This is my old mountain bike - called the Centurion - that's probably how long it would have lay about not getting used until I converted it to electric. I took it into the Solar Bike shop in Fremantle and put on a pretty beefy kit! It's got a rear wheel 1000W motor and 48V battery now and the boys in there let me put it all together in the shop and give it a basic service for free - well I bought them a slab of beer actually for their assistance. Was great to have their experience with the assembly work. A couple of new tyres, some new cables and pads and it was the best birthday present a bike could get. It goes like brand new but feels like Cadel Evans is pedalling it for me. It's made life much easier getting around town now. No traffic, no sweat, no public transport stress and no more cost for me getting around for a few years till I need a new battery. The bike is great to ride but the motor is a bit fast. I can't keep up to the speed of the motor when I pedal so I'll either have to get a few more teeth on the front cog or else ease up a bit on the throttle. I love it and suprisingly am getting a pretty good daily workout

Bill, Feb 2016

This was a conversion put together by Ace Cyclery for a customer who had a light weight carbon Colnago. Some purists may be appalled at making such a beautiful thing electric but not the customer or creator. It was a challenge to find a suitable fork and some handlebar modifications were performed but now it is an increidbly light weight electric bike that will cover thousands more kilometres than it already has. It has a 400Wh Panasonic lithium ion battery in the frame and a light mini-motor up front. On a bike like this with a little input you could easily expect a 50km range. The new upright riding position will make it very comfortable.

Ace Cyclery, February 2016

Here we have a couple of electric bikes we put together and they couldn't have been more like chalk and cheese. The first one was brought in by a customer and in all honesty it was such a piece of junk that it was hard to talk the customer out of converting it. Anyway, ahead we went and put on the motor and battery he wanted. In the end, we had to put a new rear wheel on, new brakes, new cables, new seat post brackets etc. Was a lot of work scrubbing the grit out of the chain but in the end it was a pleasant surprise and it rode ok.

The next bike however was a pleasure to put together. A new Carpe 50 from ORBEA, everything went together so smoothly and the bike ran like a dream. This is really a top model for a great price. We used the Panasonic 11.6Ah 36V lithium ion tube battery pack and a rear mounted hub motor. These bikes have such nice geometry for a flat bar road style bike that it feels more like a hybrid but with great handling. All up a busy morning here.

Solar Bike, January 2016

It was a pleasure to set up a couple of my favourite electric bikes for my friends David and Rosy for some of the first for the new year. These were the Orbea Carpe 30 - a lovely bike with great riding geometry and hydraulic disc brakes. Rosy's was the Breezer uptown. A stylish ladies bike. Both are regular bikes we convert here in our new shop in Freo and I hope to do a bunch more this year!

Matt, Solar Bike, January 2016

Click here to see a VIDEO of a simple and elegant solution to convert a regular wheelchair into an electric one. The video shows the nimbleness and speed of the system doing laps around our shop. It was done using a set of BMX forks and bracing them onto a regular wheelchair. The customer and creator absolutely love it - and so do we. Nice work!

Perth Electric Bicycles and Solar Bike. November, 2015

This is a nice little number put together by Ace Cyclery this week. It's a Ladies XDS 8 speed deluxe with the long range Solar Bike kit (recently upgraded to 36V 17.4Ah rack Panasonic lithium ion battery). It uses a rear wheel drive kit so that there is no risk of too much weight being imposed on the forks due to a front baby seat installed on the head stem. Code Named BLACK BETTY!

This is a Solar Bike conversion kit put on a Zeitbikes shorthaul box bike. For those well travelled, you would have seen these types of bikes carrying kids, shopping and all manner of other items around many a beautiful European city. The lads down at South Beach Cycles in South Fremantle are fans of this type of bike and are the guys to see if you fancy getting one and having one of our electric kits put on it to make it much easier to pedal.

September, 2015

This is a classic model called the Papillionaire. It was made electric by Tony at Ace Cyclery in Palmyra. It's a lovely stylish cruising bicycle that sports a 3 speed Shimano Nexus internal hub gear. The bike is valued at around $600 and the electric kit comes in for around $1100. It should be seen cruising up and down the streets of Perth and Fremantle with a happy smiling rider for years to come.

Ace Cyclery, September 2015

Leif has come from Germany many years ago and has taken one of our custom models out into the bush to help him with his prospecting. The motorised rim on the front and pedal power to the rear means that he can ride over the bumpy and sandy terrain with little difficulty. First few weeks out there yielded 5 ounces of Gold! The solar panel helps to charge up the bike to get him a little extra distance.

Many thanks to Graeme, one of our customers, for this review. It has some good information on technical aspects of speed, power, weight, performance and general riding styles.

