jaydeeuk1

... and loving it. The difference between my old hub based legal 250w bike is night and day. So far had no issues (other than chain coming off once when changing too many gears at a time under power) nor have I had to adjust anything yet. I'm a fair weather cyclist but have managed to bike it to work at least 3 times a week so far. It will conquer any hill, let me arrive at work in a decent state and best of all I feel much safer being able to keep up with traffic at 30mph (think having a decent 30q battery helps), no more having to ride almost in the gutter dodging drain covers. Most of the 'serious' lycra cyclists take it in good humour when I shout 'morning chaps' as I blast past them up the a6. I still get a good work out as I like to travel at top speed in highest gear, and I now have a decent routing for changing gear (haven't bothered with a gear or brake sensor), so I stop pedellaing, wait 1/4s, change gear and then blip the throttle, let it engage and then pedal / will full throttle, seems nice and smooth. Might get the wife on board with a BBSHD. Shame the laws are so restrictive, although I guess the Govt and oil companies would lose huge amounts of cash if people were able to ditch their cars.

Will the headlight work from 5v? Some batteries like mine have a usb port. I've configured my bbs02 750w, at 22a with a fresh battery it's capable of putting out well over 1kw, with a throttle in a low gear it will wheelie and blasts up Derbyshire hills. The bbshd looks epic, but I'd no need for all that power, not looking to go 40mph. It's not legal, but neither is 71 on a motorway, downloading films, being drunk in a pub or betting under different identities.

I know **** all about bikes and managed to fit a bafang BBS02 kit in an hour or two to my new bike (first bike in about 20 years), was incredibly easy just followed a youtube video.

Finished building it today (well, apart from throttle, looks a faff taking off the brakes and gear selector) and gave it a test drive after uploading Karl's firmware and dropping max current to 20amps. My God it's quick. My last ebike was some small wheeled 24v 250w machine, this is in a whole different league. Whole office now wants one! The surge of power even on lowest 1 setting is amazing and cranked up to level 3, even at 20a is epic. Had huge smile on my face, i dont think there's a hill in Derbyshire this won't blast up. Installing was surprisingly easy, i didn't know what a bottom bracket or crank was until the other day. My soldering skills are crap so might give it a sort out one day, and need to tidy up cabling, there's about 5 miles of cable included. Really glad i spent weeks researching and didn't just go for some 1500w hub motor that wouldn't be anywhere near as good as the bbs02. The Boardman hybrid made a pretty damn good donor bike, everything just fit nicely, and still stops dead.

Had my heart set on the 750w after reading and watching g hours of reviews and comparisons. Ordered from eBay, cost £500 but probably works out the same if ordering from China with import and vat. Really impressed with the bike, although halfords thought 10% of 375 came to £358... Bloke seemed knowledgeable and was put together well, his colleague had fitted a bafang so gave me a couple of tips. Another bloke was instore too and had a cycling membership, offered him a tenner to use his discount but halfords having none of it! Shame, £300 would have been a steal!

Have gone for the boardman, managed to haggle another 10% off too making it under £340, must be my dazzling personality. Looks like I might have to order the bafang from china out of stock in uk unless you want to pay extortionate prices and I'm too impatient to wait till may.

Thank you. The bike itself is £300+vat, the motor and battery will add another £700 (I presume eclipse are vat registered too). Or are you giving me an incentive to find a bike costing over £500?

How does that work then? If I'm ss'ing (already paying myself minimal salary for tax purposes) that might push me under some ni threshold. I'll speak to our accountant and see what he says.

Before I press purchase, I'm director of a small limited company. Will confirm with accountant but instead of faffing about with the cycle to work scheme, I presume I could just purchase through company, say officially the bike is a pool bike, and then claim back vat? Won't be used for business just commuting so not bothered about losing out on the 20ppm.

