Manufacturers/Dealers to Gravitate Towards

[docnjoj]

This is a good thread, but many of the links and references are quite old now, and I'm thinking it might be good to do an update of the best vendors who are currently operating, and their current status as far as being good... or perhaps not so good?

In particular, I'm personally interested in the best vendors for various kinds of motors. I'm currently looking into designing a mid-drive mountain bike, and have been researching multiple vendors, and considering the pros and cons of mounting a hub motor in a mid-drive configuration, as compared to using something like a BMC scooter motor, or an "R/C" style motor such as Turnigy or Scorpion. Any and all real-world info and experience with different motors and vendors would be very helpful.

Reliability is my #1 concern, and one thing that has me worried is that the level of quality control appears to vary considerably from manufacturer to manufacturer. It would be nice to have a short list of the best, high-quality vendors who make motors that are built to last.

Astroflight makes great motors and has our recumpense (Matt) to build and sell them. Truly a can't go wrong experience for RC motors. All made in the USA. Can't beat that with a stick!
otherDoc

[ohzee]

I had mentioned I have been trying to buy a BMS from evassemble. 23 days ago I paid and was told it's a custom item so +10 days.
At about 2 week mark i was told it's done Ill get a DHL tracking # and will see it in 3-6 days.. So a week later I send emails but get
no responses.. I am able to get them via the chat on their web page , but it's all broken promises and excuses.. Today I tell them
to cancel if they cant get me a tracking # in 24 hrs and I get this message below.

I look up the weather where evassemble is in GuangZhou China.. Raining hot , but the worse weather seems to be Beijing 8+ hours north of them.

I am soo close to just washing my hands. I need a 24s BMS for my newly built battery so I can try it out. Luckily I have another 20s
that's 100% so I am not hurting to bad , but it's a new toy and I want to play..

Anyway any thoughts on the comments below ? Is the statement just BS or could there be some truth to it ?Thanks

Hello Ohzee,
I just call you to explain the issue. It's a typhoon in our destination and have heavy rain in the last five days so we can not issue any order cause we are afraid that goods may get wet which is big trouble for electronic products. According to the weather report, it will be sunny again with effection of the typhoon for heavy rain. So we will be office on even weekend of this week and try to issue all orders include your parcel. It's really a bad sitution for the weather issue. But since it's out of our control and we concern more about safety arrival then any products which will suffer wet trouble so we have to send them after the heavy weather.
We aplogize for the inconvenience but it's really important we can make sure our products will arrive to our clients without demage.

Please confirm if we can issue out the shipment on next two days and we will make operation as per your will.
We are aplogize for the inconvenience of the local weather in the recent few days.

Best regards,
Michael Cheung

skyp:evassemble
http://www.evassemble.com <http://www.evassemble.com>

[ohzee]

So looks like I may have been wrong in my assumptions here. evaassemble lists their location on their web site as
Panyu District,GuangZhou,China. Yesterday my package was picked up in TAO YUAN - TAIWAN . Today it's out
for delivery in Ohio. Now that's how you ship something never seen it that quick.

Anyway when they said bad weather I looked up GuangZhou and thought wtf, but yea if they are really in Taiwan I
could see the issues. So I paid for the BMS on the 5th of July and should recieve it Today 27 days later. Guess that's
not to bad. Will report how the BMS works out for me supposed to be a custom build.

[ohzee]

.

[ShreddinPB]

With regard to Ev-assemble (or evassemble): I ordered a 16S headways 12 AHpack from michael, and it arrived a bit later than expected. I was able to call and confirm that the delay was due to chinese new year. The pack is still new with only 300 miles, but it still delivers 40A to get me comfortably up my hills. Note that most packs including ping can't produce a 3.5C rating for steep hills or wicked abusive acceleration.

