Budget front wheel 26" conversion kit recommendations

Woosh · Aug 5, 2020

XF07 kit:
https://wooshbikes.co.uk/cart/#/product/uid-192-xf07kit-13ah/xf07-front-hub-kit-with-13ah-battery

vfr400 · Aug 5, 2020

A rear motor is always better if you can fit one.

jokskot · Aug 5, 2020

Voilamart

Nealh · Aug 5, 2020

Voilamart's don't have display options.

A cheap 36v kit will still be about £350 - £400 if you compromise on the battery.

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Woosh · Aug 6, 2020

if you buy from China, you need to factor in freight, import duty, VAT and support cost.
the most expensive component in a kit is the battery. It alone accounts for half the total cost. Batteries come with inherent fire risks, that why it's always prudent to choose a top brand: Panasonic, Sony, Samsung. You pay for quality manufacturing and control.
The second most expensive component is the motor. It accounts for about 30% of the total cost. Again, pay a little more for a top brand because you need to be sure that there is quality control. Choose a good brand, Bafang, Mxus, Shengyi, they are the biggest producers and best organised. Some companies offer me their motors for $30 and a quick look on youtube, I find their motors in large piles on the floor during manufacturing.
Other components also deserve careful selection: LCD, controller, design, specifications. Again, big brands offer better quality control.

sjpt · Aug 6, 2020

Whatever, don't go for the very cheap high power direct drive kits. They are temptingly cheap and powerful sounding, but illegal, require a big (expensive) battery, and are poor at hill climbing.

Some of the Voilamart kits are direct drive, and some are geared. If you go for them, check carefully. You may pay a little more at Woosh, but get excellent advice and customer service, and good quality properly matched components.

Good control circuitry makes for a more powerful ride and better range (as Woosh hints); many of the cheap ebay kits have only very basic control; or options for better control that brings the price up to the same as Woosh and others.

Don't believe 'up to' range figures (measured on flat perfect roads at low speeds with minimal assist. You can compromise of battery capacity if you are sure you won't want longer rides. As Woosh says, battery is the most expensive component.

vfr400 · Aug 6, 2020

Stephenmacleod said:
To be fair i do want to go for a whoosh kit eventually, I just wanted something cheap and cheerful as a gamble to see if I like it and will genuinely use it long term. I'd probably use a kit for 5, 6 months or so and see whether it's something I want to invest in properly. I'd be happy to gamble on a couple of hundred and see if it gets me cycling to work and the odd weekend ride of short distance (my daily commute is 16 miles round trip of mainly hills up and down) im 19 stone and want to shed a bit for my wedding. I was just hoping someone on here may have used the alibaba kits or similar at a similar price point and would have any comments as to its performance and longevity etc. The OH tells me it's OK to take a punt on something cheap to see if I'll actually use it regular, then I can treat myself after Xmas.

You won't get a usable kit for a couple of hundred. The battery alone will cost you that much. At 19st, you need a kit that can give high torque, which means 48v and a geared motor or a crank-drive motor.

wheeliepete · Aug 6, 2020

Stephenmacleod said:
probably use a kit for 5, 6 months or so and see whether it's something I want to invest in properly.

You are not going to get a very positive experience of owning and riding an ebike if you buy the cheapest kit you can find. Those kits you linked to will end up costing you around £350-400 when you have paid postage, duty and VAT. As vfr has said, you need a kit to match your level of fitness and the terrain you plan to ride, otherwise any money you spend will be wasted.

Bikes4two · Aug 6, 2020

Over the years I've seen many people put off cycling because they thought 'I'll buy a cheap bike to see if I like cycling' only to get a crap experience after pedalling a few tortuous miles on some bicycle like object and vowing to never put their butt on a saddle again.

So if you buy cheap, just be aware that your ebike experience is not likely typical.

Bikes4two · Aug 6, 2020

Hi @Woosh - forumites have expounded the benefits of getting their ebike kit from you many times, and clearly your quality of pre and after-sales support is worth the extra that might cost, and of course under normal circumstances, you have UK stock too.

However, the Woosh website paints a picture of waiting many weeks for kit.

