Newbie here

thanks guys. I'm still waiting to hear from Jason and how to best contact him.

I thought my old bike was good enough, no? Cro-Mo frame?
 
I bet old cro-mo is perfect. Drag it to N.J. as Jason suggests and tell them he sent you. I bet they will treat you like a king.

Re: Newbie here
by JasonEBK » Sun Oct 25, 2009 5:38 pm

JohnDoe,

You're welcome to make the trip to the E-BikeKit warehouse located at 204 N Union St, Lambertville, NJ 08530. We're happy to have you come down and test ride a bike with one of our rears. You can bring your bike to make sure everything will match up fine if that suits you. Just contact us before coming. We're in 9-5 Mon-Fri. Reach out directly if you have any questions.

I know we can work with your budget too. We have some stuff there in perfect condition that we would label as refurbished for one reason or another.

Jason
 
Hey guys; Just spoke to Jason...

They only have the 9C motor...

From what I understand it will emit a whine, and is not silent by any means...

So I am still looking for a motor that is quiet and stealthy and will allow me to go up some hills with 36v battery...

Let's forget about the battery for a sec; which conversion kit motor would you guys suggest then?
I'm looking around ~$300-$350 range for said motor. Is this possible?

Also links would be great... Thanks for your help again.
 
The nine continents do make a little more noise due to the thinner side covers. I think the crystalyte 4 series are a little quieter because the side covers are thicker. All motors are going to make some noise. Letting off the throttle a little when cruising past the popo will help alot. And keep pedaling :lol: A nine continent is not stealthy due to its size. A 4 series or bafang is smaller but the bafang has gears making it noisier. I think the Aoteoma from hitech bikes I believe is smaller and not geared. I'll let dogman chime back in. He has one and did an extensive review here.
 
Mine is not always silent, but is too quiet for somebody in a car to hear. I consider it to sound stealthy enough. Its looks are more obvious than its sound, but that's what low hanging pannier bags are for.

If I pass a pedestrian on the sidewalk going uphill slowly at 4AM when there is almost no wind, they might hear a faint electrical sound from the bike. It's more quiet on level ground or downhill. Any noise gets drowned out by the wind most of the time. If I let off the throttle, no matter what speed I'm at, it is completely, 100% silent.
 
9c makes what's best described as a "winding up" noise under heavy throttle. If you back off the throttle and go 3/4 or less...the motor seems to get super quiet...I guess that would be ~14-17a for me...since I'm rated at 22a max. out of my controller. I really doubt that any motor (brushless or not) is going to be completely silent, I think your main problem with the 9c is sheer hub mass....it's a BIG motor...maybe 9" across...people are eventually going to figure out that it's a MOTOR...and they're going to figure it out sooner than later.

That being said the 9c is a great motor for the flat & level like NYC...it's snappy & responsive without being scary fast like the Crystalyte monster hubs...and with the right power plant...you can hunt down any human-powered rig with ease.
 
Cheap and reliable is gearless. Not saying gealrs are unreliable but for the price gearless is about as good as one needs. I sort of define gearless as a barebones motor.

Interesting the noise a motor makes is important. In NYC I see the importance of this. My gearless GM makes a bit of a grumble on the take offs, it got the nick name the camel. It is almost dead quite while cruising. Riding through town on a saturday night is great as I can get a safe distance past all the yahoos before they jeer. Not always, but people on alcohol and a passing ebike do not always mix. :roll:



HuaQiang North Road

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/HuaQiang-North-Road__W0QQ_armrsZ1

Some of the cheap controllers on Ebay are pretty good, Ecrazyman seems to do the best at a very reasonable price. I bought an Ecrazyman charger recently. Does as advertised, delivered from hong kong in record time and packed very well. CH products on ebay may appear cheap and 'ify" but the products delivered by some of the sellers are perfectly capable of being a reliable addition to your life.

Ping battery.

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/PingBattery__W0QQ_armrsZ1

I dont own one but many ES folk swear by them and the seller ping227 . Either I buy one of these or build my own.


For a cheap gearless Golden motor hub try any of these listed dealers.

http://www.goldenmotor.com/contact/contact.html

Some GM products.

http://www.goldenmotor.com/hubmotors/hubmotorIndex.html
 
Over at GM another review has hit the site for the Magic Pie. The young man reports the motor at 48v reaches 50kph (31mph) and acceleration, 0 to 45kph (27mph) in 5 seconds. Hey that ok for a 48v gearless. He also states he does a 4 meter run up a 50% grade hill, ummm still waiting for more reliable info.

http://goldenmotor.com/SMF/index.php?topic=1424.0

Bike: Fully susp. MTB with Topeak Defender mudguards, Zoom suspension, Front and rear disc brakes.
Protection: Axa CH-95 chain lock (art sertified)
Voltage: 48v (54.6v fully charged)
Top speed: 50 km/h
Range: 55 km (with pedaling 35 km/h to 40 km/h)
Acceleration: 0-45 in 5 secs
0-40 in 4 secs
Pedal start 5-40 in 3 secs

:shock: With pedals that's almost whiplash accelleration.