Plenty of people have removed/blocked off the DPF on their older diesel car - now its illegal to drive (although I imagine most won't be aware of that) The m1 north from where I live looks like it might become 60mph. Govt won't ban cars (at least not until they've cracked self driving ones), just like they won't ban smoking or drinking due to the revenue it brings in. But it could introduce further limits on cycling. They could force all electric assisted bikes to have insurance, or riders must have a licence, ban imports of motors capable of producing 251w or more. As with my example of quadcopters we're already banned from going more than 120m up and line of sight out (despite FPV and range of 2 miles), and we might have to register our drones and carry a serial code if it's over 250g, and get a proper flight licence costing thousands of we want to fly something approaching decent and generally kill off the industry. Will it stop the people who fly over airports or over groups of people? No, will just affect those who follow the rules. It will be just a matter of time.

This forum doesn't seem too dissimilar to rcgroups. A few years ago you could build RC planes capable of flying 50 miles or so and do it all within the law. You'd get kids and adults coming over with interest to see your screen and ask questions on how far and high you can fly and generally amazed at what off the shelf components can do. Then cheap sub £1000 GPS camera equipped quadcopters arrived, far simpler to setup, maintain, incredible performance and lifting capability, but also meant a tiny minority who are idiots - the types who would buy a flashy 5kw ebike and go 50mph, could get in to the hobby without knowing the rules, or having any training or experience and then ruin it for everyone else They're the only ones you ever hear about in the news, flying over airports, around peoples gardens etc. Now the hobby is being heavily legislated, quads like mine capable of flying FPV which were perfectly safe one day now ruled highly illegal, in parks we now get hounded out by the same people who used to watch with interest, and regular forum members looking down at disdain at new members wanting to buy a dji phantom etc or asking questions on how fast, how far or how much weight something can lift. I can see it from both points of view, the tiny reckless minority will probably sooner or later ruin ebikes as it takes off over the next few years, just like it has with RC, but members like minime (and myself) who are going in to this with their eyes open, not intending on blasting around at 30mph drawing attention to themselves and well aware of UK/EU laws are genuinely looking for advice on what plenty of other ebikers have achieved but perhaps not as willing to share in a public forum.

Thanks for the info, will only consider a UK supplier though, even if it works out 25% more. Looking at getting this battery http://eclipsebikes.com/12ah-lithium-frame-battery-samsung-cells-p-1123.html And then this kit either when back instock or from elsewhere http://eclipsebikes.com/bafang-8fun-bbs02b-drive-750w-motor-p-1100.html Other than a toolkit with a crankarm puller, perhaps some velcro straps, and I presume some connectors for the battery (I should have a few 30a capable plugs from building quadcopters) is there anything else I'd require?

Thanks, but have found somewhere else with the bbs02 in UK a bit cheaper. Would this bike make a good candidate for a conversion? http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes/boardman-hybrid-comp-bike

Right, after many many hours of reading, adding things to basket, looking elsewhere etc I've decided to go with the general consensus and build a bike myself. I've also decided that I'm going to get a bbs02 750w kit as I think that will be most suitable for me, rather than going for a 1000/1500w hub driven thing, especially as I've decided to get a new bike (and therefore not have to chuck half of it) I see eclipse do the kit, although currently out of stock till May, and a suitable matching battery. Ok, so my next question, and seeing as I know next to nothing about bikes is what would be a good candidate bike for around £300, read that it needs either 68m, or 73mm bottom bracket (only knew what one was as of 3 hours ago), not seen many sites that show that in the bike specs. Cheers.

