New Hope Electric Bike Conversion Kit

That does look way fun to put together, but unless somehow the readers of TH get together and do a bulk order (wonder how much 300 of 'em cost?), some people here may be looking for less-expensive-than- wavecrest, more-accessible DIY or bike- conversions...

ANDsince yall TH'ers are based in NYC, if YOU wanted an electric conversion done all you havta do is go to NYCWheels and get a BiKit (i used to hate the name but has grown on me... it still looks like a dustbuster stuck on to a bike but will elect-assist your biking with much power) web? >> http://store.nycewheels.com/bikretkit.html

also for nonNYC peeps (or people who want a little less of that dustuster flash...) you can always get one of the two detachable Zappy kits, going strong for over 10 years, they run something like $3-500 ¿dónde está>> http://zapworld.com/products/sxkit_bike.asp

this doesn't strike me as being very TH-friendly. (Even if you're using solar, or other free, energy to charge the bike, it's still using resources to build and ship it.) Especially since it would be augmentation for a pedal bicycle, not a replacement for an environmentally-unfriendly motorcycle/car/whatever.

What about a pedal-power kit for your car?

I know people who have mopeds, and they always seem to be "mo" rather than "ped". It seems that if you need this you should really be in an electric wheelchair instead.

Sorry if I offend anybody.

These have been selling on ebay for a couple of months - in single units. 12v and 24v versions.

"Especially since it would be augmentation for a pedal bicycle, not a replacement for an environmentally-unfriendly motorcycle/car/whatever."

Why wouldn't it be? It certainly would be useful for a wide variety of trips at city speeds. For a five mile trip, it could cover that distance in under 20 minutes.

You use resources showering after getting all sweaty making a trip under human power, so I wouldn't discount the value of this conversion kit from a resource conservation standpoint.

Using the numbers given, it should require 138 watt-hours to make a five mile trip. That's 472 BTUs.

By contrast, one minute of showering consumes about 400 BTUs worth of energy to heat the water.

More important is think about areas like where I am, Phoenix AZ. Try the seven mile trip to my job on a bicycle in July when the average temp is about 110. I use a car because I wouldn't survive the trip, but with some help from this, I could.

Severn and CTP: Please do not be so quick to judge. Most certainly I do not belong in an electric wheelchair, but hip and knee injuries do prevent me from going much futher than a few miles on foot or bicycle, when in fact I would often prefer low-powered two wheel locomotion rather than my car.

Unless these kits are built with a two part mixture of oil and baby's blood, it seems like the resources issue is moot. The materials used to build/package/ship would be made up for quite quickly on trips when I used the bike instead of a car.

I wonder if you would find the resources used in a hip replacement surgery (which I will eventually need) offensive and inapproprite...

I wonder, what is the lowest profile (i.e. less intrusive) electric bike kit out there? Something that can quickly/easily be removed when need be? thanks!

hey consumerQ-- the Bikit from NYCWheels can be detached from your bike in about 10 seconds.... (and no, i don't owns shares/work for this company,my bike is the old fashioned kind, powered by food, but again, that link is

http://store.nycewheels.com/bikretkit.html

I'd be happy to be wrong! :-)
However, I just don't see this as something the majority of people would step "down" (e.g., from a car, motorbike, moped, etc.) to, but rather something people would step "up" (e.g., regular bike, or public transport) to, thus impacting the environment more, rather than less?
Also remember that people on TH probably *are* more likely to use this device than something more environemntally damaging, but let's not kid ourselves and think that everyone else cares...

CTP-
I agree with you, far too many people are likely to step up to it, but for some of us, its almost a necessity. I'd ride to work, but right now, I'd not likely survive it, or at least not be up to snuff at least, so this would be a life saver. Hard part would be not becoming dependant on it during the more reasonable parts of the year (9 or so months).

I purchased one of these conversion kits for about $350.00 and have been using it since april. I ride 10 miles to work. It really saves my energy for work since I stand all day. Ive really enjoyed it.I do have to pedal or the batteries lose there charge but it is easy pedaling.I can only speak for the one i have there are a few different types out there and number of distributors in the US. If you look up electric wheel conversion on your search it should pull up a number of the websites.

it's very interest , i just see the comments about our products , i think it's wonderful thing for us , we hope we could do better in future , and now we are studying the solar vehicle with a Canadian engineer , i think we will produce a sample soon ....please wait .
my MSN ID : motor122@hotmail.com
hope to talk with these problem on it.:-)

I'd like to comment Treehugger on their innovative approach to web publishing. For those seeking more info to power a bike, try www.bicycle-power.com - the site lists many international vendors of such products.

where can i buy one of theese. im very interested

Made in China -- it figures!

