Okay so I was thinking of doing a stealth build because of the over the top laws here in the UK... I want the ebike to have some power and some decent range... I was going to go for a 1000w hub with a 48v 20ah battery lifepo4, I have a price of 510 pounds shipped...

I don't want this bike to be a speed demon and race down footpaths and the like. I am 31 years old and reponsible.

I want the bike to have the power to pull me (being 6' 4" and about 14 stones) up hills and to have some durability and legs...

I have heard people saying that by putting a bigger controller on a 250w you can get it to give you more... Is this what these 1000w ebay jobbies are? Just a 250w with a 1000w controller?

So does anyone have any suggestions for me? I would much appreciate the advice and any pointers?

I mean say worst case scenario and I got pulled what are they likely to do if I just play a little dumb and say I just got it off ebay etc really sorry blah blah, Are they really gonna hit me for no licence and all the rest? Has it happened to anyone on here?

Cheers... Baz

iMHO - you should consider a Zero XU bike

I'll check it out now but I am very interested in building my own so that I know how to fix it etc... Plus I have found pre built bikes to have highly inflated prices... But I will look now and report back. Cheers`

Edit: Yeah, not exactly what I'm talking about but that is lovely! Nice price too lol...

Also I do not have a licence and I have no intention of getting one for various reasons.

So any advice on the stealth ebike front? lol

Okay so 28 views and only one guy comments sending me to a motorbike! lol... Come on, what gives?

"What gives?" is that the post thread is less than 2 hours old in a forum that gets a lot of 'traffic' from lurkers and not from those who can help. Have a bit of patience.

Welcome to the Forums

Yeah okay point taken, I can be a little impatient...

Thanks for the welcome.

While you're here do you fancy filling me in with your exprience with ebikes? And what setup you have etc and what it can acheive?

Edit: Oh and from the kit I gave earlier and with my weight and all what kind of performance do you think I could expect? Just roughly.

There's an "Electric Bikes" forum here for people who are into that kinda thing. 31 years old, under 200 lbs? Just get in shape, man!

Ah, I failed to notice which forum this was in when I posted earlier. That's part of the problem for lack of input right there. Moving...

Don't have a motor on mine. Wasn't practical for my multimodal commute and don't need one in my small town.

Is this order being placed with a UK based business, or are you considering ordering from a foreign country (such as China or Taiwan)? The reason I ask this is that the price you mention seems indicate that you're ordering directly from China.

If you are, indeed, ordering from a foreign country please understand that you may receive little or no customer support. Also keep in mind that many Chinese/Taiwan ebike kit companies do no cover the shipping costs in the event that you need to return a defective product or component. These shipping costs, and a possible lack of customer support, can sometimes turn a "bargain" into an expensive nightmare.


Bumping a 250w motor up to 350-400 watts by using a higher amp controller is possible in some cases. However, pushing a nominal 250w motor to a reliable 1000w output by just upgrading to a high amp controller is not generally possible without re-working the hubmotor (i.e. replacing various wiring with heavier gage stuff, etc, etc).

I can't really answer this due to the fact that I live in the US. But I will suggest that most ebike/police "issues" are due to outright speed more than anything else (noise can also be a tip-off as well). Here in my State you can expect to have problems with the police if they notice you "zipping" by pedestrians and (especially) non-electric bicycles at 45 kph. Radar guns can get you too...

HTH

If only it were that easy! I took my bike out earlier and went about a quarter of a mile and that was enough for me! lol... Anyway I want it so that I can travel from birmingham to coventry to see my pal. Going by googe maps that are saying 2 hours 15 minutes or something like that... I would be dead after the 15...

Also I think it would be great for the kids to see as I home educate, can turn it into a project for them. Get it hooked upto a solar panel and all that to show renewable energy and what it can acheive.

Ahhh that's fair enough... You see I thought this site was the same as pedelecs because the format is practically identical, so I assumed that everyone on here had electric bikes... I did sign up to pedelecs as it was the first forum I found and I believe it is more focused towards the UK. But they still haven't confirmed my membership so that is when I came here.

Honestly after my little trip earlier I don't know how you do it! Isn't it too much like hard work? lol

"Is this order being placed with a UK based business, or are you considering ordering from a foreign country (such as China or Taiwan)? The reason I ask this is that the price you mention seems indicate that you're ordering directly from China.

