Elifeshop/YS kits?

[DynatechFan]

After only a couple of weeks here I have learnt so much from folks about this whole ebike malarky. My loan bike goes back in 2 weeks and I so *NEED* to convert my commuter to help me up the big hills coming home from town

Still wavering on who to source the kit from but figure £400 ish should get me going (at a 1/5 the cost of the Merida 600 I currently use)

Folks on here have nudged my towards a couple of sellers on ebay (you know who you are ) and a rear cassette conversion. The 2 sellers seem to have very similar kit and I have seen at least one happy customer - just wondered . . .

Anyone else used these folks for a rear hub conversion?
Also - my current machine pedals with my (eg harder I pedal the harder it works) I assume these kits don't do that?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

With these kits, some of the cheaper ones use speed control, which is not as nice as current control. All of them work independently from how hard you pedal, though if you turn the power down, the total power then is more proportional to how hard you pedal.

 

[DynatechFan]

thanks for that, so should I assume any kit in the £400 range doesn't have a sine wave controller? How do you tell?

The elifeshop rear hub kit makes a lot of sense for my needs in this price range, esp the controller cabling which looks much simpler than the other kit I am looking at - but the EBC kit is from an established UK seller who can get me parts etc in the future

decisions, decisions . . .

 

[anotherkiwi]

What parts? The only thing you are going to wear out is the battery.

My kits came from Spain and the UK not from France. If you check kit prices in France you will clearly understand why... I have also ordered bits and bobs from China, buy the best kit for your needs at a price you can afford don't worry about where it comes from. They all come from China in the first place.

Batteries that is another story and you are lucky in the UK to have decent reasonably priced batteries.

 

[DynatechFan]

ok, thanks anotherkiwi - as a newb my assumption here was that electronics and British weather is a bad mix and that sooner or later I will be replacing things like ECU / sensors / cables / connectors. A random shop on ebay is less likely to still be there, have what is needed or possibly even care

 

[DynatechFan]

sorry another newb question - I'm getting confused now, was about to order a YS kit just like the one Alex has and the cassette kit says it is a brushless, gearless hub - can that be right? Surely a 250W gearless hub would be limp as they come?. Mostly I need the power assist on climbs for my commuter

 

[Deleted member 4366]

thanks for that, so should I assume any kit in the £400 range doesn't have a sine wave controller? How do you tell?

The elifeshop rear hub kit makes a lot of sense for my needs in this price range, esp the controller cabling which looks much simpler than the other kit I am looking at - but the EBC kit is from an established UK seller who can get me parts etc in the future

decisions, decisions . . .

Many cheap kits use the desirable KT sine wave controller. Look to see if there's an S-LCD3 in the picture. It looks like this:

 

[DynatechFan]

Well my kit YSBattery arrived yesterday, it all looks decent enough (other than a damaged battery bracket, replacement winging its way from China)

One thing NOT in the kit is a torque arm - the axle has flats on it and there are grooved washers. Its only a 250W geared hub and the frame is an old steel MTB, but I am 75kg and travel well loaded - so is this something I should sort immediately or see how it goes?

 

[Nealh]

With decent steel dropouts as long as the axle and AR washer sit in the axle deep enough and is a snug tight fit then you can dispense with a TA, though if you are worried or concerned you can still fit one on the non drive side.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I concur. Torque arms aren't entirely necessary for a rear 250w motor in an aluminium frame, provided that the nuts are done up tight. If you have a steel frame with the long angled drop-outs, it might be a good idea to fit a torque arm because those drop-outs can spread. For a steel frame with horizontal or vertical drop-outs, a TA isn't necessary.

if it's a front motor, you have to look at the drop-outs. Some are very insubstantial, like the old Raleigh tapered forks, so a TA would be advisable, while as others have 5mm plates, which would be strong enough for a high-torque 500w geared motor without a TA.