KirbEbike 1500-2000w kit with 58v 17Ah battery

[Stephenmacleod]

was watching some youtube vids of home made E-bikes and saw this guy's home made bike, and he's now selling it as a kit.

Pretty sure its absolutely not road legal, just wondering if anyone here has used/seen one, what they are like, reliability etc.

https://www.cloudsto.com/ebikes/kirbebike-1500w-2000w-ebike-kit-inc-ion-plus-58v-17ah-battery-464-detail.html andy kirby is the guy.

 

[Nealh]

He is quite well known on utube , recently he was paid a visit by plod after someone grassed him up following a video of him testing/riding locally.

The bike/kit is illegal as you said as is only for private land or a race track, it can be become a legal entity if it was put threw a MVSA to be licensed as a light moped in the L1A or B class and insured. An already legal moped would make more sense.

 

[Sparks71]

So, I've had my kit for 9 months now and i just thought I'd let people know how my experience has been so far.
To be honest it has been a love/hate affair up to this point, the good bits are:

I built a super stable bike that when you do go 30mph ( off road obviously )it is rock solid and feels like your only doing half of that, maybe i over built it as it weighs just shy of 60lb.

I built it on a cube HT mtb ( pics on BPEB's web site where i purchased the kit from or google kirbebike cube build and you'll see it there).

Running 140mm Boost forks with 35mm stanchions and a 3" plus size Maxxis tyre up front and i fitted a Schwalbe marathon GT knobbly rear tyre with slime tube as i didn't want to risk getting any punctures, the downside to the rear tyre/tube combo is they weigh an extra 4lb on top of the already heavy rear hub MTX wheel.

Quality Renthal cockpit and with it being an hard tail i also fitted a Suntour suspension seat post which i have to admit makes a massive difference to the comfort on our pot holed roads.
So in all honesty i am happy with the build i made, now onto the not so good bits:

After about 2 weeks ( and i only used it about 3 times in that period) when i came to power the bike up the screen would turn on then go off after a second or so, I'd turn the battery back off and on again then turn the screen on and it would do the same thing, repeating this process a few times would eventually get the screen to stay on.

At first i thought it was how I'd connected the wiring up but after checking everything all seemed ok, I lived with this for the first 4-5 months as i didn't use it that often but it started to take longer to stay on so i thought enough is enough and got in contact with Paul at Bournemouth performance ebikes where i purchased the kit from, I explained in a text what was happening and he immediately replied telling me what the problem was.

Turns out he found out from Andy that there was a bad batch of batteries released mid last year ( mine was one of them) where the soldering on the on/off switch on the battery was poorly done and the contact switch was tarnished meaning it didn't make a proper contact ( i don't understand any of that as I'm not electrically minded) his advice was that Andy had told him if you spray electrical contact cleaner on and around the switch and work the switch on and off it sorts it out, Paul then gave me permission to open the battery to see if i could spray the switch from inside as well but it was covered in what looks like hot melt glue so that didn't make much difference ( i did mention to Paul that there's a sticker saying the warranty will be void if opened but he gave me permission to do it).
This did seem to sort the issue at first but as i don't use the bike that frequently i find I'm having to do it every time i come to use the bike which i am not happy about.
I am in discussion with Paul at the moment on how we sort this under warranty as it's an issue they are aware of ( even Andy's mate on youtube, Dudestuff covered the switch issue in one of his video's but blamed it on dust not the poor quality soldering lol )

Next issue I'm having is the screen fogs up with moisture, mainly noticeable when powered off but I'm not happy with this either, He tells me this is normal and to be expected ??
Is this true?

So at this very moment in time i wouldn't recommend this kit to anybody based on my experience, there may be others out there who haven't had these problems but i have and stand by my decision.

I'm just hoping Paul takes these issue's seriously and sorts the battery for me, it may be a simple fix like fitting a new switch which i will be happy with if he organizes this, it isn't something i can do as i have no experience with this type of thing.

Sorry for the essay but thought i'd share my feelings with others just to let them know what problems they can be getting themselves into.

 

[Scruffydroid]

So, I've had my kit for 9 months now and i just thought I'd let people know how my experience has been so far.
To be honest it has been a love/hate affair up to this point, the good bits are:

I built a super stable bike that when you do go 30mph ( off road obviously )it is rock solid and feels like your only doing half of that, maybe i over built it as it weighs just shy of 60lb.

I built it on a cube HT mtb ( pics on BPEB's web site where i purchased the kit from or google kirbebike cube build and you'll see it there).

Running 140mm Boost forks with 35mm stanchions and a 3" plus size Maxxis tyre up front and i fitted a Schwalbe marathon GT knobbly rear tyre with slime tube as i didn't want to risk getting any punctures, the downside to the rear tyre/tube combo is they weigh an extra 4lb on top of the already heavy rear hub MTX wheel.

