I picked up this kit to add some extra power to a 450 watt kit from Currie that I got last year. The 450 watt kit is fine, but it is louder, and slower than I expected. The chain drive on the currie kit needs a lot of adjustment, and it is very hard to change out flats or the like when I get them because the Currie kit mounts on the rear.
I was originally going to put this on the same bike as the Currie kit. I rewired the switch on the Currie kit so that one direction would put the two 24v batteries in parallel, and the other way in series (either 24 or 48v). that way I could use either motor. After trying this kit, I decided to scratch that idea and use only this 1000w 48v motor with the 2 Currie SLA batteries.
The motor is 470 rpm. That sounds low, until you do the math. On a 26" rim, 470 rpm means 38,370 inches per minute. That is 36.3 miles per hour. So up to that speed, you can hit the throttle and get an assist. It was quite weird when going down a long, steep downhill to hit the throttle and feel the motor provide even more speed. This motor is FAST.
I was actually concerned the first time I used it because of how fast I could go. Several of the roads I travel on used to worry me because of the speed differential between me and the rest of traffic. On the Currie kit, I could do roughly 14 or 15 mph. In this, I am easily double that speed. I keep up with traffic on a 35mph speed limit street.
This does use a lot of power though. On the Currie kit, I could get about 10 miles of range using both batteries when they were brand new. On this kit, I get 4.5 miles max range. Part of that will be the wear on the batteries after a year of use, and some will be because of the excessive wind resistance at high speed. I have only been using this kit for a few days, and I haven't tried going the same speed as my old kit to see if the range differs. It is way too much fun to firewall the throttle and keep it there.
The cables are nice and long too. That was something that annoyed me greatly on the Currie kit. This kit also comes with brake levers that have a cutoff switch on them that cuts the motor. The levers are much longer than the ones that came with my bike, which was perfect to span the extra distance on the handlebars that the thumb throttle takes up.
A few 'gotchas' on this kit:
The directions are very badly translated. I used them more as a reference than as instructions. If this is your first electric project, pick a different kit. The wire harness is not marked, and several connectors can be interchanged. When my kit came, most of the connectors were connected already, but needed to be disconnected to be put on the bike. Make SURE to mark them before disconnecting them. In fact, almost nothing is marked. The controller has '48V' marked on it in pencil, but the motor on the wheel had '48v' engraved on it.
The wheel/motor does not have a direction of rotation on it. I put it on backwards the first time. I could have went very fast in reverse, but it was hard to steer, so I flipped the wheel around. The tire is 1.75" wide, which is thinner than the 2.25's that my bike came with.
Also, something I didn't think about was that since this is on the front, if you apply the throttle when the front is unloaded, it will spin the tire. I actually burnt a throw rug in my house when I did this on accident after I assembled the kit on the bike. I did it again later when I started moving in some gravel, and I ended up digging a hole with the front tire.
If I were doing this all again, I would get 2 Currie batteries, the battery rack, and this motor kit. I like the Currie batteries and rack because they keep the weight low and look professional, but this motor and controller is awesome power-wize compared to the Currie kit.
Here's some links to the other items I talked about:
Currie Technologies Power Kit
Currie Technologies 24-Volt Bicycle Battery Pack, Black
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This was my first ebike kit and first ebike owned after I built it. It's been a pretty competent kit overall and for the money it's paid for itself in saved gas! I pedal and full-throttle on the way to and from work and I've been able to pull off 35mph max speed (according to my phone app). I get to work about 10 minutes slower than by car in 14 miles distance. So it's been working out great!
I'll go by component:
Bag
It's okay, certainly big enough for any sort of battery you want to put in it. It has 2 holes in it (pictured) for cables and I wired my controlled to be inside of my bag at first so it wouldn't get wet. The controller gets hot, especially the way I ride it, so I ended up turning the bag around on my rack and accessing my charging cable and power cable on the battery with the side pockets and zipper instead of through the holes. I wrapped my battery in foam to protect it (the battery is twice as much as this kit). It's already starting to rip at the seam but it's not bad. I'll have to upgrade someday but for now it's holding up okay.
Strap
Bungee cords are your friend, especially if you keep your battery on your rack vs. inside the triangle in a bag or box or something. The that's shipped in the kit is good and thick, holds onto the battery back nicely. I did add some additional bungee cords to the battery bag though, one doesn't quite cut it.
Rack
It seems like a nice rack, at least when I hold it in my hand. I ended up getting a nice topeak rack so this one was useless. One thing I'll grade down on though, they didn't get you screws with the rack. ??? If that was intentional that's dumb but not major. It's a kit. The advantage to buying a kit (or should be) is that you don't have to worry about stupid stuff like this.
