WoodlandHills
10 kW
A few weeks ago, shortly after the imbroglio over my complaints/review of the Luna Eclipse chainwheel, I received a PM from EM3EV. Out of a spirit of friendly competition :wink: , he suggested that he send me a Lekkie BBSHD chainwheel to try out. The understanding was that I would try it out, give Paul private feedback before going public and if I liked it I could pay full retail for it saving the cost of postage from California eBike to my home in Los Angeles. If Luna Cycle had proposed the same offer regarding their chainwheel I would have agreed, too. However in that transaction I paid full price out front, also saving shipping since I received it in person at the Luna facility, and there was never any discussion of confidentiality or of giving private feedback.
I have had the Lekkie Bling Ring HD for a few days, long enough to give it an identical test to the one given to the Luna Eclipse chainwheel. I used an identical Bikes Direct Gravity Deadeye Monster, built to the recipe developed by Karl at Electric-Fatbike.com as a test bed. The only change from the previous test was using a 26t cog on the Nexus 3 hub instead of a 23t. Both cogs have identical offset and I felt that the difference in tooth count would not affect the chain derailment issues I had with the Luna Eclipse. Luna had very promptly refunded my money when I returned the Eclipse to them, so I cannot give a direct back-to-back test.
Essentially all there is to report is that the Lekkie Bling Ring HD ring worked perfectly. There is nothing to report beyond that: no chain issues, no derails at any time. I rode the exact same route as in the Luna Eclipse test and had no problem at all. This was not the case with the Luna as a reading of my previous thread will show.
The Luna Eclipse needed a couple of AN washers as shims to clear the chainstay, the Lekkie bolted right on and both gave a nearly identical chainline. If anything the Luna had a slightly better chainline since it was about 1/16" closer to the chainstay than the Lekkie Bling Ring HD, both had adequate clearance.
Both chainwheels had the same 42t count and the only functional difference visible between the two products are the longer teeth on the Eclipse which are very much longer than those of the Bling Ring HD. I know this because I was able to hold a 42t Bling Ring for BBS02 up against the Luna Eclipse while at Luna and the difference was obvious. The Bling Ring HD uses identical teeth to the one Lekkie make for the BBS02 and those have been proven to be effective in the past when there are misalignment issues.
Finally, should anyone think that I am biased against or that I have it in for Luna Cycle, please be advised that I spent the two weeks before Christmas working at Luna as a temporary employee. I had done business with Eric recently and was very impressed with his business model and wanted to learn more, I also wanted to learn a bit more about the eBike business in general. When I read that he needed help with shipping and warehousing I offered my help. In exchange for $17.50/hr I would help Luna from 11am until the early evening and would have the opportunity to buy Luna Products at employee discount. At the end of the temp job, I wound up giving Luna $400 of my own cash in addition to all my earnings in exchange for a BBSHD, a Luna Shark battery pack and other bicycle parts. I also have an arrangement to have the Bafang BBSHD tested by a leading eBike magazine, something that can only benefit the worlds largest seller of BBSHD drives: Luna Cycle. While Eric was not happy about my post about my unvarnished experiences with his product, we parted amicably and I bear him and his company no ill will. Quite the contrary, I continue to purchase from him to this day.......
I have a number of photos of the new Lekkie Bling Ring HD on my phone and I will link or post them later today. I seem to have trouble getting my pictures to reliably appear in the body of my posts as opposed to just showing a clickable link, so I hope I can get them to appear this time.
I have had the Lekkie Bling Ring HD for a few days, long enough to give it an identical test to the one given to the Luna Eclipse chainwheel. I used an identical Bikes Direct Gravity Deadeye Monster, built to the recipe developed by Karl at Electric-Fatbike.com as a test bed. The only change from the previous test was using a 26t cog on the Nexus 3 hub instead of a 23t. Both cogs have identical offset and I felt that the difference in tooth count would not affect the chain derailment issues I had with the Luna Eclipse. Luna had very promptly refunded my money when I returned the Eclipse to them, so I cannot give a direct back-to-back test.
Essentially all there is to report is that the Lekkie Bling Ring HD ring worked perfectly. There is nothing to report beyond that: no chain issues, no derails at any time. I rode the exact same route as in the Luna Eclipse test and had no problem at all. This was not the case with the Luna as a reading of my previous thread will show.
The Luna Eclipse needed a couple of AN washers as shims to clear the chainstay, the Lekkie bolted right on and both gave a nearly identical chainline. If anything the Luna had a slightly better chainline since it was about 1/16" closer to the chainstay than the Lekkie Bling Ring HD, both had adequate clearance.
Both chainwheels had the same 42t count and the only functional difference visible between the two products are the longer teeth on the Eclipse which are very much longer than those of the Bling Ring HD. I know this because I was able to hold a 42t Bling Ring for BBS02 up against the Luna Eclipse while at Luna and the difference was obvious. The Bling Ring HD uses identical teeth to the one Lekkie make for the BBS02 and those have been proven to be effective in the past when there are misalignment issues.
Finally, should anyone think that I am biased against or that I have it in for Luna Cycle, please be advised that I spent the two weeks before Christmas working at Luna as a temporary employee. I had done business with Eric recently and was very impressed with his business model and wanted to learn more, I also wanted to learn a bit more about the eBike business in general. When I read that he needed help with shipping and warehousing I offered my help. In exchange for $17.50/hr I would help Luna from 11am until the early evening and would have the opportunity to buy Luna Products at employee discount. At the end of the temp job, I wound up giving Luna $400 of my own cash in addition to all my earnings in exchange for a BBSHD, a Luna Shark battery pack and other bicycle parts. I also have an arrangement to have the Bafang BBSHD tested by a leading eBike magazine, something that can only benefit the worlds largest seller of BBSHD drives: Luna Cycle. While Eric was not happy about my post about my unvarnished experiences with his product, we parted amicably and I bear him and his company no ill will. Quite the contrary, I continue to purchase from him to this day.......
I have a number of photos of the new Lekkie Bling Ring HD on my phone and I will link or post them later today. I seem to have trouble getting my pictures to reliably appear in the body of my posts as opposed to just showing a clickable link, so I hope I can get them to appear this time.