On the road

I suppose the first thing to say is that I really like this electric bike. It is definitely still a bicycle – it is not a moped and it’s not a little motorbike. On the road I first rode the bike just as a bicycle with the motor switched off – the bike is a bit heavier than a normal bike, noticeably up hill, but on the flat it felt no different and there is no additional noise or friction because of the motor and kit being fitted . The bike was still smooth with no frame flexing or awkward weight distribution and all feels good. Presumably the tubular battery weight being centralised and the bike's rigid frame help this.

With the motor in use, the combination of bike and my own power is great fun. Acceleration from a standstill is quite strong and means I never really come off the big chain ring at the front and apart from hills only use the highest 4 gears at the back. Once on the flat and cruising at typically 32 to 35 km/h it can feel like the motor isn’t doing much, but hit a small climb or a headwind and I soon realised that I very rarely dropped below 30km/h and this makes journey averages even with headwinds stay quite high.  Overall I still get a good work out but it all happens just that bit quicker and easier. As a final delight – it is great that the whole thing is almost silent when flying along.  The only wining I get is from a few of the luddite cyclists that think you are somehow going against the purity of cycling - but what do they know?

Power and speed

There are some good write ups on the net about bicycles and human power that go into more detail on the science etc. I ride a racer bike regularly to work and on weekends and I find that on a typical ride of 2 or 3 hours I average about 30km/hr. For the more serious cyclists this isn’t particularly fast – for a recreational cyclist this is not bad going. With my electric bike, it is possible to not use the motor and just ride it as a regular bicycle. Apart from up steep hills where you notice the weight, it still performs well so it's no real concern if the battery goes flat out on a ride.  I found that riding my electric bike – using the electrical drive only gave almost exactly the same performance as riding it with no power and just me pedalling only.  In flat out power, I can do better than the electric – but for sustained power me and the motor are pretty much equal. This was kind of the plan – I didn’t want something super powerful –  but I was surprised it turned out so well. Electrically, I tend to ride the bike on full power all the time, unless the conditions hold you back

So, with me pedalling and the bike at full power the total power is about double. Something to remember is that if you double the power you don’t double the speed. Think for example about my bike with about 200 watts will do about 30km/h and Valentino Rossi’s race motorbike has more like 200 thousand watts and does about 320km/h -  I know they are not quite the same, but you see the point  – Rossi’s bike has a thousand times the power but only goes about 10 times faster - so the relationship of power to speed is not linear, and speed is the cube root of power (cube root of 1000 is 10). Similarly, if you have a bike with 8 times the power it will go 2 times as fast ( the cube root of 8 is 2) and if you have a bike with 2 times the power (like my bike ) it will go about 1.25 times as fast  (cube root of 2 is about 1.25 )  So – whereas the bike will do about 30km/h with just the motor and about 30 km/h with just me – together we can go about 38km/h flat out.

The bike and the build

I purchased a Giant Cross City 4 bike. The cross city 4 has Chrome Moly forks and an alloy frame, large 700C wheels and 24 speed Shimano gears. As a road bike this is a really nice smooth bike. It weighs in at 12.1kg which isn’t bad for the price and the intention, By comparison my Giant TCR full carbon road bike weighs 8.8 kg. Having the 700c wheels makes the cross city roll as easily as a road bike so this is a quick comfy bike. The tyres are a bit bigger at 32mm (700C32) where the road bike is a 23 (700C23) but this is probably better when a motor is being fitted.

So, the electric kit. I went for the front wheel type smaller size motor which as I understand it, is similar for the 200w and the 350 watt set-ups, and got the Panasonic 36V, 11.5 amp hour tube type battery that mounts to the front frame down tube where the water bottle holder would normally go. The motor comes as a complete front wheel to which you fit your original front tyre and inner tube. The battery comes with a bracket that mounts to the bike frame using the water bottle holder bolts. The battery then snaps in to this bracket and requires a key to remove it. The battery like this rattles around a bit, but the kit includes some sturdy Velcro straps that fasten around the battery and bike frame and hold it all good and secure and no movement or rattle. Once all was fitted It was back on the scales. The cross city with the full kit fitted weighed 18.3kg, so the kit itself weighs just 6.2 kg which I thought was pretty good.

I fitted a wireless cat eye speedometer, fitted the sensor to the new front wheel, measured the circumference of the wheel (one revolution marked on the floor) as 2156mm and dialled this in to the speedo. With the battery fully charged I was able to lift the bike’s front wheel into the air and drive it with no load. With no load, the motor quickly accelerates in what feels like a series of steps as the thumb throttle is slowly rotated the ninety or so degrees from zero position to full. At 100% throttle the motor was able to drive the wheel to 39.6km/h where it quickly settled and then ran at this constant speed. When the throttle is closed off, the motor quickly comes to a stop but the front wheel continues to rotate freely showing very little friction.