Charger
I chose a 48v 20ah LiFePO4 battery so I had no need for this sealed lead acid charger. I'm told you can use them on my kind of battery if you know what you're doing, but since I don't I just shoved it aside. No comment.
Grips
Hard to mess grips up. I didn't end up using these as I had some already. These grips are closed at one end and my mountain bike has those handlebars which angle up at a 90 degree at both ends for alternate grips. So these were useless.
Throttle
So far so good, it acts like you'd expect a throttle to. The harder you press, the more juice gets to your motor the faster you go. :-) Obviously if you have thumb shifters (which I do) you should plan on getting a twist throttle eventually but you can make do with a thumb throttle for a while. Honestly now that my bike is an ebike I don't use the right shifters much, I use the left (front derailer) to switch from low to high and that's about it. I wish I had some faster gears on my bike so I could keep better pace with the motor!
Brakes
Didn't use these. These hook into the controller and cut the motor off when you're breaking. My mountain bike's shifters and brakes were one piece so I opted not to use these. If you don't want them just shove them in a box or sell them, you don't have to have them plugged in for the kit to work.
Controller
As mentioned previously, this gets hot. I stored it in the bag at first, then when it got hot I took it out and re-wired so that it is screwed into where my vertical water bottle mounts are. This has worked out great and it never gets beyond slightly warm now. A lot more efficient to let the rushing wind cool your components!
Motor
So far awesome. Like I said I can go to a max of 35mph (with pedaling). Never tried without pedaling, it feels weird to get on my bike and just sit there letting the motor do the work, plus you don't go quite as fast so I just pedal and throttle all of the time. It's awesome!
Wheel
The rim seems pretty solid, the spokes are thicker in diameter than those I had on my vanilla back wheel already, which is good. I've broken a few spokes on my non-motor wheel on the back and would like to someday upgrade my back wheel to avoid more broken spokes, but for now a stock wheel should be fine for the weight of the battery. Of course broken spokes on the back wheel isn't relevant for this review, just keep in mind that the extra weight may warrant a slightly better wheel in the back.
Also on the wheel, there's no liner. I'm guessing this is a silly oversight since even a cheapo liner would cost next to nothing to install. When they ship you the wheel it already has the tube and tire on it, so I didn't bother taking them off to see inside. A few days ago I had a flat and when I took the tire and tube off the holes of the spokes were completely exposed. Surprise surprise the hole in my tube was from a section of the tube that had worked its way down into the spoke holes. I wrapped electrical tape around the wheel a few times to act as a liner and expect that to be fine. Just irritated there wasn't a liner in the first place.
Not a bad kit for the money. Heed the advice of another reviewer on amazon, mark all of your connections before you disconnect everything! :-)
Best Deals for 48v 1000w 26 Inch Front Wheel Electric Bicycle Motor Conversion Kit
After installing this tire on my bike, I was excited about a test ride. I held on tight & punched the gas only to have it tear off the bottom of the forks on my bike. It sheered the cast alluminum off where the axle secures to the fork.
I bought a new fork a sturdy non-cast one to replace my decade-old broken one.
After getting everything back installed, I was careful with the throttle on my first test-ride!
Hitting 35 MPH on my converted mountain bike is easy, even if I am not pedaling.
A steep hill (with no pedalling) slows me down to 25, which is still fast on a bike.
I have a toddler seat that installs behind me on my bicycle, and a bike trailer that I tow. After loading up my 4, almost-3, & almost-2-year olds, we tested the bike again.
This motor is powerful.
I can accelerate, from a stop, up a hill, with 3 kids in tow, up to 25 MPH, without pedalling much at all. Top speed is 30 MPH with the wind resistance that the bike seat & trailer generate.
Installation is easy, but wiring can be tricky. Red wire often goes to negative & black to positive. I went to a specialty battery store & they still had difficulty ensuring the wiring was all set up right. Have a good multimeter on hand and know how to use it well. Have someone double-check you before you connect it!
I spent $200 on 4 12v lead acid batteries. The 48-volt charger that comes with the kit works excellent and is a huge savings over what you can buy elsewhere.
I am very glad that I bought this kit, and I would highly recommend it.
5/5/13 Update:
I have now traveled 325 miles on my bicycle using this motor. I have invested a total of $971 in my bike. Purchases included solid rubber inner tubes ($40; since I sold my car to buy this, I needed reliable transportation & being stranded with a flat was a problem), new battery chargers ($190; the charger that comes with the kit is very cheap & only lasted 100 miles for me plan to replace it), heavy-duty kickstand ($40; 85 pound bike is dangerous without a good kickstand), & rear bike rack ($40; the bike rack that comes with the kit has weak points at the axle-mounting brackets & only lasted 217 miles plan to replace it).
