BMSBattery - Problems with Kit

[Oldie]

My rear cassette hub kit arrived without drama from BMSBattery. It took about 17 days from ordering, which is not too bad, and the total cost, including shipping and import duties came to around £385. This gave me the complete rear wheel, 10.4 ah bottle battery with built in "new type" controller, lcd display, thumb throttle, one in-line brake sensor, speed sensor and pedelec sensor. I also received brake levers which I do not intend to install.

I set the kit up on the lounge floor, wired it up and everything did as it was meant to. So far, so good.

However, when I went to fit the kit to my Claud Butler legend, there was no way that the rear wheel would fit. Yes, the drop outs require a bit of filing but, more importantly, the wheel did not sit centrally. In fact, I would guess that it was offset by half an inch or more.

I took the bike and the (partially installed) kit to my local cycle shop who looked at it and said that they couldn't do anything with it as the wheel needed to be dished. They didn't want to touch it, mainly because it had a hub motor and they didn't have a jig suitable, nor the man hours required.

They did, however, suggest that I took it to a specialist bespoke bike builder a few miles away, which I duly did. He confirmed the requirement to dish the wheel and reckoned that he could do it. Come back on Saturday, he told me.

Now, my guess is that these wheels are designed to fit specific frame types, of which mine is not one, and are perfectly serviceable. However, my Claud Butler is not a suitable donor bike.

Another issue relates to the pedelec sensor. The chap in the first bike shop said that my BB is a sealed unit and they wouldn't be able to fit it. If I were cycle savvy then perhaps I could agree with him, but I'm not and just took his word for it. I could, of course, live without it.

So, the bike is not ready and I am a bit disappointed. However, stuff like this doesn't bother me too much and it's been quite an interesting learning experience so far. I would add that, contrary to what I've read elsewhere, communications with BMSBattery were excellent. All emails replied to promptly.

Whether or not my experience will assist someone else, I don't know, but I did think that I had carried out sufficient research beforehand. Just goes to show.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You always need to dish the rear wheels. The cassette motors require the most dishing. There's absolutely no difficulty in it. As a rank amateur, it takes me about half an hour to dish and true those motor- wheels.

As long as you have room for it, there's also nothing difficult in fitting a PAS sensor whether you have a sealed BB; Hollowtech; or old-fashioned balls, cups and cones.

if you can take a photo of the BB from the front of the bike on each side, so that I can see what you've got, I can help you. It might be better to turn the bike upside-down. I need to see how much gap there is between the BB and the cranks. Something like this:

 

[Oldie]

Thanks for the reply. I hadn't seen any previous mention of dishing wheels, but perhaps I wasn't looking

Yes, I'll take some pics of the BB soon. I'm sure that the chap in the first shop probably could have managed it but just added it to his list of reasons not to take on the job.

 

[Oldie]

Sorry about the quality - weather's horrible and the bike is in the back of the car. I couldn't really get a good shot of the drive side unfortunately.

 

[Alan Quay]

Agree with D8veh, dishing is not has hard as it sounds.

Perhaps you need to find a better LBS. If they can't adjust a few spokes then they probably can't be trusted with much else.

 

[Oldie]

Here's another shot. The chain guard seems to get in the way.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Thanks for the photos. It makes it very clear what to do. The chain-guard makes things more complicated, so it's probably easier to fit it to the left side.

You'll need these two tools from here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bike-Bicycle-Wheel-Puller-Crank-Extractor-Bottom-Bracket-Repair-Remover-Tool-Set-/370972002163?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_BikeLocks_SR&hash=item565fa78773

or here:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BICYCLE-BIKE-SHIMANO-PRO-CRANK-EXTRACTOR-BOTTOM-BRACKET-REMOVER-TOOL-SET-Z057-/181006959309?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_BikeLocks_SR&hash=item2a24db02cd

Then you'll need one of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REPLACEMENT-24-TPI-BOTTOM-BRACKET-LOCK-RING-IN-SILVER-/271206943287?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item3f25318a37

You remove the LH crank, and then unscrew the BB piece with the special tool until about three or four threads are sticking out. Put the sensor in place and lock it with the locking ring. The idea is not to have any surplus thread sticking out. After you've placed the sensor, adjust the BB piece until only two threads are sticking out, which is slightly less than the thickness of the locking ring, but enough for it to get a grip. Now you can slide the magnet disc on with the shiny magnets facing outwards, which is opposite direction to what its arrow shows. Re-assemble the crank arm, and Bob's your Uncle. Enjoy your PAS.

If by chance it doesn't work, check to see if it works when you pedal backwards. If it does, flip the magnet disc to get it to work in the right direction.

The locking rings can come loose, so use your favourite goop or superglue to keep it still.

 

[Oldie]

Super reply.

Thanks again.

 

[Oldie]

Ok, my new tools arrived today and I also picked up the rear wheel, now dished (£20). The chap also tightened the spokes and he mentioned that they were quite loose.

The wheel fitted the dropouts with only a little persuasion and I may do some minor alterations later, but I was keen to get it all put together before the weather turned for the worse.

The hardest job was loosening the BB piece to fit the pedelec sensor (hammer came into play) but not really a problem. Throttle installed, but left the inline brake cut off until tomorrow.

Switch on and away we went - great! Rather wet but still fun.

Thanks again to d8veh for his invaluable advice.

Total cost has come to £607 (including the cost of the new bike, which I had already bought anyway).

 

[eHomer]

Sorry I'm a bit late responding to this thread, I'm still trying different ways of viewing the new site software. ("Latest posts" view didn't work for me, so I'm now back to popping into each sub forum).

Anyhow, just to confirm some things that have already been said on here, my recently purchased Q100 20" front wheel from BMS needed dishing too.

It was about 10mm offset, being centred on the motor hub flanges, which were offset on the 100mm axle.

I've never built a wheel from scratch, but yes, the dishing was really easy, just a matter of loosening the spokes on one side by one turn of the spoke key and tightening them up on the other side by the same amount, (starting and finishing at the valve hole). I then judged how much that shifted the dish, and did it again by the right number of turns. That got the wheel running centrally in the frame with exactly the right dish, and then just fine adjustments to get it really true.

The LBS mentioned were either useless or they were peeved at parts from China !!

 

[Oldie]

Just by way of a (10yr!) follow up, I had an early problem with the motor cutting out under load and @d8veh advised....

" The Q100 series motors don't work well sensorless. It seems that they lose sync under some conditions. You need to change to the S06S bottle battery controller".

I duly purchased said controller but never got round to fitting it until today. I just couldn't work out how to connect the Hall Sensor until I discovered the wires all taped up and hidden away. The original SO6P didn't use a Hall Sensor and I just learned to live with it.

Anyway, 10 years later, successfully installed and no power cut-offs!

Thanks again @d8veh.