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How many steel frames have been lost to rust? Derailers, chain and sprockets I can buy, but I've never had actual rust on a frame that wasn't simply cosmetic. I'll take that over the possibility of a sudden failure; I had an alloy stem (Al I guess) fail on me once. Fortunately I wasn't going fast.

Did you goose the throttle going slowly up a hill? If the motor is running at an inefficient speed, and it's being overfed with current that it can't use, then all that gets dumped into the controller in the form of heat I believe. Aside from that, yeah put it in the airflow.

Well my new bike is CroMo. So hopefully that will keep me sorted for as long as I need it to. But I think I'm hijacking somebody's thread. :o

Well since I'm now the proud owner of a Kona Smoke acquired for $399 NZD new from a NZ bikeshop (it was advertised on trademe-our ebay. I got lucky) I will be going the DIY route myself. Of course I'm going to spend more money and get an ebikes.ca Ezee kit. That should just drop right in and they now offer it with 8.5 Ah LifePO4, 14 Ah Lipoly (maybe cobalt?), and the regular Phylion 9.6Ah LiMn. The main thing that pushed me to DIY is the ability to choose a bike. And I'm no fan of this move to Aluminium and carbon that everyone is going for. The only advantages that they have over steel is weight as far as I can see. Who really cares about 2kg or so saved off the frame when you're putting 10kg+ of electrics on your bike?

Here's a review of the Elation. Worth reading every post in it as several owners chip in. I think that the waterproofing has been improved over the Cyclone, and the mounting system is better and cleaner-the battery just sits right over the motor in the triangle. According to the maker, it's weatherproof, though not immersion proof. Endless-sphere.com • View topic - eLation 200watt kit (Australia)

Beautiful machine though. Absolutely beautiful. If we put together Japanese engineering with the American ebike rules, we could really make bikes worth owning. Instead we get all these complications and a fractured market.

If I recall my physics correctly, the resistance in those wires will be in the milliohms. Even if running a 20amp current through them you wouldn't be seeing a fraction of a volt of drop. I'd pay more attention to the quality of your connectors (a lot of losses are at poor conections) and place the controller for other reasons. You want to keep the controller in a place where it's exposed to wind for cooling, but sheltered from the rain, road spray. Under the seat is a good bet.

You can find plenty of information on Endless sphere regarding front forks, dropouts and hub motors. I strongly recommend that you go visit, as they have a lot more experience than the average pedelecs member on faceplants and what have you. Comes from the high percentage of high torque conversions. I don't have any personal experience but I can distill the general advice for you: 1. Cheap steel is best. Steel has a more forgiving failure mode, while Aluminium or Carbon fibre will just snap. You really don't want to lose the front wheel going at high speeds in traffic. 2. A good install is critical. Make sure that the fit of the washers against the dropouts is absolutely flat. A common problem is quick release forks not allowing a nice flat fit. The nuts have to be torqued up really tight and flat as that friction is what keeps the hub on the bike. The dropouts themselves can't resist the torque of most hub motors, unless they're made from 1/2 inch steel. 3. A torque arm is good insurance. Remember that the torque arm will spin the opposite direction from the wheel so secure it appropiately. You can order from several US suppliers if you can't get it in the UK. Try ebikes.ca The torque arm may keep the wheel on the bike but it won't protect against a poor install. You can also get c shaped washers from ebikes.ca that allow a flat fit in QR fork dropouts.

What I meant by asking the Land Transport Authority wasn't so much for importing, but for using. I just want to know the chances that I'll be pulled over by a cop. Probably small, but... Anyway thanks for the heads up on GST. I'll need to keep that in mind.

I've seen the teampoynter website, and it's a shame that the Ezee's aren't imported by a more specialist company. I wasn't planning to buy from them anyway, not being Auckland based myself. Hadn't thought about the GST. It might slip under the Radar, or it might not. I have been looking at Trademe, I saw a Wisper705 little used for a good price a while ago. Can't bid yet, being out of the country. Most of the Crystallyte motors sold by Ecobikes would technically be illegal in NZ, unless modified to low current draws. I actually emailed NZLTA to ask them about the current law, and it's spirit vs its letter. I will post the final reply up here and also on the Sphere.

Well if I get an Ezee I'd probably be restricting the battery to a 1.5C draw and I'd eventually (in a year or three) be getting a bigger battery for it.

Yes the local support would be nice, though ebikes.ca do provide good backup, postage from Canada would be an issue... What are the chances of actually getting a dud Ezee kit though? ebikes.ca do check everything before they send and a lot of issues are user fixable. I'd really like one of those 'god' performers though. Never mind the roads, just teleport to where you're going. The thing that's pushing me towards Ezee is mainly the ability to choose the bike of my choice. I'd like to use a nexus rear hub, though I'm not sure if the choice of gears would matter all that much with the motor pushing. I could also upgrade the Ezee to 48volts later (risking a brush with the fuzz) and swap it over to another bike if I wanted. The 905 is turnkey though and it does have local support. Decisions decisions. I know I'll get them both! *wakes Up.*

Buying my first electric bicycle in December when I get back to NZ after my 8 year stint in Korea. I've narrowed down the options to two. 1. Wisper 905 cityS $2600-$2800 NZD. 2. Front Ezee kit $2000 NZD plus a bike to put it on. I'd get it from ebikes.ca and probably get the Cycle Analyst and LED lights, but I could wire those into the Wisper as well if I wanted, so I haven't included them in the price. I'm having analysis paralysis here. No doubt I'll jump one way or the other when I get back in 4 weeks, but right now, the more I learn the harder it is to decide.

So hopefully one would get a good 500 cycles without a substantial decrease in range over 3 years? That's 25,000km or so per battery if true. As an aside Flecc, to what C rate would you wish to limit a discharge to in order to maximise life? 1C? Or less?

You're assuming 100% efficiency for the charger itself and the chemical process to charge the battery. I'm not sure what the efficiency is, but I'd guess roughly 75% or so.