Urban Mover or Alien Conversion

[FJJ]

Hi folks,

New to the forum and currently looking to get a new eBike or convert my existing Carrera Subway 2 (3years old). I'm looking at either a new urban mover UM33X from Halfords which I can get for around £720 with a 10% discount from my companies trade membership (missed the window for cycle 2 work). My other option is a kit from Alien at £549. The advantage there I guess is that it's higher voltage.

Does anyone have experience with either? At the moment I'm tempted by the Urban Mover as it will save any fitting issues and it's not a lot more expensive. However is the higher voltage worth the hassle and risks of going DIY?

I have disc brakes on my current bike and may have issues getting the conversion to fit - the guys at alien did say it sometimes requires a bit of messing about to get it to work - but then I'm pretty handy DIY wise...

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

FJJ

 

[stevebills]

I was looking at the 350 watt Bafang kit at bms battery I think it's fitted to there Alien Aurora

 

[fishingpaul]

Although i have not tried any of these bikes,my thoughts are the urban mover being 24v may lack power on hills and have a shorter range,the alien kit is 36v and should have extra power and range, but it has the battery mounted on a rear rack (not the best place to mount a battery) you may feel it unbalances your bike a bit,another complete bike option around this price range may be juicy bikes sport 36v 10ah bike for about £740.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I'm not an expert on the Alien kit, but as far as I can see, it's the standard Chinese stuff that works pretty well. You'lll have do do a bit of fiddling to make it fit. The only showstopper would be whether you have enough room between your forks for the motor. You need 100mm between the dropouts, and that gap must run for at leat about 60mm up the forks. Some forks taper in immediately after the dropouts, but, as you have a disk brake, you should be OK. Next point is that you will might have make an adaptor for the rack. You need to make a bracket that fits on the disk side wheel nut that bends round in an "n" shape to give width to clear the disk brake assembly. You can then fit the rack to the bracket after bending that side out a little. If you want a photo of how I did mine, let me know. You might also need to replace the BB with a slightly longer one and change your right hand gearchanger to one like this:SHIMANO SL-TX50 THUMBSHIFTER PLUS - 7 SPEED RIGHT HAND on eBay (end time 01-Mar-11 15:14:50 GMT) to make space for the throttle. If your disk is 160mm, you'll need a caliper spacer and a new 180mm disk. When, you've finished, you will have invested about £900 (if you bought your bike new) and It'll be worth about £350-£400.

I havn't tried a Halfords Urban Mover, but it has a smaller battery that'll cut down your range by about a third and only 200w motor. I can imagine that it would feel less powerful.

Why have you narrowed your choice to just these two? There's loads od decent entry level ready-made bikes with similar performance and parts as the Alien kit on Ebay:
Street Legal 26"Adult Electric Bike 36V Lithium Bicycle on eBay (end time 13-Feb-11 11:44:53 GMT)
E-Bikes Electric Mountain Bike Yellow/Black MEGA DEAL on eBay (end time 23-Feb-11 09:17:05 GMT)
or my favourite (because I have one) Sunlova Electric Scooter, Electric Bike, Electric Cycle from Sunlova