Overall I was really satisfied with how comprehensive and easy to fit the kit was and now many months later it still seems solid and has had no issues or failures even in wet weather. The charger and peripheral gear are still all working great.

From Graeme, August 2015

Hi Matthew. Just to let you know that I'm getting along famously with the bike. I turned eighty last year and was finding even a moderate  incline or head wind were a bit of a problem. Now with a bit of help from my Solar Bike kit I'm enjoying cycling again. Should have made the change years ago!

Many thanks, Doug Amey

The COM8 from XDS is now our new favourite bike to make electric for the everyday commuter. Click here for bicycle specifications. It's such a smooth bicycle to ride and with the SHIMANO NEXUS internal hub, gear changes are extremely simple and quiet. It's really well designed for commuting, comfortable, well priced and nice looking. Please come by our shop if you want to test ride it. All up, for $1900 it's very hard to beat!

PERTH ELECTRIC BICYCLES, July 2015

This is the Rat Fink from Electra that has been made electric using the Solar Bike electric bicycle conversion kit by Ace Cyclery in Palmyra. Click here to see the video. It uses the tubular shaped Panasonic lithium ion battery and a mini-hub motor. The Rat Fink is the limo of choppers. It is even better when it's electric. It combines health, ease of transport, comfort and style all into one. It's a great bike to make electric! Please drop by Ace Cyclery if you are interested in a vintage, retro or cool bike to make electric. There are a range of them there and Tony is an expert in putting them all together!

Ace Cyclery, Palymra, WA, July 2015

Snow on the hills here this morning – but nothing stops the daily commute. My trusty Solar Bike kit has now been running for over 15,000 km!  Couldn’t live without it! The 1st battery survived a bit over 2.5 years and was run for 30km/day 5 times a week. I was initially a little disappointed about the longevity but there is simply no cost comparison against car or even public transport (bus) – the battery pays for itself in 10 weeks of driving and about 20 of using the bus, although the convenience, flexibility, and relaxed commuting are priceless. The help I’ve received from emailing directly has been nothing short of excellent. I asked about the initial purchase, battery installation, and about switch wiring; everything was promptly and clearly explained.

Patrick, Canberra, July 2015

This is a pretty solid bike to make electric. It's the Urban 20 from ORBEA. We put on the new mini-motor kit that comes in black and is laced into a deep dish 50mm red rim. Looks neat and can be driven hard up to 500W. The bike's great, it can really be thrown around easily and is also great for commuting with the 700c rims.

Perth Electric Bicycles, July 2015

Rusdy is one of the few people who have gone the extra distance to make their ebike solar powered. He's even created a solar controller specifically for his own solar panel he had. This bike has managed to clock up over 11,000 km in a couple of years with our kit and the sun (please read review below). He has come to an interesting conclusion that riding an electric bike is cheaper than riding a regular bike - based on the cost of food to produce the calories required to ride a certain distance. Please click here to read more on that. His review on our electric conversion kit is below.

Just want to say thanks for the reliability of your product. After 2 years of heavy use, i.e. 11,000km and 500 deep discharge-charge cycles, I can't comment enough on how reliable the system has been. I'm still on the same battery and using 70-80% of its capacity each day. The only minor problems to date that were easily fixed were that the battery holder bottom mount cracked - easily replaced by velcro straps and the battery internal fuse blew, also easily fixed. I've dropped the battery from 1-metre height, twice, to no detrimental effect (by accident of course)! Also, I've been using solar panel direct charging, so I've been commuting for free. By by own calculation, electric bike commuting is actually cheaper than human powered too!

The Happy New year has started with a pretty flash looking setup from Ace Cyclery!

This is the GHOST RIDER from ELECTRA! Nice features include an aluminium frame, SHIMANO Nexus Internal 3spd hub with coaster brake and extra long chrome plated triple crown forks! The frame geometry is a perfect balance of comfort and technology, you sit lower while maintaining your correct pedal rotation. Wide swept back bars with Fatti-O Tyres for extra comfort make this cruiser a stand out!  We fitted a Solar Bike Super Tube Electric Conversion Kit to make it the ultimate Cruiser. Price is $1,195 for the bike plus $1,200 for the 11.6ah Super tube Solar Bike kit.

Tony, Ace Cyclery.

Louise has a bad case of crashing bicycles, 3 stacks in a month at one point. A sand pit, a sprinkler and a recycling bin being responsible for them. So, when 3am came around at a party and a kid's bike was on offer she couldn't resist paying $100 for the lovely purple thing. The lower centre of gravity, slower speed and red seat all great factors in contributing towards a safer ride. However, upon awakening in the morning and going for the first ride, it was obvious that it wouldn't be a great commuting machine. The answer was simple though, put an electric motor on it!

