Mid-Drive BEST ebike motor technology

BEST E-BIKE KIT 2018
is NOW in STOCK

BORN FROM THE BEST COMPONENTS, MATERIALS AND EXPERTISE

BEST e-bike kit is composed by two main parts: our drive unit ( aka motor ) and the battery. It comes with all the additional items you'll need to convert your bike, such as two crankarms, torque arm for fixing the Drive Unit to the bike, throttle, battery holder, battery charger, controller.

WHAT'S INCLUDED IN THE KIT
Each complete kit includes:

BEST mid drive Motor, including the chainrings,
High Efficiency Controller,
Premium Quality Li-Ion Battery, 48V, with smart BMS
e-bike smartbox for phone Bluetooth connectivity,
Battery charger for 110 - 220V
Motor mounting bracket,
Two crankarms,
Two brake cutoffs,
Throttle,
Wheel speed sensor,
Mounting instruction,
Operation Manual

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Why settle for less power? BEST comes in four Power versions.

250W for Europe
500W for Switzerland and Canada, or EU S-Pedelec
749W for US (some States only) legal version
999W for US (some States only) legal version.

Just because people mostly buy 250W ebikes that doesn't mean you have to

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Tame the beast with one finger
Three driving modes readily available on all the systems: Pedal Assist, Throttle and Throttle override. You can choose how to use your ebike day by day, not only at the purchase. Pedal assist or throttle are more comfortable when commuting, because enables you to have a smooth ride without worrying about pedalling. By the Throttle override toggle you can use your throttle in any riding mode you are. You have now full power of choice.
On our mobile app you can tweak the motor and other parametres as you please. The motor can be electonically adjusted to the response that most fits your needs. We didn’t build a perfect motor , but a motor that can be adjusted perfectly to anyone’s needs. We know that out there there are people that love a smooth ride while others loves power wheelies. You decide how you want Bikee Bike motor to respond.
The app is available for both iOS ( Apple products ) and Android.
Free Download for Android
Free Download for iOS

PRE-ORDER THE
BEST E-BIKE KIT

Only

kits available in the March batch

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Stay Powerful, Stay Legal
Bikee Bike systems are made to comply to most ebike laws of different countries. But why being limited by other countries' law? You can choose the version that better fits to your law. About this consider that not only the power matters: e-bike should have safety features and comply to speed limits and comply to restrictions about the operation mode. For instance in Europe the motor must stop working if brakes are applied. Motors without this feature are illegal. At the same time, US law states ( HR 727 ) that the motor must be less than 750W, so all the 750W motors are not legal, as a 2000W one.

Battery dimensions are the same across all power versions.

BEST ebike kit installation tutorial
BEST ebike kit is designed to be installed on your bike, quickly. See the installation video below. If you are a DIY lover, you'll enjoy that.

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Ever tried driving around with your car in fifth gear?
I hope you did not, because that wouldn't be a good idea: you'd probably waste a lot of gasoline in acceleration and your engine would not be happy at all! But that's what happens constantly with most of the existing electric bikes in commerce.

In fact, all the e-bikes that have a "hub-motor" ( or "hub wheel", which is basically the electric motor inside the rear or front wheel ) are operating at one fix gear, which is usually high so that the e-bike can achieve its top speed. In these conditions the motors needs to generate a very high torque during acceleration or going uphill and that has a negative effect on all the e-bike components ( such as battery, controller, motor), reducing the e-bike autonomy.

This problem can be solved by means of Mid-Drive motors ( or "crank motors"): by placing the e-bike motor between the pedals you'll have the opportunity to operate the bike's shift, just as on a normal bicycle, so to adjust the transmission to fit the road slope, the load you are carrying and the speed you want. The electric motor will operate always in the best conditions to ensure higher efficiency and up to twice the autonomy comparing to when that's installed as an hub-motor!

Since the Lithium batteries are one of the most expensive components on e-bikes, that means your are getting outstanding value from your money. And your e-bike motor will be grateful.

Mid drives are the holy grail power-providers for electric bikes. Mid drives are the cream of the crop once you are out riding, especially off road, especially climbing hills or even mountains.

When compared to a hub motor, a mid drive is an elegant solution. This is because mid drives allow you to use the bike’s transmission as the motor’s gears, so the electric motor can run in its optimum RPM range. This translates to a happier more efficient motor and a lighter better balanced e-bike. Why a lighter bike? When going through the gears, you dont need as heavy a motor to propel you up hills without smoking, and you dont need as much battery because a mid drive is considerably more efficient than a hub motor especially when climbing.

