[Stan]

Originally Posted by BarelyAWake

Thanks Stan, good to hear - I tend towards being a bit long-winded, but now I've an excuse right?

Or at least an audience!

You're dead on about your concerns regarding the S&H fees, the MP seems to be saddled with a disproportionately high shipping cost, around a hundred dollars if I remember correctly. I thought at first it might have been some mysterious Canadian export/US import fee as I was getting mine through GM Canada... but shocked at the S&H I hunted around more - only to find all the domestic retailers had similar S&H charges, or even yet more.

I can only surmise they may be deferring some of their import costs to the customer as supplementary S&H, to keep the "retail price" competitive, or that they don't actually have the MPs in stock and just drop ship them from China w/the additional costs associated with such... I dunno TBH, it could be there's some tax, levy or fee associated with it - but that seems unlikely as I've not heard of such w/any other electric motors... while it is heavy (about 20lbs), it still seems a bit much for S&H alone.

I went ahead and got mine from GM Canada anyway as even with the S&H the MP is still very price competitive, but mostly because the owner of GM Canada is very active on Golden Motor's support forum, unlike any other retailer I found for the MP: goldenmotor.com - Index ... ofc as it's a support forum you're probably aware it's comprised mostly of the difficulties encountered and may not accurately reflect the product's overall satisfaction rate... or it might lol *shrug* hard to tell.

PingBattery on the other hand is a straight forward case - I don't remember exactly what I paid for S&H other than it was a marginal amount, significantly less than the MP although the battery packs I ordered are close to the same weight (16.5lbs) and all the way from China, they also got here promptly - a business week as I recall. I ordered direct from Ping simply because I wished a custom pack built, the 48v 15ah split into dual, separate packs to facilitate the installation on my taddy project (limited space). You might wish to consider that yourself as it makes it far easier to mount/provides better weight and balance as you can keep 'em low in panniers or w/e. Ping only charged an additional $10 for that customization, even though it included additional wiring for the BMS (battery management system)... or you could order from the ebay storefront PingBattery store eBay and get "free" S&H.

While the Magic Pie has mixed reviews, some love it & some hate it - it's apparent Ping is almost adored by the ebike community. I do know I would never get the batteries offered as part of an ebike "kit" as they're so critical, perhaps even more so that which motor you choose - and you'll get a LOT more for your money w/packs purchased separately.

I hope this helped, I know I was a little vague with the numbers you wished - but my purchases were about a year ago so even if I remembered clearly they may no longer be accurate... sorry 'bout that

That was actually a big help...thanks! I've already been spending time over on the GM-Canada website and forum, and have seen all of Gary's MP3 vids. I need to do some more homework before plunking down money, but I think I'm going to do a bicycle rather than dive into the deep end with an electric car project. Thanks again!