Cheap e-bike? £600?

Bonzo Banana · May 29, 2022

Waspy said:
That bike looks like a total money pit to me. Plus you would need time, workspace, tools, skills and money for parts. I mean, it would be fun doing it but I have no idea if OP has all that.

£600 is nearly an impossible budget but you could get a Woosh kit for £540 and one of these very simple, brand new, steel, Indi 'mountain' bike for £140 from Halfords for a total of £680.

But you are still going to need a few tools and know how to work on bikes.

That Marin should have some decent parts but no denying that some might need replacing but a general £20-30 bicycle tool kit should suffice if you don't have one already. This sort of thing but it would equally be needed for your Indi bike which will have lower spec components too and could be more problematic. Anyway this sort of thing. Also that Marin was just an example close to me it will be different bikes close to Max1980. Looks a simple bike to me to sort out although might need a bit of brute force in a few places.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sutekus-Bicycle-Tool-Maintenance-Beginners/dp/B0787V2Y5K

guerney · May 29, 2022

Bonzo Banana said:
That Marin should have some decent parts but no denying that some might need replacing but a general £20-30 bicycle tool kit should suffice if you don't have one already. This sort of thing but it would equally be needed for your Indi bike which will have lower spec components too and could be more problematic. Anyway this sort of thing.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sutekus-Bicycle-Tool-Maintenance-Beginners/dp/B0787V2Y5K

That looks a useful tool kit, apart from that chain tool - in my experience, that cheap type has been single-use only. Utterly useless after one use. This Top Peak is much more durable:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Topeak-Super-Chain-Tool-Silver/dp/B000FIE4EK/ref=

Decent quality bike tools always cost rather a lot more, than one originally budgets for.

Bonzo Banana · May 30, 2022

guerney said:
That looks a useful tool kit, apart from that chain tool - in my experience, that cheap type has been single-use only. Utterly useless after one use. This Top Peak is much more durable:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Topeak-Super-Chain-Tool-Silver/dp/B000FIE4EK/ref=

Decent quality bike tools always cost rather a lot more, than one originally budgets for.

I've broken one or two chain tools myself in my time but they were mainly the little chain tools on multi-tools. I normally break the pin on single speed chains or perhaps 7 speed chains. I never seem to have problems with high speed chains like 10 speed as I guess they have thinner plates and typically less strong. I have two tool kits like the above I linked to one looks near identical that is perhaps 10 years old and maybe 5 years ago Halfords had an offer on their set for £10 so I bought one of those as well. All tools are still fine in both kits except I may have snapped some plastic tyre levers in one of them.

Waspy · May 30, 2022

Max1980 said:
Yeah its definitely a grey area. You'd have the same speed issue with any (legal) e-bike though right? I think they can be unrestricted but yeah I understand the hesitation given it basically looks like a motorbike.

I think they are really for people that always wanted the good parts of motorbike ownership - freedom, speed, looks - without having to insure, store outside, get a license etc.

Yes the same speed issues apply to all e-bikes.

That guy had better hope his bike is restricted to 15 mph because it looks very much like an electric moped and he rides on the roads with no helmet, it is bound to attract the curiosity of the police.

Also, I find riding on busy roads no fun, it quickly makes you realise just how slow e-bikes actually are. I ride on cycle paths (loads in my town), country parks, canal towpaths etc. well away from any plod. My bike will do about 18mph but I like to bimble along at 10-15 mph.

If I lived in London, considering the number of police there, I would definitely make sure any e-bike I owned was super legal. It would be nice to bimble around tourist spots on a Sunday morning when there is little traffic (I assume).

Getting back to your original question, £600 is a very tight budget, if you could stretch it a bit, Yose Power do a complete mountain e-bike (with warranty) with a 13Ah battery for 849 euros or £722

https://yosepower.com/collections/e-bike/products/27-5-mountain-ebike-250w-mtb-electric-bicycle-elektrofahrrad-with-36v-13ah-battery

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

egroover · May 30, 2022

I've got 3 yosepower batteries, the oldest 4 years old, still going strong, no noticeable drop in capacity. Full 36v kit with 15ah battery is sub £400, donor bike easy to find for £200 or less

Nealh · May 31, 2022

The gumtree bike might be worth a punt if you have £400 to spare and can test ride it. One needs to know exactly when and how the bike cuts out so again a test ride. The cutting could be that the set speed limit has been reached or the motors terminal rpm has been reached if the lcd speed limit has been set higher. One can't ride the bike with power faster then the terminal motor rpm winding will allow without increasing the voltage.
The downside is it uses the lishui control system, it depends if it is a speed or current control but personally think the KT is much better and easier to to replace components.

sjpt · May 31, 2022

The B TWIN ad says 'Now bike rides but cuts off '. That's different from an intermittent fault.

