Cheapish Motor Wheels
- Thread starter saneagle
- Start date
I did and fully understand them. Perhaps you don't understand how aggressive they can be, but perhaps your impulsive resorting to threatening the Ignore function at me and others might help you understand the inherent intolerance that others perceive.
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I think there's a place for both - Woosh for full support/aftersales/warranty etc and Aliexpress/Poland/Germany for those who want to take their chances and save money. You can't blame savvy savers with technical skills wanting to buy the same Bafang/Tongsheng sealed brown box for £150 less
I've seen loads of Woosh recommendations from senior members on here for new posters looking for kits.
I've seen loads of Woosh recommendations from senior members on here for new posters looking for kits.
the instruction manual is epic with info to install everything bar the batts are cheap crap and if you use the remote they all go flat in 2 days
got 4000 points back about 30 quid but like every one of these things i get from china there is no sending it back so unless you can sort it urself you are screwed so the warranty will pay for it self if you ever get a problem with a uk dealer and stock.
ppl in usa have to get it buy sea so 2 months postage because of the batts that are crap anyway
![20240107_234618[1].jpg](/forum/data/attachments/53/53642-915991a830d23ef06ac42f54b2ab50f6.jpg)
And not just from senior members - of course very often it's Woosh customers.
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The senior members will and do recommend buyers sometimes to Woosh for kits and bikes as well as Wisper both for their excellent CS, there was once a time that Kudos and Juicy etc,etc, were recommended. A good few years ago John at Cyclezee was also ago to recommend.
The issue is for some not needing a full kit which includes a battery and controller kit.
Apart from one forumite their is nowhere else to really go for instance if one wants KT stuff or a specific hub for a use, here in the UK one simply can't buy from a decent wide range of hubs from a uk seller , let alone one that wouldn't charge the earth.
As for the 10 years I have followed then joined the forum in 2014 , it has always been that way and back then members buying hubs from china was far far greater then it is now. Hubs ruled any bike build 10 years ago and the proprietary rip off mid drive bikes still in their infancy.
The issue is for some not needing a full kit which includes a battery and controller kit.
Apart from one forumite their is nowhere else to really go for instance if one wants KT stuff or a specific hub for a use, here in the UK one simply can't buy from a decent wide range of hubs from a uk seller , let alone one that wouldn't charge the earth.
As for the 10 years I have followed then joined the forum in 2014 , it has always been that way and back then members buying hubs from china was far far greater then it is now. Hubs ruled any bike build 10 years ago and the proprietary rip off mid drive bikes still in their infancy.
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I am moving toward selling parts, commencing with motors and batteries. For small parts, there is the long queue at the post office. I go there at 3pm. If I am lucky, the machines are accessible. If not, I have to queue for 30-40 minutes with people who need a driver licence or passport. Then there is the high cost of sending anything bigger than 1in at small parcel rate.
For parcels I use Interparcel online , one can pic and choose the carrier and the price you want to pay per item. One then arranges for the carrier to pick up the parcel/s from your location and some (if you have no printer like me) will print out the address label for you.
I sold my new unused MXUS freewheel hub to a forum member and it arrived the next day after pickup.
I sold my new unused MXUS freewheel hub to a forum member and it arrived the next day after pickup.
I think I have noticed a trend towards mid drive in the last year. When I bought my Bafang BBS mid drive kit the Bafang resellers also sold the Bafang hub drive klt and there seemed to be equal visibility on ebay, Amazon, AliExpress. Now they seem to be pushing the BBS01,02 and HD rather than the hub drives. I'm also getting the impression that the problems lots of members had with the Bafang BBS, especially with the built in controllers have lessened. Also I was interested in @Woosh 's prediction
"the cost of making Bosch style crank drive e-bikes has come down a fair bit, I expect we'll see more 'Chinese Bosch' next year."
Any new (radical) commercial developments in 2024-2025 and onwards?
I get the impression that excitement over (radical) developments that go beyond concept, feature less in these forums than previously. It could just be me being more picky - I am fairly happy with what I'm now using - an old converted touring bike for local use and a Decathlon 500E for longer...
www.pedelecs.co.uk
Sellers probably prefer mid-drive drives because they get fewer follow-up questions and problems because there's not much to get wrong when installing. With a hub-motor, you can get motor doesn't fit drop-outs, disc rubbing on caliper or motor, gears rubbing on motor or frame, pedal sensor fitted backwards, no spaceport pedal sensor, speed sensor issues and many more. All of those are easy to solve when you know how, but I can imagine many incompetent installers blaming the parts instead of themselves.I think I have noticed a trend towards mid drive in the last year. When I bought my Bafang BBS mid drive kit the Bafang resellers also sold the Bafang hub drive klt and there seemed to be equal visibility on ebay, Amazon, AliExpress. Now they seem to be pushing the BBS01,02 and HD rather than the hub drives. I'm also getting the impression that the problems lots of members had with the Bafang BBS, especially with the built in controllers have lessened. Also I was interested in @Woosh 's prediction
"the cost of making Bosch style crank drive e-bikes has come down a fair bit, I expect we'll see more 'Chinese Bosch' next year."
Any new (radical) commercial developments in 2024-2025 and onwards?
