EBikes are too expensive?

[fishingpaul]

Paul, are you sure you've got your figures right?

I originally stated "A decent motor/controller/battery kit can be picked up for 300-400 GBP retail." and I stick by that. You however are saying that a motor, battery (obviously plus charger) and controller will cost you just under 700GBP. This is a huge difference.

Those are the sort of prices i would expect to pay for new items,a motor kit usually comes with a controller and some sort of throttle,£300 is for the lower end of the market,a heinzman or ezee kit would probably cost over £800,the majority of kits do not come with a battery and around £300 for lithium is what most charge,and a charger usually comes as an extra expense.

 

[Alex728]

But despite those 40% price leaps, I can assure you that their margins are very tight.
.

Some of my job involves an amount of bean-counting; out of curiosity I had a look at Ultima (Powacycle's parent company)'s annual reports - for a medium sized company listed on the LSE, the profits are indeed fairly modest despite strong sales and the bikes are to an extent cross subsidised by the sales of low energy lamps, computer equipment and software and other electronic items.

I expect the same cross subsidies happen (on a larger scale) with the Japanese and Chinese factories, at the British end the other dealers in e-bikes seem to be very lean companies with just a handful of staff (and are doing very good work customer service wise all considered!)

As for the DIY bargains, I expect if you costed in the time of very talented and experienced British engineers with often 35-50 years of work experience and knowledge who are constructing these wonderful machines, they would soon approach the cost of the mainstream bikes.

 

[flecc]

As for the DIY bargains, I expect if you costed in the time of very talented and experienced British engineers with often 35-50 years of work experience and knowledge who are constructing these wonderful machines, they would soon approach the cost of the mainstream bikes.

That's certainly true Alex, probably exceeding the price of mainstream bikes if the share of premises, facilities and equipment used were costed in as well.
.

 

[johnp]

Those are the sort of prices i would expect to pay for new items,a motor kit usually comes with a controller and some sort of throttle,£300 is for the lower end of the market,a heinzman or ezee kit would probably cost over £800,the majority of kits do not come with a battery and around £300 for lithium is what most charge,and a charger usually comes as an extra expense.

Hi.
A good quality motor kit (Tongxin) £150 a battery (Ping) £230 a set of Spokes
£14 and a bit of work gets you up and running for less than £400 plus the bike of your choice.


JOHN

 

[Caph]

I was thinking about these sorts of kits:-

ELECTRIC BIKE CONVERSION KIT (36v250w) Road legal on eBay, also, Bikes, Cycling, Sporting Goods (end time 09-Jan-09 14:30:30 GMT)

I regularly see them with battery as well from well known sellers for £300-400 depending on whether it is 24V or 36V, and I know some forum members have bought/fitted them and said how good they are.

 

[keithhazel]

Hi.
A good quality motor kit (Tongxin) £150 a battery (Ping) £230 a set of Spokes
£14 and a bit of work gets you up and running for less than £400 plus the bike of your choice.


JOHN

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all well and good if you know what you are doing but for me and im sure there will be others that "a bit of work" is not possible as im sure you need a "bit of knowledge" too.....as well as the bits you mentioned about does "controllers" that are talked about and "censors" and other power indicators ect come with the motor ?
thanks keith

 

[wotwozere]

Hi

I do not think they are expensive because you cannot put a price on health, i have lost 1.5 stone in nearly 3 month.

thx

Bob

 

[Blew it]

The "Aspirin" is working then!

 

[frank9755]

Hi.
A good quality motor kit (Tongxin) £150 a battery (Ping) £230 a set of Spokes
£14 and a bit of work gets you up and running for less than £400 plus the bike of your choice.


JOHN

Those numbers are right, and, assuming you use a half-decent bike as a starting point, you would get a bike which was lighter and has better performance and riding qualities than most whole packages available.

Someone really on a tight budget could, of course, shave costs a bit further.

• If you're willing and patient enough to go direct to suppliers or traders in China, kits could be available for slightly less (although the exchange rate is closing that gap).
• That Ping price is probably for something like a 12Ah, but Cytronex riders are very satisfied with a smaller battery, so the cost could be below £150. There are other, less proven, LiFePO4 suppliers who may be even cheaper, or if you are willing to go SLA, then the battery could be sub-£100.

The point about cost of the time is valid, though, as getting it right can be fiddly! Also, for some people a kit is not a practical option.

 

[Mussels]

The point about cost of the time is valid, though, as getting it right can be fiddly! Also, for some people a kit is not a practical option.

I would attempt a kit now but I'm very glad I didn't for my first ebike.

 

[keithhazel]

The point about cost of the time is valid, though, as getting it right can be fiddly! Also, for some people a kit is not a practical option.

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too right about time frank,ok if you enjoy doing it as a hobby or just enjoy doing it thats fine,but if i attempted to follow the instructions i couldnt see me having any time left out of 40-60 hours...maybe thats a little optimistic too..the point being that instead of me doing it i get someone else to do it and use that time to earn money doing what i know, iwont get frustrated,angry, annoy the hell out of Flecc with questions...and then still just an amature job to finish with...
i found out long ago that things where not too expensive, i just couldn't afford them....