Had been using one of the cheap folding bikes to get back in to cycling and see if an electric bike was for me, shown below. I'm 35 years old, 5"10 13.5 stone but completely unfit. http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/e-co-electric-bike-249-99-sports-direct-delivered-1846286 Sold it before the winter to fund my next bike (and sold it for £50 more than I paid for it!) Was very heavy for its size, only 24v but I had fun modding it with a throttle and removing speed limiter so I could get constant assistance. Small hills were ok, still needed a fair bit of a effort but anything steeper the bike would grind to a near halt and I'd find it hard to peddle in a straight line - not good on the narrow one way roads. And from office to home its all uphill. I never used the folding capability and I now have a garage and there are proper bike lockers in my office. 2 miles each way to office, I often pedaled home at lunch, so around 7-8 miles a day, therefore a huge battery not required and full size is fine. I'd like something with a bit more grunt. Budget £1000, had considered a kit and get a 'decent' £600 bike but not sure I'd have the time to fully put one together. Have been reading quite a bit last few days over what bikes to get - I see prices have shot up over last few years, a bike I once looked at the big bear which was around £900 in 2014 is now over a grand. I think I've narrowed it down to a choice of four. Ideally I'd try each of them out, but here in Belper I don't think there is anywhere nearby that sells all of them, I'd be looking at halfords Derby or decathlon Nottingham way. 1) Halfords carrera e bike - most expensive at £1100 but a branch not too far away I could test 2) Gtech bike - £995, only single gear so probably not suitable for the derby hills, but imo the best looking of the 4 and like the fact I would get a free trial (although no idea if they're as good as Amazon when it comes to returns). 3) Kudos Stealth - have seen this bike praised on here and like the fact the owner(?) is a regular and knows his onions. 4) Big bear - Looked good when I researched bikes back in 2014 but £200 more expensive than it once was. Theres also a Karoo 13ah which is the cheapest but I don't know how the performance would compare to the others above. I'm a bit of a tinkerer, not too bothered if I can't fit a throttle (I quite liked it on old bike), but I would like the ability to derestrict, something I've seen is possible on the carrera with a few components. So, short of having to try and find owners/shops nearby with the above bikes, any of the above (or alternatives) that stand out? Cheers JD

Fitted the throttle to the 3 wires I identified above and it works spot on. Can do gradual acceleration and the 3 power levels also seem to limit its speed still, only had a quick 2 minute run as its getting dark, will do a proper run tomorrow. This is the throttle I bought http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=201061300927 Any 3 wire throttle should probably work, I just went for a thumb one, and the length of wire it has is perfect, not too loose and not too tight so fits in nicely in to the box. Hardest part was getting the handle grip off, didn't know about the fairy liquid trick until youtube! This throttle upgrade will definitely work on the following bikes using instructions above Viking electric bike (Amazon etc) Eco electric bike (Sports direct) Tesco eco bike with the 6 gears, may work with the single gear one Will try soldering the shunt this weekend, didn't get chance today. If I can get a few more watts of power up the main road in Belper I'll be quite happy!

Cheers, can take photos of the other connectors too, from memory there was another 3 pin one already connected, but the one I mentioned and the 2 pin connector were the only ones without anything conneced. With the white one, suppose I can try the highly technical disconnect it and see what happens logic.

Got one of those cheapo ebikes and wanted to add a thumb throttle after reading that my controller should support one, although not read anywhere that anyone has done this to my particular bike. Just want to check this is the right connection and what the best way to connect is (don't like just snipping and soldering!) This is my controller: http://s28.postimg.org/mkw94q1wp/specs.jpg And this is the throttle, red black and green http://s12.postimg.org/wj1a7t75l/throttle.jpg These are the two potential candidates. Without taking the controller apart, am I correct in thinking the throttle connecter is the 3 wired one in the middle, red black and yellow? http://s29.postimg.org/r43hmkcab/wires.jpg The one on the right is just a red/black connection, can this be used for the LED lights on the throttle or is this for something else? Also, the white wire which looks like it connects to itsself, is this the speed sensor? As you can see, the connector for the throttle is different to the one on the controller, what is the best way of connecting the two, can I get an adapter from maplins or ebay? From looking at the wires they're in the correct order for a straight conversion. Also, what is this out of interest? Not connected to anything, but covered by a plastic guard. http://s8.postimg.org/wz09e4o5d/whatthis.jpg If this works OK, I'll have a dabble at soldering part of the shunt, if my controller is at 12a, and I imagine fuses are 20a so I should have a fair bit of give. Will have to test out Ohms law next weekend! Cheers James

Maybe toyota or lexus will come up with something, their customer service is best in business. The Mercedes smart bike looks gorgeous, quite pricey though.

