Voilamart Front wheel kit

[TJS109]

Hi,

I have seen these Voilamart kits advertised on ebay. At £100 or so they seem too cheap to be true. Has anyone had any experience of them

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36V-250W-Electric-Bicycle-Motor-Kit-Speed-E-Bike-Conversion-26-Front-Wheel/122548309287?_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIM.MBE&ao=2&asc=48421&meid=8ff5fb4cf90342e2ab329bd833bcdb0d&pid=100005&rk=5&rkt=12&mehot=ag&sd=302418428306&itm=122548309287&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Tim

 

[Nealh]

I don't recall anyone on here giving a review of the kit.
15nm hub motor is very weedy torque wise, any hill climbing for it will be quite hard work. The kit is basic China no name stuff not for a heavy rider and best used on flatter terrain.

The Elifeshop/YSBattery offerings are better and more robust with 25/30nm torque and KT electrics.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Those kits have been discussed a few times before. they have a big drawback, which is the single level pedal assist power, which is not very user-friendly. I haven't tried one, but I have tried similar systems. Either you get maximum power as soon as you pedal, which makes the bike difficult to control at low speed, or worse still, you get power in proportion to how fast you pedal, which sounds sort of logical, but is absolutely diabolical in practice.

It's worth spending a few extra quid to get a kit with a sensible control system. The three-level ones with LED control panels are about the minimum, but I would always go for a kit that has a KT sine-wave controller and LCD. You can get kits like that from this seller:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/36V250W-26-Front-wheel-Electric-Bicycle-Hub-Motor-Conversion-kit/222254691677?hash=item33bf69755d:g:oowAAOSwJc9aXu5-

 

[Tim w]

I got a kit in April last year and put it on a Giant Sedona which I had sat in the garage for 10 years which I have hardly used. Since I got the kit fitted and started using from the begging of May last year I have used it at least once every weak doing around 9 to 16 miles per ride though last weekend done a 21 mile ride from Exeter to Newton abbot via Haldon hill. I have also given it a bit of a go on Haldon hills blue run. My personal reason I bought the kit was it was I considered cheap, didn't want to spend a lot of money and buy another bike and that landing up siting in the garage too .I tend to use the throttle for pulling away and using for controlled negotiating through barriers and gates and passing pedestrian/dogs etc and the Pedel sensing for normal ? Assist the main thing I am getting from it is I am having fun on a bike again. The only issue I have had with my conversion is my bottle style battery where after doing the Haldon woods blue run it broke the plastic retaining tit on the battery so I removed it and made an aluminium one and also the moulded battery wire kept loosing power so when I cut the moulding off I found the wires were not actually soldered to the conector but that was not that particular kit item .

 

[nazmul789]

I'm currently in the process of building my voilamart 48v rear kit. One problem I am facing is the tyre they gave me doesn't fit the rim and valve. I try pumping the valve as much as possible but the gaps still doesn't get filled up by the tyre. Can anyone recommend the exact size tyre needed for the rim. 26*1.95 doesn't seem to fit my kit's rim atm :/. Unless I need a special type of tyre pump that supplies a certain level of pressure?

 

[vfr400]

can you show us a photo of what your problem is. I can't understand at all what you're saying. The tyre doesn't care what sort of valve you have, so I don't see how that can be a problem.

Did you install a rim tape?
Did you use an inner tube?
Have you got the alloy wheel or spoked one?

 

[nazmul789]

I didn’t install rim tape. It has an inner tube. Nylon tire, alloy rim & stainless steel spokes. I just measured the rim diameter from edge to edge going through the centre using a tape measure, it was near 23”. Perhaps that’s the reason why the tyres don’t fit. Does this mean that I need to buy 24” tyres instead? Here’s is the link to the kit so you have all the details:

Voilamart 250W 1000W Electric Bicycle E Bike Front Rear Wheel Conversion Kit 26" | eBay

Voilamart says (Only for Twist Throttle). 36V250WR A Rear 250W / 36V 16 mph 15 N.M. 48V1000WR C Rear 1000W / 48V 28 mph 45 N.M. 48V1000WRC E Rear 1000W / 48V 28 mph 45 N.M. (Only for Pedal Assist System,"PAS").

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[nazmul789]

I’ve managed to pump up the tyre now, however it doesn’t fit tightly against the rim, the tyre just just keeps getting wider but doesn’t seal onto the rim.

 

[vfr400]

You need a rim tape to protect the inner tube from the spokes, as you'll find out sooner or later.

 

[nazmul789]

Ok thanks I’ll look into that!

 

[nazmul789]

Can anyone advise me on why the tyre doesn't close the gap between the rim and the inner tube. I noticed that my rim is very thin in width suggesting it is more suited for a road tyre without the inner tube. I've tried 2 mountain tyres with their inner tubes and the same result occurs. The tyre seems to stretch out making the inner tube visible when it should be completely sealed!

 

[nazmul789]

Anyone who purchased this kit, did you use the tyre and tube they supplied on your MTB ? OR did you use your own ones?

 

[danturismo]

I bought the front wheel 1000 watt kit for £135 at the start of the year, to put on an old rigid mtb as an experiment and I love it!!! I paired it with a 48v 13ah battery although I dont know how to test that either of these are really what they say they are... I only use it for a 5 mile work commute which is totally flat, its got more than enough power, you dont really want to go more than 15/20mph with the state of uk streets especially with dangerous drivers and crazy pedestrians.

