Anyway, I was about to talk about the investigation I did. Once I had decided that the Powercor Pushies Whisper 905e frame was going to be too small for me I started looking elsewhere.
You see I have this perfectly good mountain bike that I got for a case of Coopers. It is a Shogun Prairie Breaker with a 24" top tube so is just the right size for me. They guy I got it off is 6'3" and the bike is in really good nick for a 5 year-old bike. Also the running gear had all been upgraded. I'm ashamed to say that I never ride it.
There are lots of cycling enthusiasts at work who reckon that I should just ride in, but I am a self-aware realist. I know I wont ride in if:
- I sleep in
- It's too hot
- It's too cold
- I put too much energy into playing volleyball last night
But my reasoning says I will if I have a little help. Onto my research:
I started out just googling e-bike purveyors in Australia and there are a surpirsing amount. Pretty soon I came across eLation. This looked pretty cool and had made it onto the ABC TV show, The New Inventors, so it had some credibility. I was impressed that they guy had designed the system himself and wasn't just importing a full bike. This was the first one I came across that was a chain drive system and not a hub motor. The marketing on the site was great and I was convinced that the weight it saved me (6kg for the motor and battery) was key. I tried to get onto eLation to purchase a kit and was told that Allan was processing back orders and was thinking that perhaps the order he was about to place on the manufacturer in China would sell out before he had even ordered it.
I'm going to assume this was the truth and it made me want it even more. If demand was that high, then surely it was a good kit. I told him I wanted to order one ASAP. In the end I am kind of glad that they didn't have anything, because I decided to ring around a few e-bike sellers to find out if they had any dealing with the eLation kits. What I found out was eye opening, but basically it turns out that they aren't as easy to install as the marketing blurb implies and that the power coming through the drive train has the potential to wear out components. So what did each one recommend? Back to the old hub motor and have a look at The Electric Bike Co, but @ $1,699 I was unimpressed with the price since the price of the Powercor Pushies Whisper 905e was only $1,600 for the whole bike kitted out with lights, disk brakes and tubeless tyres. The eLation kit was only $1,265 so the price point of the E Wheel Conversion kit was way to high.
More reasearch leads me to EV-Power Australia and the kit I have now ordered. Looking at the site and seeing the projects Rod has been involved in leads me to think that he really must know what he is doing, but the non-polished Golden Motor web site and lack of details gave me pause. One thing I noticed that was a plus was that I was pretty sure that the Powercor Pushies Whisper 905e had a GM as the power train. The look of the twist throttle, the power interlocks on the brake levers and the power assist mode on the Whisper that kicks in when you start peddaling all matched the features of the GM perfectly.
On to the Golden Motor Owner Forums, I trawled through just about evey thread looking for inherent issues and the only thing I was worried about was the 160 mm drop-out some people mentioned for the rear wheel kit. I double-checked with Rod from EV-Power Australia and he assured me that he specifically orders the kit from GM with a 135 mm drop-out as this is common to mountain bikes.
In fact, I have to say that dealing with Rod has made me feel really comfortable about my purchase. He was able to answer every question about the installation and operation of the kit and with the battery he supplies it is a truly integrated kit. No extra washers or power connecters should be required. That being said if I get away with a trouble-free installation I will be over the moon.
I'll take a picture of my bike tonight for posting comparison.
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