If you are, indeed, ordering from a foreign country please understand that you may receive little or no customer support. Also keep in mind that many Chinese/Taiwan ebike kit companies do no cover the shipping costs in the event that you need to return a defective product or component. These shipping costs, and a possible lack of customer support, can sometimes turn a "bargain" into an expensive nightmare."

Yeah it is from china and I hear what you're saying... BUT the price! lol

To be honest I am not having a good experience with them already, I have asked them 3 times now about the maximum load capacity and they just ignore that question, it could be down to the launguage barrier but I have spelled it out for them as simply as I can and still no joy...

I will shop around a little more as I'm not dead set on anything just yet, I thought I would come ask the experts first so thanks for all your feedback thus far.

"Bumping a 250w motor up to 350-400 watts by using a higher amp controller is possible in some cases. However, pushing a nominal 250w motor to a reliable 1000w output by just upgrading to a high amp controller is not generally possible without re-working the hubmotor (i.e. replacing various wiring with heavier gage stuff, etc, etc)."

Ahhh I see, to be honest choosing the components has been a real minefield... There are so many differences with motors and batteries even if they are rated the same. It's all a learning curve though I guess.

"I can't really answer this due to the fact that I live in the US. But I will suggest that most ebike/police "issues" are due to outright speed more than anything else (noise can also be a tip-off as well). Here in my State you can expect to have problems with the police if they notice you "zipping" by pedestrians and (especially) non-electric bicycles at 45 kph. Radar guns can get you too..."

Yeah I mean I would be pretty causious and not take the micky too much... I was thinking if there is a way to have a restricted (legal) bike for all intense and perposses but have some sort of secret boost button or maybe just have all the power as torque or something like that...

My basic wishes are that it can 25 miles range (more if possible of course lol)
Have a consistant speed of about 20 and maybe a fun setting to allow me to go up to 30 if I have a nice clear road ahead.
Do you think I could acheive that with a lesser motor and speed more on batteries?

Thanks for your reply anyway, much appreciated.

I'm just over your weight and my 36v 450w geared hub conversion does about 17mph/27kph (level ground, no wind, no peddling).

My 36v 750w direct drive conversion does about 20mph/32kph.

If you're going to "error" in the estimated requirements of your power system I'd do so on the plus side; i.e. go with a 48v battery, a 15-20ah lifepo4 battery, and no less than a 750-1000w hubmotor (which is what you seem to be thinking as well).

The key here is that you select a well balanced power system (as possibly mentioned above). Short changing anyone of the three above "ingredients" (system voltage, battery ah, and output wattage) will, most likely, leave you "wanting" in speed, hill climbing torque, and/or range.

hi SNAZ,

interesting, I also live in england and am similar age to you.. ok heres my advise..

for a decent starter all in one kit.. I would recommend the papamotor kit, theres quite a few users of this kit in these forums, and EBIKEFL will be very happy to help you as he is an expert on this kit.. the battery they supply is high end ping battery, very good reputation...

you can buy the 32 mph kit for around £675 with everything you need..

there are two types of hub motors geared and direct drive.. geared are more smoother at low speeds and have no magnetic resistance, they however have more parts and need to be taken care of highly.. but still a good geared motor like a BMC version 2 or version 4/ or MAC motor can get up to 10,000 miles or more if you look after it well..


a direct drive motor is more simple construction and more reliable, however they have magnetic resistance that is when not peddaling there is a slight drag ( cogging) , but they generally last longer, and a good direct drive motor can be modded and over volted leading to insane speeds like 50 mph plus.. I think the record is over 80 mph..

if you dont go for the papamotor kit, then I would suggest buying some thing more expensive like BMC geared motor from Ilia at ebikessf.com or a MAC motor from a guy known as cellman.. he is british but lives in china..

ebike.ca have a geared ezee motor and also crystalyte direct drive motors.. the owner of ebike.ca is Justin and he runs the endless sphere forum..

geared motors have the advantage also of being half the weight of a direct drive and also much smaller, so much more stealthy..


from your specification it seems to me that your describing the papamotor kit..

PAS, pedal assist
up to 20 mile plus range
up to 32 mph
top battery
all in one kit
£675 for everthing
just remember do not abuse this kit, treat it well

many thanks