Quality Renthal cockpit and with it being an hard tail i also fitted a Suntour suspension seat post which i have to admit makes a massive difference to the comfort on our pot holed roads.
So in all honesty i am happy with the build i made, now onto the not so good bits:

After about 2 weeks ( and i only used it about 3 times in that period) when i came to power the bike up the screen would turn on then go off after a second or so, I'd turn the battery back off and on again then turn the screen on and it would do the same thing, repeating this process a few times would eventually get the screen to stay on.

At first i thought it was how I'd connected the wiring up but after checking everything all seemed ok, I lived with this for the first 4-5 months as i didn't use it that often but it started to take longer to stay on so i thought enough is enough and got in contact with Paul at Bournemouth performance ebikes where i purchased the kit from, I explained in a text what was happening and he immediately replied telling me what the problem was.

Turns out he found out from Andy that there was a bad batch of batteries released mid last year ( mine was one of them) where the soldering on the on/off switch on the battery was poorly done and the contact switch was tarnished meaning it didn't make a proper contact ( i don't understand any of that as I'm not electrically minded) his advice was that Andy had told him if you spray electrical contact cleaner on and around the switch and work the switch on and off it sorts it out, Paul then gave me permission to open the battery to see if i could spray the switch from inside as well but it was covered in what looks like hot melt glue so that didn't make much difference ( i did mention to Paul that there's a sticker saying the warranty will be void if opened but he gave me permission to do it).
This did seem to sort the issue at first but as i don't use the bike that frequently i find I'm having to do it every time i come to use the bike which i am not happy about.
I am in discussion with Paul at the moment on how we sort this under warranty as it's an issue they are aware of ( even Andy's mate on youtube, Dudestuff covered the switch issue in one of his video's but blamed it on dust not the poor quality soldering lol )

Next issue I'm having is the screen fogs up with moisture, mainly noticeable when powered off but I'm not happy with this either, He tells me this is normal and to be expected ??
Is this true?

So at this very moment in time i wouldn't recommend this kit to anybody based on my experience, there may be others out there who haven't had these problems but i have and stand by my decision.

I'm just hoping Paul takes these issue's seriously and sorts the battery for me, it may be a simple fix like fitting a new switch which i will be happy with if he organizes this, it isn't something i can do as i have no experience with this type of thing.

Sorry for the essay but thought i'd share my feelings with others just to let them know what problems they can be getting themselves into.

I've used the same kit, and I also have the power issue on almost every ride. It usually powers off mid-ride, where I have to stop, power off and power on the battery. I wasn't aware that there is a known issue - thanks for that. My kit was delivered mid-November, and I'll check the battery sticker date.

Mongoose Tyax
RockShox Recon Air
Suntour NCX

 

[25:1]

All depends what you want it for.

I have that kit and yeah, it's fast (and dangerous) on a bicycle - mine is a hardtail Specialised Rockhopper, Rockshocks Toras on front (vintage!).

My thoughts are:
1) Great if you have no chance of rear punctures i.e. live in Essex. Nightmare if you think you're going to be off road with any stones at all. Think Wales, Scotland, Dartmoor, etc. Definitely need serious back tyre for that like Schwalbe Eddy Current (£70?) and rimwhateveritis. Good luck with rear punctures.
2) Not as easy to fit as made out. I got the 9-speed and wish I hadn't, get the 7-speed if you must.
3) You really do need to be competent at DIY, have a shed, tools, skills, etc.

4) Couldn't agree more with Nealh "An already legal moped would make more sense." Sooooo much easier. I'm used to motorcycles, plus, if you bin a bicycle/mtb at 30mph without proper gear it will go badly.
Better still, get a Yamaha YZ125cc (or WR450cc if you're brave) and see what you think. I really still don't get all this EMTB stuff. I guess it's for folks that haven't ridden motorcycles or like myself, are old and trying to recover from injury/illness.

Re reliability:
All good so far! (60miles). Apart from the disc caliper still rubbing on the hub, just. The caliper has been ground off both sides, adjusted, adjusted, adjusted... Rear stays had to be jacked out to fit the wheel/hub, etc, etc.
Don't have the controller in a bag, it gets proper hot! As Dudestuff says, fit on the battery or anywhere but obv waterproof as much as poss, definitely needs airflow.
No screen problems/battery yet.

So, brilliant then. I'm trying Bafang on a FS next.

 

[Simonwwfc]

Just been watching his videos fair play to him we all know speeds above 15mph are not legal so why post it lol above 15 mph is yes for private land usage only I’m looking at this kit now for my fiido m21