[Closed] E bike commuter is go!

tjagain · 2017-01-25T16:38:21Z

My commute has become a pain. 6.5 miles with 700ft of climb and I have to be there for 7am for a 13 hour shift and I have to carry around 15lbs of stuff with me So seems perfect for an ebike. I have bought and now fitted the sunstar so3 kit which is a bb mounted motor. Very impressed - pretty easy to fit, and works really well. Seems really well made and has a 2 year guarantee. Its the only retro fit kit with proper torque sensing which makes it intuitive to ride and also works well with the alfine hub I have ( other central kits need to have electricity cut outs for the brakes and gear shift) Its also lighter than many. Unfortunately it wouldn't fit my genesis IOID as the motor unit clashed on the chainstays so I ended up putting it on a crap MTB frame I got from the bikes station for £20 while I decide what frame to put it on permanently, but I did use everything else from the Genesis in the build so its got nice forks and brakes and so on. Finally got to try it today. Climbing up to town at 15 mph without much effort is fun. It really flies away from the lights. Its a bit odd when you hit 15 mph tho as its like someone put the brakes on and there is more drivetrain drag when pedalling over 15mph. Builds speed really quickly downhill 'cos of the extra weight. Adds 18lb to the weight of the bike. only about 1/2 a mile of my commute is flat thos so this really won't be an issue Basically It feels like I am a full on Armstrong style doper up to 15 mph then an asthmatic 70 yr old over 15 mph on the flat I didn't buy a full bike 'cos despite the fact you can get a cube with the bosch motor for £1700 its still cheapo components. I wanted to continue to use the alfine. It will also probably go on the tandem for a long ( 3-6 month) European tour so we can have a bit of help in the mountains as we will be carrying full comfy camping kit. BB mounted motors are better than hub motors at low speed which is another reason to go down this route as I have 20 traffic lights on my way to work with half of them being uphill starts The sunstar kit is £1000 - £1300 depending on which options you pick.

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GeForceJunky

Posts: 1214

Free Member

I'm very tempted by something like this for my commute - 8 miles of quiet back roads, 2 very steep (1 in 5) hills, one of which is right next to my house so makes for a horrible warm up! As you no longer need it, would you consider selling the kit?

Posted : 29/03/2017 12:49 pm

tjagain

Posts: 45104

Full Member

Topic starter

Not worth selling as I would lose too much. I can highly recommend the sunstar kit tho. rides as well as a bosch motored bike and better than the bafung or any hub motor bike / kit but can be fitted to most bikes

Posted : 29/03/2017 1:58 pm

zilog6128

Posts: 12888

Free Member

Looks like Sunstar have discontinued this kit, "due to the rapid boom of e-bikes with integrated electrical motors" (although they're still honouring warranties).

Anyone seen any retailers flogging the kits off cheap?! 🙂

2nd hand fat bike + cheap retrofit kit = fun times!!

Posted : 31/05/2017 2:38 pm

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