My Alien Bike build

[Citrus]

With some background reading here and following up some other sources, I bought an Alien 24v 10Ah 250w brushless motor kit from eBay. It is Suzhou Bafang motor and is quieter than I thought it would be. The kit is relatively straightforward to fit - just take your time. My forks were the right size - 100mm - but the drop-outs still needed a small amount of filing to make the wheel fit. The first battery I got was duff (a phylion battery!!), but the seller replaced it very quickly and it is perfect. The seller has been great.

The kit is fitted to a hybrid bike I built last Summer but has been hardly used since I got my Agattu in December last year. This kit has given the bike a new lease of life and subsequently I am so happy with it that I am selling my Agattu. My hybrid bike weighed 10.5 kg before the kit was fitted and now weighs 17.5 kg - still light. On my first full charge the bike did 21 miles with the throttle used generously and averaged 15.29 mph (through some stop/start town traffic and also up a 1.5 mile 1 in 10). I have a LiFePo4 24v 16Ah pack on order with Li Ping and a waterproof box from Maplins to put it in - so it should be interesting when that arrives. I am hopeful of 40+ miles from it with a fair amount of assistance. I have included some pics of my converted bike below. Comments welcome

 

[keithhazel]

With some background reading here and following up some other sources, I bought an Alien 24v 10Ah 250w brushless motor kit from eBay. It is Suzhou Bafang motor and is quieter than I thought it would be. The kit is relatively straightforward to fit - just take your time. My forks were the right size - 100mm - but the drop-outs still needed a small amount of filing to make the wheel fit. The first battery I got was duff (a phylion battery!!), but the seller replaced it very quickly and it is perfect. The seller has been great.

The kit is fitted to a hybrid bike I built last Summer but has been hardly used since I got my Agattu in December last year. This kit has given the bike a new lease of life and subsequently I am so happy with it that I am selling my Agattu. My hybrid bike weighed 10.5 kg before the kit was fitted and now weighs 17.5 kg - still light. On my first full charge the bike did 21 miles with the throttle used generously and averaged 15.29 mph (through some stop/start town traffic and also up a 1.5 mile 1 in 10). I have a LiFePo4 24v 16Ah pack on order with Li Ping and a waterproof box from Maplins to put it in - so it should be interesting when that arrives. I am hopeful of 40+ miles from it with a fair amount of assistance. I have included some pics of my converted bike below. Comments welcome

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looks very nice Citrus,only short of a set of mudguards..lol.... can you say why you are selling the Agattu ?

 

[Citrus]

Thanks Keithhazel. I have a set of removeable Topeak mudguards, but the bike looks better without them for the photos. I am selling the Agattu because I don't need two electric bikes and I prefer the Kinesis frame and Alien kit bike that I built over my Agattu. I am very lucky to have two very good bikes that operate and ride so completely differently. My personal preference is now for throttle controlled ebikes with me deciding on when and how much to pedal. The drive through the chain system on the Agattu while very clever and reliable, requires rider input continuously - which is what I thought I wanted until I built the throttle controlled bike. Also the bike I built myself is so much lighter and the shorter wheelbase makes it much more manageable.

 

[flecc]

Very nice job Citrus, neat and professional looking.
.

 

[Blew it]

Yes I have to agree, very buisiness like machine. The Phylion battery and mount makes for a very elegant conversion.

You've made a good choice in tyres, one of my machines is running on Crossroads "armadillo's", an excellent free rolling tyre for all round use.

Bob

 

[Citrus]

Thanks Flecc. I really enjoyed building this bike from scratch last year, and it is great fun choosing all the bits you really want and having a very light and fast bike at the end of it. Then of course I got the Agattu and never used my home made bike - although this wasn't the intention - but that's how it turned out. Now I have converted my home built bike to electric I am not riding the Agattu anymore - so it is sitting in my gargage unused - a waste of a good bike. Hence it is for sale as there is no point in having two electric bikes and only using one of them. Plus I know the one I built inside out and can therefore fix anything on it (electric side apart).

 

[Citrus]

Yes I have to agree, very buisiness like machine. The Phylion battery and mount makes for a very elegant conversion.

You've made a good choice in tyres, one of my machines is running on Crossroads "armadillo's", an excellent free rolling tyre for all round use.

Bob

Thanks Bob. The armadillo tyres are great. I picked a huge piece of glass out of the front tyre yesterday and there was still no puncture. I used vulcanised rubber glue to stick the slash back together which seems to have worked rather well.

 

[flecc]

Now I have converted my home built bike to electric I am not riding the Agattu anymore - so it is sitting in my gargage unused - a waste of a good bike. Hence it is for sale as there is no point in having two electric bikes and only using one of them. Plus I know the one I built inside out and can therefore fix anything on it (electric side apart).

It's like I wrote in the review, the Panasonic system is not for everyone, and it's always best to try out both that and hub motor bikes first before buying.

By the way, I put somebody onto you for the Agattu, so with that and the other contact you've had from the ad, hopefully it will be sold quickly.
.