BTW a 4 meter run up a 50% grade is a bike ramp jump. :lol:
 
As soon as I get it (tomorrow) I'll be able to report on the noise level of the Ebike-kit front hub compared to my Fusin gearmotor, and my Aotema. But that one you can go and ride one and see for yourself.

A smaller front hub, avaliable for about $350 for the kit is the Aotema from High Tech bikes. Mine makes a bit of a grumble starting out, but is just about silent when up to about 15 mph. Pretty much all the motors make some kind of noise starting. Again, lots of people mistake mine for some kind of drum brake.

For the best combination of stealth and silence, you want a rear wheel crysyalyte 407. With pedaling, it will easily climb a 6-7% hill, and with vigorous pedaling at lower speed can climb 10%. It's noise level will be about like the aotema, silent when up to speed. It will cost about $100 more than the 9c or aotema front kits. Your best whack at something pretty stealthy in your price range is going to be the 8 ah nicads and this motor.

Many of the others have bigger diameter and are more noticable, like the 9c or golden. Or make some noise all the time, like gearmotors. The gearmotors aren't real loud, but they are not totally silent ever.

A few complete kits are out there in your price range, but all I've seen are front hubs. Fusin 36v gearmotor from World wide electricbikes, Ebike-Kit, and Aotema from High Tech bikes is the list of kits with battery under $800. Not including shipping.
 
wow thanks so much for the help guys! And yeah Dogman let me know how it compares, thanks.

So basically it cines down to the Aotema front Hub? The price seems reasonable.. and from the tings I've read on here it appears to be a pretty quiet motor.

I would still prefer the rear wheel though because of the stealth factor. So basically there is nothing that performs like the Aotema and is in the same price range for rear wheels? Except the 9C of course which is not exactly small and is obvious even on the rear wheel.
 
yeah Aotema is probably the way to go from http://hightekbikes.com/kits.html

It looks like they sell 36v controllers. If that's enough for you, that's cool. I use 48v on my bike. Anyway, if you want lots of range for cheap, might try looking at these batteries:
http://www.zbattery.com/CSB-EVX12200-SLA-Battery
12v 20ah batteries.

3 of them will be about 42lbs but it's doable. I got about 55 lbs of batteries on my bike. I'm using 12v9ah batteries and trust me, if you are going with SLA, you want more than 9ah. At least 15ah at the minimum if you are going with SLA. Lithium is a different story. On lithium, 10ah is enough.

I'm using the CSB brand though and they are pretty good. I got about 400 miles on mine so far and no sign of any problems.

You got these brands to choose from basically for motors

BMC
crystalyte
nine continent
aotema
bafang
Forsen
Heinzemann
goldenmotor
e-bikekit.com (not sure what they use)
 
Most of the motors start at about $400, though so that leaves you with basically Aotema or the ones from e-bikekit.com to choose from. I think the ninecontinent kit is about $450 but it could have gone down by now. I don't know.
 
If you really need rear hub, then you should pay the cost to get the crystalyte 407 rear hub from ebikes.ca.

I just recieved my E-BikeKit motor, and it is 9.5 inches diameter. The Aotema is 7.5, and the fusin gearmotor is 6 inches. I have to tell people that big aotema front hub is a motor. Very few people notice it that aren't familiar with it. Cops though, might spot it right away if trained to look for it.
 
SLA's might not be the best choice though if you are using it for riding to school so maybe nicads or NIMH would be your best choice but they are a bit more expensive. SLA's need to be charged immediately so SLA's are only good mostly for recreational users.

I never understood the whole point about stealth. I use a front motor and cops haven't hassled me yet and I've been riding for 8 months.
 
Okay so I pretty much decided to get the Crystalyte 407 like dogman suggested.

But I don't see any available at ebikes.ca.

I have 26" wheels on my mountain bike...
Also, the shifters that I have now, are of the twist type directly on the handles.
Does this mean that I will need to get a thumb throttle? If so, how exactly will this work? Am I going to have to constantly keep my thumb on the lever to have it work?
 
You will find that you won't need very many gears after going electric. I haven't been out of high gear since getting mine. But it is pretty flat where I live. You might be able to just use your 3 front rings though. Then you could do away with one shifter and use a twist throttle.
 
the 407 seems to be hard to get at the moment. I went searching.
www.poweridestore.com has the 408 kit, but it comes with SLA. If you go with them, go for the dual speed, 408/4011 kit. Its worth it.
www.cycle9.com had the 407 kits, but don't offerthem in the store right now. I dug around and found a page on the motors that said to email them for availibility.

www.Ebikes.ca used to have them. I would email Zev or Justin and see if they can get a rear 407 in a 26".
 