I am a 74 year old man who has emphysema and hurts when pedaling my bicycle up inclines. I will buy an elect. kit, now, if a good one is available. No, I don't need a wheelchair, yet, but must consider the source concerning the " greenie " type who would suggest I buy a wheelchair. Thanks, Ralph

hehe nice i just fitted a 140w 10amp 12v golf cart motor to my mtb suprising for 0.3 horsepower.

do a favour and buy a scott 24v 1000w motor or a bosch 750w and knock up a drive chain

motor 100 quid
controller 100 quid
batts 50-100

and 3x the power will out perform 50cc ! :)

good call on hope for this, but hubs have been about in china for ages, it wont get you up hills, but a "nano hub" (google it) might av nuff juice. 10 ft Lb of torque on a bike! a family hatch has 100 !

-ive spent a week looking all this up and slowly becoming fanatical about blowing them 50cc kiddies away with leccy !

rock ohwn - e e k

Newhope Electric Vehicle company is now bankrupt and the way l know this is my company purchased 50kits from Newhope around 4 months ago and we have not recieved anything. When we followed the claim up we found out the fact that they are Bankrupt.
Look for other suppliers!!! If anyone finds a good wholesale supplier of a similar product we will be interested.

Hello,

I read your message from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/07/new_hope_electr.php, and I am strange
about what you said? we never deal with you and never receive your order or money for 50 e-bike conversion kits, why you rumormongering us? if as you said,please fax the bill of bank or any another information for show you have order from us!!

regards
roc zhang
newhope electric vehicle co.,ltd

I am the owner of Electra-Bicycle Conversions llc. I dispute the claim from Jackson Hatch ..Post July 14, 2006 about New Hope being bankrupt. We ordered 102 kits ..500 watt 48 volt kits from New Hope this fall. They are great kits and well built. New Hope is a great company and very much NOT bankrupt
Don Allan

I am from NZ. I have biked 20km to work (there/back)eevry day for 3 years. We moved the other day to a distance twice that previously. The thought of biking 40km every day was too much so I was serching for a scooetr of a motorbike (with cost still in mind). When I saw one of these babies I bought one straight away. Why? It is still officially a bike so no warrant, no reg. also, I still wanted some exercise and i get that. Although I probably use less energy than before, I am still sweating by the time I get to work. I tell u brothers and sisters. This is the way to go. That bike is 250w, I would love the 500w model. Chur!!

Hi, I am also in New Zealand. I have just finished building my own electric bike based on the 250W geared motor from Oatley Electronics in Sydney, Australia. It took me a while to make the parts to adapt it to my bike. In my opinion, this kind of conversion is probably the best way to retrofit electric-assist to an existing bicycle. In fact, although I bought enough parts from Oatley to fit to two bikes (my own and my wife's) I decided it would take too long to do the second conversion and I have bought one of these kits from TradeMe (kiwis know what that is!). It arrived this morning and I hope to fit it this weekend. I will post back with my experiences.

Oh, and I am extremely pleased to see a post here from New Hope Electric themselves- it is great that they are taking an interest in what people think of their product.

for those looking for a better quality e-bike kit, from Taiwan, look at falconev.com. NiMH or Lithium batteries too.

I have two electric golf caddies made by Newhope that use the same battery packs as the bicycle kit. We have experienced multiple problems with both the electronic control systems and the battery packs in less than a year. The Canadian distributor has disappeared from the face of both the earth and cyberspace, and the factory does not reply to e-mails. Many people here are left with useless equipment because they cannot find replacement batteries. Be very careful about doing business with this outfit!

I have two electric golf caddies made by Newhope that use the same battery packs as the bicycle kit. We have experienced multiple problems with both the electronic control systems and the battery packs within a year of purchase. They are supposed to be guaranteed for three years, but the Canadian distributor has disappeared from the face of both the earth and cyberspace, and the factory does not reply to e-mails. Many people here are left with useless equipment because they cannot find replacement batteries. Be very careful about doing business with this outfit!

I am living in China now and have ridden a few electric bicycles. My comments: there seems to be a wide disparity between what the label on the motor says (wattage) and what it really might produce; the motors usually have a 5 year warranty but the wiring for the controller is usually too cheap and looks like it would fail long before the motor, possibly shorting something out; this motor is a bit wimpy and would probably not produce performance that Americans would expect - go for at least a 350 motor with 36 or 48 volts. If you want more speed and torque you can even find kits that will let you double and triple up your batteries to give you 72 or 96 volts.

I ride almost everyday to work on a "normal" un-powerd bike. About 6 miles round trip with a few hills. But my girlfriend lives about 20 miles round trip from work with much larger hills. She wanted to ride by bike if she could, but just was not up to that ride.

I purchased her an assist like this for her bike. Actually a different kit with a larger 600 watt motor and what they called an extended range battery pack. It worked for her and gets her commuting by bike now at least half time. I even take her bike on quick trips to the store when I am tired and would probably drive.

