36v...why not Jason Kraft? http://e-bikekit.com/shop/

He's got both a prismatic and a cell based box.....

 

[johndoe]

Jason's 10Ah is the same price as Ping's 20Ah...

I'm definitely going at least 15Ah.. But I would prefer 20Ah just in case...

 

[MattDog]

Someone posted a link here...to a Headway 48v 10ah rig for $379...I am SURE it is in China and shipping is another 10-20%...but there apparently are some cheap options out there!

 

[johndoe]

oops, just realized I posted in the wrong forum. Can we delete this as I posted it in the correct one?

Thanks MAttDog, but I really need to get the 20Ah, I don't think 10 would be enough for me.