A UK company which designs and manufactures here in the UK- ebike kits.

[Cadence]

Which kit did you buy in the end ?

I bought two Yosepower kits, and before you come back with "Chinese crap" I am very pleased with them. To some extent I am expecting them to be "disposable" after about 5 years if the battery holds up that long. By then the technology will have moved on anyway.
Don't get me wrong. I spent 50 happy years in a rewarding career in engineering during which I had the privilege of visiting and working with many of the UK's leading manufacturers (Rolls Royce, GEC, Perkins, JCB, Ford and Jaguar among them) and nobody is more sad and annoyed about the decline than me. It is what it is.
As you say, the Cytronex kit is not for everyone, but if I just wanted a minimal pedal-assist kit for my vintage touring bike, and I could justify spending £1000 plus, I'd go for it.

 

[flecc]

Its not for everyone , and buying and supporting British companies is good.
Quick support if anything goes wrong all based here in the UK. Peace of mind
Some have got use to those cheap far east prices. I guess wages being paid here to make ebike kits is the right wage hence the price of the kit.

We need more manufacturing here in the UK across all industries.
We use to be leaders in the Bike industry.

While I agree with your sentiments, you are barking up a wrong tree. Cytronex have been around for years, first appearing in 2008 and have failed before. They are a Winchester bike shop who created a kit from a Chinese hub motor with a simple NiMh celled bottle battery and were selling it fitted to high end sport bikes.

This was an early specification, Tongxin Nano 175 rpm hub motor (190 option), 156 WH 4.3 Ah battery

Their range claims were based on powerful sporting riders only using the motor occasionally for assistance. One of our most experience members bought one and was using it in a normal pedelec manner, only getting 12 miles from each charge. He quickly sold it and bought a Panasonic motored Kalkhoff Agattu.

And as someone else has mentioned, Cytronex customer support left much to be desired.

Nor are everyone here accustomed to low Chinese prices as you seem to think. Expensive German and Dutch bikes also enjoy very good sales here among those who appreciate quality, and there's Wisper, another British company who manufacture and sell a fine range within the EU and more widely, many of our members riding them.
.

 

[Bosa]

Nor are everyone here accustomed to low Chinese prices as you seem to think

Well it seems prices is the main criteria here when comes to kits.

 

[saneagle]

"

"

Can a Brompton with added electric assistance climb Mont Ventoux? With Cytronex it can!

Tiny hub-motors can only climb hills when in small wheels. That's why they put it in a Brompton. The kit is relatively low powered and has low torque when you put it in a normal bike with bigger wheels. It's a lightweight kit for fit people with light bikes that just want a small bit of assistance. If you use it in an MTB, are not particularly fit and weigh about 90kg, you'd be lucky to get 15 miles from the battery and no chance of getting up that hill.

Yes, I have tried it.

Also, I saw them at the bike show and asked them why they had the motor in upside down. They said is was meant to be that way and it was a special one, but it looked like a standard Q100/AKM 100 to me. They certainly didn't fill me with confidence.

You can make your own lightweight kit using an AKM 100 and a small bottle battery from Aliexpress for less than £500, which keeps £500 in the UK economy. The only difference is that you have the £500 instead of them.

 

[egroover]

Well it seems prices is the main criteria here when comes to kits.

Value for money I think is what most want, the same here. Plenty of members have top end Cube, Haibike etc £3k+ bikes here, and plenty of members have £500 or less kits fitted to donor bikes and everything in between.

 

[flecc]

Well it seems prices is the main criteria here when comes to kits.

Of course that is likely to be the case, since those with the least means will be attracted to a kit as a least expensive way to get into pedelecing.
.

 

[guerney]

Well it seems prices is the main criteria here when comes to kits.

None of the conversion kits you've mentioned are easily user-repairable and customisable.

 

[StuartsProjects]

None of the conversion kits you've mentioned are easily user-repairable and customisable

Of course not, and why would they be ?

A design, of a eBike conversion kit, that allowed for generic replacement of batteries etc is not difficult.

But if as a 'business' you want to make lots of dosh it makes a lot of sense to be deliberatly sure that 'customers' cannot buy low cost spares.

 

[Az.]

