Folding bike / Bionx advice please

Fairweather Cycles - Tom

Finding my (electric) wheels
Mar 26, 2010
22
0
www.fairweathercycles.co.uk
I have a Dahon Mu SL, which is a lightweight, sporty folder with 20" wheels. I'm thinking about adding a Bionx lightweight kit to it as a car replacement around town.

Does anyone have any other ideas as to a good kit? Perhaps Heinzmann with backpack battery? It should be good quality / reliable and backed up by a good warrantee.

The Bionx is appealing because the battery attaches where the bottle attaches.

What do people think of Bionx?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice.

Cheers,


Tom

P.s. has anyone got a link to the latest extraenergy.org e-bike round up?
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,760
30,348
The BionX is great kit, very sophisticated and one of the best available, but the very high cost of their replacement batteries is a big problem, over £1000 for the 36 volt 10 Ah. For that reason they usually supply much smaller batteries with their kits and subsidise the price within these.
 
C

Cyclezee

Guest
Hi Tom,

The eZee kits that we supply are very competitively priced at £750 and have a reputation for performance and reliability.
2 years warranty and free delivery within the UK are included.

One of our 20" rear wheel kits would be suitable for your Dahon.

The batteries are normally rack mounted, but could also be carried in a back pack.

For further information, please click on the following link Cyclezee Ltd - Home

Regards,
 

cwah

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 3, 2011
3,048
179
www.whatonlondon.co.uk
How can a 360wh battery cost 1000£?

For that price I can buy 5 NMC battery at 150-200£ that will have similar weight and last only 1 year but would have much better value lol
 
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jerrysimon

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 27, 2009
3,292
112
Cambridge, UK
A DIY Tongxin kit, adds total of 3kg incl battery depending on the range you need :p



Flickr set.

PS Tom what will be your average length of trip and what is the terrain like ? For a lightweight folder I am not sure you can do much better than a Tongxin kit with a small A123 battery pack, if you want to keep it portable. The real limitation with my setup is if you have a lot of hills or if you want to do more than 10 miles. However carrying two of my £70 DIY 36v, 2.4Ah battery packs gets rounds that.

Regards

Jerry
 
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cwah

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 3, 2011
3,048
179
www.whatonlondon.co.uk
22V6AH means 132wh capacity. Compared to the 37V9.6AH at 355wh it's almost a third of its capacity.

So the price tag of the lightweight battery is even more expensive lol.

Assuming their motor is good, you better get batteries from any other place than BionX.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,760
30,348
The battery for the 250 lightweight model is listed as 574.99 on Zyro. It's a lot for the capacity but not as bad as it could be. (22V 6Ah).

Any other options around? I don't need huge range.
That's still one heck of a price Tom, £4.36 per Wh, and that small battery would limit the performance somewhat. For comparison per W/h:

BionX 10 Ah....................£2.92
Powacycle 10.5 Ah..........£1.24
Kalkhoff 24 Ah................£1.21
Wisper 14 Ah..................£1.04
eZee 14 Ah....................£0.99
Juicybike 14 Ah..............£0.76
Kudos 9 Ah....................£0.64

Average cost per W/h = £1.20, or excluding the BionX one, £0.91.

I'd say investigate the eZee kits, powerful and adaptable with a variety of battery sizes and types.
.
 
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Fairweather Cycles - Tom

Finding my (electric) wheels
Mar 26, 2010
22
0
www.fairweathercycles.co.uk
Trip length is average of 3 miles. As an engineer I like the idea of putting together the battery and charger separately, plus being able to analyse charging and usage with USB data downloads!

How torquey is a tongxin motor with one of your batteries? I really want it for maintaining high speeds against strong headwinds.

Are tongxin kits readily available in the uk?
 

jerrysimon

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 27, 2009
3,292
112
Cambridge, UK
Tom,

The DIY battery builds are not hard given that you can now buy the packs ready made. Facilities to analyse the battery performance are available.

Probably best to read through my build threads as its all in there. There is a lot to digest. The main lessons learnt and the latest updates are towards the ends of each thread.

You will have to order the motors direct from China (around £230 for two kits depending on import duty/VAT) but I have found a reliable supplier. I am in the process of ordering another two motors myself, (best to have one spare).

On smaller wheels they provide plenty of torque but they really are assist motors and you should help them by pedaling to start off to make them last longer. I have had mine over two years and put 3000 miles plus commuting daily on mine. Having the motor during dark windy nights is God sent!

My DIY battery will be more than enough for three miles and keep the whole affair light, which IMHO is important for this application.

PS one of my DIY £20 batteries might work if you are only doing three miles or maybe carry two :p

Regards

Jerry
 
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cwah

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 3, 2011
3,048
179
www.whatonlondon.co.uk
Tom, Tonxing are good motor. But only for up to 15 mph.