If a manufacturer is looking to do a quick and cheap solution they will go with a hub motor E-bike. There are plenty of manufacturers throwing together hub motor powered ebikes which can be made cheaply in China, and sold cheaply to the consumer.

Bikee Bike conversion kit for e-bikes, thanks to their Mid-Drive Technology, can generate an incredible amount of torque. And torque gives you acceleration boost, climbability, and the opportunity to make jumps, wheelie and other tricks if you want to.

Bikee Bike Mid-Drive motors are based on a patent pending technology, and its core innovation makes them the highest torque mid-drive motor in commerce for e-bikes. Enjoy.

BIKEE BIKE AWARDED BY FORD
AS BEST AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY AT EXTREME TECH CHALLENGE

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Common ebike terminology: electric motor guide.

Amps, volts, watts, and ohms are the main units of measure used in measuring electricity. These concepts may seem hard, but there's an analogy with hydraulics which will help you to easily grab these appearently hard concepts, as we all are very familiar with water.

V is for Voltage
Think about electricity as water. You can have a tank filled with water of different dimensions: that tank is the battery. The bigger the tank (battery) is the longer it will take to fill it (that's the charging time) but it will last longer ( autonomy) . Now you can put that tank at different heights, if you attach a pipe to its bottom and put the tank on the floor you will see the water flowing out the tank, but without much pressure. On the other side, if you put the tank on your roof, and open the pipe, you will see the water coming out with more pressure. The height at which you put the tank is the equivalent of the Voltage, while the water flow is the equivalent of the current. This flow is affected by the pipe's diameter, as the current increase with the wire diameter.
The Voltage is measured in Volts (V), while the current in Amperès (A). By putting the tank in a higher position (higher Voltage) you get more power, and the same thing is true when you use a bigger hose (higher current). The power, in fact, is Voltage times Current ( Power = V x A ) and is measured in Watts (W).
A standard human can have a power output from 100W up to 300W continuous.

Amperes (A) = The unit of measure of current flow.

Amp Hour (Ah) = One ampere-hour is equal to a current of one ampere flowing for one hour. For our use we are concerned with the ampere-hour capacity of our battery. That’s the number of ampere-hours which can be delivered by the battery on a single discharge. The higher the number the longer the run time, the bigger the battery & the more expensive it will be. 8, 10, 12, 15 & 20ah will be the most common

Volts (V)= A measurement of the electric potential. The higher voltage the more power on tap & the more batteries you’ll need to carry.

Watts (W) = A derived unit of power or a measurement of power . I.e. 750 Watts = one horsepower. Hub motors will typically be advertised as 250watts to 1000 watts. To find the actual wattage your motor will be running at use the following formula. Volts x amperes = watts. Almost all of the motors being used in today’s e-bike kits are designed to work across a range of both volts & amps. Hence watts can be subjective number.

What's the real power of an e-bike motor, or better, e-bike system?
All the information you read on the ebike whitepapers usually randomly refers (if not otherwise specified) to one of the below power definitions:

Input Power (Pin)
Output Power (Pout)
Nominal Power (Pnom)
Continuous Power (P)
Peak Power (Ppeak)

There's a huge difference between the above power definition, and often manufacturers are reluctant to specify to which power definition they are referring to, in order for their motor to look more powerful. Let's go through that.

Input Power : that's the power which "enters" into the motor, thus how much we "consume". This measure can give us a hint about the power ballpark, but let us know very little about what's going on inside the motor. In fact, the difference ( or better, the ratio) between Input Power and Output Power is the efficiency, and this factor can be extremely different from motor to motor. Your washing machine, being an electric machine, has an input power, but it won't take you anywhere if you'd ride it, because the input power is converted to wash your clothes. That's an extreme comparison, but it's useful to remind that input power tells us very little about how fast our electric bike can go.
Output Power: That's what we really care about. It's the power that comes out from our motor that we can use to go fast, carry loads, go uphill. This power, as for a car, is not constant through time, it depends on how much we push on the accelerator, on the road conditions and on the motor's RPM.
Nominal Power: This value is a characteristic of the electric motor, so it's constant. It represent the power for which the motor has been designed. Nominal Power definition has to be related to the duty cycle to make sense. In order to understand that, let's do an analogy with ourselves: imagine the maximum weight you can lift with your arms for 10 repetitions in 1 minute (let's say 10Kg or 20lbs) . Let's say that effort requires 50W. Probably you'll have to rest after that, let's say for 20 minutes in order for your strength to come back. So your Nominal Power is 50W for a duty cycle of 1 minute ON/ 20 minutes OFF. If you were to make just one repetition in 12 seconds, you'll probably lift more. So your nominal power with a duty cycle of 12-sec ON/ 20-minutes OFF will be much higher than the 1-min-ON/ 20-min-OFF. What if you'd have to lift the same weight for 8 hours straight? You'd probably need a much lighter weight. So you CONTINUOUS Nominal Power is much lower than your Nominal Power with a 1-ON/20-OFF duty cycle.
Peak Power: Remember the single repetition of the example above? That's the Peak Power : the maximum amount of power your motor can extert for an extremely limited amount of time. A lot of manufacturers gives only this indication of Power, without specifying it's a Peak Power.

