Peter.Bridge

I can't help feeling this a bit of a "hidden gem" of conversion kits that a lot of people don't know about

The 250w power restriction in the legislation is based on the manufacturers' rated power of the motor, so if you bought a conversion kit that had a motor rated at higher than 250w there is no way of restricting it and making it legal. You can't change the motors manufacturers rated power - it is fixed forever. You could get a 250w rated kit and go into the advanced settings, usually requiring a password and remove the 15.5 mph max motor assist speed on private land , and then restrict it back when you go on the road or publicly accessible land

maybe something like this https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1938640233430150 or https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2230491424446241

OK for offroad and you have steep muddy banks, then a mid drive is probably best The most powerful legal motor is the TSDZ8 from Woosh that is rated 250W and has a controller capable of peak of 48V *25A If you pair it with a second hand hardtail bike off marketplace - make sure it has a square taper bottom bracket, plenty of room on the downtube for the battery and hydraulic brakes. Also - need to check that the motor won't hit the chainstay - so don't get anything that only has a small gear at the front

E-bikes are great. Personally, I've come to the conclusion the best option is to buy a nearly new / well maintained "donor bike" from Facebook marketplace and then convert it to an electric bike, you can convert it to your exact needs. If you want to buy a ready made ebike, I bought a 48v rear hub Chinese bike which I bought direct from Duotts. This model seems to be used a lot by delivery riders. https://www.alibaba.com/x/B1tM9K?ck=pdp I followed that link and messaged Emily Liu, - I did wonder at the time if it was some sort of scam, but it wasn't and they had UK stock and the bike was delivered in a few days It is very powerful but as a minimum you would need to upgrade the brakes (to hydraulic brakes with motor cut outs) and tyres and the display is not waterproof (and very dim) so you either need a waterproof cover or buy an upgraded display. The disadvantages are that it is a bit laggy, the pedal assist only kicks in after 1-2 seconds of pedalling and then the motor continues assisting for 1-2 seconds after you stop pedalling unless you use the brakes. The cut outs connected to the brakes stop the motor immediately. It has the more common "speed" based control, so each assist level corresponds to a speed and the controller will apply full power until you get to the speed for that level (which can be annoying if you are trying to ride with a group of friends) Woosh do a 36v bike for heavier riders which is significantly more powerful than your standard 36v bikes (but not quite as powerful as some 48v bikes) They operate the cycle2work scheme. It has a 36v 20A controller, most 36v bikes have a 15A controller https://wooshbikes.co.uk/?gran-camino I think that's a much nicer bike with a controller that has a lot less lag, hydraulic brakes and a motor that is suited to the UK legal 15.5 mph max assist speed If you decide to buy a bike and convert, there's lots of people here that will advise - it's a lot easier than you think, but you might need to follow YouTube videos , have some basic tools and maybe buy some bike specific tools from eBay. You could get a nice bike with hydraulic brakes off eBay and then fit a powerful 48v conversion kit (250w rated so it's legal) with a nice power based control system

Somebody was asking on Facebook should they connect together the 2 white connector plugs (I have a vague recollection of doing something like this for cruise control) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16o6BFsSFP/

Is this the same sort of battery ? https://www.yosepower.co.uk/collections/e-bike-battery/products/36v10ah-seat-tube-li-ion-e-bike-battery

Up to a point, but there is a reason why all the grimpeurs are very light - see square-cube law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climbing_specialist

Does that have internal "low" and "high" gearing within the hub motor - that seems like it would solve a lot of problems - I'm surprised its not more popular

I'm assuming good faith, and that he has a "250W" bike with a 36V 12A controller which will struggle with steep hills and a heavy rider, but doesn't realise there are other legal "250 W" bikes with 48V 15A controllers , which is quite a difference!

Sounds very nice, there's lots of people here that have converted folding bikes in general (including me) and Bromptons in particular (not me !). You can make it quite a lightweight conversion with a AKM-75 hub motor (1.45kg) and a bag battery (36V 10Ah 1.8kg). The advantage I think of converting a bike yourself is you can choose what's important to you. In particular you can choose a power based control system rather than a speed control one (so each power assist level corresponds with a power level rather than a set speed) The ARCC Bikes look very nice but a bit expensive for me !

