AlexanderLS

Does anybody happen to know of any cheap discreet electric motors?
In an ideal world it would be under $200. I'd be happy to get anything cheaper than the $1000+ motors I've been finding.

I'm not a professional cyclist. The motor will be used to aid on long trips. Getting to the nearest big city and back is ~70 miles and by the end of it I've always been really miserable.

Thanks

veganbikes

Cheap electric motors are not worthwhile. Anything you bolt on or odd kits just aren't very efficient and don't tend to work well and worse can cause damage. I know there are some people who love bolting on motors to their bottom brackets or hooking up wheels with big heavy clunky motors and think they are the best thing ever but our shop doesn't sell them anymore for a good reason. The more expensive stuff is marginally better but is still trying to turn a perfectly good bike into something it was not designed to do and could actually damage it. Plus warranties and finding parts for some of this stuff can be extremely difficult. Just because you can buy something doesn't mean you should.

If you want a bike to go longer distance but want it to ride more like a regular bike the Raleigh Redux IE is a great choice, it also doesn't look so much like an e-bike but uses a high quality Brose Mid Drive motor which can hit 28mph (but for longer trips I would set it to lower assist modes) It is very much a blank canvas as it does not come with any integrated lights or fenders or racks making it a perfect platform for some customization. Yes it does cost money but it is worth it in the end if you want a quality e-bike that won't give you the problems of the kits and the cheap motors. We don't really have any problems with Bosch or Brose and if you do they have excellent warranty departments or companies handling that stuff.

shelbyfv

Thanks for the clarification! At any rate, there isn't a huge amount of overlap between cyclists and ebike riders so you might want to ask a mod to move this to the ebike section.

indyfabz

Why the discretion aspect? Do you want people to think you are doing all the work?

shelbyfv

MikeyMK

My old one, which i still have, has a small polished hub motor no bigger than the 34t sprocket and 160mm disc either side of it. The battery is in the rear pannier rack and covered by the pannier bags. The frame is a Voodoo Bokor and it just doesn't look like an electric bike. That's as stealth as i think you're getting.

Here, on UK ebay, i could buy an identical kit for around £450 (£150 kit, £300 battery with taylored rack & charger) but instead i bought a mint second-hand Claud Butler Glide for £300 and robbed it's guts for the Voodoo.

JohnnyCyclist

Over time, technology improves and gets cheaper. I expect the same to happen with e-bikes.

As a member of the 50+ club, still on race bikes, I'd like a "not too obvious" boost today. But the technology isn't there yet. So for now, I just poke along.

I figure worst case is that one day I'll have to buy a "real" e-bike and restrict my rides to the life of the battery. I'll find out if technology catches up to my aging body or not

fietsbob

Nope, the discrete ones in the news "motor doping" are not cheap the $200 one does not exist.

My LBS does mid drive conversions installed 350w motor/battery . controller $1500.. better quality = reliability..

jefnvk

Cheap electric motors are easy: https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-...otor-200w.html.

Cheap, safe, usable battery tech and control units is the big issue. See Lithium hoverboards if you don't believe me.

Karman321

bbs02 kit 750watt-$380
52v 10ah battery-$235

look on ali express. ive recently built up a carbon mtb frame with sram nx extremely fun, now i just need to code it to my liking. thank me later