This lovely bike now has a little front hub motor and a seat pole mounted battery and the transformation to riding ease is fabulous. It should be seen for many years now happily cruising the streets of Fremantle.

This was a really nice ebike we put together recently. It's the Electra Townie ladies' edition. Electra have developed what they call "Flat Foot Technology", it's a way of moving the pedals forward so you can sit closer to the ground and still get a full leg extension when you pedal. It's really a lovely bike to ride and has quite a different feel to similar ones. The kit is an 11Ah Solar Bike complete 200W kit.

From Ace Cyclery, Palmyra.

Sherridan from Cafe Vinyl - cool coffee shop next to Solar Bike - looking cool on the new electric tricycle. Beautiful electric blue! Our new mechanic is delivering top quality coffees and sweets around Perth.

This is a 3 speed internal hub 24" Gomier ticycle fitted out with our 24" front hub tube kit. Goes really well for a tricycle and perfect for shopping or just cruising around the neighbourhood.

Tony from Ace Cyclery in Palmrya has one of the best range of vintage, retro and cool bikes in Perth. This is one of his numerous electric creations. If you're interested in getting one custom built then it's definitely worth a trip to his shop to see what he has in stock and what he can build.

This is the Electra Straight 8 men's beach cruiser. It features a light weight internal 3spd hub, back pedal brake and front disk brake. It's fitted with an 11.6ah super tube kit. $2,299 excellent value !!!

This is a recent setup we performed on an Urban 20 from ORBEA (retails for $650). The bike is nearly perfect for electric conversion. It has a high tensile steel fork so you can put any motor you like up to 1000W on the front and it comes with a 7-speed rear cluster that you can re-use on a rear wheel kit if you'd prefer rear wheel drive. Here, we've set it up with a 500W rear wheel kit and tubular lithium ion battery ($1050 for kit). The bikes are available in medium, large and extra large. This one here is the medium but it's more like a small. The bike has a single gear on the front so we mount the throttle on the left hand and shifters stay on the right. It rides well, is very tough and has that Spanish style that ORBEA are known for!

Matt, Perth, October 2014

This is an awesome commuting bike. It's the GIANT SEEK 1. It's their top of the range SEEK model and it works really well with the tube conversion kit. The bike is great because it has an internal 8 speed SHIMANO hub and hydraulic disc brakes. It's really tough and light weight and looks good with the large white tyres. Super easy to ride and no maintenance at all required. It's right up there for our pick of the top commuting electric bikes for speed, practicality, looks and toughness. You can get the bike from any bike shop that sells GIANT for $1050 and the kit from us for $1050. Really good choice if you're looking to get rid of the car or sweat on your way to work.

Matt, Solar Bike

Who knows how many people have called this bike a piece of shit over the last 10 years but now it's a dual suspension 1000W piece of awesomeness. Ok, the disc brakes function similar to a sand shoe pushed onto the tyre. The front suspension feels a little like it's got a perished rubber band inside it and the rear one may be similar to a rusty pogo stick but it still rocks! Now it's going to be my main piece of transport for all those nights out to save on taxi fares and there will be no more waiting in traffic jams for me. Days of fun ahead.

Dodgy Dan.

This fixie was just something that I put together from a crashed Carbon racer to demo in the shop. It's been converted to single speed and shows the versatility of the Solar Bike electric kits. We can convert anything here, even your old wheel barrow. The carbon fibre electric fixie goes great!

Tony, September 2014

These are two recent setups by Ace Cyclery in Palmyra. They were for ladies with babies. It was difficult to use a regular rack battery because baby seats require a specialised rack to clip to the baby seat. The tube battery offered a good alternative as it could be placed in different locations. All electrical components and labour cost each of these ladies $1200. The top bike is a Giant ladies hybrid bike and the bottom one is an XDS ladies vintage bike. Teddy bear is an optional extra!

The Professor needed to do a bit of travelling so converted his FELT bicycle with a speedy kit. It was a carbon bike so he needed to put a set of SURLY forks on to support the motor. Initially, he had a long range rear rack battery (36V 16Ah) that lasted him around 45km. After moving, he was required to travel 54km from Rockingham up to Perth to run his research lab. This extra distance was beyond the range limit of the first battery so about a year later he added a super tube battery (36V 11.6Ah). These batteries were hooked up in parallel to give a total of 27.6Ah and resulted in a greater range - and a little more speed and power apparently.