Cheers for that. Could only see a 13t 7 speed in that listed though? If I fit a 7 speed is it easy enough to adjust the gears and would it affect gear change? Its quite smooth at the moment, which I'd like to keep. Wonder if its possible to fit some sort of throttle too, will have a look at the controller this weekend.

Bought one of these, took it out for its first ride today to work (and back again at lunch), first time I've ridden a bike in 5 years or so. Compared to my cheapo old bike which I still have, it weighs about the same, even with battery. No doubt much heavier than any modern bike but not as bad as reviews made it seem, and because most of the weight is lower down, it feels really stable even with the smaller wheels. Never set a bike up in my life, but first thing I did was throw away the destructions and tackled it by myself. Everything looks good, although the battery tray is at an angle, undid the 3 screws but can't wiggle it in to position (out by 5 - 10 degrees or so). Gears seemed fine, adjusted saddle and handle bars. The rear brake handle moves a bit too much for it to be on 'full power' so I'll have a go at adjusting at the weekened, still stops fine. Comes fully kitted with lights (AAA powered) and plastic mudguards which is nice. First ride, just around my road to get used to it, and the pull is fantastic, I wasn't expecting anything this good from a £250 (nearer £230 after cashback) ebike. Took me to work easily enough, mostly downhill, with one steep hill at Belper marketplace where I had to use back brake on full and a fair bit of front just to slow, the route on way back I can avoid this for a gentler longer hill. The ride back it got me up each hill, had to drop to first or 2nd but all I needed was the weight of my legs on the peddles, didn't need to push (although it was slow!), even putting in some effort it was still quite easy - even over took a lycra bloke up a hill (although to be fair he was probably twice my age), gave me a smile. I found if I keep within the bikes limits, ie under 15mph and assisted) its incredibly easy to ride, took me along the a6 and up through Belper nicely, if I try and push it and peddle at 120hz it becomes hard work and tiring. Only negatives is the saddle which is quite uncomfy, although a bit better when I adjusted the height a bit, and I managed to brake the bike stand so it won't fold down, hopefully a spanner will sort that out. There's no rattles or squeaks that I would expect on a cheap bike, just a nice hum of the motor and light ticking noise of the chain. It could benefit from a slightly longer final gear, think its 14t. Is it possible to find a freewheel with a 12 or even 11t size, or just replace a sprocket? Was considering a sirocco 2 for £600 which I'm sure is a fine bike, but value for money I doubt this can be beaten. All in all, a cracking bike!

Thank you for all your comments. Actually just under 12st now, thought i was still 13 from xmas. I think in my mind zipping up hills in the way i want wouldn't be achievable from my budget, so i would be looking at a not quite road legal bike and a higher budget. I see the cheap bike ive bought not as a waste of money, and i know im not going to be zooming around, but as a good introduction back in to cycling and perhaps a way of getting the wife interested in it too.

Ok, after comments from here and some other forums, I've instead decided to get the £249 sports direct bike just to dip my toe so to speak and see how good (or bad lol) a cheaper bike would be. Figured if it isn't suitable I can either give it to my wife, or wait for their offer to finish and sell close to what I paid for it, and get something better. Comments about weight put me off the cd a little, and that the sirocco 2 isn't massively more powerful than this, so i'll probably save up and spend something closer to £2k

Thanks for that, I am leaning towards the CD more now as I can't find a single bad review about it, other than adjusting to how it changes gear. So derestricting is as easy as altering something on the LCD?