Bionx Electric Bike System

Pretty interesting concept indeed.

I don't know if you talked to the folks at some of the other electric bike booths, but they were saying that they have been sold out of many models recently due to recent increased demand. I imagine this is the same for the Bionx.

It seems that the TTC strike, cheap electricity prices, high fuel costs and greater awareness are paying off for these companies. Now if only the Govt. would smarten up by removing the speed limiters that top out at 32kph (a modest speed on my bicycle).

The Bionix seems ok, but personally I'm still lusting after the (vaporware?) Schwinn Electric bikes: http://www.schwinnbike.com/products/intbikes_category.php?id=110

how much & where do i put my water bottle?

I found a dealer and they're asking almost $1700 for the top of the line kit... And don't carry the lower-end ones. That seems a bit steep to me.

Sorry, should have linked that.

http://www.myebike.com/bikes/BionXPropulsionSystem.html

Bionx gets spectacular reviews online for being a reliable turnkey solution. Nycewheels and Greenspeed have lots of information for US buyers. Basic 250 Watt kits seem to run around $1200, and extra power or lithium batteries (lighter, not necessarily better) raise the price. There are other kits out there for the do-it-yourselfer crowd (Nano/Tongxin, Crystalite), but you pay for the freedom of avoiding vendor lockin with the hassle of assembling (and attempting to waterproof) a custom solution.

Unless another manufacturer appears before then, I'll be buying a Bionx if I ever need to bike commute farther than is comfortable with my two legs -- it's expensive compared to a normal bike, but dirt cheap compared to a car (and I'd rather ride than drive, thank-you-very-much).

Nice! That range is incredible. I've seen electric bikes with a range of 20 miles or so, and never really considered them because I can comfortably pedal that far. But 70 miles?!?! Now you're talking.

For a person looking for a semi-DIY option, you can put together a whole kit from these guys: http://www.ebikes.ca/
I don't work for them, but I'm looking at putting a bike together from them.
They originally started out as the University of British Columbia Electric Bike club, but grew after people contacted them about buying parts.
You can pick up a motor, battery, controller, etc. to suit your needs and they ship all over.

Found this little gem a few days ago, while not an adapter unit - it is a full on bike. Get's around 30-60 miles per charge, about a 20mph top end speed, and models sell for less than $400.

I checked them out myself last weekend and took a test drive on the longer ranged version. It might be a better option if you're trying to save a buck-or-two.. http://phoenix.craigslist.org/bik/628249875.html

Only issue is that they do not ship out of state, but they are not fly by night and have been around for 2 years now.

Keep the electric bicycle stuff coming. Thanks!

For french or european people, you can have a look here : www.velectris.com to buy motor and battery kit and read their excellent forum.

My bike's in the shop this week, getting a 250W Li-Ion BionX installed!

they would sell allot more off these if they weren't colored old computer Grey!
alot of people myself included get them custom painted to match.

Brad -- 70 is optimistic. The Bionx has 4 "assist" levels -- each are force multipliers. So as you pedal, its torque sensor tells it how much to push. 70 is assuming you are on the lowest assist level (adding 25-35% on to your effort). From what I have read, real world performance at higher assist levels (adding 50-100%) is in the 20-30 mile range.

I think this is the the coolest electric assist ever. Unlike other manufacturers, the BionX system is extremely lightweight; the heaviest one weighs around 9 kg (hub motor & battery pack). Others can weigh up to 25 kg!!

I can share my own experience with one of these kits. I have a crystalite rear wheel hub motor system. It cost about $750 for the hub motor, battery (ni-cd), controller and thumb throttle. I love riding it to work. I can go about 12 miles riding at over 20mph. THere are some drawbacks...
The bike is VERY heavy. If you don't have the motor pushing you, it's a boat anchor. I can take my battery off and the bike is usable as a non electric but watch out that your trip does not exceed your battery charge. In my case I had to buy a charger for work and for home because I couldn't go there and back on one charge.
I've had problems with components. I've had two chargers smoke on me. The battery, sitting in the back carrier, seems to be wearing on the edges from getting bounced around. I've had spokes break on the hub wheel due to the weight of the batter and my 230 pound body sitting over it. The ebikes.ca guy said they've had problems with the crystalite like that. As you might suspect, components are not readily available as other bike components are. You'll often have to order something online, and then wait. In the meantime you may not be riding.
Otherwise though, the bike is really great to ride to work. When I get there I'm not tired or sweating profusely.

im a college student....i cant afford that! On the other hand im sick of walking 4 miles to get to class... so maybe ill start savingmy pennies.

