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 |
Popular Kit suppliers- Full List
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
