Pro's/Con's of Ampedbikes.com kits

[auto_bike]

I have built 3 bikes from 2 direct drive Amped kits, 2 SLA bikes and one lithium (tube battery) and they've been running for over a year now, one every day.

Pros: The motor, controller, throttle, etc seem pretty solid. Pricing isn't too bad and they shipped both promptly (except for the tube battery, which was a customer service nightmare of misinformation and backorders). The SLA pack is a simple setup and its easy to replace batteries as they die.

Cons: Customer service isn't great. The SLA packs don't last of course but they are just 3 standard batteries you can buy anywhere for much less than what they charge for a full replacement pack. The cloth "pack" might last 6 months before it starts to fall apart. The lithium tube batteries are wonderful when they work but they have a lot of electronic issues and fail pretty often and it's hugely expensive. When my tube battery finally dies I'm just going back to SLA. The warranty is something like 6 months, which was right when my lithium battery went on the fritz.

Personally if you don't have some electrical know-how I wouldn't bother with ebikes at all.

[ddk]

I'll just add that the ampedbike's mini-geared motor mounted in a 24" wheel achieves 21mph with a freshly-charged 36V battery (41.5V) on my semi-recumbent trike build. (sitting about 15" lower than a standard bike)
20mph @39-40V
as per usual, YMMV or in this case, YSMV