Electric Bike Conversion Kit – 500W Front Wheel (No Battery)

I recently purchased and installed the front wheel 500W performance e-bike kit on my 26" chromoly steel mountain bike. This is the second kit I've used on this same bike, the first being an analog E-bike kit with no LCD cyclometer, installed in 2012; the 750W Nine Continent motor burning out after 45000 miles of heavy duty use. Since the first kit worked so well, I'm now trying this one.

A certain mechanical experience is required for all kits, of course. The installation of this motor and ancillary parts was much easier to install than the first kit I used, only taking three hours, and hooking up the wires was easy as well, since they were all color coded and size dependent, unlike the first kit. I did use a couple parts from the first kit which were already on the bike, including the original torque arm, but that because it was easier that way. My battery was a separate 36V 12AH Lithium iron phosphate battery I already had, which required a separate mounting on the rear rack. This process deserves the highest rating.

When it comes to programming the cyclometer, I suspect the manual is out of date, and is missing a couple key points as well
First, I wasn't planning to use peddle assist, so didn't plug in the PSA sensor. It turns out, the PSA sensor must be plugged in whether you use it or not, otherwise you get an erro code 4 on the LCD. So I plugged it in, then put it out of the way without installing the magnetic ring, avoiding the installation hassle.

Second, there are actually 6 PSA power levels in the large circle on the LCD, rather than 5, with zero being the sixth one. Turns out, when the PSA level is set at zero, the throttle won't work either, no matter which drive setting is used. So the PSA level must be set at 1 or above for the throttle to work. The level set for 1-5 does does not effect the throttle power.

Third, there is only one 36V level for the battery in the menu, rather than the two mentioned in the manual--the 36V SLA level. Turn out this actually works fairly well for the 36V 12AH LiFePo4 battery, with only a slight overestimate of range. After a couple of test runs, I've determined the top speed to be about 20mph on level terrain, and the range of this battery to be about 24mi at 50F, with about a 25% drop at around 30F. This range is for my pulse and pedal method of biking--pulsing the speed up to 20 mph, then pedaling without the motor until the speed drops to around 15mph, then using the motor to pulse back up to 20mph. Continuous use of the motor will give a lower range, but a higher average speed.

Fourth, speedometer and odometer read about 20% low when I set the wheel size in the menu to my 26" wheel size, as determined by the calibrated Velo Cateye 8 cyclometer already on the bike, as well as checking the odometer after traveling known differences to different destinations. Setting the menu selection to 27.5" gives a 10% low reading. I'll experiment with other sizes once the snow that fell last night melts.

I'd add another star after the online manual is updated to reflect the changes.
The nice thing about using a kit is that you can save money and choose your own bicycle--one that fits you own physique--resulting in an e-bike that is more lightweight and maneuverable than the heavy low-cost Chinese clunkers that fall apart in three years.

Jim