CatrikeMan
10 µW
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2018
- Messages
- 6
I’ve owned a Catrike Trail for 4 years here in Arizona and love it. I used it almost every day pedaling 8-12 miles for exercise/weight management. Due to a “minor” knee operation gone badly, I wound up walking with a cane. After four months I was able to get back on the Catrike but could only trike on level roads close to home. BORING!
I decided to electrify my trike and did the Google thing for researching various vendors. I could have put a system together myself (I’m an Electronics Design Engineer) but I wanted something NOW.
I selected one major eMotor vendor and after watching several videos, checking out their WEB site, and talking with the President of the company I placed an order. I was told that the system should arrive in 3 weeks. Enough of the components arrived in 2 weeks to allow me to set up the system. Some of the optional equipment was backordered and would arrive in another week. So far so good.
The system was easy to set up, unfortunately when I turned ON the battery, nothing worked, NADA. It was DOA. The system was returned to the vendor and they verified that the system was programmed incorrectly by the factory. The president apologized and offered to send me a new system with a 20% discount. I declined since I didn’t like the quality of some of the components and the fact that they shipped a system that clearly was not tested. I will not mention the name of the vendor since they did reverse the credit card charges in a timely manner and took care of all shipping.
Back to square one.
After more research, I was about to buy a top of the line system from Grin Technologies. I was very impressed with the owner Justin after watching some of their videos. In fact I purchased one of their Satiator battery chargers for the eBike system I finally ended up with.
I decided not to go with Grin because of their less than stellar technical support. It was like pulling teeth to get a timely answer. (I’ve read similar complaints on other forums). I gave up on them when I couldn’t get an answer to a question about tire sizes and after a week they told me that they had to ship all the 20” rims back because of quality problems. If I wanted to use a 20” tire they would ship me a motor with spokes and I could buy a rim and build the wheel myself!
Back to square one.
I read some favorable comments on a couple forums about “ElectricBikeSolutionsLLC”, I checked out their WEB site and called the owner Doug. After a telephone call, and several emails with questions that were answered promptly, I ordered a system that day!
The system arrived a few days later and was a breeze to put together. With the Catrike on a lift, I turned on the power and it worked purrfectly. I then took it for a test ride and I was in heaven. I had explained to Doug that I wasn’t looking to break any speed records (or laws) and was more interested in taming the hills. Between my 20” rear tire and the geared motor all the hills have disappeared! I am now triking 1.5Hrs/day, averaging 12 miles/hr., (I can push it to 20 MPH, but I’m not in a hurry), 50mile distance capability and losing weight at a good clip (I lost 40 lbs. last year and want to lose another 40 to get to my ideal weight). A side benefit is that since I’ve been riding with Doug’s system my leg muscles have gotten stronger and I no longer need the cane.
I sent Doug some photos of my setup along with a write up and he put it up as the conversion of the month for July! It can be seen here. https://gocarlite.com/electric-catrike-trail-prescott-az/
Very happy dealing with Doug!
Walt
I decided to electrify my trike and did the Google thing for researching various vendors. I could have put a system together myself (I’m an Electronics Design Engineer) but I wanted something NOW.
I selected one major eMotor vendor and after watching several videos, checking out their WEB site, and talking with the President of the company I placed an order. I was told that the system should arrive in 3 weeks. Enough of the components arrived in 2 weeks to allow me to set up the system. Some of the optional equipment was backordered and would arrive in another week. So far so good.
The system was easy to set up, unfortunately when I turned ON the battery, nothing worked, NADA. It was DOA. The system was returned to the vendor and they verified that the system was programmed incorrectly by the factory. The president apologized and offered to send me a new system with a 20% discount. I declined since I didn’t like the quality of some of the components and the fact that they shipped a system that clearly was not tested. I will not mention the name of the vendor since they did reverse the credit card charges in a timely manner and took care of all shipping.
Back to square one.
After more research, I was about to buy a top of the line system from Grin Technologies. I was very impressed with the owner Justin after watching some of their videos. In fact I purchased one of their Satiator battery chargers for the eBike system I finally ended up with.
I decided not to go with Grin because of their less than stellar technical support. It was like pulling teeth to get a timely answer. (I’ve read similar complaints on other forums). I gave up on them when I couldn’t get an answer to a question about tire sizes and after a week they told me that they had to ship all the 20” rims back because of quality problems. If I wanted to use a 20” tire they would ship me a motor with spokes and I could buy a rim and build the wheel myself!
Back to square one.
I read some favorable comments on a couple forums about “ElectricBikeSolutionsLLC”, I checked out their WEB site and called the owner Doug. After a telephone call, and several emails with questions that were answered promptly, I ordered a system that day!
The system arrived a few days later and was a breeze to put together. With the Catrike on a lift, I turned on the power and it worked purrfectly. I then took it for a test ride and I was in heaven. I had explained to Doug that I wasn’t looking to break any speed records (or laws) and was more interested in taming the hills. Between my 20” rear tire and the geared motor all the hills have disappeared! I am now triking 1.5Hrs/day, averaging 12 miles/hr., (I can push it to 20 MPH, but I’m not in a hurry), 50mile distance capability and losing weight at a good clip (I lost 40 lbs. last year and want to lose another 40 to get to my ideal weight). A side benefit is that since I’ve been riding with Doug’s system my leg muscles have gotten stronger and I no longer need the cane.
I sent Doug some photos of my setup along with a write up and he put it up as the conversion of the month for July! It can be seen here. https://gocarlite.com/electric-catrike-trail-prescott-az/
Very happy dealing with Doug!
Walt
for my comments. In a way I was hoping he would read this and realize that in my case he lost a $2500 order since I couldn't get any good answers from support. BTW if the support guy did a little more research I could have used their system without changing my drive train. I was able to install my tire easily on the Doug's rim (Doug assured me of that) with no problems and he also went over board and sent me two PAS sensors at no additional charge to make sure that one of them worked with my crank set.
