Sales of electric bikes have spun into high gear this year — some merchants like Amazon are reporting a 6000% increase this summer from last year. This is good news, because, for short trips, the efficiency and convenience of electric bikes is hard to beat.
Here are some statistics that still amaze me: 40% of all trips are made within two miles of the home, and 50% of workers commute five miles or less to work.
I recently heard about an inexpensive electric bike conversion kit that appears to be of good quality. It’s offered by a family-run company called AmpedBikes.
The founder, Danny L. Ray, was unhappy with the quality of the kits he was getting from China, so he visited China and found a company that were willing to build a kit to his specifications, using the parts he chose. The result is a $360 kit that he sells from his website. By comparison, other conversion kits such as the Crystalyte, the Wilderness and the Bionx cost between $500 and $1800.
The AmpedBikes kits incorporate a brushless 36V 500W electric hub, and can be installed on almost any bike with 26″ wheels. Ray says the kits can be installed in about 20 minutes, and he an installation video on his website to show how it’s done.
You will have to provide your own batteries — here’s a FAQ page with some suggestions for finding them (scroll to the bottom).
Read more! Related stories:
- Schwinn Electric Bikes Now Available
- Powerful Combination: Montague Folding Bike + Bionx Electric Conversion
- Turn Your Bike Into A Powerful Commuting Vehicle: StokeMonkey
- Electric Bikes For Commuters
- Plug-In Hybrid Conversion Packs: 2008
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
I like that you can fill in your own battery pack. That allows you to customize the capacity to your specific needs. I could see folks in hilly areas wanting more amp-hours than others.
There’s no reason you couldn’t build this into a 700C rim too, but you might have some issues w/ the width of the dropouts (assuming it’s 135 mm OLD) on older road bikes.
You know what’s more efficient than electric bicycles?
Bicycles.
They’re cheaper too
Electric bikes are actually more efficient than standard bicycles. See this book for more details:
http://tinyurl.com/679wpv
Electric bikes are especially useful for those with kids in tow, or elderly people.
Great commuters!
We have been using ampedbikes conversion for over a year now as commuters, I have 12 mile commute and my wife has a 6 mile commute. We ride them on the average of 4 days a week, we get to work sweat free and together we saved close to $6,000 last year on fuel prices.
We also have standard road and mountain bikes we ride on weekend for recreation and exercise, but during the week we commute for about $.01 per mile beat that!
Its fun, it gets us outside and gives us a different outlook on the day.
Jamey K.
good post Jamey,
I want to buy one. How much did you pay in the end for yours?
thanks
Hi Ras. I paid $80 for batteries locally for 3 12V 10AH batteries. So I have a total of about$440 into it. But to be honest at this point cost is not a factor.
My next thing is I am upgrading to one of the new lightweight batteries.
Im sold.. I just ordered one after reading excellent forum reviews. I had to get on a waiting list for the 15th of September.
I went out and bought a nice comfort bike for the conversion at Wallmart for $120
If you drove that on a British road, you would be classed as a criminal.
BionX is made in Canada.. comes with batteries too!
Also, it fits many different sizes of wheels, (in both black and silver), it fits your REAR wheel.. has Li-Mn batteries..
By far, worth every penny.. I have one on my hybrid, and I love it!
Rightfully so roger, in Britain there are lots of pedestrians the last thing they need is crazy people going around on electric bikes. Be environmentally friendly and walk, take the bus or subway. Save electric bikes for Americans. Don’t really even see what you would need them for.
BionX is a good system if you have the cash. On the other hand, if you use it every day, it will pay for itself. Find a local dealer to install for you, it will cost about the same and you get the warranty.
Jamey K. stated that he and his wife saved close to $6000 last year on fuel prices. Using his numbers for commuting, I came up with about 3744 miles between the two of them. If you figure their car gets about 20mpg (low guess?) and gas costs $5 a gallon (never got there) it would still only be $935 in fuel in a year. Now add in all the other costs of car ownership and they could have easily saved that $6K… if the cars went away. Insurance, registration, repairs etc… but fuel costs? Come on your giving electric assist a bad name with bogus claims on the savings.
I’m interested in converting a recumbent to electric assist for commuting, I already rode over 4600 miles this year without any assist, but want more speed and not to sweat up during my commute going to work. But I’d like a system that drives through the chain so I can use my gearing with the electric. If anyone has some good suggestions… email me.
Thanks
I’m also looking for an electric kit for a recumbent with a 16in wheel. Have you found anything? I’ve found a Cystalyte 36V kit, but I do not know if it actually would work.
I was shocked at how much the kit cost but then I found out that it doesn’t come with the battery. My dad just started up an electric bike store called EZ Green Bikes and we’re selling them for $850 with lithium ion batteries.