His words on the extra battery: "The extra battery works a treat.  It has also picked up a bit of speed. 54 km in 1hr 34, including stops at traffic lights, road works, head wind, etc.  Averaging 33-34 km per hour. No more dramas.  Also you can charge both batteries from the one charger. Not sure about range but I'd say I could easily push for 70 km.  The pick up in speed/power was noticeable.  I am biking home 2-3 times a week depending on the weather.

The Professor, July 2014.

This is a Flat Bar road bike from XDS that's becoming a favourite to electrify. It's the Com 8 model. It works well as a commuting bike because it has great geometry for comfort and speed and an 8 speed internal nexus shimano hub gear that's worth a few hundred dollars on its own. We're using the super tube Panasonic tube battery on this one, it can get a range of about 40-50km with moderate rider input. Please come into our store if you'd like to get one made up for yourself - or choose one of many other unique bikes. 14 Carrington st, Palmyra.

Ace Cyclery

ACE CYCLERY is a bike shop in Palmyra, WA. They specialise in retro and vintage bicycles. This is one of their choice bicycles to convert. It's called the Felt. It comes together beautifully with the mini-motor tube kit. Please visit their store to chat to the owner and see a range of their stylish bicycles that can be made electric.

Ace Cyclery, 14 Carrington street, Palymra, WA.

I purchased a Solar Bike electric bike kit through George's Bike Shop in Willetton just before Christmas. It's great, the bike is a heavy beach cruiser with wide tyres, more style than efficiency, but the 350w Solar Bike kit powers it up the hills between Hilton and downtown Fremantle. The few times I have taken it downtown, there has been a crowd of people around it, taking photos too.

This bike was set up for someone who travels about 25km from here to there every working day. Not happy with a slow speed, he electrified a MASI with a 1000W motor and 48V 10Ah tube battery. To get a high pedal speed that could match the motor he had to change the rear gear (originally single speed) to an 8 speed internally hubbed Shimano Nexus gear. It is a real treat to ride and is possibly what I would consider an ideal solution for daily commuting. It gets going very quickly but you can still pedal to put in a decent amount of effort.

I have been riding a Solar Bike now for 2 months - highly recommended by a work colleague that has had one for 5 years. It was a fit out of my existing mountain bike done by Matt from solar bike in Perth. I can say I'm really enjoying the 42km round trip to and from work, the near empty cycle paths along the coast are far more enjoyable than driving stuck in traffic and it's only several minutes slower than commuting by car. Not having to deal with traffic bottlenecks is a real blessing. I pedal the bike as well to give the battery maximum overall longevity and for fitness and in 5 weeks managed to drop 4kg to my ideal weight. In busy areas I will drop the throttle and just pedal.This world needs more green solutions. Taking my car off the road, saving money on fuel, not servicing cars and clocking up kilometers riding a solar bike is ideal and gives you a good feeling that you are doing something for yourself and the planet. I highly recommend getting one - you won't regret it!

Justin, Perth

I fitted out my Giant Cross City 4 with a 500w motor and tube battery about 18 months ago.  Matt was a great help regarding set up and discussing which of the many options was best for me. Since then I have ridden 180km a week every week on my commute to work. The bike has been fantastic and one of the best things I've ever done.

Firstly, it's quicker than driving or public transport when you consider door to door times.  Secondly, free but mild excercise out in the fresh air means you get to your destination refreshed and not sweaty - the motor assistance cuts into the Freo Dr with ease, past most of the struggling lycra set too! Lastly, it's super cheap, I'm saving over $80 a month in train fares.

Here's a photo of my well loved ride, resting at home after another full week of active duty. You'll notice duct tape around the battery which is my low-tech method of adding some support to the battery cradle when going over bumps and potholes.

Happy Mark

I bought my 200W conversion kit back in Feb 2011 and have now ridden over 21,000 km on it. The water-bottle-style battery and the motor are both still going strong. I travel 250km a week to and from work, I pedal hard and only use the motor to go up tough inclines. The Solar Bike stuff is great, but the Trek FX7 it was fitted to is now dead. At 16,000 km all the drivetrain had to be replaced due to the heavy usage, costing $300. The original rear wheel popped about 15 spokes, even though the battery was on the frame and the motor in the front wheel. Now the actual frame where the rear wheel is clamped in has snapped off. None of this is covered by warranty even though it has a lifetime warranty on the frame. How is that for reliability of the Solar Bike kit? It outlasted the brand new bike, complete with a ‘lifetime warranty’ – amazing stuff!

Troy, Dianella

I've had a couple of solar powered electric bikes running well for the last 6 months so it's probably about time I wrote a review of the systems.