Caution. These things make the bike heavy and awkward. Unless you are taking a short trip without many hills you should expect to do at least half the work by pedaling. For the trip my girlfriend takes she always must recharge the pack at work all day for the ride home. And expect to buy some premium tires to hold the extra weight and resist flats.

It's not rocket science, but it takes some skill to put this kit together so that the bike is safe and without damaging the kit or your bike. You may also need to rig up a custom battery mount as the supplied ones are probably not up to the task.

Still, it has it's place. Think of it as an inexpensive way to experiment with a basic electric vehicle.

I posted a reply back in Nov 06 about this company not being bankrupt. It is true they are not BUT the kits we bought from them had a 20% failure rate on the controllers. I emailed Roc Zhang over and over about the problem when he did finally reply he would NOT honor his factory warranty and refused to make good on the bad controllers.. It is my opinion that anyone considering doing business with this company to look elsewhere for conversions or you will end up like us and eating the cost to replace controllers for unhappy customers. This owner is not to be trusted at his word
Don

Electric bikes are great, unless the break and the company totally screws you. I documented my experience at http://www.wildernessenergytreatedmelikedirt.com

i sory to announce that new hope science and technology is gone now bankrupt and not any long in buziness.

please do not send money to us. we do not sell any products now. we may get loans from usa and europe and then we coul start our biziness.

roc zhang

Newhope Electric Vehicle co.,ltd in China is not bankrupt and I am in daily contact with Roc. We are finding out people are posting erroneous information on this website. If there is any person or company that has done business with Roc and has any problems please contact us. We are New Hope Science & Technology USA and would like to introduce our company to you. We are the Distributors and Manufacturers of re-newable and low energy use products. Our products are Wind Generators with or without Solar Panels and with or without LED Lamps. LED Lamps and Bulbs, Electric cars, Electric Scooters, Electric Bicycles and our Electric 3 Wheel Rickshaws great for taxi use. For more information please send us an email.

Brad
newhopeindusa@aol.com

Check out the easy installation of the single and dual motors to convert an existing bike to an electric bike at usaelectricbike.com. The battery regenerates itself when you pedal, and assists you to get through head winds and inclines -- or fatigue.

I had t/t Brad at New Hope USA and offered to retract my earlier post about Roc not honoring warranties if Roc would make good on replacing the controllers that failed. Brad ask for a copy of my import orders which I sent him. He said he forwarded them to Roc. That was many months ago. Still no reply. So my earlier post stands. New Hope and Roc Zhang are not to be trusted .. Just more Chinese junk with no way to get them to back a warranty. Buyer beware
Don

I'm also in NZ, and have just got a 200W mountain-bike style electric called a Dyno. It's pretty awesome, because I'm not a strong rider and Auckland is very hilly. It's good for about 20-25km with moderate (as in not breaking a sweat) pedaling. Some observations from my first 200 kilometers:
1. Because you are assisted, a heavy strong bike is not a problem. It's probably better that it is strong. Certainly it is cheaper that way - my bike cost me about $120US second hand.
2. It seems safer than ordinary biking, because you can ride slowly much easier, and start easier, much less wobbling around. Also, not being tired is safer.
3. Most of the extra weight is in the batteries, so only they need to detach, if you want to ride without the motor. Detaching the motor seems like a pointlessly difficult chore for the few kilos it weighs, compared to the heavy battery pack.
4. My interest in riding is not as hardcore exercise. As such, this bike has opened up a far greater range for exploration than my previous much lighter regular bike. But there is no doubt that for a strong cyclist a non-electric bike would have a greater range. You would not use an electric for touring.
5. Running out of charge is not as bad as it was on my electric scooter. For starters you can still ride it like a bike. And just because it can't lift me anymore doesn't mean it can't lift itself, so pushing it uphill isn't any harder than just walking beside it. But very quickly you learn the range, and just stick to it. Get an odometer.
6. Be prepared for a lot of questions from interested bystanders.

I'm actually not a tree hugger and didn't buy it for that purpose. It's kind of nice, but my real reason is that I'm a tightwad who wanted a practical, convenient and cheap form of transport and fun. In Auckland, a normal bike just isn't really convenient for anything other than very short trips. I'm also not that sure about the environmental benefits - electricity is mostly hydro here, but disposing of lead acid batteries doesn't seem that environmentally friendly. Something to check out carefully if you are more of a tree hugger than I am.

I bought a conversion kit a few weeks ago from www.electricbicycleconversionkits.net. Since transforming my bike I haven't looked back.

I be very careful as to not ride my bike in the rain but most days I travel to work via my electric bike and when I get there I'm not sweaty! Bonus!

Can't recommend these things enough.