All I have to say about electric bikes are that they are great and for those complaining about how people should just ride regular bicycles…it’s difficult for someone that has a zero to low activity lifestyle to hop onto a bike and commute to work or school. Don’t discourage people from electric bikes…it still requires some physical activity and it’s better than using a car which equals better health and a better environment. As for the cost I guess all I can say is…gas prices can’t stay low forever.
i dont mean to cancle the warrenty on perpus but livining next to a moter sports machean shop plan on takeing it astep ferter i have a w.w.2 serplus dynamoter 6 v step up to 300 unreguated volts @ so so amps i might try it ive teted it idealy might work its like a moter w bult in genorator thay r still
around mostly in railroad eqwipment nowa days but if you bump into a w.w.2 tube mureen radio and know your stuff i hope any body can look up dc dynamoter on google today they come in 12v to who knows !a 16 ”
moped or dirtbike tire will fit a 20″bicycle rim i garontee ..the brushless hub i guss
migt need a more beefy and fool proof design on a moped frame an im wondering if ishuld power front and back too you can fit alot more power on
a resonably small cycle fram sligtly heavyer duty than a peddle bike
hi
can i hav this e bike kit available in india
looking for bike electric about 500 watt
how much for 500 watt or 800 watt and 1000 watt
?
I am an american so for you guys in the UK who think its a way to be eco friendly to walk. think of a coworker who walks to work and shows up hot, red faced and sweaty so he can save on gas. by hour one he’ll stink. i walk four miles to work ever day. i tell you id rather dole out the 400$ so i show up smelling fresh and not with sweat stains and blisters. that and it would cut my commute from an hour and a half to about twenty minutes. ive been the guy no ones wants to be with in ten feet of. its not fun, by the way i have a Aluminum PK7 21 speed and i use it but sweat is for the dogs
My commute is 7 miles each way. No way that I can walk that in a reasonable amount of time. A bicycle is the solution. An electric bike is even safer b/c instead of a 3 mph hill climb I can do a 10+ mph hill climb. Perhaps even 15 mph hill climb. I would not worry about my relative speeds but I must mix with cars…
My husband and I both bought conversion kits from http://www.e-bikekit.com and we absolutely love them. We got the E-BikeKit Complete Conversion Systems with the -BikeKit 36v 10ah LiFePo4 battery option. We have commuting on electric bikes in one form or another for 10 years:) By far this is the best conversion kit we have used. They sell 500w motors that are strong and durable. The top speed is 20MPH and the range with the LiFePo4 is about 26 miles with the way we ride (we pedal along most of the time). The people at E-BikeKit are extremely helpful too.
So these guys are doing it right and making a very appealing product for the conversion crowd. I just wanted to come on and recommend them myself. If you want a great electric bike conversion kit at a fair price from good people, buy from E-BikeKit.com.
electric bikes are legal in the uk ..i ride one and they’re sold here ..i’ve had 2 heart attacks and i think it;s great
What I don’t get is why you can’t figure out the specs of electric bike motors. I have a cheap Currie bike that would be fine for flat terrain, but I need something that will climb steep hills for several miles. I was talking with a local electronics shop to see if they had recommendations and they said no, they don’t even work on them because of the quality of the motors. Which leaves me wondering, why can’t you find out if these kits are any good? I don’t want to buy a motor that’s only going to last 2 years. There are so many kits, motors, and electric bikes out there but I’ve yet to see a comprehensive rating system. It’s just a wild frontier of start ups as far as I can see. Any suggestions on where to get good information?
And to save comments from the “purists”; yes, I understand I can ride a bike without a motor. But, I use my electric bike for commuting to and from work and don’t want to be covered in sweat. Hence the electric bike. As a bicyclist, car drivers, walker and electric bike rider I get the pecking order: cars drivers don’t like bicyclists of any kind, bicyclists don’t like people using electric bikes, and walkers don’t particularly care for any of them.
kevin,
Call E-BikeKit.com at 1.866.882.EBIK (3245). Their complete system is great for tackling hills. My husband is 225 pounds and goes up hills in the highest gear on his commuter bike. And they offer a 2 year warranty on the motors.
Also check out independent forum sites like http://endless-sphere.com/forums/index.php to get reviews on electric bikes. That’s how I found e-bikekit. The people at Endless-Sphere really know e-bikes and e-bike batteries.
We saw rode and bought 3 ampedbikes kits yesterday. They were at the car show, very helpful, knowledgeable and we are all up and running today. We saved about $4,000 as we were going to buy schwinn electric bikes.
The ampedbikes have more power, no noise, easy to install and a blast to ride.
Danny Ray was very knowledgeable and helpful throughout the whole process.
Thanks Danny!!!
Sharon,
Can you tell us what you paid? We are looking at the E-BikeKit conversion system from http://www.e-bikekit.com and trying to decide between this and amped kit. The amped website is not that good but the e-bikekit site is pretty impressive. Does anyone know what the differences are between the two kits?
The E-BikeKit kit seems to offer a lot more out of the box and also a nice LiFePO4 battery. What kind of batteries are you using with your kits?
Would love to see pictures if you can post them:)
Best of luck to you. If you’re new to the electric bike you have a lot to look forward to. These things are so much fun!