I had to use a Tyre valve extender to keep the valve in place so i could get the pump connected to it otherwise it would sink back into the rim. I also found the free tyre very soft and had to pump slowly and carefully otherwise it became unseated or bulged. Then after about 500 miles the tread was wearing away and I realized that if i was going to use this more it was worth buying something better with better puncture protection so I bought two 1.75" swashbuckle marathon tyres on offer with a new customer discount it was £30 for two. These feel much more nimble and harder wearing and you seem to get much better breaking grip which could be the difference between hitting something and stopping short. Its also worth getting new break pads as tyres and brakes are super important.

I think this kit offers excellent value for money and I am very tempted to upgrade the frame to something with front suspension and hydraulic disk breaks to make life more comfortable but as is for the money I love it and dont have a problem with it, but I dont know how long its going to last, i might get 5000 miles more I might only get 100 miles more, for now its all going well.

It would be nice to have better front lights, break lights, indicators and an electric horn as well, but a whole other thing.

 

[vfr400]

Front suspension doesn't work very well with those motors. There are two problems that you have to overcome. Firstly, the torque from the motor applies a bending force to the forks, which tends to lock the movement. Secondly, you need steel forks, otherwise the drop-outs will pop.

There's another problem that you can't overcome. To get working suspension, the ratio between the unsprung mass (wheel) and the sprung mass (you and the bike) must be high for it to work. The ratio would normally be around 1.5kg:90kg, so 1:60. When you add 7kg to the front wheel, the ratio drops to 1:10. In simple terms, the fork springs and damping arrangement are designed to work with a low mass wheel. When you put a motor like that in it, you increase the mass by a factor of five. The end result is that the suspension becomes very choppy and not very comfortable.

When you add all that together; unsafe, jamming and horrible anyway, you'd be better off with rigid forks or a rear motor.

 

[danturismo]

That is really interesting, thanks for the reply, I thought having the motor on the front was good for jumping over lumps and bumps but if it was on the rear it might just bash into everything. I was also worried that i might have trouble fitting a rear wheel hub motor with the gear cassette and the disk break, and it might also make the front a bit too light.

 

[Nealh]

You will need to be iron man to lift the front or hop over jumps etc , etc with a D/D fitted.

 

[jeff St.Clair]

In the photo it looks like the tyre is the wrong size for the wheel ...it looks like a 27.5 on a 26 wheel ...

 

[Ajax]

I used the Voilamart 36v 500w rear wheel kit to upgrade an e-bike.

You might find the following useful if you are looking to replace the thumb controller with a proper throttle controller.

I opened the thumb throttle to figure out the 5 pin connections. Needless to say once opened the throttle is virtually impossible to put back together.

Yellow & Brown goes to the On/Off button, the equavalent of the Key Switch. I dont think a large current goes through these thin wires, so consider this a simple circuit breaker.

Black / Red / White are the actual throttle wires, Black is the ground / 0v, with Red as 5v, and White the Signal.

Green [along with Black] is used for the Battery Power display on the throttle.

 

[Ajax]

Front suspension doesn't work very well with those motors. There are two problems that you have to overcome. Firstly, the torque from the motor applies a bending force to the forks, which tends to lock the movement. Secondly, you need steel forks, otherwise the drop-outs will pop.

There's another problem that you can't overcome. To get working suspension, the ratio between the unsprung mass (wheel) and the sprung mass (you and the bike) must be high for it to work. The ratio would normally be around 1.5kg:90kg, so 1:60. When you add 7kg to the front wheel, the ratio drops to 1:10. In simple terms, the fork springs and damping arrangement are designed to work with a low mass wheel. When you put a motor like that in it, you increase the mass by a factor of five. The end result is that the suspension becomes very choppy and not very comfortable.

When you add all that together; unsafe, jamming and horrible anyway, you'd be better off with rigid forks or a rear motor.

I would lock the front suspension and simply not use it. If you are going with a front motor hub you want that wheel planted, for full traction.

Also with a powered bike you are more likely to go over the top, particularly if you apply
that brake sharply on a mushy suspension. It happened to me once, and after that i knew to keep that suspension locked.

As far as i can see, front suspension on an e-bike is just a marketing feature. We see it, we want it, but few of us actually need it. Somebody tell me i am wrong.

 

[Steve Dyson]

I have 2 of the rear hub kits and to give you an honest review of them i would say they are great for the money, there are a couple of drawbacks that i have found and will list them down below.

Pro's

Hub motor is great, powerful and will take over volting, i have 2 1500W motors and they have done about 5000 miles each
Both motors have taken in excess of 2500 watts and lived to tell the tale.
Controllers have 2 modes, 250 watt street legal and full power mode.

Cons
The hub has a lot of torque and is prone to rounding the dropouts if you dont have Torque arms but they are £10 to buy so not a massive downside, unless like me you ride it for a month with none while waiting for the cheaper deal arms to arrive from china and the hub rotates and you have to rewire the motor.

The handlebar throttle is susceptible to water ingress that sometimes means that the throttle will set off with no warning in heavier rain. easily fixed with a wipe of silicon around the the seals of the throttle.

Controllers Cons - this may not be an issue but it was for me as i over volted mine to 67 ish volts at full charge, the capacitors are rated at 63v, this eventually caused them to pop on controller 1
controller 2 was ridden for about 2000 miles and in heavy rain, eventually this had water ingress issues and popped which is understandable so make sure they are kept dry



I change the controllers for KT26/48v controllers and they have had no issues running for 8 months solid giving me a riding speed of up to 40 mph with no over volt