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My son is looking to put an ebike conversion kit on his mountain bike to help with the commute to work. This is in place of getting a car or a motorbike.
Those of you that have done this, what did you learn on the way and what did you end up buying?
Current plan is 48v and 1000w due to the Yorkshire hills.
Commute is uphill home all the way.
Current plan is 48v and 1000w due to the Yorkshire hills.
Has he checked the legality of that?
Not only is it illigal. Why would you go for a massive motor and only a 48v battery.
Those must be some hills in Yorkshire! I can get up Scottish Munros with my 36V 250W Tongsheng conversion, and it's legal unlike a 48V 1000W "ebike" which will effectively be a motorbike.
Likewise, my 250w ebike can get me up anything up to about a 12% gradient with pretty much no effort at all on my part. If I didn't have long COVID I'd be absolutely flying up them.
I would also strongly, strongly advise getting something from a reputable brand. The reports you see of ebike batteries setting a house on fire are always the dodgy ones you see gaffa taped to deliveroo bikes that zip around at 30mph, bought on the cheap off AliExpress. Please be careful!
The reports you see of ebike batteries setting a house on fire are always the dodgy ones you see gaffa taped to deliveroo bikes that zip around at 30mph, bought on the cheap off AliExpress. Please be careful!
reminds me of a chap who rang in on a phone in to say his ebike had caught fire, despite being a really expensive one. Nearly £600.
I have a tongsheng conversion and a la Pierre bottom of the range.
The proper bike is streets ahead of the conversion. My friends decathlon ebike is also very good.
Both of my bikes are fully legal but the la Pierre is so much more powerful.
If funds allow I'd recommend something already done.
Putting aside discussions of legality I always felt my 250w rear wheel conversion was a little weak. The battery was a nice chunky one too but it was a steel gravel bike set up as a commuter with slick tyres. Maybe I was just going too fast for it to be man enough to aide me (had it derestricted and it wasn't really able to help much beyond 20mph... naturally all on private roads
Mid mount kits are the best. Tongsheng and bafung are the common ones. Rear wheel second best and front wheel a poor third.
Ive used a tongsgeng kit. Works well and rides nicely.
Going for a more powerful motor means less range
@tj. Does that logic hold true for both off and on road? I've no experience, can't recall why I went rear (oh yes, cheap and perceived it as an easier install).
I've also recently fitted a Tongsheng to my recumbent. Bearing in mind the points above about cheap batteries, I've equipped mine with a pair of 18V (genuine, branded) Makita power tool batteries, which cost me a little over £100 with the charger. Only 5ah capacity but that's enough for 20km around hilly Newport, and I can always get a second set for longer rides.
If the purpose is purely commuting then it's well worth considering what minimum battery size you can get away with for the journey in question - the battery is both expensive and heavy so cutting back here has definite benefits. Why risk a cheap battery with unused capacity, when for similar money you can fully utilise a smaller, lighter, safer battery.
Quote: "Maybe I was just going too fast for it to be man enough to aide me (had it derestricted and it wasn’t really able to help much beyond 20mph… naturally all on private roads"
Power required to overcome wind resistance goes up with the cube of the speed, so yes! 20mph+ on the flat will require ~2.1/2 times the power of 15mph.
My 36V 250W Tongsheng conversion is a little underpowered. I expect it is putting out 250W, but I think the conversion kits are either over-stating or being honest about their power, while the built-as ebikes are under-stating their power to meet the regulations. I don't really understand how a Levo can legally have a 565W motor while conversions are limited to 250W. It's a pity Tongsheng don't make a '250W continuous power motor' that actually puts out 400W.
@PhilO. OH wow, I had no idea of the exponential increase for such a small amount of extra speed.
I should really sell the kit while it's worth something still. Bike too (steel gravel bike) but it's perfect for around here (byways/tracks of West Berkshire) so have in my head ii'll get out and ride that more than the full sus.
I'd rather do a CBT and get a 125 than ride one of these awful homebrew e-bikes. It's less likely to burn your house down for a start.
@sl2000. The Levo's quoted 565W will be its peak power, which is actually surprisingly low for a 48V system. A 36V "250W" TSDZ2 can easily reach 500W with a fully charged battery when drawing only around 12 amps. (I had a power meter on my system when I first fitted it.)