Recommended E-bike Vendors 2016

The electric bike builder marketplace is full of cottage industries.  This is a list of vendors for people who are considering building an electric bike themselves.  The shops below are owner operated with at most   a few employees.  Every vendor on this list is known to be reputable and knowledgeable.

Note the list i made back in 2012 has unfortuantely lost its relevance with over half the stores on my list out of business sadly. Check out the ebike graveyard for more info.

Since I now have started a store of my own on  Lunacycle.com in an attempt to jump start this industry with quality lithium I don’t feel i am in the position to recommend vendors, although i have strong feelings both negative and positive about vendors on the below list.

 

Trusted kit suppliers

These lists show supplier location as well as some of the products they are known for. Keep in mind that internationally shipped battery packs often have very high shipping costs. Many overseas vendors are quite good but it can also be expensive to do returns/replacement/warranty stuff, so bear that in mind.

Site Ships from Description
     
     
EbikesSF USA Many high quality powerful motors (Crystalyte and BMC), kits, and batteries.
     
EMPowered Cycles USA Vendor for kits, parts and complete ebikes.
Greyborg USA USA Ultra-high speed ebike racing parts that go 50+ Mph. Frames, controllers, motors (Cromotor).
California Ebike USA Mid-drives, battery packs, a few obscure hub motors
GreenBikeKit China Source for several low cost kits including popular Bafang mid-drives. Competitive prices on battery packs.
Luna Cycles CA, USA Run by the great folks at electricbike.com, stocks batteries, battery bags, kits including the Magic Pie 5, connectors, lights, fatbike cargo frame and accessories. Cheapest US supplier for battery packs.
YesComUSA USA Several types of direct drive kits. Some have fairly powerful generic motors at a good price.
Goldenmotor.ca Canada Canadian distributor for all golden motor products. Faster shipping times than the Chinese site, especially on batteries.
Leaf Bike China The listings marked “newest” are high efficiency direct drive hub kits. Uses ‘thin laminations’ (.35 mm) for roughly 10% efficiency gain compared to normal motors
CNEbikes China Wide variety of kits and parts including popular mid drives

Trusted Battery Suppliers

Site Ships from Description
Luna Cycles CA, USA Cheapest US supplier for battery packs.
em3ev.com China Specializing in safe non-lipo high-current packs, and triangle shaped packs.
PingBattery China Complete LiFePO battery packs, medium amps, but last years and very safe.
CaliBike USA Complete battery packs
Batteryspace USA BMS, chargers, battery packs using LiFePO as well as the newer NMC chemistries
RawVelocity.com Canada Individual cells and large A123 batteries for building into high power LiFePO battery packs
Headway Headquarters WA, USA Complete LiFePO battery packs
sun-thing28 China Complete battery packs and other battery parts
Su Power Battery China Complete battery packs and many battery parts. Also runs the supowerbattery111 ebay store

 

 

 

Grouped by country

Site Ships from Description
EV-Power Czech Republic Kits
Falco India Next-gen gearless motor kits, but at a much higher price
Lightning Rods Mid Drive USA Powerful high performance mid drives
Propel USA Formerly Long Island Electric bikes. They have BionX kits and BBS02 mid drives, battery packs, components.
Ebikeling USA Kits
NYCeWheels NY, USA A well known vendor that stocks high quality BionX kits. Prices are relatively high though
Leed e-bike kits Utah, USA Easily installed low power kits
Clean Republic Seattle, WA, USA Easily installed low power kits
ElectricRider.com Texas, USA High performance affordable Crystalyte kits. They also carry LiFePO battery packs.
Amped Bikes California, USA kits
Kinaye Motorsports USA High power MXUS 3000W Fat Bike Kit
Superpedestrian USA Makers of the Copenhagen wheel, an all-in-one hub where all parts are in the wheel. Still in pre-order, not intended for hard riding.
FlyKly USA Another all-in-one hub that is trying to copy the Copenhagen wheel design. Also in pre-order.
Electric Cyclery CA, USA High end kits from BionX and Falco
Conhismotor China Kits, parts, etc
Papa Motor China Many types of kits and parts.
Golden Motor China A well known vendor that sells kits and motors including the Magic Pie, good prices. Also has high powered e-motorbike kits. Their support has sometimes been unreliable in the past
GNG Electric China kits
Hallo Motor China Kits, factory built e-bikes
JV Bike Vancouver, Canada Many popular kits and ebikes
Biktrix.com Canada Mostly Bafang BBS based mid-drive kits
Rubbee UK A one-piece friction drive ebike system
Dillenger UK kits (2015 edit: possible report about refusal to honor their warranty)
Oxydrive UK Geared hub kits
CicloTek Spain Kits, batteries and parts
Greencycle Finland Kits and batteries
Electrobike Finland Kits and factory built ebikes
Superpyora Finland Kits with batteries
AF-Tech Australia High effficiency geared mid drives
Hyena electric bikes Australia A few kits, frames and turnkey ebikes
SolarBike Perth, Australia Kits, batteries, factory built ebikes
e4bike.ru Moscow, Russia Stocks kits, batteries and high powered MXUS 3000 motors

 

All the mid drive builders I listed in 2012 survived:

Mid Drive Builders Stuff

Astro Flight Make some nice but expensive electric motors that can be used for electric bikes (see our story on Astro motors on ebikes)

Hobby King Providers of affordable RC motors and controllers. Fun for the E-bike guys to try to adapt this slick looking (and small) technology to ebikes.

Sick Bike Parts – known especially for their freewheel crank arms, and other mandatory freewheel accessories.

Mid Drive kits – See our list of  10 commercially available mid drive kits

Eric has been involved in the electric bike industry since 2002 when he started a 6000 square foot brick and mortar Electric Bike store in downtown San Francisco. He is a true believer that small electric vehicles can change the way we operate and the way we think.

2 Comments

Leave a Reply