Build, Buy Chinese or something else?

[Blindsay]

Hey all,

Moving soon and me and the fiancée plan to split using her car but I wanted something I could use to get around town if she was already using her car. I have my old Trek Fuel ex7 that I am trying to get back into shape with but I was thinking an ebike for a bit longer trips and a small trailer (for like groceries).

This will just be for getting around town so all paved roads or hard pack dirt road (so hardtail is fine). I do weigh about 265lbs and I figure if i attach a trailer thats ~40lbs and then the weight of the bike so I do need something that can handle the weight. I looked at some of trek's offerings (since thats all ive owned in the past) but I notice a lot of them only say 300lbs total or less (and they have pretty small motors/battery packs).

I am trying to stay $3k or less which i realize is not a huge budget for this type of bike. I see some commercial options can easily be 3x that. So I am thinking it will be between building one or buying one of the random Chinese ones (I thought this one just looked cool or ). I imagine there is some variance in quality among the different Chinese brands too?

I am pretty comfortable working with electronics and have a friend who could help me make a battery pack/bms setup if needed but i have not done too much on the mechanical side of building a bike.

Something like this - would be within reason of my max spend so id consider that as well

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Neeko DeVinchi]

Have you thought about the NCM Moscow+ 29?

Its a good hardtail emtb (hub motored). With provisions to attach trailers and racks.

You could build an ebike of course. Honestly, it's not as difficult as some suggest.

As for the maximum payload of the ebike, dont get to wrapped up with the semantics of rider weight. Unless you're doing 6foot huck to flats regularly

Best advice I can give, @Blindsay, Try and buy a platform which is fairly future proof. I.e. if a particular component brakes/requires servicing (regardless of warranty), that the part 'can be' sourced without issue

 

[Blindsay]

Have you thought about the NCM Moscow+ 29?

Its a good hardtail emtb (hub motored). With provisions to attach trailers and racks.

You could build an ebike of course. Honestly, it's not as difficult as some suggest.

As for the maximum payload of the ebike, dont get to wrapped up with the semantics of rider weight. Unless you're doing 6foot huck to flats regularly

Best advice I can give, @Blindsay, Try and buy a platform which is fairly future proof. I.e. if a particular component brakes/requires servicing (regardless of warranty), that the part 'can be' sourced without issue

Thanks for the reply. Yeah after thinking about that X20 I linked looks neat but I'm sure uses a lot of non standard parts that would be tough to replace. The himiway and its big battery looks neat and that NCM you suggested seems pretty good for the money as well.

I think my bigger concern with weight is how much my weight/if i do a trailer will effect the quoted distance. IE if they say 60 mile range, is that with a 100lb rider and then me being 265lbs how much that will lower that.

This definitely will not be doing any 6FT drops haha (I still plan to use my Trek for off roading). Eventually ill build a crazy fun offroad ebike but for now i need something with a good range and beefy enough to haul me and a trailer



Edit: The moscow+ Looks interesting. Slightly bigger battery, hydraulic disc brakes and a better front fork - .

I like that it is a lot lighter than the himiway. I am guessing it should be a good bit easier to pedal if i ran out of power



edit2: Welp decided to give it a shot lol

Got it from amazon so i can go through them if there is any issues

 

[Blindsay]

Well my moscow plus arrived and not off to a good start unfortunately

Front fork is completely destroyed out of the box. Waiting to hear back from the seller on what they are willing to do (shipping the whole bike back would suck). If they do a partial credit I might just get a better fork. Is there a good fork I could get in the $500 range?

 

[Blindsay]

if a fork cant survive the postage on a complete bike then thats says it all about the rest of it id just send it back for a refund if it was me.

The front fork was a SR Suntour XCM. I am not familiar with this brand (I pretty much only know Fox and Rockshox).

 

[Neeko DeVinchi]

Well my moscow plus arrived and not off to a good start unfortunately

View attachment 96587

Front fork is completely destroyed out of the box. Waiting to hear back from the seller on what they are willing to do (shipping the whole bike back would suck). If they do a partial credit I might just get a better fork. Is there a good fork I could get in the $500 range?

I'm sorry to hear that the fork arrived damaged dude. Truth be told, that's not been my experience when I brought my NCM Moscow 5 years ago.

To answer your question, The Rockshox 35 Gold RL 120mm fork would be within your budget. Anything higher spec would be 'counterproductive'.

I don't have a picture of mine to hand. However, my Moscow is my only hub motor ebike I still own. And even after lending it to family members during the pandemic / bike boom & lack of availability (which resulted in 500miles+ on the odometer), the bike still runs and the hub motor (das-kit) remains pretty strong only requiring the bare maintenance essentials.

Best advice (unless you can see any other damages on the frame, battery, charger, rear wheel/hub motor), battery mounts, display, crank spindle etc, get them to send you a new fork instead of shipping the bike back.

Good luck dude

 

[Blindsay]

I'm sorry to hear that the fork arrived damaged dude. Truth be told, that's not been my experience when I brought my NCM Moscow 5 years ago.

To answer your question, The Rockshox 35 Gold RL 120mm fork would be within your budget. Anything higher spec would be 'counterproductive'.

I don't have a picture of mine to hand. However, my Moscow is my only hub motor ebike I still own. And even after lending it to family members during the pandemic / bike boom & lack of availability (which resulted in 500miles+ on the odometer), the bike still runs and the hub motor (das-kit) remains pretty strong only requiring the bare maintenance essentials.

Best advice (unless you can see any other damages on the frame, battery, charger, rear wheel/hub motor), battery mounts, display, crank spindle etc, get them to send you a new fork instead of shipping the bike back.

Good luck dude

So the seller responded they are sending me a replacement fork and even offered to reimburse me if I needed a shop to install it.

Once they said they would do that I finally finished unboxing it (I stopped when I saw the fork damage) and the rest of it looks good. Powered it up and the rear wheel and electronics function as expected

 

[Blindsay]

So fast forward a week and the seller has yet to actually ship a new fork. Getting pretty frustrated at this point. I feel like anything from Trek (which i can get local) would easily be 2x the price of the moscow+

Trying to see if the seller will just do a partial refund and i go buy a better fork and have my local shop install it.

Really not looking forward to if i have to ship this thing back

 

[Blindsay]

Leons cycle continue to be terrible. Originally told me the new fork would ship last week, then told me this week. Everytime I contact them there is some reason to push back the date for shipping it

 

[Blindsay]

Well I finally just dropped the bike off at my local shop to get a replacement fork on it.

They are installing a Rockshox Recon Silver RL. Also going to just go over the bike and make sure it looks good and is road worthy

Leons replied they would credit me the money for the replacement (I do see it pending in amazon but it hasnt actually hit my card yet).

Excited to finally have a working bike

 

[Blindsay]

New fork is installed. So far feels pretty good. A couple initial observations (my first ebike)

weight is definitely noticeable vs my Trek Fuel Ex7
definitely not as smooth of a ride (not sure if thats the weight or being a hardtail).
Brakes feel quite soft (not sure if they need to be adjusted or if they need more fluid)
I think the front fork needs more psi as i dont think it is correct for my weight

got a few cosmetic upgrades i want to do and i have started looking at some motor options (I am a techie and just enjoy customizing/upgrading haha)