If you plan to go faster, you have to consider other motors.
 

jerrysimon

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 27, 2009
3,292
112
Cambridge, UK
BTW Tom,

If your Dahon has one of the front lugs welded on up front (not all seem to have this) then you can use a bag to attach the controller/battery as I do with my Brompton.



Regards

Jerry
 

Fairweather Cycles - Tom

Finding my (electric) wheels
Mar 26, 2010
22
0
www.fairweathercycles.co.uk
Thanks everyone for your input. I'm still considering my options..

I'm starting to think that the Ezee looks like the best option. I was tempted by Bionx for the hassle free assist amount based on pedalling torque and assist setting, plus the bottle - boss mounted battery. Then I started reading things about hitting a speed wall where you can't really pedal beyond it (due to not being able to de - restrict modern versions).

Edit: I like the regen feature too.

Also Zyro don't distribute a 20" Bionx kit, so if I had a Bionx motor built into a 20" rim I guess it would be even slower than the 15mph legal limit.

Would a 20" rear Ezee kit fit okay (width - wise) into a Dahon Mu SL with 9 speeds? Is it de - restrictable - with or without the Cycle Analyst option?

In terms of warrantee is Cyclezee the official UK importer and did they take over from 50cycles?

Thanks
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,760
30,348
Cyclezee is an official kit agent and shortly to be the only one, the warranty is with them. They have also started to handle some eZee bike models officially too and the number of models will increase soon.
 
C

Cyclezee

Guest
Hi Tom,

The 20" eZee rear wheel motor requires 131 mm space between the rear dropouts +/- 5 mm.
We can also supply a 9 speed 1 to 32t Freewheel.

The kit can be de-restricted for off road use on private property with or without the optional Cycle Analyst.

To confirm what Flecc has already said, Cyclezee is the sole distributor of eZee kits for the UK and they are covered by a 2 year warranty.

Regards,


QUOTE=Fairweather Cycles - Tom;137186]Thanks everyone for your input. I'm still considering my options..

I'm starting to think that the Ezee looks like the best option. I was tempted by Bionx for the hassle free assist amount based on pedalling torque and assist setting, plus the bottle - boss mounted battery. Then I started reading things about hitting a speed wall where you can't really pedal beyond it (due to not being able to de - restrict modern versions).

Edit: I like the regen feature too.

Also Zyro don't distribute a 20" Bionx kit, so if I had a Bionx motor built into a 20" rim I guess it would be even slower than the 15mph legal limit.

Would a 20" rear Ezee kit fit okay (width - wise) into a Dahon Mu SL with 9 speeds? Is it de - restrictable - with or without the Cycle Analyst option?

In terms of warrantee is Cyclezee the official UK importer and did they take over from 50cycles?

Thanks[/QUOTE]
 

cwah

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 3, 2011
3,048
179
www.whatonlondon.co.uk
Thanks everyone for your input. I'm still considering my options..

I'm starting to think that the Ezee looks like the best option. I was tempted by Bionx for the hassle free assist amount based on pedalling torque and assist setting, plus the bottle - boss mounted battery. Then I started reading things about hitting a speed wall where you can't really pedal beyond it (due to not being able to de - restrict modern versions).

Edit: I like the regen feature too.

Also Zyro don't distribute a 20" Bionx kit, so if I had a Bionx motor built into a 20" rim I guess it would be even slower than the 15mph legal limit.

Would a 20" rear Ezee kit fit okay (width - wise) into a Dahon Mu SL with 9 speeds? Is it de - restrictable - with or without the Cycle Analyst option?

In terms of warrantee is Cyclezee the official UK importer and did they take over from 50cycles?

Thanks
Before considering any kit, you should first check the dropout width of your rear and front dropout.

If you have a dropout of 120mm (as for my Pacific if reach), you'll have very limited choice of motor.
 

Wisper Bikes

Trade Member
Apr 11, 2007
6,211
2,174
68
Sevenoaks Kent
That's still one heck of a price Tom, £4.36 per Wh, and that small battery would limit the performance somewhat. For comparison per W/h:

BionX 10 Ah....................£2.92
Powacycle 10.5 Ah..........£1.24
Kalkhoff 24 Ah................£1.21
Wisper 14 Ah..................£1.04
eZee 14 Ah....................£0.99
Juicybike 14 Ah..............£0.76
Kudos 9 Ah....................£0.64

Average cost per W/h = £1.20, or excluding the BionX one, £0.91.

I'd say investigate the eZee kits, powerful and adaptable with a variety of battery sizes and types.
.
A small but significant point! :)

Our new 16Ah battery now standard on all our 7 and 9 series bikes is priced at £525.00 inc VAT making the new cost per W/h (inc VAT) 0.88p.

We also offer £50.00 discount off a new battery when the old one is returned to us for safe and environmentally sound disposal. This brings replacement batteries down to 0.80p per W/h.

All the best,

David