New e-bike project

I'm looking to build a commuter e-bike using my Ridley X-bow 1317A Cyclocross.

I'll try to go for a rear hub drive of 250W if possible and I have been looking at the kit from ciclotekstore:
http://www.ciclotekstore.eu/b2c/producto/9822112/2/mk-e-bike-motor-kit-rear-
http://www.globetek.es/imagenes/MK_trasero.jpg

However the rear hub spacing of the X-bow is 135 mm, and it looks like the MK e-bike kit has need a spacing of 140 mm.
Who has 140 mm hub spacing anyway? Only tandems from what I have read..
Does anyone recommend a similar kit but for 135 hub spacing?

It''ll fit in a 135mm frame OK. I've seen several fitted to similar bikes. I've got the 139mm Q100C in my Dahon, which is has a much stiffer frame because it's only 20" wheels, but it still went in with a it of help.

That sounds good. Has anyone actually tried the kit they are selling or know which brand of motor it is?
I'm also a bit curious about how many gears that will fit and if the gear switch handles are compatible with different number of gears on the rear wheel.

I'm pretty sure that it's the Keyde kit.

http://www.keyde.com/?do=product&lang=en&event=list_2

Everything is self-contained, so very easy to install. It's pedal-only (no throttle).

I've tried one. It has a lot of torque for such a small motor. On our one, after a few hours riding, the PAS changed from half a turn to kick in the motor to about 5 turns, which was pretty bad. Then, after a couple more hours of hard pedalling, it went bang and jammed. We bought it direct from Keyde, who took it back and are sending us a replacement.

While it worked properly it was excellent as a light-weight solution to ebiking. I've heard rumours about a German business that tried them on their bikes, and they got a 30% failure rate, but I can't confirm that, and it's possible that Keyde have changed things since then.

There's a guy on the UK forum with one on a Brompton, which seems to work OK, although he gives it an easy time, and there's no hills where he lives.

Ah, there is the keyde.com site up and running again. It was actually the Bompton thread over at the pedelec uk forums that I first read about these small hub motors. But the keyde.com website was down all yesterday, so I thought they were out of business. Their bottle batteries looks really nice and it seems like the prices are a bit lower (I'm not sure how much the custom to Europe will be though).
I don't have any hills on my way to work (only 13 km flat road) and I usually pedal by muscle power, so I don't need a monster engine.
I also looked at the MAC hub motors over at
http://em3ev.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&path=36&product_id=56
How do they compare to his kit? it looks a little bit bigger (150 cm diam).

I will go for this motor in the end:
http://www.keyde.com/?do=product&lang=en&event=view&ids=12
However, I'm not sure about the RMP.
My goal is to use this motor for high end assist on flat road. I normally pedal at around 20-25 km/h and would like to have assistance between 15-35 km/h.
It looks like the motor max out at 260 RPM. Could the motor survive 260 RPM on my 700C wheels if I promise to always pedal along?

You have to be sure about the motor RPM., so check before ordering. 260 rpm should be OK for what you want.

There's no comparison between the Keyde kit and a MAC one. A MAC converts your bike into a heavy electric motorcycle, the Keyde is a light-weight pedal-assist system. The MAC wouldn't be suitable for your bike at all. It's much better suited to MTB type bikes, which are heavier and stronger.

260 rpm it is then. Let's hope they can get the wheel rim size correct..
I wonder a 10 speed Shimano 105 5700 cassette will fit. I don't see any measurements on the keyde hub motor.

It should fit. I believe it's narrower than the 9 speed. The length of a cassette spline is standard, i.e. the same on a 10 speed as a nine or 8 speed.

The Keyde rear hub motor arrived last week. Looking good so far.
Does anyone know what connector they are using for their battery? It looks like some kind of coax, about 10 mm outside diameter, 3 mm pin diameter.

I'd cut it off and put on my own preferred connector (Deans).

Deans are nice, but the female battery connector is built into the battery itself. See the connector inside the red ring.
I could of course chop of the connector and build an adapter from it..

Assembled the bike with the keyde motor. Runs really good. I get around 32 km/h with minimal input from my legs.
Haven't tried for distance yet with my 6,8Ah battery, but after 15 km the battery voltage was 33,6V.
Bad quality on the battery LED indicator strip. That thing died the first day..

Still looking for the connectors though.

Is it a standard RCA (Phono) connector?

Please keep us informed of how the system performs after some time.

Of course it's an RCA-connector. But with a shorter middle pin. It does fit perfectly with an ordinary RCA though.
A little report from last run;
Did 12 km with the bike. Average speed 24 km/h, max seems to be around 32 km/h. The 6.8Ah battery had a voltage if 33.6V afterwards. Not sure about the discharge curve, so I don't know what the state if the charge was after that.
The second run was in rain and heavy wind in my face. After the first downhill slope the motor stopped working. Don't know if was due to water or the heavy wind. During the whole ride the unit turned on and off. On th power regulator you can see the load on the motor, and I thought that the motor shut down due to high load. Not sure why it never did this on the earlier run though.

Some news on this project. The Keyde motor apparently didn't work in rain. It was flooded and stopped working.
Now Keyde want me to send the motor back at my own cost (> 70 USD).
Of course that is not reasonable since they obviously sent me a broken item at the first time. The motor is supposed to work in rain..