Alright for those who care, I have upgraded my bicycle to a mid drive system and have also upgraded my SLA batteries to a light 8 pound 36v 12AH LifePo4 Battery. Now that I'm no longer hauling 50 pounds on the rear rack, the bike hauls ass. It will easily hit 25MPH (and this is on a lowly 350 watt system!). Thanks to the mid drive system, I am able to change the gear ratio of the drive at will. If I'm on a slight incline or wind resistance, the bike will go about 20-21mph on average. But it's able to hit 25 more often and with the SLA batteries it never went above 24. Not to mention the bike is way more stable now.
Another bonus is that I've used some of the packing material that came with the battery as padding for the battery inside the case and also for padding between the case and the metal rack. So it's not getting hit as hard by the bumps on the road either. And since it's only 8 pounds, the case isn't trying to leap off the rack anymore/or shake a lot.
The only real con I have found with this battery thus far is the awkward design of the BMS box. Because of the strap I am using to hold it down in the case, the charge port is partially blocked and I will have to nudge the strap to the side when I go to charge it. (since as with the photo shows I will have the BMS box on top separated by the foam padding).
But since the original kit I got had an identical charge port that I have already put into the case, I will eventually wire that charge port up to the charge port installed into the case. But for now I've disconnected the charge port on the case since it would charge the battery incorrectly if I used it. (it was originally connected directly to the SLA batteries with how I got it wired. But since the new battery has the charge port separate from the main power leads, I will have to rewire it accordingly)
Here's some photos of the battery: (click to enlarge)
It wasn't quite as pretty as the "stock" photos that the listing had, but it's right around what I expected.
Yes there are some risks in buying these from eBay, but I did do real digging and feedback checking to find the one I wanted. This battery ran me $250 + $87 for express shipping. So yes it's one of those China batteries. But I've road tested this and it works. So proof that not all China batteries are evil. (It did help that I intentionally steered away from the cheap looking "duct tape" ones that are everywhere on eBay) You just need to buy with real caution.
If I had a better paying job, I would have most certainly gone with one made in America. But currently they are quite a bit more pricy and the SLA batteries just had to go.
The case is now a bit oversized. The new battery doesn't take up as much space length wise but it's a tad bit wider then how I had the SLAs positioned. (they were positioned side by side and were close to a foot in length and the new battery is nearly 2 or so inches shorter, but don't hold me to that since I didn't measure it.
)
So I will eventually redo the whole box to a smaller one.
