Alien hub motor kits

[Phil the drill]

Hi,
Anybody out there tried to fit one of of these?
I'm considering fitting one of these to the wife's Saracen step through (26" version). The kits seem to be a good price (on ebay), and I don't think I can persuade her to try another bike (in fact it's difficult enough to get her on that one...). Hoping that I can get her back into using it for short trips to town (3 miles each way, and pretty hilly). Can't justify spending much more as I'm not sure that the effort will succeed.....
Anybody with experience of using one of these units, your feedback will be much appreciated.
Cheers, Phil

 

[flecc]

These threads are packed with info for you Phil:

Thread 1

Thread 2

Thread 3

Thread 4
.

 

[Phil the drill]

Thanks Flecc, had a funny 5 mins and didn't think to search first, dohhhhh.
Cheers.

 

[JohnW]

I just thought I would add a couple of comments to the threads. I have converted two bikes with the 36V Alien Kit, mine has had a few changes but my Wife's bike (Claude Butler with RST forks) is standard. The 85mm fork width mentioned on the web site is critical on some forks and on the RST involved a little work to remove a couple of mm of metal plus a couple of copper spacer washers.
If you wish to fit the brake levers with the motor cut out (supplied with the motor) you will need seperate gearshift brake lever set up as a lot of bikes come with dual function brake/gears as one unit. That will cost a bit more off e-bay. I had to buy a twist grip throttle as the thumb throttle is tricky to use with indexed gears. Ecrazyman in China is cheapest but the pin configuration needed changing on the new throttle connector but I'm sure Bob at Alien can sort you out. I personally prefered the thumb throttle and ended up putting it on the left hand side.
The newer kit came with a peddle sensor but not shown in the advert and still in the box as I couldn't be bothered to fit it. Watch and check the spokes, I had two spoke nuts come of completely and some loose on my first kit. I have nearly trued the wheel again bit of a fiddly job. My wifes kit has been perfect. The fitting instructions are good especially on how to derestrict which is really needed to lift the pedal assist up to about 18MPH.
The rear rack to hold the battery can take a bit of head scratching to fit but Bob does warn about that in the advert and its not particularly difficult. When I started I didn't know one end of the bike from the other although I was an electronics engineer in an earlier life and am pretty handy with things mechanical. Apart from the forks both jobs went well and we are both pleased with the result.
I hope this helps and good luck.

 

[Tsnafu]

The 85mm fork width mentioned on the web site is critical on some forks and on the RST involved a little work to remove a couple of mm of metal plus a couple of copper spacer washers.

I'm sure you mean 100mm fork width

Tom

 

[Footie]

I must say the kits look the business.
I have a couple of good ordinary bikes I would love to add power too. Unfortunately, I find the price a little too high for my pocket (low paid West Country worker).
There are a number of complete ebikes available for less than the price of these kits - doesn't make sense to me.
The price would have to come down before I went for one.
Think I will wait a while for more competition to come on the scene and see what happens to the price then.
.

 

[frank9755]

The same eCrazyman mentioned above sells Suzhou Bafang motor + controller, throttle, etc for c£100 delivered to the UK. That doesn't include a battery. You wouldn't get the rack, the detailed instructions, and the back-up, but, put together with something like a Ping LiFePO4 from ebay, it would give you a top-performing conversion for £250.

 

[JohnW]

The 85mm is not the width at the spindle but at the outer peripheral of the motor. This is why he said in the description the width of the actual forks i.e. above the slotted flats holding the spindles where the forks narrow. This is only an issue on some shock forks.

Now that I have done a couple of bikes if I wanted to do another I suspect now I have the knowledge and experience of the systems I would buy dirct from China. I have already bought an extra controller and twist throttles direct from eCrazyman but these did involve a little reconfiguration of the pins in the plugs/sockets but that was not a great problem. If you buy the motor with the extras (controller etc. this makes a package sourced direct an interesting proposition.

Its worth knowing the battery from Alien is switched and fused and in a metal case also the rack is a slide in unit for the battery and the battery switch also locks the battery in place. I have not seen these in my searching but they will have come from China. For my wife I would have wanted a tidy, easy to use system with nothing exposed or hanging loose and the kit met that criteria. Whether the extra money is worth a complete system with support and guarentee is up to the buyer. Whatever you do enjoy, as I said they are good fun and I believe encourage the user to get out and cycle.

 

[Footie]

Its worth knowing the battery from Alien is switched and fused and in a metal case also the rack is a slide in unit for the battery and the battery switch also locks the battery in place. I have not seen these in my searching but they will have come from China. For my wife I would have wanted a tidy, easy to use system with nothing exposed or hanging loose and the kit met that criteria.

As I said the kits look good and maybe the special bits-and-bobs make it worth it. Unfortunately, living in a very hilly area I wouldn't look at anything less than 36 volts, which means only the highest costing one will do.

The same eCrazyman mentioned above sells Suzhou Bafang motor + controller, throttle, etc for c£100 delivered to the UK. That doesn't include a battery. You wouldn't get the rack, the detailed instructions, and the back-up, but, put together with something like a Ping LiFePO4 from ebay, it would give you a top-performing conversion for £250.

£250 puts it within the realms of a possibility. For the moment I'm happy to hold off and watch the market.
.

 

[BGElect]

As I said the kits look good and maybe the special bits-and-bobs make it worth it. Unfortunately, living in a very hilly area I wouldn't look at anything less than 36 volts, which means only the highest costing one will do.

I'm having success with the 24V version on some hilly areas, not sure what the 36V version gives you over the 24V perhaps more acceleration and a lower motor current?

Running the 24V motor at 36 Volts would allows me to get useful drive at 20MPH rather than the current 17-18MPH as this would increase the motor RPM.