Anonymous said: "im a college student....i cant afford that! On the other hand im sick of walking 4 miles to get to class... so maybe ill start savingmy pennies."

An electric assist is nice, but from an environmental point of view it is better to bike without this extra gear. Let us not forget that a regular ol' bike is the best answer for for traveling 4 miles quickly and efficiently if the infrastructure supports this mode of transportation. Best part? No coal or oil to burn to generate electricity to recharge batteries and no batteries to manufacture or discard/recycle.

If this technology gets some people out of a car and onto an efficient electric bike that's great. Better yet... just pedal the damn thing!! ;-)

this is exciting news. i own an eGo electric bike, and i love it. it is pedal-less so i use it when i don't want to pedal (i have a regular bike for shorter trips) like when i'm using my Burley trailer carrying 100lbs of groceries for my work (i am a cook) i love the idea of electric, but i do find the limited range of 20 miles or less a bit limiting for all my transport needs. a 70 mile range is definitely more interesting. 1700 buckaroos is steep, but i imagine in a few years, that price will go way down. so student, start saving your pennies. it will be well worth it.

meanwhile anyone who's interested in checking out a great bike on the market run by real nice folks, check out- http://www.egovehicles.com

you can skate board for 4 miles instead?!

: )

I've been using a BIonx system daily for three years and I can attest to it's reliability and usefulness. During this time the battery has shown no noticeable wear.

Of course riding unmotorized bikes is more efficient. I became interested in ebiking when my knees started aching and more interested when I sold my car and wanted some extra help hauling groceries and the like. I still have a plain bicycle and use it for pleasure rides and always when I take the bus. For commuting and grocery hauling it's Bionx all the way.

The purchase price is negligible if you are replacing a car. I figured out between depreciation, taxes, and insurance my old Subaru cost me $1000 a year just to have. This does not include gas, maintenance, or repairs. You can spend less on an ebike, but you generally get what you pay for. I've been through a few different systems and none has come close to Bionx.

Good point on the braking spokes.

Anybody concerned about using an aluminum frame with this setup? I know it's not massive torque, but I wonder if its enough to prematurely fatique a frame. Would Cro-Mo last a little longer?

It looks like the motor is the hub, do you just take your original wheel and have the the hub swapped out?

Can you use disk brakes with this hub?

I want one of these but im consenerned about the companies workerrights and thing s like that does anyone know if this is a good company or not?

I had an eye-opening month in May 2008. My 2005 Chevy Aveo (with 50,000 miles) crapped out to the point, that after $2,000, my Midas mechanic told me that he was giving up. Turns out, that this disposable car was made by Daewoo and re-branded GM. I towed it to Carmax, and they gave me a measly $2,000 for it. I owed $3,500 to the bank, so I had to fork out $1,500 more.

Now down to one car, my wife and I were in a wreck two weeks later, and totalled her Saturn Vue Hybrid (other guy was cited for fault).

All of this frustration, anger, and loss for what? To ride comfortably to work and make contributions to the King of Saudi Arabia?

Yes, we need one car for kids to get to daycare, and wife to commute downtown, but my work is only 12 miles away. I have no excuse, and nobody to blame but myself. I decided I would never have my own car again. Why can't we be a 1-car family?

Of course, my wife had the standard security questions about "What if my car breaks down?" or "What if I have a meeting and can't pick up the kids?" The result so far is that we spend more time communicating to coordinate who's doing what beforehand. That's not a bad thing after 15 years of marriage!

I wanted a bike that would last and be powerful, so without knowing anything about bikes whatsoever, I built my own bike after a ton of research. Here it is for your criticism / comments:

- 2001 Airborne Lucky Strike Titanium Frame ($500 on eBay)
- Phil Wood Titanium bottom bracket ($250)
- 26" rear wheel, 29" front wheel with foam tires
- Bionx 350L electric bike system ($1600)
- White Brothers suspension fork ($200 on ebay)
- Cane Creek headset ($30)
- M960 Shimano V-Brakes ($100 on eBay)
- White Industries Single speed Freewheel w/ 16 teeth ($100)

Now, I know how to fix anything that breaks on my bike, it cost substantially less than any car and many high-speed bikes on the market, and it is paid for forever without needing gasoline. All it costs is 6 cents to recharge the batteries. It is a great feeling to fly by cars sitting in traffic, and I get to work in half the time. I have set my mind free, and there is one less car on the road.