I had the same experience.. we ordered at the same time hahaha

However, mine showed up missing the orange battery holders, and the wrong charger (220v)
They did send the battery holders after, but only sent 12 instead of 16...
I gave up after that

[ShreddinPB]

I had mentioned I have been trying to buy a BMS from evassemble. 23 days ago I paid and was told it's a custom item so +10 days.
At about 2 week mark i was told it's done Ill get a DHL tracking # and will see it in 3-6 days.. So a week later I send emails but get
no responses.. I am able to get them via the chat on their web page , but it's all broken promises and excuses.. Today I tell them
to cancel if they cant get me a tracking # in 24 hrs and I get this message below.

I look up the weather where evassemble is in GuangZhou China.. Raining hot , but the worse weather seems to be Beijing 8+ hours north of them.

I am soo close to just washing my hands. I need a 24s BMS for my newly built battery so I can try it out. Luckily I have another 20s
that's 100% so I am not hurting to bad , but it's a new toy and I want to play..

Anyway any thoughts on the comments below ? Is the statement just BS or could there be some truth to it ?Thanks

Hello Ohzee,
I just call you to explain the issue. It's a typhoon in our destination and have heavy rain in the last five days so we can not issue any order cause we are afraid that goods may get wet which is big trouble for electronic products. According to the weather report, it will be sunny again with effection of the typhoon for heavy rain. So we will be office on even weekend of this week and try to issue all orders include your parcel. It's really a bad sitution for the weather issue. But since it's out of our control and we concern more about safety arrival then any products which will suffer wet trouble so we have to send them after the heavy weather.
We aplogize for the inconvenience but it's really important we can make sure our products will arrive to our clients without demage.

Please confirm if we can issue out the shipment on next two days and we will make operation as per your will.
We are aplogize for the inconvenience of the local weather in the recent few days.

Best regards,
Michael Cheung

skyp:evassemble
http://www.evassemble.com <http://www.evassemble.com>

I am waiting on one of these
http://makibox.com/

If you read the blog, he talks a lot about it being the worst typhoon season in a long time.
Not making excuses cause my dealings with evassemble was not great

[tink242]

I bought a 36v rear geared motor kit from Doug Daut at Electric Bike Solutions and I have been very happy with my ebike and with Doug's service before and after the sale. Doug is an Ampedbikes dealer and the kit is from Ampedbikes. His website has a lot of information www.gocarlite.com

I suggest emailing or calling him before buying. He can help you get the right setup.

[ohzee]

I had mentioned I have been trying to buy a BMS from evassemble. 23 days ago I paid and was told it's a custom item so +10 days.
At about 2 week mark i was told it's done Ill get a DHL tracking # and will see it in 3-6 days.. So a week later I send emails but get
no responses.. I am able to get them via the chat on their web page , but it's all broken promises and excuses.. Today I tell them
to cancel if they cant get me a tracking # in 24 hrs and I get this message below.

I look up the weather where evassemble is in GuangZhou China.. Raining hot , but the worse weather seems to be Beijing 8+ hours north of them.

I am soo close to just washing my hands. I need a 24s BMS for my newly built battery so I can try it out. Luckily I have another 20s
that's 100% so I am not hurting to bad , but it's a new toy and I want to play..

Anyway any thoughts on the comments below ? Is the statement just BS or could there be some truth to it ?Thanks

Hello Ohzee,
I just call you to explain the issue. It's a typhoon in our destination and have heavy rain in the last five days so we can not issue any order cause we are afraid that goods may get wet which is big trouble for electronic products. According to the weather report, it will be sunny again with effection of the typhoon for heavy rain. So we will be office on even weekend of this week and try to issue all orders include your parcel. It's really a bad sitution for the weather issue. But since it's out of our control and we concern more about safety arrival then any products which will suffer wet trouble so we have to send them after the heavy weather.
We aplogize for the inconvenience but it's really important we can make sure our products will arrive to our clients without demage.

Please confirm if we can issue out the shipment on next two days and we will make operation as per your will.
We are aplogize for the inconvenience of the local weather in the recent few days.