Watt hours (Wh) = Do not confuse this with Watts! Watt-hours represent the energy capacity of a battery pack. To calculate multiply the voltage fo the battery by the amp hours (Ah) of the battery pack. I.e. A 36-volt 10-Ah battery pack has 360 watt hours. This gives you an idea of how much time it will take to discharge the battery at a given output power. For instance the 360Wh battery can power a 360W motor at its nominal power (360W) for one hour. Easy, isn't it? If the same e-bike motor is operated at a lower power ( for instance 180W because you're going on a flat terrain at moderate speed) the same battery will last for 2 hours ( 360 Wh / 180W = 2 hrs) .

RPM = Revolutions per minute. The RPM’s given for a specific hub motor will be the maximum no load operating RPM. Higher RPM translate into more speed and less torque. Lower RPM is less speed and more torque. Conversely a small diameter rim will require a higher RPM motor to achieve the same travel speed as a larger diameter wheel.

HP= Horsepower. 1 Hp = between 735.5 to 750 Watts. In most of the US States, the legal power limit for e-bikes is 750W, aka 1 horsepower. In Europe that limit is 250W, which is exactly 1/3! That's a huge difference as shown in the below picture. Why most of US bikes still have a 250W motor? Because US is still a relatively small market for big motor manufacturers. We decided to take care of this market.

MOTOR (electric) = an electromechanical device that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. It’s the part of your e-bike that, along with you does all the work.

Hub Motor Geared= Smaller, lighter & with more torque it also free wheels. The down side is they are often more expensive, more complicated & slower. They cannot be used for regenerative braking.
Hub Motor Direct Drive= Simple, inexpensive, faster, well tested & reliable. They can weigh twice as much & have less torque than a geared motor. If mountain biking is your thing consider a geared hub or mid-mount chain drive. If you want regenerative braking then a direct drive hub motor is your only option.
Brushless or brushed= Brushless motors account for about 90% of today’s e-bike kits making the brushless or brushed question somewhat academic.

Mid Drive Motor= Mid Drives are the future of e-bikes. They allow you to use the bike shift to always be in the right gear, whether you want to go fast or go on the top of a mountain. This gives you high efficiency, which means your battery will last longer, so more juice for your money. Mid drives can be geared or direct drive. Most of them are geared because the bottom bracket neighbourhood is not large enough to fit a large motor to provide enough torque without reductions. Mid drive are a more sophisticated evolution of the hub motor, and all major e-bike motor manufacturers are heading into this direction. Our BEST mid-drive motor has an unprecented torque density: 25Nm per Kg of motor weight. That allows us to pack 750W in one third of the volume of a standard 250W motor. We took advantage of that to give everybody the power to create their own e-bike by retrofitting their existing bicycle.

Chain Drive= A transmission system in which power is transferred to the wheels by means of a chain. Usually found in e-bike applications where the motor mounts in the middle of the frame. Usually in the area of the pedals.

Friction-Drive= (FD) A very simple and inexpensive drive system which pushes an electrically powered roller against the front or rear tire.

Regenerative braking= An energy recovery mechanism which slows the bike down by converting its kinetic energy into either a braking action or by creating electrical energy to put back into the batteries. Although this can save wear and tear on the brakes it is probably not cost effective as far as increasing your range. Often referred to as ReGen. Your money would be better spent on a bigger battery pack. Regen braking is not relevant for electric bicycles compared to electric cars.

Motor efficiency= Most ebike kits advertise this figure at 80 to 85%. It basically means that the given motor can convert up to 80 or 85% of the available energy into forward motion. This figure is dependent on many things and can be measured in different ways. The overall efficiency of the ebike is dependent on many things among them; the batteries, controller, wiring and wire connectors. So don’t hang your hat on this number. Be careful about this number: manufacturers usually give you the peak value they can achieve. Efficiency is something which needs to be measured in a large range of RPM, and it usually gets worse at low speed and high load (torque). That's why even though the hub motors might show a decent efficiency value at nominal conditions (rpm and torque), in real life they are poorly efficient. In fact, every time you accelerate you are in the worst conditions for efficiency: low speed ( starting from zero) and very high requested torque.
Our BEST e-bike kit is efficient because you can have a low gear when you start or in a urban track, plus an additional built-in gearbox makes the motor run faster and at a lower requested torque sooner, so to get out the low efficiency zone at the soonest.

