Rear hub

[olrac]

Hello everyone
Thinking about treating myself to an Ebike in the new year. I work for a company that will give me a healthy discount on an A2B bike (Ferber or Galvani) Has anyone got any opinions/ reviews on either of these bikes??

 

[olrac]

Ok so no responses on the rear hub.
How about opinions on the BPM motor on the likes of the Big Bear. It clearly has plenty of oomph but does that mean it comes with a noisy whine?

 

[selrahc1992]

strictly for what its worth - I've tried (several times) a Raleigh twenty with a BPM2 and some Hobbyking Lipos at full whack (with a S12SH controller pushing 1550W no less - at this point one has to lean forward on the somewhat odd geometry of a Raleigh twenty to prevent wheelying, even at the 15MPH or so I was going at the time) it's enormous fun - but to answer your question there was not much more noise on this 328RPM one running in a twenty wheel at near full revs than any other pedelecs I've been on (it was a soft milk float type hum that passers by hardly noticed and that - curiously - grew on me)

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The Woosh Big Bears run at about 20A with 36v, so that, s about 800w to the motor, so not as much oomph as DIY builds, but still plenty enough to get heavy people up steep hills without too much pedal effort.

I personally wouldn't recommend an A2B. If anything goes wrong, it will be expensive. A spare battery is about £500 if you can get one. There was a guy on this forum that bought a new discounted one that wouldn't charge. His retailer couldn't get a replacement battery, so he was forced to use an unsuitable one. I personally asked A2B for help on his behalf, but all they could offer was a discounted replacement battry - £400 instead of £500.

The BPM is a lovely motor. It's used in lots of OEM bikes, like Volt Plus, Kudos, Woosh. You can get the CST version, which is even better in the Oxygen MTB. The Oxygen is probably the fastest derestricted with 24mph cruising speed on the flat if that floats your boat.

 

[olrac]

And how loud is the motor compared to say a TransX which is advertised as being quiet.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

If that's your only criterion for selecting an ebike, get the A2B or any other bike with a direct drive motor or the Bafang BBS01 crank, drive; however, you'll get all the disadvantages of them as well, so bear that in mind.

 

[olrac]

No ,I want a strong motor but have heard some ebikes with loud motors.
I appreciate comments about the A2B and will look elsewhere. Just wanted to know whether the front hub BPM was relatively quiet, not silent.

 

[selrahc1992]

No ,I want a strong motor but have heard some ebikes with loud motors.
I appreciate comments about the A2B and will look elsewhere. Just wanted to know whether the front hub BPM was relatively quiet, not silent.

in my limited experience noise is a non issue with regards to the BPM (its quiet) - but ive read the controller matters, apparently for some reason torque simulating ones like S12SH is quiter, and it climbs hills (least in the configuration I tried) in ways that would leave some mopeds behind

 

[trex]

I test rode an EBCO UCL30 fitted with front wheel TranzX motor a couple of months ago. It's about as quiet and powerful as an front wheel 8-Fun SWX, which does not say much to the OP but for an idea, the motor noise never attracts attention because the chain noise when you pedal is usually louder than the motor noise. Also, motor noise depends on the controller, speed and load. Sine-wave controllers make less noise. When you climb any hill, the smaller SWX and TranzX start whining a bit while the bigger BPMs don't .

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Front motors always sound louder than rear ones, even though they're not.

To me, a big consideration is that for bikes that have BPM motors, everything is standard. You can mix and match motors, controllers, batteries and other stuff. When you buy bespoke bikes like A2B, you're at the mercy of the dealer and their spares system if anything goes wrong. Unfortunately, for ebikes, the spares backup is pretty bad. When the battery fails, which is an inevitability eventually, you might as well chuck your bike because a new battery will be more than what the bike's worth - if you can get one. If your Kudos or Woosh goes wrong, there's a hundred different cheap batteries to choose from. I hate to have to say all this, but I'm just trying to be pragmatic.

 

[Electrifying Cycles]

With relation to A2B bikes I have not had any issues getting spare batteries so do not understand why the correct one could not be obtained. For example we have previously got spare A2B metro batteries as well as others. I agree they are more expensive but they are prced at around the same price of many other bikes at the price point e.g. Bosch powered ebikes.

 

[Cyclezee]

With regard to spares there is no problem with the brands the we supply.
e.g. eZee bikes have been in the UK since 2005 and one of their USPs is the latest batteries with much improved technology still fit bikes from back then, how many other brands can claim this?
David Henshaw, editor of AtoB magazine owns the very first eZee bike to come to the UK and a couple of months ago he bought one of the latest batteries to give it a new lease of life.