velowave spirit

[horrornerd]

A friend has a velowave spirit with a busted controller for sale for cheap.

The controller is 100.00 on their site.

The bike.

Spirit Electric Road Bike

Electric commuter road bike is the good choice for daily use. Whether you're commuting from home to the beach, from the office to the cafe, through the hustle and bustle of the city.

www.velowavebikes.com

The controller.

Controller Replacement for Spirit

This is the controller replacement for VELOWAVE Spirit Electric Road Bike. Please check your model before order.

www.velowavebikes.com

The hub and wheel .

Rear Wheel with Motor for Spirit Road Electric Bike

Description 250w bafang motor/ alu rim & spokes Compatibility: For Spirit Electric Bike

www.velowavebikes.com

Id like to add a throttle and get a nice controller for any future upgrades , maybe a display but i do like the low key stock one. I work manual labor and have a big hill on my commute home so getting this bike more hill friendly would be a really nice bonus on those long days at work.getting better top speed would be nice as well.


My budget would be around 450.00 but id like to upgrade some bike parts as well. Id also need all tools and stuff required.

 

[amberwolf]

Some thoughts:

You might want to find out what happened that caused the controller failure, because they often die due to damage to the motor or motor cable, or from overstress from using outside the design intent of the system that can also damage the motor and / or battery.

If the system is older or has been used a lot or for a while, the battery may be degraded enough that you'll need a new one to do what you want. Good batteries will usually cost more than all the other parts combined. A cheap battery is usually not worth buying and may actually be a hazard.

The battery appears to be built into the frame, so any new battery you get (other than a direct original replacement) will end up either strapped to a rack front and/or rear, or have to be fit in the triangle or hanging under the downtube, or carried in a backpack by the rider.

If the system didn't originally come with a throttle and it isn't an option from them for this specific model/etc., you'd probably have to change out the controller (and display if it has one) for a new set that has all of the options you want the system to have, and works the way you want it to.

If you need more than the 250w the system was designed for, you'll also need to change the battery (which has to supply all the power, and will only be designed to supply the original amount) and probably the motor (if you need a lot more power for sustained efforts, though it can probably handle a bit more power for short bursts), at which point it may be cheaper to build a bike from scratch to do what you want, or buy one prebuilt that already does it.


To find out how much power you need, I'd recommend finding out the actual slope and length of the hills you have to deal with, and that of any other slopes on the roads/etc you ride, along with typical wind conditions, your weight and that of the bike and anything you have to carry with you, and the speed you need to go on each of the ride segments, and take that info to the simulators at ebikes.ca where you can guesstimate the power (watts) you need to do the job you need it to. It will also let you guesstimate the Wh (capacity) of the battery you'll need for the range you're after under those specific conditions. All that info will then let you find out if the bike will do what you want in the way it's already made, or if you have to rebuild it to do that job, and what "size" parts you'll need, which lets you guesstimate the cost of the parts you need to do it.

$450 is probably not enough to do what you want, depending on what you have to replace, unless you're scrounging used parts or really good deals for a while to find the tools and bike parts, and you don't need a new battery.

What specific bike parts do you need to replace, and what tools do you need to get?