Hi lads! New guy from Sweden here ready to take a plunge on a entry level electric and looking for some advice. There's mainly four options I've been oogling and I've tried to do as much research as possible but I'm having a difficult time weighing the pros and cons and that's where you clever blokes hopefully can be of help. Lets get to it...
Option 1 is on top of my list at the moment. It's from a china maker called Apollo/Orion which is known for it's cheap, relatively good quality dirt bikes and things of that nature. It's fairly inexpensive (100 SEK ~ 9 GBP) so will allow me to fit it with a set of Schwalbe Big Bens and some extras of my choice. I've gathered the motor is a Bafang but according to the seller it's unmarked so if someone could identify it it'd be great. Also curious if you can swap the standard LED panel for a LCD one, and if this will allow me to "tune" the engine with speed settings etc? And will the 26 inch wheels equate to less stress on the small engine in terms of torque? Lastly I'm sceptic about the battery. I can find replacements for it locally but there's not a lot of import options and more importantly no Samsung or Panasonic ones as far as I can tell. Is this a deal breaker or..?
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Option 2 has a japan/china Dapu front hub. The name reads like a bad omen but other than that it's a standard china kit with the more common rear rack battery pack. I'm wondering if the LCD panel will allow me to change the speed to more than 15 mph? And how much of a trade off it is going with a front hub compared to a rear hub in a small 250w motor such as this? Will the rear rack placement of the battery be noticable in the balance of the bike?
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Option 3 is from a danish company called Promovec. Same china kit except they have a "unique" 2 speed Multigear front hub (I'm assuming it's the new XiongDa 2-speed?), Sony battery cells(?), LCD and six assist levels rather than the standard three. It's significantly more expensive than the other two so I'd need it to be significantly better in order to go for it since I'm on disability pension and juggling the purchase with everyday needs such as cocaine and prostitutes (just kidding... I don't do coke). If the other two works just as well only a bit more rough and slightly less efficient it's not worth it to me but if it's the difference between purchasing something poor and purchasing something acceptable I can make room for it in my budget.
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Option 4 is from german Kreidler and comes fitted with a Bosch Classic mid-drive system, Schwalbe Energizers, (I think) the Bosch Powerpack 300 with 300 Wh etc. Seems like a great kit but it's again a cost vs benefit issue. The Bosch batteries costs quite a bit more than the china flavored Samsung/Panasonic packs as well, nearly twice as much, so this would also be the most expensive long term option I reckon?
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Finally I'd love to hear some hands on experiences from the sick and/or elderly (I'm thirty something fyi). I wont bog you down with the grit and grime of my medical history but lets just say I get very easily fatigued from simple walking so it would be nice to hear from someone who shares that experience and thoughts on what the ebike has done for them and what it could do (or not do) for me and so on. I can keep a good pace spinning but any more than that for longer periods of time and I'm treading water. My hopes are the ebike will give me that spinning like experience and just enough push to help me get up the slopes without having to take a nap afterwards, hah.
And if you've made it this far I suppose you deserve a treat. My computer wont accept the meatballs and the pesky swedish girls are not fond of getting stuffed into boxes (removing the airholes helps some but) so please treat yourselves to this acoustic UK performance from swedish angels First Aid Kit.
That's about it. Hope I didn't flood you with too much information and apologies for the english. Any input big and small would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!
/ZeSven
Option 1 is on top of my list at the moment. It's from a china maker called Apollo/Orion which is known for it's cheap, relatively good quality dirt bikes and things of that nature. It's fairly inexpensive (100 SEK ~ 9 GBP) so will allow me to fit it with a set of Schwalbe Big Bens and some extras of my choice. I've gathered the motor is a Bafang but according to the seller it's unmarked so if someone could identify it it'd be great. Also curious if you can swap the standard LED panel for a LCD one, and if this will allow me to "tune" the engine with speed settings etc? And will the 26 inch wheels equate to less stress on the small engine in terms of torque? Lastly I'm sceptic about the battery. I can find replacements for it locally but there's not a lot of import options and more importantly no Samsung or Panasonic ones as far as I can tell. Is this a deal breaker or..?
link
Option 2 has a japan/china Dapu front hub. The name reads like a bad omen but other than that it's a standard china kit with the more common rear rack battery pack. I'm wondering if the LCD panel will allow me to change the speed to more than 15 mph? And how much of a trade off it is going with a front hub compared to a rear hub in a small 250w motor such as this? Will the rear rack placement of the battery be noticable in the balance of the bike?
link
Option 3 is from a danish company called Promovec. Same china kit except they have a "unique" 2 speed Multigear front hub (I'm assuming it's the new XiongDa 2-speed?), Sony battery cells(?), LCD and six assist levels rather than the standard three. It's significantly more expensive than the other two so I'd need it to be significantly better in order to go for it since I'm on disability pension and juggling the purchase with everyday needs such as cocaine and prostitutes (just kidding... I don't do coke). If the other two works just as well only a bit more rough and slightly less efficient it's not worth it to me but if it's the difference between purchasing something poor and purchasing something acceptable I can make room for it in my budget.
link
Option 4 is from german Kreidler and comes fitted with a Bosch Classic mid-drive system, Schwalbe Energizers, (I think) the Bosch Powerpack 300 with 300 Wh etc. Seems like a great kit but it's again a cost vs benefit issue. The Bosch batteries costs quite a bit more than the china flavored Samsung/Panasonic packs as well, nearly twice as much, so this would also be the most expensive long term option I reckon?
link
Finally I'd love to hear some hands on experiences from the sick and/or elderly (I'm thirty something fyi). I wont bog you down with the grit and grime of my medical history but lets just say I get very easily fatigued from simple walking so it would be nice to hear from someone who shares that experience and thoughts on what the ebike has done for them and what it could do (or not do) for me and so on. I can keep a good pace spinning but any more than that for longer periods of time and I'm treading water. My hopes are the ebike will give me that spinning like experience and just enough push to help me get up the slopes without having to take a nap afterwards, hah.
And if you've made it this far I suppose you deserve a treat. My computer wont accept the meatballs and the pesky swedish girls are not fond of getting stuffed into boxes (removing the airholes helps some but) so please treat yourselves to this acoustic UK performance from swedish angels First Aid Kit.
That's about it. Hope I didn't flood you with too much information and apologies for the english. Any input big and small would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!
/ZeSven
