Electric Bike Conversion Kit or Electric Bike?

Rilot said:
Thinking about converting my MTB with one of these Cyclotricity kits.
How big is the bottle battery? I can't seem to find any information on their site. My bike is a full sus and has less room in the triangle than a traditional bike.
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if you get the converting kit from cyclotricity, make sure you get the £100 'pedal assist & LCD display' as you can de-restrict in few clicks :cool:
 
Sorry for the slow reply, got slightly deluged by spam over the last couple of weeks, The limit can be increased to 40kph or reduced to increase the range. Given the natural limitations of a 250W motor I find it struggles to get past 33-35 kph on a full charge unless you’re going downhill where I’ve seen speeds as high as 45kph (one of the reasons I upgraded the front brakes so dramatically). The speed limiter is changed by entering the parameters mode… immediately after turning on the LCD, press and hold the up and down buttons together for a few seconds. A quick press of the power button takes you through the different options with the up/down buttons to change the settings… Press and hold the power button once finished to exit the parameters menu… I haven’t figured out what all of the different parameters are but One of them relates to wheel size, (20″, 26″, 29″, etc…), and one is for the motor speed limit (default 25). Increasing the speed limiter on ebikes should only ever be done when riding off-road or on private property, it’s illegal to ride de-restricted on the public highways.
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Rilot said:
Thinking about converting my MTB with one of these Cyclotricity kits.
How big is the bottle battery? I can't seem to find any information on their site. My bike is a full sus and has less room in the triangle than a traditional bike.
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Word of warning.
I was told that fitting kits to normal bikes shouldn't be done and if it is then an 'EN' test should be carried out on the bike to make sure it meets regulations.
I was talking to one bloke who bought a Claude Butler bike for £500, fitted a kit and a few months later the frame cracked so it was sent back to Claude Butler who said that kits shouldn't be fitted to their normal bikes so the warranty was void.
 
I thought it was quicker than 15mph, it was set on 40kmh which is 25mph :D

I thought it was a hidden setting you were sending me to but it's the normal setup page.
I've now set it to English speed and not French.
 
Wesley, can you spec me some inner tubes or haven't you bothered yet?
I woke up to a puncture Wednesday morning so patched it and it got me to work but I had to blow it up again for going home but called at Halfords for an inner tube.
Tonight I fitted the new inner tube but noticed the valve is quite short compared to the one that came with the bike and I had problems getting my pump to fit onto it.
 
I've had a bit of a horror week with the new bike :(

Wednesday morning: puncture and then when I got to my big hill the electric started to go off (my fault)
Wednesday evening: puncture and 3 miles from home power complety went off and I knew I had ridden home with the bike being heavier.
Thursday morning: puncture and had the day off anyway but rode it to the bike shop and back to have a couple of tweaks.
Friday morning: Excellent smiley ride to work.
Friday evening: puncture and had to walk 1.5 miles back home.
At this point I was ready to throw the bike in a skip.

Saturday morning had my back tyre checked out and even though nothing visible the guys had heard of tyres doing this before so I bought two Schwalbe puncture resistant tyres which are also more efficient than the ones that came with the bike.

Today: huge smile even though I came home in the freezing rain belting in my face.
 
blimey lol

i've done nearly 12 miles on sat, had 2 bars left when i got home. PAS 3 most of time. some throttle. impressed with the range so far.

no puncture so far :p
 
And don't forget you are de-restricted which takes extra juice and using throttle apparently uses 3x more juice.
I got into work sweating more than on my previous bikes because mentally I know I have help but physically I want to push it more.
On my big hill I probably ride at 6mph and I'm knackered at the top but with PAS I put more effort in and reached 17mph :)
For distance I'm hoping to get to work and back today which will mean with yesterday a total of 20mph on an average of 2 to 3 PAS but no throttle.
 
As an aside, Back in the late 40's 50's or thereabouts one could get small 2 stroke powered bolt on devices for bicycles that drove the front tyre with a friction wheel (One had to be careful since if one over did it one would grind a hole in the tyre!) The name "Broomfitz" (Sp?) comes to mind but I have not been able to find any reference on the web.

