Kit Prices - Economy of Scale Question & Front hub to Rear Wheel??

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sstoro
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Joined: Saturday, August 25, 2007 - 08:59
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Kit Prices - Economy of Scale Question & Front hub to Rear Wheel??

Hello all. I'm a new user who has been reading this forum for the past month and really appreciate all of the good advice and suggestions on building electric bikes. I have been riding a junkyard acquired 18 speed with a refurbished WE BL36 kit for the last year and a half. My next project is to build a more "stealthy" rear hub driven bike. I use my present bike as a daily commuter and plan to use the new one for the same. My general question is why are kit prices so high? When I bought my refurbished kit from WE it was, if I recall correctly, $225.00 with everything included (hub on a 700c rim, rack, 36 volt, 7 amp/hr battery pack, controller, throttle, charger). Shipping brought it to around $250.00 total.

Now, over a year and a half later, there is a plethora of new companies selling basic derivations of the same kit at exorbitant prices! Seems to me that with all of the new competition prices should actually be lower now. What am I missing here? How are hub motors any different than new computers for example? The prices of basic kits now make me actually want to look at the complete bikes which can be bought from $350-$1500.

Finally has anyone out there been able to take a front hub and covert it to a rear hub with a freewheel? There is nothing wrong with my old WE BL36 even after over a year of use. I just need to buy new batteries.

Thanks again for this forum.

Steve


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