Best regards,
Michael Cheung

skyp:evassemble
http://www.evassemble.com <http://www.evassemble.com>

I am waiting on one of these
http://makibox.com/

If you read the blog, he talks a lot about it being the worst typhoon season in a long time.
Not making excuses cause my dealings with evassemble was not great

yea I can say that in the end I am happy with evassemble. they did loose me for a week , but guess that happens.
Anyway so far the BMS and the charger have worked as expected. Now I need to actually use the battery to test.
Anyway on a 1-5 id give eva a 3.769 and rate them good.

As stated before somewhere where they show their business is different then where it actually shipped from so
that's why the typhoon stuff seemed off.

[docnjoj]

Since these threads talk about the better suppliers and manufactureres, agniusm and his kits for A123 20 AH cells should definitely go here. Great design, delivery and it does the job!
otherDoc

[cheetor]

Yet another very happy Lyen customer here.. very much liking my new 12FET 4110 controller!

[cal3thousand]

I want to safely run 24S on a HT3525 using a Lyen Controller. Would it be best to get a 12FET and modify it or get a 18FET to start?

[cheetor]

I want to safely run 24S on a HT3525 using a Lyen Controller. Would it be best to get a 12FET and modify it or get a 18FET to start?

That all depends on how much power you want to run, you could get by with a 6fet if the battery current and phase current were set low enough.

[zeiler]

Although I am new to this forum I was pleasantly surprised to get a reply from Justin at Ebikes.ca when I queried him about my requirement of a e-bike battery for a Hookah system.

I only asked for advice as I am located in Malaysia but in spite of him knowing I would not be a customer, since i need a 24v battery sourced in East Asia, he replied courteously with the advice I wanted.

It must cost a lot of time to do these things for us and I was impressed!

Thumbs up for Ebikes

Zeiler

[Eascen]

I'll post my +1 for electricrider.com, ordered the kit a few weeks ago, arrived about a week later, the wiring *may* have been out on the motor but I shorted the reverse and everything went perfectly till I noticed my pack cut out way before the voltage dropped enough. After spending plenty of time on the phone with Dave, I disassembled one of the 36 volt packs (38.4 if you count 3.2x12) 20ah and was quite impressed with the overall build quality. Turns out of the 12, 11 were at 3.2, and one was at 2.7. A bit more talking and I'm sending it back for repair (easy to do working with a US company), and they even offered to reimburse me for return shipping. They're also going to assemble a slightly modified 12v20ah pack to fit in my frame, which should top me off at just below 90v, and while the packs are rated at 98a draw they have a 50amp auto reset breaker (which is easy enough to remove), but then the BMS will be limited to 60A.

He sighed a bit when I mentioned I'm about to rip it apart to oil cool the motor, but I promised I wouldn't send it back for repairs.

[geeeyejo1]

Would be nice if you could buy kits without wheels, because all the Chinese Wheel builds are crap. Venting? Rant? No just fact. I've yet to see a good Chinese Wheel build.

I just received my Yescom kit (from LAshop.com) and actually was very impressed with the wheel build - heavy what looks like 12 gauge spokes, nice alloy rim - haven't checked truing yet and of course "time will tell" but initially I'm giving them an A for effort!

[docnjoj]

I gotta say some very positive stuff about kfong. I needed my LVC smartswitch reprogrammed and I couldn't seem to do it so I sent it back to him after about a year. He did it, told me what I did wrong (it is really easy to program) and returned it to me in less than a week. For those who are looking for a simple LVC/data logger this switch works well. It also avoids connection sparks and will shut down after being idle for an hour so no battery drain. Uses a relay and is dead reliable. Great for my A123 batts.
Thanks Kin
otherDoc

[pendragon8000]

Just built my first EV (bike) . Here are my experiences and opinions:

Chain reaction cycles.com
They were great. Custom built a wheel with good communication and when they made an error in stock I had paid for they upgraded for free. Also gave a voucher when a disk brake was unavailable.Reasonable transit time also. Cheap too.

