What a mess! I haven't kept it up very well lately. You can't see all the road crud stuck on it from the photo. The city of Torrance hired some con artists to resurface Western Blvd. Worse than it was, and will need to be done again this spring! Probably a cousin of some city council member...
I'll still use this bike as a backup, and because of the rack to pick up Pizza, but considering the price of components to make it work great, I think I'd of saved money on paying for delivery. Project K.I.S.S. in the background.
Last time I changed the tires as routine maintenance and added flat resistant tubes, I never put the chain guard back on. No big deal. It shows the expensive Lekkie chain sprocket better without the guard.
Just too much shit on the bars! Even without the light, it was too cluttered with the controller and it's remote unit. With the BBSHD, it goes faster without the speed sensor working, so who needs the expensive LCD? POS!
One of the reasons I'm changing from mid drive bikes to Direct Drive is the expense of other parts needed to make them work great. Every Bafang motor needs a better chain ring. Why don't they just add ones that work? Yeah, nasty email sent, but they don't care. Cyclone motors need a bunch of stuff! Freewheels, etc, that are crazy expensive. Just show me the cost savings when you add all this stuff. Lets not even get into a conversation about chain stretch or drop! Hell, even my BBSO2 toasted a Bafang sprocket with good chain line until I coughed up the cash for a Lekkie to replace it! I'm done with Bafang. Suck it up buttercups until you answer my email without BS Google translate Chinese jive!
I kept the bars as clean as I could, but I still think it's overcrowded. The SA IGH 3 speed shifter helped out a lot, but with the DD setup, you don't even need that. Just a volt meter for the battery is all you need with a simple non bulky throttle. Why do they want to keep putting cheap crappy bulky looking key switches on them? Must look cool in China? Not here!
Having said all that, this BBSHD motor cost me about $1000 with all the extra goodies to make it good, and has lasted me about one year of five day per week commuting to work and back. To get the eccentric adapter needed to make the change, forget about it! It's like pulling teeth from the only company that has the $15 part made for them that charges $40 for it! Always out of stock, even half way between one order! Maybe you get the whole order or just half of it you payed for? Makes me want to say fuck mid drives and any seller promoting them! Pain in the ass! Not worth the time and trouble! Let them eat invisible cake!
More of the same as last photo. Can't clean it up more than it is. All I use the big LCD for is battery volt monitoring. I don't use the pedal assist, and the speedometer, forget about it! Bike goes much faster without the damn thing hooked up! And for some reason, whenever I need power, like when I'm crossing an intersection in traffic about to run me down, it all looses power and needs to be started again. This happens with both 48V 17.5Ah battery and 52V 25Ah battery, so it's a Bufang quality issue.
One thing good to say about the BBSHD from Bufang, is that you can get an aftermarket controller for it and really stress that plastic gear with some toque and high speed! That will cost you another $300 and a ton of drive train parts when they break. This motor heats up enough sometimes with factory controller I don't want to put my hand on it for long with a short commute. That heat is the same with 48V and 52V battery setup.
So why project K.I.S.S.? Dependability and price. The BBSHD bike will spend the rest of it's life collecting dust in the back of my storage unit on a hook. This winter it'll be saved from the hook just as an emergency backup bike. The 2wd K.I.S.S. bike with 2500W cost about half the price. Yeah, it'll weigh a bit more, and have better handling everywhere, but for at least a $500 savings, more power, and no drive train issues, the weight is not a problem! Do you have any idea how many bikes I need to work on to make that extra $500? At least thirty! In the last two weeks I've only built 36 bikes! That's the life of a bike mechanic this time of year.
And yes. I know it's spelled Bafang, but my new pronunciation is Bufang. Figure it out for yourself.
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