Salisbury or convert own bike?

[gullrock]

I have been looking at the golden Motor conversion for my own Marin bike at a cost of £649 which would give me a 36v 250 watt 12 AmpHr battery machine, but am also wondering if it might be a better bet to go for the Powacycle Salsbury bike @ £729 - 200 watt 26V 10.5Ah=273 Watt hours.

If anyone could help me to see through this maize it would be wonderful!

 

[eddieo]

If the kit is from Alien bikes......The kit

 

[gullrock]

Yes it is from Alien

 

[NRG]

Try something else, Urban Mover, Juicy bike etc but not a GM kit...or save up for an Alien Aurora.

 

[gullrock]

Just looked at the Alien Aurora nd see that it is road illegal!!!!
Is there a particular problem with GM?

Can someone also explain what the practical difference in power and the distance a bike will travel between -
1) 24 and 36 volt and
2) say 10AmpH - 12 AmpH and up to 15AmpH or so please?

 

[NRG]

No its not road legal but neither is a GM kit.

Difference between 24v and 36v is best worked out by converting to Wh, take the voltage multiply it by the Ah of the battery and you have an approximation of the energy available to you. Use this to work out how far it will take you, Wh / mile consumed say about 8 to 16 will give you a distance range that is achievable.

As you'll see a 36v system works out best as the battery size in Ah can be somewhat smaller than 24v.

 

[flecc]

Is there a particular problem with GM?

They have a very bad reputation for quality and delivery of kits already faulty. Now that Alien have just taken on the agency things might improve, but only time will tell.

Can someone also explain what the practical difference in power and the distance a bike will travel between -
1) 24 and 36 volt and
2) say 10AmpH - 12 AmpH and up to 15AmpH or so please?

In theory there need be no power difference between a 24 volt and a 36 volt system, but in practice the 36 volt ones are almost always more powerful.

Ampere hours (Ah) are like gallons of petrol, miles travelled being directly pro rata for a particular motor, 2 go twice as far as 1. So if 10 Ah on a particular bike takes one 20 miles, 12 Ah will cover 24 miles and 15 Ah will cover 30 miles.

However, motor powers vary much more than the legal 250 watts figure indicates, so a powerful bike with 14 Ah may only cover the same distance on a particular journey as a less powerful bike with 10Ah. Therefore do your homework on the nature of any bike considered in order to get a better idea of what it can do.
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[gullrock]

Thanks for the explanations, I am a liitle less hazy on the subject now!

At the more expensive range of bikes I have now been recomended an Alpine or Mountain Sport Electric Bikes at Filarinskis. Battery powered cycle, as feature on 'The Gadget Show' any comment please?

 

[eddieo]

Again...why do you want to spend £1500 on a bike that no one knows anything about. When for the same money there are great established bikes available

 

[flecc]

They aren't an established make, just bought in models using generally available motors and batteries. They are probably ok, but if you are spending that sort of money I'd recommend you buy from the well known and established brands which you know will still be around for years to come with support, spares and replacement batteries that fit. This isn't usually true of unbranded buy-in bikes.

For example, the eZee range from Onbike are mostly at or around £1450 and eZee are one of the oldest established e-bike companies at 9 years now. Not only that, the replacement batteries fit every model they've ever made*, which is unique in this industry.

There are a number of other established brand names making good e-bikes in that same price area as you'll see in this forum

* The only exception, the Rider model, used widely available SLA batteries which are easily and cheaply user replaceable.
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