Of course building your own bike from scratch should be a lot cheaper (if you ignore your labor cost). But for off-the-shelf, ready to ride I haven't seen much that comes close for the price. Most of the places they got cheap are easy to upgrade.
John in CR said:Having been hubmotoring for 12 years I don't know how you guys get past the noise. While I've made a couple of chain driven mid-drives that were near silent, they were both based on taking a hubbie out of the wheel, so the drive sprocket was quite large. Every video I hear with higher rpm mid-drives sound like electric chain saws to me, so I'd have to go belt drive.
Tommm said:whoosh
flat tire said:Tommm said:whoosh
You are so eager to explain that you misread his post. John already knows what you wrote and is complaining about the chain noise and it's implied the the difference of a mid drive over a hub is it's not direct drive and needs additional noisy linkage. The Surron has a louder chain noise than most bicycle mid drives because it uses a much heavier chain.
Ha. Motorcycle roller chain like 520 is INCREDIBLY noisy. I have a Zero FXS with chain drive. It's almost as loud an an Alta MXR which has additional noise from reduction gearing. Exactly which full size electric motorcycles with chain drive have you ridden / heard in real life?John in CR said:Motorcycles don't make as much chain noise as most mid-drives I've seen
flat tire said:There are plenty of belts that will take final drive power but belts have an issue offroad with debris.
For a quiet chain, look at cam chains. I know they have used those in higher power applications and they are much much quieter than roller chain.
johnnyddn said:I've been checking out the bomber clone builds and some of them are reaching $3000+ on the builds. At that price point, would you guys prefer a Sur-Ron or Bomber Clone you built?
John in CR said:Having been hubmotoring for 12 years I don't know how you guys get past the noise. While I've made a couple of chain driven mid-drives that were near silent, they were both based on taking a hubbie out of the wheel, so the drive sprocket was quite large. Every video I hear with higher rpm mid-drives sound like electric chain saws to me, so I'd have to go belt drive.
ght.
SlowCo said:There is a street legal version of the Sur-Ron.
sn0wchyld said:John in CR said:BrumBrum's LMX build above is a more refined and better ebike in all respects than a SurRon, so if it came in at less cost, then that's the way to go. Over-hyped for sure, and AFAIC over-priced too.
quoting from brumbrum's build thread, in reference to the question 'how much'?:
"If buying everything, startng with nothing probably over £4k gbp"
which is a shame, i'd prefer the LMX but price wise the sur ron is borderline as it is. $3k aud pays for a lot of upgrades, or even a basic second bike.
My plans for the surron will initially result in (compared to brumrum's)
2.5 x the battery capacity,
~same power,
registered/street legal,
for ~$1000 less (~2000 less if not street legal trim)
not including shipping costs for the lmx bits,
and not counting labor, or alternatively
3600 less (4600 non street legal) than a pre-built lmx, before shipping $? from France, and ignoring the $1000 of GST (a cost that depends on if customs 'catch' it as it comes through), and still with more power, and 1.5x the battery capacity.
As I mentioned earlier, there isn't many (any?) options that really compete $/$. Some stuff gets close if you put in (plenty of) your own labour and/or find stuff particularly cheap, but doing it without compromise is difficult, to say the least - there's certainly (afaik) nothing off the shelf that competes, particularly when considering the upgrade potential and "registability" ... and I say this as someone who's still building another mid drive based on my norko frame, that will be close in performance to teh surron, possibly better in areas, albeit smaller battery. Will be over 5k though, counting cost of stuff I already have.
Link? Found this, but not the buildIt threadspinningmagnets said:Sketch Coleman built a real kick-ass E-dirtbike conversion, but he is not selling them.
He published all the details, ain't nothing to it but to do it...