My wife works 24 km away in West perth & used to commute by car. I always thought this was insane. Apart from the painful drive, it costs a fortune to park. My wife had a few goes at riding to work; starting by riding one way & then getting the train home She'd leave the bike at work and ride home the next day. This seemed like a pretty good compromise between convenience & physical effort and continued until one day when I found myself at a bike shop and saw a Malvern Star with a Solar Bike conversion kit on it. This was the first electrically assisted bike I'd seen that looked like a normal bike & not something your granny would take to the shops with a basket on the front. We took it for a test ride, mulled it over in the tavern with a beer and then bought it. My wife loves it! No more dealing with rude selfish people on the train, she gets a lot of exercise without killing herself and it's just a lot of fun.

The best way I can describe it is: it completely flattens out the hills; you get all the good bits about riding a bike without the pain. You use the throttle to get you going from a standing start & to pull you up the hills or into a head wind and it's even possible to tow the kiddie trailer with ease.

We were hooked & I wanted to join in. I bought the online special. At the time it was an 11Ah super tube kit with a solar charging set up. I fitted the kit to a Giant Cross City myself in about an hour. Really quite easy. The only modification I made was to put the thumb throttle on the left side, leaving my right thumb free to change gears.

I set the solar charging kit up in my shed, with the panel on the roof, this was a bit more technical but not complicated. The solar panel charges a lead acid battery during the day & then this charges the bike when you get home in the evening (when the sun is gone). This has worked very well for the three days a week my wife goes to work, but struggled a bit to charge both bikes if we used them at the weekend too. To be fair though, this is during winter with limited sun available. I expect this to change during summer. And even now in spring it's worked perfectly. I also use it to charge my bike lights. Of course it's possible to charge from mains if the solar system gets low.

I took the super tube kit out recently for a bit of a distance test. Using the power only when I needed it (up hills & into a head wind). It was going so well I decided to head home via the coast, unfortunately into a strong head wind. Eventually running out of charge at 56.76 Km. I believe if I hadn't struggled into the wind, I would have made the last 7 Km home. Still a pretty good effort!

My wife averages 28Kph to work, passing many "roadies" along the way. I heard recently that the average speed of cars on the freeway at that time in the morning is 32Kph. Considering the bike takes you from door to door (no looking for expensive parking, & walking the rest of the way), then traveling time is comparable to the car.

The biggest difference is that riding the bike is enjoyable & something to look forward to, not a stressful, frustrating, chore of a car trip. My 1st choice for transport is now the electric bike. Our 2 year old son loves riding in the child seat or trailer. Trips to the shops are a pleasurable adventure and it gives me great satisfaction that the powered assistance comes from the sun.

Regards,

Gareth.

We've just added a folding electric bicycle to our range of ebikes. We previously tried importing a few ready to ride electric bicycles but all of them were quite poor quality and were really wobbly on the road. We also found it hard to find a decent folding bicycle that could be folded well with a conversion kit - but finally we have one! The bike we will now use is the Giant Expressway (2), it is a lightweight folding bicycle with an aluminum frame. It has 20" wheels and rides very smoothly. It can be folded to take on a train or put in a car but it is large enough to handle very well. We use a special 20" conversion kit with a seat pole mounted Samsung lithium ion battery (36V 9Ah). The electric motor has lots of torque at low speeds because of the small rim size so it will pull you up any hill. This bicycle is extremely zippy and will ride far better than any production line folding bicycle due to the light weight quality bicycle and electric components.

Matt, Solar Bike, September 2013

This is my electric recumbent I made. It's running with a mini-motor and a 36V 11.6Ah tube battery. I do about 4 rides a week on it for 2 and a half hours. My top speed ranges from 17 - 21 miles/hour but the motor tops out at about 16 miles/hour so anything over this speed means the motor is mainly free-wheeling. I've never dropped the battery to below 50% capacity during this time. Whilst excellent, like many others I'd like a higher top speed. I'm considering over-volting it with a 48V battery or getting a rear wheel motor, as the larger diameter will help with top speed.

Jim, Florida.

This was made for a customer in Jurien Bay. Here is a slideshow of its making and a short video of a test ride.

1000W Electric Industrial Gomier Tricycle Video!

This is Dismantle's cargo bike that has now been made electric. It uses a tube battery and 20" disc front hub motor. It will be a mobile bicycle repair unit. Tool boxes are being made and soon Pat will be riding it around to various schools to teach bicycle skills to school children.

Matt & Pat, Dismantle, Fremantle, August 2013

40 ks of funking every day! No gas, no trash, no fumes, no rush, no sound, no traffic, no lycra, no car, no sweat, no worries!

Dave, Perth 2013

I can't remember exactly when I bought my 500w kit. At any rate, I thought you might enjoy this recent snap of my trusty steed, having made it up the steep climb to Crack Neck Lookout, Central Coast NSW, near where I now reside. Everything is performing perfectly.