 

[Saddlesore]

Congratulations - you have made a lovely job of the build and it looks very professional.
I will be interested to see how the development goes as I am seriously considering doing a self build myself using Alien's 36 v kit. Alien has always been very prompt and helpful whenever I've e-mailed him to clarify information about his bikes and kits and he seems to be an extremely reliable trader and your experience with the replacement of the duff battery confirms my opinion.
I agree with you regarding the throttle control and being able to input the amount of assistance yourself although I still opt for my bike being in pedelec mode and throttle control ( I.e. the throttle will only give power if I am pedalling) as your kit doesn't have the pedelec sensor if I am correct.
All the best and enjoy.

 

[Solenero]

very good job...it looks professional.....congratulations

 

[Citrus]

Congratulations - you have made a lovely job of the build and it looks very professional.
I will be interested to see how the development goes as I am seriously considering doing a self build myself using Alien's 36 v kit. Alien has always been very prompt and helpful whenever I've e-mailed him to clarify information about his bikes and kits and he seems to be an extremely reliable trader and your experience with the replacement of the duff battery confirms my opinion.
I agree with you regarding the throttle control and being able to input the amount of assistance yourself although I still opt for my bike being in pedelec mode and throttle control ( I.e. the throttle will only give power if I am pedalling) as your kit doesn't have the pedelec sensor if I am correct.
All the best and enjoy.

The kit does have a pedelec sensor it is just I chose not to fit. I didn't come with one initially - although it should have - however I emailed Alien bikes and they said they would send one out if I wanted. I chose not to bother with it though. Thanks for your kind comments about the bike build.

 

[Citrus]

By the way, I put somebody onto you for the Agattu, so with that and the other contact you've had from the ad, hopefully it will be sold quickly.
.

Thanks Flecc. I have had 3 forum members interested, although the distance to me may prove a stumbling block. I am no desperate rush to sell my Agattu, but if I get what I'm looking for then it will go.

 

[flecc]

Someone should turn up to make it possible shortly. At your asking price, for anyone with a driving licence it's probably worth them hiring a transit for a day. Alternatively with a wheel out many hatchbacks could cope. I took a Torq 1 with front wheel dropped alongside from South London up to Loughborough (340 miles round trip) in a Skoda Fabia, and hatchbacks don't come a lot smaller than that. It would have been dead easy with an Agattu with no motor in the wheels.
.

 

[nigel]

Nice job citrus looks very smart well done. Now the million dollar question how difficult was it to fit i might be tempted to buy one Nigel.

 

[fishingpaul]

Someone should turn up to make it possible shortly. At your asking price, for anyone with a driving licence it's probably worth them hiring a transit for a day. Alternatively with a wheel out many hatchbacks could cope. I took a Torq 1 with front wheel dropped alongside from South London up to Loughborough (340 miles round trip) in a Skoda Fabia, and hatchbacks don't come a lot smaller than that. It would have been dead easy with an Agattu with no motor in the wheels.

i got a torq two in a rover 200 hatchback without removing any wheels,had to push the passenger seat as far forward as possible,and gearchanges were slightly hindered.

 

[Citrus]

Nice job citrus looks very smart well done. Now the million dollar question how difficult was it to fit i might be tempted to buy one Nigel.

Thanks Nigel. I think it was fairly easy to fit if you have a full set of tools (hex keys, spanners 10mm,8mm,19mm, screwdrivers, micro screwdrivers) ,common sense, and follow the online instructions. Have a look at Alien Bikes website first and you can get idea of how the kits fit on a bike. You only get access to the full instructions when you buy a kit from him - which is fair enough. Bob at Alien bikes is also very helpful.

 

[bogmonster]

Hi,

Can you tell me what the peak power output is of the controller? Alternatively the max current the controller will deliver. I am keen to compare this with the Wisper. Also, anybody got any idea what it is on the 36v kit?

Cheers, BM

EDIT: OK, looking at the alien site it looks to be 12A which is quite low I think. I would have expected more like 18 - 20A for some torque hill climbing? Is this wrong?

BM

 

[The Maestro]

EDIT: OK, looking at the alien site it looks to be 12A which is quite low I think. I would have expected more like 18 - 20A for some torque hill climbing? Is this wrong?

BM

The ebay advert for the Alien 26" 36V kit states:

"controller set for 18amps so 648W peak power"

I don't know if this is the restricted or unrestricted figure though. You would have expected it to be the controller setting as delivered (i.e. restricted) but it seems too high. I do know that I found the kit very weak as delivered but great when derestricted. I'd just derestrict it straight away, it hardly breaks the law by much anyway, just a couple of mph on the throttle and maybe helps you to about 3mph above the legal limit if you peddle. I doubt anyone is going to have a problem with that.

 

[Mandy]

nice bike

Lovely job Citrus and great looking bike.
Well done!
Be proud and enjoy and I know what you mean about throttle control as wouldn't be without mine although I would have gone for them sending over the pelelec option if you ever came to sell?
Regards
Mandy