Tthoughts on this kit?

anotherkiwi

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 26, 2015
7,845
5,785
The European Union
I would have thought you couldn't go much cheaper than a Woosh hub kit. By the time you factor in transport and import duties etc it doesn't look like such a good deal.

Is it a toy or is it a tool? Building your own battery from used cells is fine if you aren't worried about reliability and range.
 

BlueGlaucus

Finding my (electric) wheels
Mar 1, 2016
5
1
40
Unless I'm missing something the only one same price is the 250w crank kit, but really want 500w.
Even with shipping and duties should be ~£250

Toy to get about locally, but there's no reason a self built battery would be unreliable, as long as all batteries are tested and using a suitable BMS.
 

anotherkiwi

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 26, 2015
7,845
5,785
The European Union
You have spot welded several already then? Not being flippant just curious, I can see a spot welder further on down the line for myself.
 

Fordulike

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 26, 2010
3,802
1,537
Think about warranty too. Woosh will be much easier to deal with than a company in Taiwan, if indeed they honour a warranty in the first place. Woosh do honour warranties and quickly and efficiently too.

Generic Chinese kits will never be built to standards of top car manufacturers, and you need to buy with this in mind. If you receive the kit and it's a dud, what options have you got. Can you afford the possibility that you may lose all the money you paid for it. If it's used for commuting, what about the effect of downtime!

I'm not trying to put you off buying the eBay one, as it looks good value, but the ebike buzz quickly disappears if the bike doesn't work.

I've always bought and built kits bikes with expendable cash, knowing that at any time it could either be non functional, or require extra cash to repair.
 

BlueGlaucus

Finding my (electric) wheels
Mar 1, 2016
5
1
40
Not yet, got a bulk lot of batterys on there way, which will then take several weeks to test and match.
There really isn't a reason why you can't make a very good battery pack yourself. But yes you really need to get a spot welder, or better still just borrow one.

Would love to buy in uk, but from what I've googled I can't see any, unless I pay ~500. Although may well have missed something, hence thread.
As long as pay by visa I can always do a claim back. That's assuming ebay/PayPal protection doesn't work.
 

Fordulike

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 26, 2010
3,802
1,537
Would love to buy in uk, but from what I've googled I can't see any, unless I pay ~500. Although may well have missed something, hence thread.
How about this company:

Electric Bike Conversions

For the money you get a powerful front or rear kit, complete with battery.

Fast delivery from a company based in the UK, plus a no quibble 12 month warranty.
I doubt you'll get any better deal than this ;)

I started a thread about them many months ago:

http://pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/ebay-seller-electric-bike-conversions-seem-to-be-doing-well.21914/
 
Last edited:

BlueGlaucus

Finding my (electric) wheels
Mar 1, 2016
5
1
40
Thanks, I've emailed them, see if they can do a kit without a battery.

And just so you know if you go to their own site you save £30
 
  • Like
Reactions: Fordulike
D

Deleted member 4366

Guest
Forget about making your own battery unless you want to learn about how they work.

That motor is already quite heavy. It will need about 20 to 25 amps to work properly. From recycled 18650s, you'll be lucky to get 1C or 2 amps per cell, which means that you'll need to build a pack 10s10p, 12s10p or 13s10p. A modern Ebike battery can do it with 4p, so less than half the weight.

To make your battery, you need a lot of equipment. A decent balance charger will cost £60, then you need ballance boards, charging leads and jigs. You must check every cell because one bad one can make it catch fire. That's very time consuming. You need to think a lot about the routing and protection of each wire. One touch and you'll be seeing smoke and flames.

How do I know all this? It's because I've done it. It was a great learning experience and taught me a lot about batteries, which was my main goal.

The kit will do the job. It's main drawback is the heavy direct drive motor. If you want power or torque, you'd be much better off with a geared hub motor or a crank-drive kit. Don't forget to add about £30 to £40 duty on it. That takes it to about £300, which is a about what it's worth. You'll need a DNP freewheel for it, as with any rear freewheel hub-motor. That'll cost another £25 to £35. You can't use the ones they show in the advert, which have too low a top gear. The full-width throttle is not really suitable for a bicycle, though you can probably cut it in half to make a half-width one. You can only use the brake levers if your donor bike has cable brakes with their own levers.