Col, Central Coast, NSW, July 2013

Robert took advantage of The Big Issue electric bicycle project to convert a rarely used Raleigh into an electric commuting machine with a 500W super tube kit. The project offers a $100 discount and a year's membership to Dismantle in Fremantle - which gives you free workshop use and help with any bicycle work from numerous mechanics. These were his comments after converting:

"I haven't stopped smiling since we converted the Raleigh. I tried a long 40km + trip around the river on the weekend. It took 1hr 14min at an average speed of 32km/h. This was also into a head wind. I still had one green light on the battery after using quite a bit of power to counter the head wind. Mind you, I was giving the peddles a work out too! So with judicious use you might get 50k from the battery. Am loving it!"

Robert, Fremantle.

My wife and I purchased this Nihola trike so she could take our son to school. It is an extremely well made cargo bike from Denmark but it is nearly impossible to ride up in the hills - especially with our growing son and groceries. We researched making it electric and Solar Bike seemed the best choice. I had a lot of correspondence with Matt and we sent a lot of pictures and ideas and in the end we put a rear wheel conversion kit on it. It makes an incredible difference now, it is truly a practical form of transport now and is well used and loved. We had to make a sacrifice with the gears, the bike came with an internal 8 speed hub and we had to lose that. The rear wheel has a 6 speed cluster on it but it is only setup as a single speed. If I get the time I may put a derailieur on it so I can use the 6 gears but it actually works very well with the single speed because the motor is very strong. We did have one problem with a failed Hall sensor in the motor after some extreme riding up a very steep hill with no pedal assistance. It was all resolved easily enough though, Matt drove over an hour to get up here and fixed it up for free because renting a trailer and a car was quite difficult for me to get it down to him at the beach. I am very happy now.

Shital, Perth, May 2013

I had a 200W Solar Bike 9Ah Swift Kit put on my cross-country bike and I must say I am absolutely wrapped with the performance and ease of riding. It is a real hoot! People look in amazement at me riding uphill without pedalling! I had the system fitted by Matt's installer in Adelaide (Mic Chapman) and he did a super job. All round, a great package and a very good deal! If you live in Adelaide and would like to see the bike, let me know, I am more than happy to show and recommend this system to any potential buyer. My business is LEDsignSupplies, it's in Kent Town.

Keep up the good work and thanks again.

Peter, Adelaide

All up, extremely happy with both product, advice and service.

Rusdy, Perth

I came from Brazil to study at the University of Western Australia for a year. Getting around Perth isn't too hard but it can take long times and it can be difficult to get home at night after 12pm if you're in the city. I got an electric bicycle and it has made life so much easier and I save lots of time and money. I chose the electric fixie and put a 500W motor on it with a super tube battery. I can travel about 50km if I pedal heaps and about 25km if I don't pedal much. My ride to university is 9km along Striling highway and it takes me 12 to 16 minutes on my bike depending on how hard I pedal. If I use the bus it takes twice as long and when there is traffic it's terrible and can sometimes take more than 45 minutes. I love it and am wondering how I can take it back to Brazil.

Bruno, Brazil

My mountain bike was sitting around hardly getting any use. My friend got a Solar Bike kit put on his mountain bike and said it changed his life so I decided to do the same. I wanted something that gets about 40km/h so I chose the 1000W kit. I didn't want the rack battery because I like to keep things compact but the 48V tube battery didn't fit in the frame so I mounted it on the top bar. Works like a charm. It's so quiet and fast but still very safe. My friend was right - changes your life! It's simply just faster, cheaper and much more fun that driving a car in traffic. Get one!

Neil, Perth

We have responded to popular demand and produced a box cargo bike with a Solar Bike conversion kit! This can be fitted to both our Longhaul and Shorthaul cargo bikes. It is a great value for money option for electric box bike enthusiasts who would like some extra power. Available in Melbourne or parts can be shipped Australia wide.

www.cargocycles.com.au

My fantastic brother put this electric solar bike kit on my Canondale for me for my Christmas present this year! It's the greatest present I've ever received and I'm loving it. I use it to get from Kingston, through Taroona, into the city and back - about a 25km ride all up. There are many big hills around Hobart and this just flies up them all. I still ride a lot so get a lot of exercise but it makes it so much more comfortable with the electric assistance and is now my first choice of transport for journeys less than around 30km. I generally just ride normally on the flat and only push the throttle from time to time but I hold it full throttle on all the hills and with a bit of pedalling it can get up even the steepest hills around here - and there are a lot of them. It's a really convenient form of transport and it's great not to rely on the car so much.

Simona, Tasmania

This is a very good commuter bicycle for the money. It's the Malvern Star Sprint - a flat bar road bike with the 200W mini-motor and Panasonic tube battery. Range about 35-50km depending on rider input. Great Value for $1750.