Of course these days no doubt the anal_retentives in Blue would get their ******** all twitchy about such a device being a "Mechanically propelled vehicle" but I guess people were more pragmatic and sensible about this in the "Good old days"! (As with many other things! :()
 
In the USA they have much more sensible size 750W motors on electric bikes, and speed limits of around 30mph. The EU limits are stupid as you cycle faster than 15 even without a motor, idiots!
 
Energize said:
In the USA they have much more sensible size 750W motors on electric bikes, and speed limits of around 30mph. The EU limits are stupid as you cycle faster than 15 even without a motor, idiots!
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I'm reaching 25mph no problem and I'm sure Wesley is.
Once the bike has helped you to get to 15mph adding another 10 with pedal power is very doable, it's a bit like Guy Martin being towed to 60 mph and then pedal power took over.

HOWEVER another problem today.
Cycling through Stoke and my chain broke :(
This meant I had to make my way to work on choke only but it wouldn't carry me up my huge hill so I had to walk. The choke got me to work and all the way home so I was well happy.
The chain breakage was a bit of my own fault but I still emailed Cyclotricity to moan about my defective tyre, 3 ruined inner tubes and now my chain.
This afternoon Zak from Cyclotricity rang me and he is going to send me a much better Shimano chain + a 5 pack of inner tubes + a surprise.
 
Energize said:
In the USA they have much more sensible size 750W motors on electric bikes, and speed limits of around 30mph. The EU limits are stupid as you cycle faster than 15 even without a motor, idiots!
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Just ignore the limits ;)
 
Everyone does, I was just saying the law is clearly written by ignorant morons.

Dimple said:
HOWEVER another problem today.
Cycling through Stoke and my chain broke :(
This meant I had to make my way to work on choke only but it wouldn't carry me up my huge hill so I had to walk. The choke got me to work and all the way home so I was well happy.
The chain breakage was a bit of my own fault but I still emailed Cyclotricity to moan about my defective tyre, 3 ruined inner tubes and now my chain.
This afternoon Zak from Cyclotricity rang me and he is going to send me a much better Shimano chain + a 5 pack of inner tubes + a surprise.
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Wow, I've done over 1,500 miles over the last year and never had a broken chain, and that's with a crank drive motor which puts a lot more force on the chain! I've not had a puncture either for that matter.
 
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majnu said:
Do these bikes not use hybrid energy from coasting or braking to recharge themselves?
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If you have a direct drive hub they do, but they only put back about 5% so not worth it especially as dd hubs have no freewheel so are harder to pedal unpowered and are around 7kg. DD hubs are mainly popular in the USA where they have higher watt limits.

Geared motors are popular in europe - they can freewheel so are easy to pedal unpowered and are lighter at between 2.1kg and 4.5kg, but they generally can take less power - although my MAC motor still gets 2000 watts shoved up it without complaint - but I do have a temp sensor fitted.

BTW - my MAC kit is for sale - check out http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/thr...h-cycle-analyst-v3-and-9fet-controller.16474/
 
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Energize said:
Wow, I've done over 1,500 miles over the last year and never had a broken chain, and that's with a crank drive motor which puts a lot more force on the chain! I've not had a puncture either for that matter.
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I've done around 2,400 in the last year (10 miles x 5 days a week less holidays) and no problems on my other 2 bikes.
The tyre was faulty and I forced my pedals and broke the chain when I knew my gears aren't setup properly.
I've got to go back to the shop to have them setup because no matter how many videos I watch or internet instructions I read, I can't set gears properly :(
 
R-evans said:
My bike can do 40+mph, get's me the 2.6 miles to work in 7 minutes and has no electric aid.

Keeps me fit too :)
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Ooh big deal, wait until you've got crippling arthritis in your spine, knees and hips.
What you also have no idea about is that even though it's electric, I'm arriving at my destination sweating more than I do on my Forme Longcliffe Road bike because I decide where the effort goes in and of course the e-Bike is way heavier so I get a better workout than I did on a light bike.
It's a revelation which I compare to running on a treadmill.
For many years I ran marathons which are now crippling me slowly but running on a treadmill still makes me put the miles in but with less impact - this is how the e-Bike can work for you.
 
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