Thanks guys. I emailed Justin at Bikes.ca. he said it would cost me an extra $70! to get the 407 on a 26" wheel! which I think is a bit much... what do you guys think?

Also, I don't want to use the battery at all times so I want to pedal as well. so would want a couple of the rear cogs..

So, do I get a thumb throttle? how would this work? and how does it compare to twist? any suggestions?

BTW, thanks so much for your help everyone. I am so much closer now and it's very exciting.
 
I just got 30 miles or so on the new motor, and it is a bit louder than the aotema. All the motors I've had will make some noise, usually when starting up. I belive the clyte 400 series or the aotema are the quietest. Just a bit more loud than the 9 c is my fusin gearmotor. People I approach from behind do hear me coming on that. With the aotema, I have to be sure to honk as I approach walkers on the bike path to avoid startling them as I go by, so the aotema is definitely sneaky.

If the cost of the clyte is going to break the deal, just go for the aotema kit, and then put some kind of ghetto camoflage on it. Amazing how people will look away from ugly duct tape. For noise, put a jingle bell on the bike, and only the bell gets heard. Carry a radio. Adapt, improvise, overcome.

There was a couple 9c rear hubs on the for sale section of this forum, mabye get one of those, and put a playing card in the spokes? The 9c is not that freaking loud. It just makes a bit of a buzzing noise, but it definitely sounds like an electric motor. No way is it as loud as my cordless drills.
 
Thank you Dogman!

Quick question... How do I know if it's safe to have the Aotema on my fork?

It says "Cro-Mo Frame" on the frame. But not on the fork..

Also the front wheel is a quick release type. Would it be better for me to take a pic for you guys to help me out?
I just want to make sure that the fork won't break.

I'm actually deciding between the Clyte 407 and the Aotema right now. Justin said he would retrofit the 407 on a 26" for me but the total is pricey. If I could get the Aotema instead I will go for that option...

Lastly, I ordered a 36V20Ah LiFePO4 batter from Emma (Lau Chan). He sent me 2 dimensions I could have it in but I'm not sure which one to get. I would like to fit it into a slide on Topeak bag.. Any suggestions?

These are the 2 Dimensions Emma gave me:
272 x 145 x 110 mm
210 x143 x 145 mm
 
Use a magnet to test the forks. I can also testify the 9C is basically silent unless the motor is under heavy load due to hard acceleration or steep hill climbing. One other factor to consider - I believe the 9c is better than crystalyte in wet conditons. Ask Justin about that, since he sells both and is in Vancouver.
 
Guys, thank you so much for your help.
I have a quick question now. I see that jason is having a nice sale on the 9C motor. Do you guys think I should just go with this for the rear hub? His price of $160 seems really good and I will try to deal with the slight noise.

But I'm not sure if that specific model of the 9c would suit my needs on 26" wheels. Any suggestions?
 
the reason for recomending the 407 over the 9C was mainly the size. you can't hide the 9c the way you can a Aetoma or Clyte. Most of the 9C are big chrome eye catchers, but those sold by Ebikekit are black. That can help it hide some.



But $160 is a good deal!

The motors he has listed are lower speed windings. you will likely need to go with a 48 volt battery, and that may not make it as fast as the regular 9X7. it would climb hills a little better though. there are some advantages to that, but that motor hasn't been tested here as much as the faster versions.
 
Alright guys, thanks again for all of your help!
I know I stated I went with the Lau Chan battery but after reading some horror stories on here I canceled the order.

Final decision:

Aetoma front hub motor! I tested my fork with a magnet which stuck today which is good news!

However, the front wheel is a quick release, are you guys sure that's still okay?

Lastly, today my 3 feet kryptonite fugettaboutit(sp?) chain and u-lock came in. I went out on a bike ride and tried to look it to one of those street signs in Manhattan. Unfortunately I was not able to get the wheel, frame, and pole around the u-lock! Only thing that worked was the u-lock around the rear wheel and pole .

Which then made it impossible to lock the front wheel around the frame and pole (not long enough)! I am not sure what to do now, because I read that this should work and is the best method. Quite disspaointed but I'm gonna search some more threads on that. I just don't want my motor stolen in NYC :(

Any last suggestions before I order this motor?

Oh and I am ordering twist throttle. Even though I currently have twist shifters. I read that I wont really need to use the rear cogs that much so I'm thinking of just removing the rear controls. Any suggestions?
 
If you do want to use the rear cogs you could always put the shifter on the left. Take a little getting used to but doable.
 
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