Motor advice

[KM2]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a front wheel drive, 20” wheel, motor system with a decent battery system.

[stodd]

https://wooshbikes.co.uk/?hubkits#xf07kit
A variety of battery choices.

Woosh have excellent customer service, both pre-sale to make sure you get the most appropriate kit for the bike, and post-sale in case there are any issues with install or later with the kit itself.

[Bonzo Banana]

I don't have a recommendation but would definitely spend time looking around ebay, amazon, aliexpress and various other sites like pswpower, yose power etc to see what is available at what price. I did recently buy a front hub motor kit of ebay but haven't fitted it yet. Ebay offered me a one off code off anything and I knew I wanted to convert one of my bikes to an ebike so bought a kit. It doesn't include the battery but cost me about £137 I think. Which was this one;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/365078481040

Everything seems decent quality. I specifically wanted this kit because of the simple display without an lcd etc. Just power levels and battery charge level with LED lights. Just prefer to keep it simple and weather proof without the distraction. I'm more interested in the throttle control to be honest. It's all fairly standard parts so know it would be easy to replace the hub motor or controller down the line or get replacement planetary gears. No proprietary parts basically.

I think the important thing is to work out the specification you want. How powerful a motor hub (you may want a 350W or 500W front motor but of course this opens the debate about legality and to be honest a 250W hub motor with a 20" wheel is pretty torquey anyway.

The forks on my folder are steel and with a 250W hub motor I don't think I need to worry about a torque arm which makes dealing with punctures much easier.

However what works for me may not work for you. There are lots of variables in spec for such a kit and you may want a kit that includes the battery pack rather than buying that separately,

[simonineaston]

Much depends on whether you want to build up the bike from components you buy and connect up yourself or whether you want to buy a ready-prepared kit, or of course get a third-party to convert the bike for you. I’ve done two out of three. Now I’ve some experience with the various components, I would say that a home build, where you buy individual parts and fit to your own bike is entirely possible provided the components come with all the necessary interconnects. There’s a wide range of plugs, controllers & wiring options out there and caution is advised. Many of the parts are from the far east and while some are really good quality, getting hold of the matching documentation can be a challenge.
The company I use is nano electrics bikes, currently (npi) run by Tony Castles. He’s been involved with converting bikes to ‘leccy for more than a decade now. Good chap. Their focus is on small wheeled bikes.
https://www.nanoelectricbikes.co.uk/

[SimonCelsa]

As mentioned above, Woosh bikes are a good source for electric conversion kits.

I fitted an XF-07 to a tandem around 6 years ago and it's still going strong on the original 17Ah battery. In fact I used it this morning for a 30 mile jaunt with the daughter around the Inverness hills.

Customer service, which I haven't really availed of in the last few years, has always been excellent.

[simonineaston]

Much depends on whether you want to build up the bike from components you buy and connect up yourself or whether you want to buy a ready-prepared kit, or of course get a third-party to convert the bike for you. I’ve done two out of three. Now I’ve some experience with the various components, I would say that a home build, where you buy individual parts and fit to your own bike is entirely possible provided the components come with all the necessary interconnects. There’s a wide range of plugs, controllers & wiring options out there and caution is advised. Many of the parts are from the far east and while some are really good quality, getting hold of the matching documentation can be a challenge.
The company I use is nano electrics bikes, currently (npi) run by Tony Castles. He’s been involved with converting bikes to ‘leccy for more than a decade now. Good chap. Their focus is on small wheeled bikes.
https://www.nanoelectricbikes.co.uk/

Forgot to say that Tony decided to use Bosch’s 36v tool batteries for their short range choice. They offer bigger capacity batteries for folks who need longer range. These tool batteries suit me admirably as they’re compact, easy to get hold of and pretty reliable. My first one, a 4ah variant, lasted me from 2017 to earlier this year and was at one stage, recharged daily.

[bikes4two]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a front wheel drive, 20” wheel, motor system with a decent battery system.

• What sort of riding are you thinking of i.e. distance, terrain and level of electric assist needed?

• "A decent battery system" - what do you mean by decent - battery capacity/range, or quality battery cells/build or both?

• and of course, do you have a max budget? I ask this as the likes of Cytronix(.com) based in Winchester, do a kit for around £1000 and Swytch bikes (the current Gen 3 system is a great improvement on their previous offerings) for between £500-£800. Both of these kits have small batteries (around 250Wh (watt hours) and thus will only provide limited (as in 20 miles ish) if you are using high levels of electric assist.

• At the other end of the spectrum for those on a tight budget, you can probably put together your own system for less than £400 if you order from China directly.

Once you've a more specific requirement you could post your question on 'pedelecs.co.uk'

Oh and finally, it won't be too long before someone comes along and poo poos the idea of a front hub having a tendency to cause loss of front wheel traction but unless you are complete newbie to cycling, just ignore them (well, at least absorb with lots of salt).