Hyena electric bikes:
Heaps of communication , tottaly awesome kit. Some customizing upgrades made my wait a bit longer but not his fault, and totally worth it. Reasonable price, and good after sale support.

BMS:
Waiting for my charger still but seem keen to please and good price.

Hobby king:
Service seems OK, obviously they are pretty cheap and nice web site. This time of year is busy so I got delayed dispatch (boo) . Hire more staff? Anyway normally they would be pretty good IMO

Avanti cycles:
All bike shop dudes seem a bit weird but having said that Therese guys were OK, but really bad at returning phone calls and emails. Good to talk to in person (kensington rd Adelaide Australia)

Standish cycles:
Again weird bike shop dudes, totally awesome wheel build (hub motor) and only $50 AUD . Really help full and supportive (my LBS) torrensville Adelaide Australia.

[spiritxxx733t]

hey all,

what do you guys think of max at ebikedeal.com?

is he someone to gravitate towards when buying a hs3540 full kit?

many thanks

[pendragon8000]

I was going to say ebike.CA does crystalyte kits but they don't appear to have HT motors. I'm gunna get one one direct from crystalyte (if Kenny replies)... he does kits to without battery.
edit:
got my ht3525 from john at stealth electric bikes
australia:
sales.emtb@gmail.com
great customer service

[RLD70]

Im considering buying the HT3525 motor instead of the BMC 600w motor for my bike. Even though the yescom motor is good, it just doesnt have the torque that Im looking for.

[The Stig]

Props to Paul at http://www.em3ev.com
He delivered me a nice 48V 8Ah 5C battery that fits inside a "little frog" battery case.

Also I wouldn't even consider a BMC 600w style motor they are over priced. em3ev.com cells a much cheaper clone that works: MAC 1000w motor

[docnjoj]

I just had a very fine encounter with E-Bike-Kit. My wifes rim cracked on her front hub motor and I thought: Well I'll order a rim on E-bay or from E-bike-kit , wait for it to come, lace it up (with new spokes?) and bring it to the bike shop for truing. This is gunna take 2 weeks! So I e-mailed E-Bike-kit and Jason said: "Send it to us since we have one day turn around for lacing and truing". So we did send it and sure enough it arrived on a Thursday in Pennsylvania and was back here on Saturday of the same week. They even threw in some more mounting nuts and did a fine job lacing and truing the wheel. They charged a very fair price (less than my LBS would have done) and really went above and beyond for service. Thanks Jason and Roger from E-Bike-Kit.

I also bought an extra rim and will be looking for one of their geared motors to try out when tax refund shows up.

They are good folks!
otherDoc

[LeftieBiker]

Is *anyone* here in contact with Prodeco Technologies? After losing a battery pack I was returning to them to FedEX because their shipping labels were wrong, they have stopped answering my emails about the refund they owe me. Not only that, but at least one other person has tried to contact them by email and failed. I sleep days and haven't gotten a chance to phone them, but in the past all emails were answered promptly - until the pack got lost. So are they avoiding just me and anyone who mentions me, or have they gone "silent"?

[Dougid]

I just got an acoount today. But I have a question and this blog might have already answered my question. I have been trying to purchase a BMC 4V-T and some othe parts from
Betterbikes/ElectroRide for two weeks. I have emailed them 4 times, and called them at least 4 times on my cell. I have selected the components I want but there isnt a radio button to check out or view your cart. I sentt a screen save fo my order VIA email but still no reply. Are they still in busines or not?? My order is over $700.00. I dont want to bash a small company because nmaybe they have had a death in the family or something tragic. Can anyone recomend a vender for a BMC V4-T laced to a 26" wheel, controller and associated parts? This is the web page I was trying to order from;
http://www.electric-bikes.com/betterbik ... tobuy.html

[docnjoj]

ebikessf sells and services those motors and the owner Ilia is well thought of here.
otherDoc