I get the impression that excitement over (radical) developments that go beyond concept, feature less in these forums than previously. It could just be me being more picky - I am fairly happy with what I'm now using - an old converted touring bike for local use and a Decathlon 500E for longer...
The way I see it is that it takes a few hours to install a conversion, which should last for years. The small amount of extra hassle installing a hub-motor will be nothing compared with the extra enjoyment you'll get when riding the bike for years. My installation has lasted me ten years so far, and will probably outlast me. It was definitely worth the time and effort to do the installation.
The difference in cost between a hub kit and a crank drive kit is getting smaller, in some cases, to be less than £50. When you consider the greater flexibility of torque delivery of crank drives, the better centre of gravity and the time saving on installation, the £50 difference is well justified.
I think those are all valid points and I really enjoy my crank drive, but there is something very simple and relaxing about riding on a hub bike, don't need to worry about gears so much, especially starting off and accelerating and I think even more so for anyone that isn't used to conventional bikes.
One of my inkjets printed, then spat out a cog on the paper - given their many problems and ink/toner cost, I can see why many choose not to buy a printer. Folks use a friend's, ones at the library or print shop if necessary I guess. I used and bought every type of professional printer when I managed IT for a magazine and book publisher for a couple of decades, saw over 20 years of professional printer development, but the one I use the most for printing documents and code now is my old dot matrix Epson LX400 from 1980. Here's one in a museum:
Printer & Associated Items - Epson, Model LX-400, circa 1979
Epson Dot Matrix Printer, Model LX-400, and associated parts, used with the TRS-80 microcomputer system (HT 1839). This printer and its associated items are part of a collection of hardware, software, personal notes, trade literature and promotional material that was donated by their owner to...
collections.museumsvictoria.com.au
Every several years or so, I buy a new compatible ink ribbon for a fiver. You can pick up a trusty old Epson (stick to Epson when buying dot matrix, rock solid are Epson dot matrix) on ebay for about £70 or less. There are USB to Parallel Port adapters if your laptop doesn't have a Parallel Port (most modern laptops don't) which need a tiny bit of configuration, I've always been able to make port adapters work with all laptops and PCs so far. As you know I haven't got neither want Windows 10, but might have to use it someday soon, will try it on Win10 if needed.
Alternatively there are also the very reliable and also cheap to own and print thermal printers - you can buy mega cheap till rolls of thermal paper. You'll print many many miles of paper before the heads need replacing, which is why thermal printers are used in tills. Shops go out of business and their equipment liquidated or landfilled before thermal print heads fail. Bluetooth thermal printers can be bought for about £20 used. Avoid the ones which use batteries, because as you know batteries can screw up, be hard to source, proprietary etc. etc. That being said, I've managed to short a couple of pins (using my new and increasinly excellent soldering skills, thanks to the helpful advice received about soldering from the many soldering maestros on this forum) for the battery on some mobile thermal printers, so that they work using external power exclusively - that certainly works on this one for example, which can be bought cheaper:
munbyn bluetooth thermal label printer | eBay
Diversified compatibility - Bluetooth receipt printer compatible with android and iOS, small size, lightweight, wireless design, simple connection, easy operation and maintenance.
www.ebay.co.uk
You can simply copy and paste or type postal addresses into a free Android app on your phone and print. No need for sticky labels, you can print on cheap thermal printer till paper rolls, cut (some autocut, or you can tear off and tidy) to sellotape onto letters and parcels.
Simple Bluetooth Printer – Apps on Google Play
Print text and images with bluetooth thermal printer!
There's no ink dry up or leak all over the place (particularly nasty if using huge plumbed in ink bottles for separate colours... the horror... I still haven't recovered. It was a flood!), thermal paper darkens with heat from the print head. The print heads can last decades.
However, thermal prints can fade - a characteristic Computer Exchanges (Cex) intentionally use to their advantage: they print vouchers valid for a thousands of years or something, but they fade in about two. Deffo take a photo of your Cex till printed voucher the moment you receive it lol.
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Something to do with "uprated" MOSFETs in their new controllers, because of a guy on Endless Sphere uprating his? My new BBS01B controller is still going strong. I most likely killed the last one myself. I got the murdered one replaced for free because the seller lied about having "many diagnostic facilities in Europe" when I made pre-purchase enquiries about the kit, and I was very annoyed about that and having to post my dead controller to China at my cost. Worked out well in the end.
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It isn't. Crank-drives are shite! Anybody, who tried each in a side-by-side test would choose a hub-motor.
Not for me either. The gearing conflict alone is unresolvable with a shared drive path. For me and many if not most, the single gear of a hub motor handles the 5 to 15.5 mph assisted speed range well enough and the most any hub motor can need for that range is two gears with a dual speed hub motor like the Xionda.
But this is inadequate for pedalling, with slog at low speed and excessive cadence at the upper end for many, so riders ideally need more gears in variable territory, even within the 5 to 15.5 mph range.
Add on the advantages of hub motor simplicity, unstressed and very long lasting transmission, longer term motor reliability and lower cost and it's no contest.
With very knowledgeable and highly experienced members like Saneagle and Nealh also hub motor fans, for Neal even for heavy trailer towing like me, it seems I'm in good company.
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