But if as a 'business' you want to make lots of dosh it makes a lot of sense to be deliberatly sure that 'customers' cannot buy low cost spares.

And this is the point where they lose me as a potential customer.

 

[soundwave]

And this is the point where they lose me as a potential customer.

im sure i can find someone to hack in to it

 

[Az.]

im sure i can find someone to hack in to it

Been there, done that... It is just a lot of unnecessary effort and not always effective. I very much prefer open architecture systems.

 

[Bosa]

None of the conversion kits you've mentioned are easily user-repairable and customisable.

Which newbie who is contemplating buying a e-kit will start to attempt to open up a rear hub and fix hall sensors and attempt to open a battery pack and repair it for dead cells or the BMS or any other issue.

Straight to the local bike shop or where they bought it from.

There will be more posts for e-bike kits , so everyone can have a look at the options in this forum.

 

[soundwave]

ebike motor centre is making $hit loads of money there run off there feet if bosch and others wont sell parts we will make the fkn things

 

[guerney]

Well it seems prices is the main criteria here when comes to kits.

Which newbie who is contemplating buying a e-kit will start to attempt to open up a rear hub and fix hall sensors and attempt to open a battery pack and repair it for dead cells or the BMS or any other issue.

Me. Long term user-repairability is by far the most important factor for myself and others on this forum, not price. Closed systems can bog off.

 

[guerney]

Of course not, and why would they be ?

A design, of a eBike conversion kit, that allowed for generic replacement of batteries etc is not difficult.

But if as a 'business' you want to make lots of dosh it makes a lot of sense to be deliberatly sure that 'customers' cannot buy low cost spares.

Command and control is the German way, but let's not mention the last war, or the wars we're fighting with them now.

 

[Woosh]

ebike motor centre is making $hit loads of money there run off there feet if bosch and others wont sell parts we will make the fkn things

they deserve to be successful. They spotted a gap in the market, at the right place and the right time. Most local bike shops just don't have their expertise.

 

[soundwave]

they deserve to be successful. They spotted a gap in the market, at the right place and the right time. Most local bike shops just don't have their expertise.

buy trade peter was a Mechanical engineer he had the same bike as mine and same problem custom sized bearings

my ses wheel is still original but its had about 36 bearings in it

he could of saved 50 cycles with that crappy impulse motor as he does service them but wont touch shitmano as got burned big time.

madison will only do warranty replacements for shitmano motors so when ur 2 year warranty ends its time for the tip.

i even told the manager of the ebike shop dont sell the fkn things it is not worth all the $hit and hassle when it goes wrong and if you cant even buy a motor out of warranty then fook um.

i can buy one from ebay in germany tho but it needs to be set up and the motor angle copied over but the shop has never done a motor from another country and if it is regen locked as not in eu computer can say no and $hit it out.

seems only option is to go to germany or throw it in the canal

 

[peterjd]

Range depends on weight , terrain and the mode your in.

Our U3A cycling group has one member who has converted his lightweight (and upmarket touring bike) with one of these kits. Looks good on his bike. He is very happy with it and it certainly doesn't seem to have any problems with our relatively short (<30 mile) morning rides. Got an interesting cadence measuring system. Peter

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Like many here I am against proprietary ebike solutions and personally would never buy a kit or ebike based around proprietary technology unless secondhand and super cheap just to muck about with.

It's just environmentally and economically irresponsible as well as un-necessarily expensive both for the cost of it and the maintenance.

You see many complete ebikes less than £1000 and some are pretty decent and easy and cheap to repair or you can go with a kit like Yose or build your own kit from separate parts. I've seen Eleglide ebikes for about £600 and they seem pretty competent and easy to customise and upgrade later if you want.

The Eleglide ebike will be significantly longer range than that kit I would of thought plus it looks like something easy to maintain long term even if that means swopping out components on occasion. No reason that ebike can't be still used 10 years from now. It's not a like a £6k ebike where a cracked frame costs £2k to replace or a motor replacement costing over £1000 which means the whole ebike is no longer viable to use at all. There are no proprietary battery packs costing 3x as much as similar capacity more generic battery packs.

 

[Az.]

Looks like a very decent bike at fantastic price. Brakes would be my first upgrade followed by suspension seat post and better saddle. Looks like a no brainer to me.