Bionx kits

[Kamarin]

Hi,

Does anyone know any shops in the UK that stock or supply Bionx kits?
Preferably in the south east but anywhere in the UK would be a start.

Thanks in advance

 

[Nick]

I've not had any luck with finding anyone in the UK, although a couple of Google results initially looked promising. My wife and I have bought two of the kits from Nyce Wheels in New York, and the service has been excellent. Although I was very reluctant at first (simply because of the cost and distance involved), second time around I had no hesitation in buying from them, and their after sales advice has been excellent too.

 

[Andrew harvey]

bionx

Three weeks ago I bought a bike shop.
For years some friends involved in Marketing (sales), keep talking about unique products, I have to confess to not having had the faintest idea of (or care for) what they going on about.
Last week I got the message I'm looking into buying a few Bionx kits to test the market.
I do not know what they will cost yet, or their exact specifications.
A good place to start advertising them might be on the forum.
Could some one tell me how to go about it?
It is by no means certain that I will be able to get any yet. Bionx themselves will only supply direct if a company can give an undertaking to purchase a large quantity (the last time I spoke to them, I was told they were looking for around 200 units per annum), and the French distributors want a minimum order as well. I therefore hope to be able to source a small quantity of euro spec motors from an around-about source.
I would be grateful for any comments anyone might have.

 

[flecc]

Hi Andrew. On advertising here, contact the site founder and administrator Russell Scott.

The BionX is very expensive which is probably why it's never got off the ground here. Currently it's 36 volt Li-ion battery alone is around $1000, so about £550, so you could expect the kit to be quite expensive.

There's no doubt it's a good product, but best in it's transatlantic 350 watt form, the EU 250 watt being still good quality but not up to the original for climb performance. The outcome is that those personal importing like Nick above usually opt for the 350 watt, which you couldn't sell legally here.

So the few BionX buyers could sometimes be bypassing you by buying from Canada anyway.
.

 

[Andrew harvey]

Thanks for the advice.
I must confess that I've already spotted those problems.
There is know a high torque version, essentially it's a 350w motor that's being limited to 250w to get past the regulations.
I have tried a 250w version on the Airnimal Move and was impressed, I would rate it on a par with the Tongxin, don't tell the dealer I borrowed it from but once round the corner I disabled the speed limiter, I just hope I turned it back on afterwards.

My main aim is to offer them as a 'Unique Product' for my shop, to help get it noticed, people know the name and hence might search for it on the internet.
Currently I have no products on the shelf that would attract E- bikers, although I did sell a Powacycle Milan by special order on Saturday.

I must commend Powacycle on there service, the bike was ordered on Tuesday delivered on Thursday. Unfortunately the delivery carrier dropped the bike trashing the rear wheel, a phone call to Powacycle had a replacement bike delivered on Friday morning, ready for the customer who picked it up first thing on Satuarday.

Well done and thank you to Powacycle.

After Christmas I intend to add a few electric bikes to the stock, initially Powacyles and hopefully the X-bike, but for the moment it's mainly BMX's with pink, green, yellow and red tyres, (the boys around here love the pink tyres). belive it or not but at least 2, 20+ year olds have ordered BMX's on the Christmas club.
I would not have considered opening a new shop, the set up costs are huge, but I got the shop and stock for what I consider a good price, but it hasn,t actually got what you would call a roof on it currently, Just scaffolding and a few sheets of corrugated tin. No real heating either but I'm loving it.

 

[flecc]

Sounds like a real adventure Andrew, especially under those conditions.

I'd agree the BionX 250 watt is up to the average hub motor standard in performance and is more refined than many, but how the kit price will be received remains to be seen.

However, best wishes with your venture and especially the electric side.
.

 

[mahaca1]

Looking for a kit I found this:
Moteurs moyeux Velectris pour vélos electriques sur mesure
It's a very expensive kit with kokam batteries, I haven't found information in this forum about the phantom kit and I haven't got any experience with it.
I'm pleased to find in his web the "mini super phantom", It's a kit that fits in narrow forks. "for the fork between 64 to 80mm as dahon and some vtc course bike"
regards

 

[Andrew harvey]

Thank you for your good wishes.
I have a vague idea of a likely price, they will be expensive, but hopefully they should be cheaper than the Heinzman and compete with the Ezee kit.
If need be I'll use them as a loss leader and sell them at little more than cost, but at the moment getting them is the hard part.

 

[flecc]

Looking for a kit I found this:
Moteurs moyeux Velectris pour vélos electriques sur mesure
It's a very expensive kit with kokam batteries, I haven't found information in this forum about the phantom kit and I haven't got any experience with it.
I'm pleased to find in his web the "mini super phantom", It's a kit that fits in narrow forks. "for the fork between 64 to 80mm as dahon and some vtc course bike"
regards

These look like direct drive motors rather than the more common internally geared types, and that helps to achieve a narrow assembly. The only problem is that many 250 watt direct drives are a bit on the weak side, the one on the Sparta and Koga bikes being a notable example with very poor hill climbing.

So it would be safest to get an opinion from someone with other ebikes experience who has tried these out as well.
.