BLDC motor= Brushless DC motor using an electronic motor controller.

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ELECTRIC BIKE COMPONENTS

MOTOR CONTROLLER (The Brains)

DC motor controller = an electronic device that reads the throttle setting of your e-bike and adjust the current being supplied to the motor. Other functions usually include a low-voltage cutoff, a high temperature shut-off, over-current shut-off. Some controllers will also have a brake cutoff to shut down the motor when the brake is applied. Some may also have a regenerative braking option. This will often be indicated with regen being listed somewhere in specifications. Most of today’s controllers will work with hall sensor motors and the newer sensor-less motors. Most DC motor controllers are designed to operate across a range of motor and battery sizes. This gives the kit builder a fair amount of flexibility in selecting a cost effective controller for their kit. However when you combine this flexibility with the rather broad operating range of today’s hub motors you can see how easy it would be to “play with the numbers”

PMD = Power Management Display = an electronic dashboard for you e-bike measuring things like amps, watts, voltage, temperature etc.

TORQUE ARM:
This element contrasts the torque generated by the motor to prevent it turning onto the bike frame. These can be anything from a flat washer with a bendable tab to a true “torque arm” consisting 3 or 4 parts.

THROTTLE/BRAKES (Stop & go)
There’s not much to say here. You will usually have an option for a thumb throttle or a twist throttle such as you find on a motorcycle. A twist throttle gives you better control thereby increasing your run time. Most of today’s kits will accommodate the newer disc brake as well as the older V pull or center pull brakes. MAKE SURE YOUR BRAKES FIT YOUR EBIKE KIT. Most ebike kits will ship with brake levers to shut of power when the brakes are applied whether you want them or not. If you go with a “regen” option you will need an upgraded brake lever with a switch.

WIRE HARNESS (The plumbing)
All ebike kits will come with one. Many of the cheap kits will come with wire plugs and connectors in a plastic bag for you to install. These same kits often come with no instructions making the installation of these wire ends a very big challenge. One very nice feature that EBikeKit.com uses is a quick disconnect for the wiring that goes to the hub motor. I used to retro-fit my front hub motors with this option. It allows you to quickly unplug your front wheel to change a flat, put it on a roof top rack that requires removal of the front wheel or just to put your stock wheel & tire back on. Most e-bike kits will also have a quick disconnect for the battery pack. Between those two you can quickly take it apart to put into the back of your SUV, make it as light as original for lifting onto the bike rack or just to put it back to its original condition.

BATTERY (The fuel tank)

Lead-acid battery = the type of battery in your car. This 100 yr. old technology is very toxic, very heavy & has a short life span. They are also very inexpensive and can be found just about anywhere. Go here for detailed information.
SLA = Sealed lead acid battery. See above
PbA = Lead acid battery. See above
Li battery = Lithium battery. Go here for detailed information.
Li-Ion = Lithium Ion battery. See above or read about ALLCELL’s new PCM Technology or EBikeKit.com for where to get them.
LiFePO4 = Lithium iron phosphate battery cells offering high power and energy density, excellent safety and life cycling. LiFePO4 is the safest and the most enviro-friendly chemistry make-up of lithium-ion batteries. Read “Electric Bike Lithium Battery Primer” for some very useful information on building LiFePO4 battery packs or here for detailed information on all lithium based batteries. See My Choice for Batteries for information on EZgo-Now’s new battery packs.
NiH = Nickel hydrogen battery. Go here for detailed information.
NiCd = Nickel cadmium battery. See above
NiMH = Nickel metal hydride battery. See above
BMS = A Battery Management System is required for the safe operation of any multi cell lithium battery pack. All BMS’s are not created equal. They affect both safety and performance so pay attention to what you’re getting.
PCM = A Protection Circuit Module that is part of a BMS.

BATTERY CHARGER (The gas pump)

Battery chargers are specific to both voltage and battery type. Many e-bike kits will include a charger for SLA batteries even though the kit does not include any batteries at all. TIP! PURCHASE YOUR CHARGER FROM YOUR BATTERY DEALER.

FREIGHT (you can’t get it from there to here without paying for this)
Freight can be a significant cost of your overall ebike kit. Many of these kits and battery packs are coming from China. In addition to these regular freight charges you have additional charges for shipping batteries as they are classified as a hazardous material. (You probably wouldn’t want 50 lbs of poorly packaged lithium batteries sitting in the cargo hold of a plane you’re riding in).

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