Crystalyte Phoenix Cruiser 4840

Where to begin? I'm the WE dude on the forums, so I am sorta biased.

Front or rear? From what I've read, the big Chrystalites are best on the rear. They do put out that kinda force, especially if run at 48v and up. Smaller ones, 400 series and the WE, or Goldens are fine up front as long as the forks are steel. This can be a problem if you want suspension there, and nearly impossible if you want good suspension. Somebody needs to make a good suspension fork out of steel for us, but so far, I haven't found it. I really like front wheel drive though, since it gets hard to carry the battery anywhere else but a rear rack on a full suspension bike. With front drive the wheel pulls you through corners real sweet and the bike balances nice enough.

We or Clyte? How fast do you want to go? If you want real fast, the Phoenix racer, If you want to climb steep hills, the brute. On a budget? The WE is pretty good for the money. I went that way so I would be able to afford a good battery now, and upgrade motors later if I felt the need. Quality seems about the same on all the chinese made hubmotors. Good ones are great right out of the box, and bad ones blow in the first week. Some vendors of the Chrystalite stuff are doing thier own quality controll before they sell it to you. For me, I had to get warranty replacement of a charger, but both my we motors and controllers had no problems I didn't create. ( I climb too big a hill in too hot weather) Once you get a complete set of functioning stuff, most folks have no further problems for a long time. Anyhow, a WE brushed will go close to 20mph on 36v, and the controller can handle 48v no problems, giving close to 25 mph. For more volts than that, you need a different controller, and may have to install some compatible plugs at that point. I think the WE kits are a great way to start out, so if you don't like it, or quit for any reason, you are still not out so much money. They come with a 36v lead battery so you can try it out with that before you plunge in with thousands. The cheaper chrystalite motors ,400's may not perform at the same speed as the WE, depending on the model. The clytes come in more different windings and have differing performance for each one.

Voltage? Again, how fast? I think 25mph sustained speed is plenty. More than that for a full hour ride is sketchy in my opinion. Get a motorcycle and convert it to electric if you want that kind of speed. 30 down a few hills is one thing but for me, with many stops along the way, 25 mph is pretty fast allready, and you are betting your life above 25 on some pretty small stuff on a bike. my bikes are brushed hubs so they go 25 mph at 36 volts. For a ride as long as yours you will need the efficiency of brushless, so if 25 mph is enough, go 48v. Bear in mind you want to go 25miles. To make it, if it is 25 miles one way, you may have to slow down to 15 mph just to have the range anyway. Higher voltage than 48 to go 25 miles means you will be buying a really, really,.... really big battery and trying to figure out how to carry it.

Didn't quite cover it all. If you go WE, find the whole kit somewhere, good luck, sold out a lot of places. The connectors will not be compatible with Clyte stuff. Getting hard to get clyte too a lot of places. I got my last one at batteryspace. Some on Ebay claim to have it in stock. Warranty goes straight though WE. Lead will never get you 25 mile range, unless you ride real slow and have no hills. A 48v 20 ah Lifepo4 will do ya, just barely, which is not good since you will not make it if the wind blows hard in your face. Do you really need 25 miles with no break? Or do you just prefer to not charge at work? Anything above 20 miles is getting into carry a whole lot of batteries territory. Some do it with trikes and trailers, but then you lose a lot of the joy of an agile two wheeler. I have a hard time on the trike dodging debris and stuff unless I go super slow. In my opinion, once you have to carry multiple batteries, just run one down, and then switch to the other. That way if you have a problem with one, It can't damage the other, and you can just carry one on shorter trips. For Lifepo4, one of the best options is the ones from LiPing on ebay. I really really like mine, and his prices are good. Others we don't know about yet so If you buy one, let us know everything. You need a battery that puts out a minimum of 20 amps rated output to run a bike 25mph without problems. Many of the 10 ah ebay lifepo4's are rated less.

Wow, I clicked on your BL-36 for $275 link because I thought -- that's a fantastically great price, suspiciously so since they're usually around $450. It's just the bare motor, no controller, throttle, or batteries. Darn.

Why not get the full BL-36 set, put it on a Walmart $70 special, and get an extra charger for work?

K

The geared hubs are way lighter and more efficient, especially over the phoenix stuff. 8 pounds compared to 25! You can get a BMC rear hub and a Ping 48V 20AH LIFEPO4 battery (even a 15AH one is enough for that hub) and run at 48 volts, you will go over 25 MPH and have a 35 mile plus range easily. On flatter ground, you might go 50 miles. Ping is listing on ebay again and makes a reliable battery pack of a reasonable size.

http://cgi.ebay.com/48V-20AH-LiFePO4-Electric-Scooter-E-Bike-Ping-Battery_W0QQitemZ220260035379QQihZ012QQcategoryZ11332QQssPageN...

http://www.texaselectricbikes.com/catalog/brushless-geared-motor-p-163.html

E-crazyman just came out with a 48V 30 amp controller with new electronics that should run the BMC hub really well. Stock, the BMC kit comes with a 36V 25amp controller that is good for 21 mph. I just ordered one and will report how it works when I get it and hook it up. They call it the 27-mhz Infineon XC846 MCU - 48V PUMA controller. you can email Robert Nicholson,
rnich01 [at] optonline.net for info and ordering. Right now they have a special on them, $69.00 delivered.

Since you are going 12.5 miles one way, the BL kit may get you there,... unless its really that hilly. The BD will climb faster, but most likely poop out on you at about 8-10 miles with the batteries that come with the kit. The BL, if driven at 15 mph may just be able to get you there on the kit sla's, charge at work, and get you back once you learn how to conserve the battery. You will want to get a bigger, or a second battery to do that ride later, but while they are fresh, the kit batts may be able to just do it. It will be harsh on the batteries, but big deal if you are going to buy better ones by christmas.
If it is really hilly, like the hills are super steep, you may want to get the BD, and in a few years when it wears out, replace with a geared motor. If it is super super steep, go for the geared motor now.
If you do decide to go BD 36, mine would go about 8 miles and climb 700 vertical feet before the sla's that came in the kit went dead. So I had to get lifepo4 right away to make the 15.5 mile uphill ride to my house.

I'm obviously biased to the WE kits, but they have really worked good for me, and were cheap enough for me to buy two, and a 20ah lifo4.

Actually the BMC is a kit with controller and throttle, just no batteries. It seemed pretty pricy last spring, but now with many retailers going $600 for the WE kits, hmmm.

I really enjoy breezing by the biggest discount gas station in town twice a day.

I recently built two Crystalite cruiser bikes with front motors and 48V 20AH LiFePO4 packs on them. Both will easily go 30 miles at 25 mph with no pedaling at all. I think they would probably go 50 miles at 20 mph without pedaling. These are astonishing motors. They deliver an honest 30 mph on a 26" bike and can *accelerate* up most hills. I was careful to buy steel frame bikes with no front suspension and a very strong front fork. Those are actually getting hard to find. I got mine from Walmart for $47 each (they are Roadmaster "Mt. Fury bikes), but I had to upgrade the brakes on both bikes since they now weight around 75 lbs.