So why am I building an ebike instead of buying one?
I checked around to see what options the OEM offers. Well looking around at options I found that there are many... expensive options... There seemed to be a large price gap. Currie enterprises offers a 24v 500W bike in the $600 range. After researching in to it I found many people say it's pretty slow and anemic. I checked one out in person which I found the SLA packs are pretty heavy which makes the bike bulky. I kept searching around and found some pretty nice bikes but they were $1500 on up to $3500! I decided I am going to build one instead.
My goals is a full suspension 26" bike with front and rear brakes capable of going 50+ miles on a charge and capable of ascending large hills... Pretty tall order. I found that I will need at least a 1000w kit.
Searching at several stores and reading reviews of several bikes I ended up choosing a NEXT Avalon as a base for my project. Here is a photo (mine is black). It was $127 after tax from Walmart
Next is to find some power. After reading a few reviews I decided to give a wuxing kit a shot. The kit was $328.20 after shipping from Amazon
Battery decision is pending... Bad experience with vendor... DO NOT BUY FROM VELO VERDE!
To mount it to the bike I'm going to use a voyager seat post rack $22.29 after tax and shipping from Amazon.
Well.... I hope this project goes smooth. I have a budget of $1,500... so far I am a little over $1,400 which leaves about $100 to buy flashy lights, helmet, bike lock, bags and other goodies.