So for instance, if the OP or anyone else wanted a kit, what are the pipeline times at the moment please?

Woosh · Aug 6, 2020

Right now, I know for sure we are out of TSDZ2 and SWX02 but have plenty of BBS01B and XF08C.
we'll know what's left after we clear the backlog, Monday for XF07 kits, Tuesday for DWG22C kits.

Bikes4two · Aug 6, 2020

vfr400 said:
A rear motor is always better if you can fit one.

As someone who is researching their first ebike build, I am learning a lot fom the esteemed forumites here, yourself included.

I would be grateful if you could expand on why you think a rear hub motor is always better, which does not seem to be a universally held view.

I can understand the point about a font hub wheel 'peeling out' under certain conditions, but those conditions are not always prevelant for some bicycle configurations surely (e.g. 26"wheels or larger, 250w motors and peddle assist rather than throttle only and MTBs with weighty suspension forks).

For my own build I am wanting to avoid the downtube battery in favour of a rack mounted one (a purely aesthetic choice) and to have a (250w) front hub motor to give the bike a better balance.

All opinions are most welcome and thanks in advance.

sjpt · Aug 6, 2020

We have front hub on the tandem (Woosh XF07); chosen for simplicity of fit and availability. Front hub works well on the tandem with more weight distributed to the front. It has the added benefit of two wheel drive (one by motor, one by you), on wet grass we have often had traction from the motor when the rear wheel slipped.

Rack mounted batteries have higher centre of gravity which is a slight downside; not a problem on our (crank drive) solo with the fairly gentle way we ride it.

Remember that even with pedal assist it will probably be cadence sensing and actually only using rotating=on and not rotating=off. The controller should give a fairly gentle increase in power when it senses the on though (you don't want it too genle).

vfr400 · Aug 6, 2020

Bikes4two said:
I would be grateful if you could expand on why you think a rear hub motor is always better, which does not seem to be a universally held view.

Front motors can't get enough grip when you're going up steep hills, especially when the surface is compromised. A rear motor always gets enough traction.
A front motor always sounds noisier than a rear one.
The handling and steering gets compromised when you have the motor's added mass in the front wheel.
Most important are the safety aspects. You can't just stick a front motor in a pair of forks and expect it to work. Many forks don't have strong enough drop-outs, so you need a torque arm to resist the torque. The nuts and washers need to be assembled very carefully , especially if the drop-out have lawyers lips. It's very easy to break the drop-outs by incorrect assembly. Steel forks with flat drop-outs are generally OK for front motors.
Finally, on some forks, the drop-outs are not inboard, so the narrowest point can be the fork tubes above that rub on the motor.

Woosh · Aug 6, 2020

front motor is easier to fit and remove. Furthermore, most forks have standard 100mm dropout so you know for certain that the motor will fit. The customer may have to deepen the jaws a bit or file off a bit to increase the opening from 9mm to 10mm to suit the motor. That's an easy job.
Most rear triangles are flexible by construction. Although that's a good feature, it may cause problem with measuring accurately 'what is my rear dropout?' the general reply is 130mm-145mm. Few people know how to measure the dropout correctly from locknut to locknut. So if you fit a motor with 140mm dropout into a bike with 135mm dropout, you only have to adjust the brake caliper a bit but in some cases, that little job can become a trouble spot.
Then you have to transfer the cassette or freewheel to the new motorwheel. If you ask 'Have you got a chainwhip?' I reckon a fair few don't.

Bikes4two · Aug 6, 2020

@vfr400 and @Woosh - thank you both for your comments re the above regarding front vs rear hubs. I had a fairly long list of pros and cons but that list is now a little bit longer.

The point about the front drop-outs maybe not allowing the hub motor to clear the fork tubes is NOT something I'd thought about which is an important factor when selecting the donor bike.

And thanks @sjpt for your comments regarding the XF07 on your tandem - we have a lovely Santos with Rohloff and come the time, that will require a motor too.

(and of course if I get a 26" kit for my donor MTB then it will be transferable to the tandem too! - is it payday yet?).

Nealh · Aug 6, 2020

Torque steering with High torque front hubs in another feature that some don't like the feel of.

Budget front wheel 26" conversion kit recommendations

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