melvyn

A couple of things to bear in mind. The combined weight of the battery and motor is 15KG, which, together with the drag of the hub motor&wheel bearing, means you have some resistance to over come when free wheeling or pedalling without the battery power, the extra weight also affects the braking performance of which ever type of brakes you have. I'm not sure if a crank drive motor is similar, i.e weight and drag? For example, if I span the front wheel of my bike with it's previous wheel off the ground it would continue spinning for some time but with the hub motor fitted it only spins for a few seconds.

She has to carry the trash out to our wheelie bin which also wakes me up from my snooze on the couch.

I'm a little late in replying in this thread, I bought the same 500W kit as in olden's previous post and agree entirely with his comments. One reason I delayed posting is, to my shame, I've only been out on the bike twice since I converted it, but I did two 10 mile plus rides on a fully charged battery, over hilly terrain no one but a masochist on a human powered bicycle would chose to ride over, so the fully charged battery should be more than ample to cover far more miles over less undulating roads than I used. I confess I did open it up on battery alone on one flat stretch of road but chickened out when I hit 30mph!! and throttled back. My bike now sits fully charged, gathering dust, in my garage waiting until I get time to take it out again, or until my wife says it's getting in her way and it's destined to spend the rest of it's life in my shed.

I finally got my eBay e-bike kit up and running, I could have completed it sooner but kept getting called away. Took it out today and did 12.5 miles over very undulating terrain on, according to the display, half the battery power, I'm pleased with that. I intend to do the same circuit again tomorrow to run the battery down. O.T., there's a long climb out of our town and I couldn't resist passing a couple of old codgers, winding their supermarket MTBs up the hill, and giving a cheery "Mornin" as I passed them. If I hadn't got the "power" I'd have been joining them. BTW, I bought the 500W Kit, but please don't spread it around just in case MI5 are monitoring this thread.

I had quick replies back to my eBay messages to the seller and spoke to the gentleman on the phone twice, both times at just after 08.00 a.m., the phone was picked up immediately, my "dumb questions" answered patiently and satisfactorily. I found him to be a very nice guy, I'd buy from him again without hesitation. BTW, his telephone number is 01438986007

I read somewhere that I should run my new battery flat twice to begin with, is that correct?

Cycling used to be such a simple pass time, I'm now trying to figure out how to fit an ash tray to the bars of my eBike, in amongst all of the digital clutter.

I must admit to being an impulse buyer, i.e. buying without doing sufficient research, I always end up buying everything twice. I must be grateful to the trade forum members for the heads up on this one. Just two parting observations, I can see why I only ever see ebikers riding around the flatter parts of the UK, I've never seen one trying to ride up any of the hills around here, probably due to the assistance from the puny legal electric motor is negated by the extra weight of the battery, motor, etc.the result being the rider would be better off using his own pedal power alone. It also seems to me that even if your riding a totally legal ebike your likely to be pulled over at any time by an over zealous PC or CSO to a have your bike inspected, which is not conducive to a pleasant cycle ride out into the countryside; it's perhaps better to avoid ebikes altogether.

I'm glad I posted my enquiry, I hadn't realised what a potential risk of prosecution owning an e.bike was. My e-bike career is short lived, I shall consign my kit, still in it's box, to my loft, along with the rest of my unfinished projects. It's back to enjoying my new automatic car for me, warm and dry, and no worries about the possibilities of getting my "collar felt".

Hi Guys, I'm about to fit my eBay conversion kit but admit I'm getting a little twitchy about the motor wattage, meanwhile I came across this Ad. which implies some e-bikes over 250W are legal, is this because it has a speed limiter facility as mine does? http://www.electricvehicles4you.org/500w__folding_e-bike.html

Thanks for the help. I'm fitting the kit to a bike i know I can pedal up most hills around here, it has a 22inch bottom gear, the advantage is I know I can handle a 30lb load easily on it and that I can get home if the motorised system fails. Most of the ready made bikes I researched have too high a gearing to be useful.

There were conditions -> 20% off any purchases over £20 up to a maximum of £50, so I got £50 off the £395 Kit, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

I had to make a decision, eBay had a 20% discount voucher tonight which terminated at 22.00, so I went for the 500W Kit. I'll report back on it's performance here.

Would the 500W motor affect the range of the bike, i.e. would it potentially have a shorter range on the supplied battery than the 250W motor, or is it just a matter of potential reserve power in the bigger motor?

Yep, and the average small affordable car could only cruise at 35mph, my own 1947 Ford 8 Van was flat out at 45mph. BTW, there's a typo in my original post, ICU should read ICE (Internal Combustion Engine).

Hi Guys, I've been cycling for the last 60+ years but have reached the stage where cycling up hills is no longer the challenge it once was and am looking I'm for a little help on the steepest ones. I used to cycle camp around France with 30lbs of kit on board but the change over from the Frank to the Euro seemed to be the time things became less attractive over there. So now I'm happy doing local rides up to perhaps 20 miles or so, but living in a very hilly part of the country the prospect of going out is no longer pleasurable. Also, the increase in ICU driven road traffic over the last few decades is particularly noticeable, anyone who was cycling in the 1950s will remember those last halcyon days of traffic free roads. Anyway, I'm presently following the thread about eBay Kits, so I will be bouncing a few questions off our learned forum members over there soon.