One possible reason for that is a nearly dead battery. If it isn't looked after that can come with even a fairly new battery, eg if left for a time fully discharged. That would charge normally, but as soon as you try to get any current from it voltage would drop and the motor cut out. If that is the case a replacement would be around £200 up depending on capacity. (The ad doesn't say the original capacity of the current battery.)

If you are lucky it could just be a dodgy connection somewhere.

~~~
p.s. I misread that as £250 for the BTWIN. I'd be very dubious of spending £400 on it.

Bonzo Banana · May 31, 2022

Max1980 said:
Hi guys any thoughts on buying a non-running but fairly new bike on gumtree etc? The first one with the intermittent fault could be an easy fix.

£400, original price £1000 (allegedly

Used stuff for sale | Gumtree

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I don't think that bike was originally £550 and certainly wasn't bought from Halfords. A problematic ebike kit is not worth spending that money on, the battery, motor or controller could be faulty and it could be an easy fix the cadence sensor maybe or a very expensive fix like a failing battery pack its a gamble. You can buy a brand new fresh yose ebike kit for less than £400 and its fully guaranteed. That Decathlon bike looks nothing special, you could probably pick up something similar secondhand for £50. The battery could be end of life after 100s of charge cycles. The fact the seller doesn't know that Decathlon bikes don't come from Halfords means the bike was bought secondhand or possibly stolen.

Nealh · May 31, 2022

As sjpt has mentioned it might be a battery issue but one needs to ride the bike to see.
It has a voltage read out so one can watch to see if the volatge collapses when using throttle, his saying that PAS is faster then the throttle is not correct, both PAS and throttle will give max current.
The battery depends on the specs and the max continuous current output of the cells, the battery will need to output 25a continuous for the 18a rated controller. If it is a cheap battery then it may not be up to delivering the current.

Bonzo Banana · May 31, 2022

It's a confusing Decathlon bike, it seems to have hybrid style short travel forks but it has mountain bike tyres and the crankset looks pretty cheap as do the pedals. Almost like its a mix of different bike components. The frame looks like a Riverside model especially as its paired with short travel forks. The ebike kit doesn't appear to be installed very well which is hopeful. The hybrid forks have remote lockout which is more of a premium feature for hybrid forks.

Waspy · Jun 1, 2022

Max1980 said:
Ok gonna sack off that idea!

Bought a new one of these locally for £100

Pardon our interruption...

OK, so you've bought a 48v battery and cradle with no controller? Not being funny but what is it you intend to do with that?

Waspy · Jun 1, 2022

Max1980 said:
Buy bike, buy conversion kit minus battery?

OK, well good luck. Don't forget though you will need a 48v kit (I think).

Nealh · Jun 1, 2022

One can buy dual volatge controllers like Kt with displays the easy bit, what you will have to be careful with though is the hub motor and particularly the winding speed. If you buy a 36v hub it will run 33% faster at 48v so if wanting to climb hills one will need ideally a proper 48v wound hub at 201rpm.

Bonzo Banana · Jun 2, 2022

Nealh said:
One can buy dual volatge controllers like Kt with displays the easy bit, what you will have to be careful with though is the hub motor and particularly the winding speed. If you buy a 36v hub it will run 33% faster at 48v so if wanting to climb hills one will need ideally a proper 48v wound hub at 201rpm.

As far as I understand it controllers are DC to DC converters with speed being voltage and current being torque so when you hit a hill voltage drops but current surges in the controller to give a torque boost but at a slower speed. I understand your point about specially wound torque optimised hubs but still any controller can optimise torque more with 48V than 36V can't it? It has more capacity to drop voltage and produce more current plus of course the batteries being setup for 48V will mean the cells have more capacity for current when needed to get up hills.

I've seen some 24V ebike reviews and typically those bikes have very little torque for the hills even with low geared 20" wheel folding bikes which are typically good high climbers because of their low gearing (small wheels). Those ebikes typically have probably only 12-15Nm torque at the motor.

Bonzo Banana · Jun 2, 2022

Max1980 said:
Ok gonna sack off that idea!

Bought a new one of these locally for £100

Pardon our interruption...

Is it definitely new? I see battery packs for sale occasionally in my area and they may look newish from the advert but many people sell battery packs after they have done 100s of charge cycles and capacity starts to drop. I remember reading a thread somewhere possibly this forum but not sure where someone had bought a ebike for £300, used it for about 18 months with the battery capacity dropping considerably and then sold it on ebay for something like £380 and he couldn't believe his luck it went so high with an end of life battery. Many people don't consider batteries as consumables with a limited life so don't bid realistically on ebay. I've also seen a few threads where people have bought ebikes secondhand only to complain of the short range of the battery many of which were on this forum.

Cheap e-bike? £600?

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