I had an eye-opening month in May 2008. My 2005 Chevy Aveo (with 50,000 miles) crapped out to the point, that after $2,000, my Midas mechanic told me that he was giving up. Turns out, that this disposable car was made by Daewoo and re-branded GM. I towed it to Carmax, and they gave me a measly $2,000 for it. I owed $3,500 to the bank, so I had to fork out $1,500 more.

Now down to one car, my wife and I were in a wreck two weeks later, and totalled her Saturn Vue Hybrid (other guy was cited for fault).

All of this frustration, anger, and loss for what? To ride comfortably to work and make contributions to the King of Saudi Arabia?

Yes, we need one car for kids to get to daycare, and wife to commute downtown, but my work is only 12 miles away. I have no excuse, and nobody to blame but myself. I decided I would never have my own car again. Why can't we be a 1-car family?

Of course, my wife had the standard security questions about "What if my car breaks down?" or "What if I have a meeting and can't pick up the kids?" The result so far is that we spend more time communicating to coordinate who's doing what beforehand. That's not a bad thing after 15 years of marriage!

I wanted a bike that would last and be powerful, so without knowing anything about bikes whatsoever, I built my own bike after a ton of research. Here it is for your criticism / comments:

- 2001 Airborne Lucky Strike Titanium Frame ($500 on eBay)
- Phil Wood Titanium bottom bracket ($250)
- 26" rear wheel, 29" front wheel with foam tires
- Bionx 350L electric bike system ($1600)
- White Brothers suspension fork ($200 on ebay)
- Cane Creek headset ($30)
- M960 Shimano V-Brakes ($100 on eBay)
- White Industries Single speed Freewheel w/ 16 teeth ($100)

Now, I know how to fix anything that breaks on my bike, it cost substantially less than any car and many high-speed bikes on the market, and it is paid for forever without needing gasoline. All it costs is 6 cents to recharge the batteries. It is a great feeling to fly by cars sitting in traffic, and I get to work in half the time. I have set my mind free, and there is one less car on the road.

Three hours to recharge and seventy mile range. WOW!!

Now really, what are the real numbers?

I get about 12-20 miles per charge riding to work and around Washington, DC, depanding on tire pressure and the route I take, and how much pedaling I do.

I deal with moderate hills each way and I often choose NOT to pedal! I weigh in at about 230 pounds.

It does only take 3-4 hours to fully recharge. I have the 36 volt Lithium battery And you can top it off or boost it with shorter length recharges.

The set-up is 350-Watt Bionx back wheel on a Specialized Expedition bike that I already had. The kit cost about $1,600 through Bob's BIke's in Poolesville, MD. (highly recommended). Bob put the thing together and tuned up my bike for a few bucks more.

I've pretty much stopped driving to work, paying for gas, and more importantly paying for parking downtown.

Riding one of these power-assist bikes and listening to tunes or podcasts on an Ipod shuffle is sublime.

I have a Bionx and I got 45 miles on level 3 assist (that's 150% of your own power added). not many of us will ride a bike 30+ miles a day so this Bionx is perfect for the masses.

a big fan of this motor. I got mine about three months ago and like it. a great way to commute instead of driving my SUV. now I'm selling it and going on to bigger and better things. anyone interested, check it out here . . .http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/bik/814898134.html

When Premium Unleaded hit $4/gallon I did the hard thing: I sold my Mustang and bought the BionX 350PL kit to add electric assist to my bike. Just over two months from that decision and I have zero regrets! And bonus: In that time span I have lost 2 inches from my waist. I haven't settled into a routine yet (and knowing me, I probably won't) but I'd guess I ride about 15 miles a day average. Some days as little as 6 miles and some as much as 32.

I used codes easily found on the net to tweak my controller so that all assist modes put out quite a bit more power and so that power comes on at 1mph so I pull away from stop lights faster. The downside is my range, with peddling, mode 4, about 10 miles. So I'm now weaning myself to use modes 2 and 3 for the longer trips. Why not just reprogram to default specs you ask? Because I want to still have mode 4 available for that "turbo boost" when I need/want it. Especially if I'm going to just do a 6 mile trip, I know I can keep it in mode 4, peddle like heck, and go 20-25 mph the entire ride with ease.

Oh and I like this thing so much I bought a second one so friends can tag along! And it has been extra useful to have that second battery for my 16 mile Saturday morning ride to class. At the 10 mile marker I swap out the battery. Get to class and charge both of them while in class for 4 hours. Then ride home.

pictures and data and comparison to some other bikes here: http://www.oceanmedia.net/bike.asp

Now I'm researching solar panels, inverters, 12V batteries, etc. so I can have a system for charging these things if the grid ever goes down and to just become more independent of the grid.

WAY too expensive.