In order for my electric bicycle to be as financially efficient, per mile, as my car was, I'm shooting for $0.70 per mile which means my payoff mileage is 1,388 and my projected payoff date is 1/27/14 348 days after purchase, assuming I don't keep replacing too much on my bike.
What would I do different? I wish I had bought larger capacity batteries. My range on these is about 6 miles, really, without pedaling. When I replace these ones, I'll get larger capacity hopefully after my payoff date! I also wish I had a full-suspension bicycle frame. Hitting a bump on this heavy of a bike makes me cringe regarding the stress on my wheels. I think a full-suspension bike would help handle the weight. I'll be keeping my eyes out for a cheap used one for now.
3 months and 325 miles later, I am still glad I bought this kit!
Honest reviews on 48v 1000w 26 Inch Front Wheel Electric Bicycle Motor Conversion Kit
Took a month to get it and after purchasing the battery and installing, failed within the first .5 hr
Seller has not offered any fault finding or any other information other than that it has been over 30 days so they have no responsability. BEWARE, I would sugest not dealing with this seller, and Amazon has been no help either
RECIEVED ON 19/02/2013 PLACED CLAIM ON 24/02/2013 33 DAYS NO WARRANTY
RIPPED OFF TO THE TUNE OF $700.00
RIP OFF
RIP OFF
RIP OFF
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for 48v 1000w 26 Inch Front Wheel Electric Bicycle Motor Conversion Kit
This review is from: 48v 1000w 26 Inch Front Wheel Electric Bicycle Motor Conversion Kit Unless you are a kid weighing under 100lbs. don't waste your time with anything less powerful! The 1000w kit is powerful and FAST. It will take a 190lbs. MAN up any hill with no pedaling, easy. This really is a great kit. Cheaper and easier to install than buying a manufactured E bike and the best part is you can pick the bike. I typically use mountain bikes (26"). But you put these kits on all sorts of bikes. I like the ones that look sleek and futuristic. The point is you have control over the design and function of the bike to fit your needs.
BATTERIES I use the Currie Technologies 24v battery packs. BEWARE unlike the 500w kits, the 1000w kit's require 2 battery packs wired together! This is something obvious to me now, but it was not mentioned or recommended ANYWHERE in the manual etc. ALSO, the battery power terminal has an XLR three pin style jack. Lucky for you the E bike kit will come with a loose AC jack. You will need to cut off the XLR jack and splice on the AC jack. RED to RED and GREEN/YELLOW to BLACK. Be ready, neither the kit manual nor the battery pack manual will explain this to you or how to do it. NOTE: Don't try stacking both batteries on top of each other on the top of the rear rack. This creates a LOT of HEAT and the bikes become top heavy and unstable. I know they will supply you with a zipper bag to house the batteries, TOSS IT AWAY! It doesn't Velcro properly to the rack and the batteries are just too heavy, they always fall over. Instead, take my advice and find a way to hang them over the sides of the rack saddle bag style. Use some electrical tape to do a little waterproofing. If you are not the creative type or you don't care about the looks of the bike, use giant zip ties and duck tape and you can mount anything! With the weight lower on the bike the stability will increase and you will thank me when you are flying down the hill at 40mph.
BREAKS Any bike with regular padded breaks will work perfectly. I have used mountain bike with front shocks and disc breaks. Be aware that E bike kits with FRONT WHEEL motors won't fit on disc break bikes without a little work. They do technically fit the fork if you abandon the disc breaks in the front wheel all together. If you insist on keeping front wheel disc breaks you will need an adapter part. I have only heard rumors of these existing on E Bay, I have never actually found one. Your third option is to remove the disc break hardware and (depending on the bike style) replace them with padded breaks.
VENDOR The vendor is great! My kits always are delivered fast and they have been reasonable (at least with MY returns).
Just DON'T ask them for any technical help. They are selling these kits and the buck stops there! Just know that buying one of these kits is to be completely on your own! The good news is that these kits are easy to put together and that it's mostly obvious.
Which is a good thing because the manual is vague and translated poorly.
I know this is a lot of info but had I read this review FIRST I would have saved myself a lot of money pain and heartache. The truth is these kits are made in china and they are not perfect. In my opinion, for the price they are AWESOME! My girl and I have so much fun on these bikes that each bike has already paid for itself in entertainment value! If you are thinking of using an E bike like this for commuting to work, then I also highly recommend the 1000w. If you are traveling any reasonable distance, bring a repair kit with you, extra tubes, pump etc. It can be rough out there!
HAPPY RIDING!!!!!!