What problems are you having ? We might be able to help

Its very good - I wondered if you could introduce a "no preference" option and it would list all the alternatives, eg cadence sensor, torque sensor or no preference I noticed if you choose mid drive it lists cadence sensor "Great Value" or torque sensor "Natural Feel" but the torque sensor kit chosen (TSDZ8) is actually significantly cheaper than the cadence sensor kit (BBS01B). If someone wanted the cheapest they might be inclined to choose "Great Value" cadence sensor and not see the option of the significantly cheaper TSDZ8

Ah - I thought "Torque Simulation" was Chinglish for power based control

Anybody tried the non-KT "Torque Simulation" controllers eg from PSWPower or BMS battery - they seem a lot cheaper eg https://bmsbattery.com/controller/1021-s-ku63-torque-simulation-controller-24v36v-15a.html or https://www.pswpower.com/products/kt-kunteng-electric-bicycle-motor-ebike-controller-24v-36v-48v-250w-500w-1000w-brushless-dc-sine-wave-sensor-controller-336

I think they are all good choices, my sister loves her TSDZ8 and has covered a lot of distance over very steep hills and a mixture of terrain. It is very powerful, If you go for a can bus BBS01 make sure you get a display where you can adjust the power and maximum speed for each pas level

There is a logical fallacy "distinction without a difference" It doesn't matter if the regulations were not clear ( they weren't ) or they were not being applied (they weren't). What matters is high rise buildings in the UK were being clad with inflammable materials and experts were warning of the dangers. In many other countries this didn't happen. I'm pretty sure Peter Apps will have written about this in one of his Spectator column Eta https://spectator.com/article/blairs-government-cant-escape-blame-for-the-grenfell-disaster/

On the Grenfell fire - some countries allowed their high rise buildings to be clad with highly inflammable cladding (despite the repeated warnings from experts) and some countries didn't - see the Peter Apps book. That Labour MP with a penchant for submarine captains is hilarious - I'm sure someone could come up with a funnier headline https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15697375/Labour-MP-wife-alleged-China-spy-behaved-inappropriately-TWO-naval-officers-working-secret-nuclear-subs.html

https://inews.co.uk/news/grenfell-was-tragic-but-everyone-dies-in-the-end-says-reforms-new-housing-chief-4330442

I ordered it from topbikekit - which is more expensive than some but good quality and has a very extensive range of components - I bought the battery with built in KT controller in the battery holder (which helps cable management) Hailong 1 Battery 36V17.5AH Panasonic NCR18650GA Battery Pack with 36V inner controller 9Pins 60cm 9pins extend cable Charger M120-36V2.5A Display KT LCD5 Cable 1-2 cable PAS KT-V12L There are bottle batteries with built in controllers if you want a lighter option TBK-100AD CST 260 rpm motor - I then got Arrow wheels to build the wheel https://topbikekit.com/ https://www.arrow-wheels.co.uk/

I did this one on a facebook marketplace Boardman Hyb8.6 with an AK M100 motor, and a downtube 36V 17.5Ah battery and KT controller, weighed in total 16 kg including battery, but you could go for lighter motors, batteries and donor bike if you were that bothered

You can build a lightweight ebike as said above, there are a selection of lightweight hub motors between 1.45 kg and 2.1 kg. A 36v 10Ah bag battery is 1.8 kg, 15Ah 2.4kg. Add a kt controller which is power based control system rather than speed based control system and a 10-11kg donor bike

Please do - be interesting how you get along with it

What @Nealh said ! When considering battery range, the average battery consumption for a legal pedelec varies quite widely from 5Wh/mile to 20Wh/ mile - it depends how heavy you are, how hilly it is and how much assist you need / how much pedal input you provide. How heavy are you - what e-bikes are you considering - the ones without battery comms are a lot cheaper (although the estimated range left is not so accurate). I consider myself quite a strong pedaller, but I'm heavy (>100kg) and its very hilly near me, a 720Wh battery will last me about 70 miles (so 10Wh/mile) When I started I was nearer 13-14 Wh per mile, but my contribution to the journeys has increased !