second hand speed pedelec: recommendations?

[meesterkweepeer]

Hello,

As my previous purchase fell through, I'm still looking for a speed pedelec. My criteria:
- cheap. second hand.
- safe
- capable of 70km one way in 0-5°C temperatures. Yes, I realise this will require about 2Kwh of battery if I want to optimise battery life.
- at least a semblance of being EU street legal, meaning speed pedelec chassis number and license plate
- ok with modifications that break EU street legality, as long as I can be reasonably certain insurance won't complain
- no drm, meaning no Bosch or other evil manufacturers
- maintainable and future proof
- as open hardware as possible
- software as free and open source as possible

That might mean I'm looking for:
- a second hand speed pedelec with EU certification and a Bafang M500 or M600 mid motor. If such a thing exists, because the only model I seem to be able to find is the Fantic Issimo, which is not what I want.
- alternatively, an existing speed pedelec with a broken rear hub motor with a fairly standard that will take a Bafang M500 or M600 mid motor. Perhaps certain older models with broken rear hub motors would work?
- a VESC based motor board like the Flipsky Mini FSESC6.7 running free/open source software
- an ESP32 based ebike controller board running free/open source software
- an ESP32 based display running free/open source software
This looks like it's the more common path taken by diy enthousiasts, so that's worth a lot to me. It's just not clear to me if any Bafang based mid-drive speed pedelecs were ever legally introduced to the EU market...

So an alternative might be:
- an older speed pedelec with Bafang rear hub motor and uart comms (quite a few cheap older EU blessed ones around)
- a spare Bafang motor with uart comms
- a lishui controller with open firmware

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Kind regards,

meesterkweepeer

 

[AGS]

How about a Super 73 with a huge battery conversion and keeping your speed reasonable so you don’t run out of range. Won’t be cheap to do the conversion but you will be very comfortable on your 70km trip. All of the conversion parts are available, so you wouldn’t have to fabricate anything.

An RX would be better because of the rear suspension but they are quite expensive and I haven‘t seen any used RXs for sale this side of the Atlantic.

 

[meesterkweepeer]

Not sure what exactly you mean. Looking at SUPER73 EUROPE , I do not see anything over 250W or 25km/h. The RX model is sold in the EU with the 1200W motor limited to 250W to stay in compliance. In other words, these are just bicycles as far as the law is concerned. Stupid as the law may be, unlocking one is not a risk I am willing to take.

 

[tom355]

Do it in the other direction. Check the market for used, street legal S-Pedelecs with documents. Pick one to modify because you need a monster battery what means you have to get a custom build. So don`t buy a brand with CAN.