Perth Electric Bicycles

This was a Chopper that was converted by Matt from Brizzie Bikes (in Brisbane) for a Gold Coast customer who is considering plans to rent them out. The Chopper is an amazingly in-practical form of transport and it takes a bit of getting used to - whether no power, electric or petrol powered - but they are comfortable. Not sure how these plans will pan out but it does look pretty damn cool! This Chopper is using the street legal 200W mini-motor and long range battery (36V 16Ah) so it should have a range of about 60km. Plans are under way to test a high-powered version out.

This conversion was for a customer that brought his bicycle into the shop. It's a retro style Schwinn road cruiser bike. It came together quite nicely and rides a lot easier for having the kit put on it. The black and yellow colour scheme also worked well. It is using the 200W mini-motor and an 11Ah rack battery that will give it a range of about 40km, cruises on the flat at around 28km/h without pedalling.

PERTH ELECTRIC BICYCLES, 926 Hay st, Perth CBD.

Thanks for a nice kit, it was easy to assemble. I got about 38km last night and had one green bar left so the range is good. Thanks for providing the small zip ties and bag, it is a very complete kit.

Christopher

I've had this tricycle for a while but now that I'm over 80 I found I didn't have the power to pedal it up some of the hills around King's Park. I rang up Matthew and he came over and converted it to electric. It's absolutely fabulous now, I use it for a 14km round trip to get the shopping and for exercise. I absolutely love riding and this has now enabled me to get outside and do some exercise whilst being comfortable in the hilly areas. It's wonderful to ride around King's park and I don't know how I managed without it. Thanks.

A number of years ago I started Solar Bike with a goal to get electric bicycles running on hydrogen produced from algae. There are quite a few hurdles to achieve that goal but it is very possible. It was great to re-visit Prof Peer Schenk, who was my PhD supervisor 5 years ago, at the University of QLD to see the effort he has been making with algal biofuel projects. Many researchers often aim for very technical and highly engineered solutions. Peer aims for a very low energy and low tech solution; he is aware that the energy required to setup and run the operation must not exceed that which you can get from the algal biomass itself.

The top left picture shows some of the hundreds of algal strains Prof Schenk and his team have collected, isolated and grown up as pure cultures in the last 4-5 years. It is a very laborious and difficult task to isolate just one pure strain from a pool of murky water so it is an incredible accomplishment to collect so many strains and identify and characterise their potential practical uses. They often do mutational and selection studies in the laboratory to speed up evolution for higher amounts of oil or other products and then send these strains over to me at UWA to analyse for fatty acid content or other products. The top right picture shows one of their "mid-scale" growing bags that they use to keep stocks of pure cultures for times when the larger ponds get contaminated. The bottom left picture shows a small raceway pond, powered with solar panels, that is used to test both fluid dynamics with different pond designs and also strain ability to survive temperature fluctuation and contamination pressure. You can see from the picture this strain didn't do so well. The bottom right picture is a much larger facility that is under construction. It is being used to test an extremely low energy input system for growing and harvesting algal strains - using nearly all recycled materials. It is situated on the Brisbane river and they will use brackish water pumped from the river into a top pond. The water will drift by gravity through a series of "growth" and "fattening up" ponds that will be driven by solar powered paddle wheels, then it will pass to a final gravity based settlement pond, the algal biomass will be harvested and solar dried on special mats. Depending on the strains that are growing, they have developed techniques to settle and harvest the algal biomass from the large volume of water. Low energy harvesting of algae from the liquid culture is perhaps the most challenging step to a successful system. It's part a biological challenge, part chemical and largely an engineering challenge. As well as producing biofuel, another of their aims with this large pond they are building here is to produce algal biomass to feed cattle. Preliminary studies have shown an increase in growth performance using algal biomass. They are hoping to also produce beef that has high levels of the important omega 3 fatty acids that usually come from fish (fish get the good fatty acids from their algal diet). If any phytosterols accumulate in the animals then there is also potential for lower cholesterol and high omega 3 beef! You can see more of their work they do here: http://www.algaebiotech.org/

Good work Peer and team!

If you happen to knock on the door of an Italian home, the host will likely yell out "Avanti!", this means come in or literally "forward". The Kiwis must have liked this word and it's been working for them because Avanti is a New Zealand bike factory that's been successfully designing and building bicycles for over 25 years. The "Blade" model first came out in 2003 and production continues today because it's always been a super well priced bicycle that is light and quick. It's a perfect bicycle for people who want to commute quickly but don't like to hunch over like beetles on traditional road bikes. This year's Blade 1 model is fantastic for electric conversion because it has a light Formtech alloy frame and Cr-Mo forks. The price is below $500 in bike shops and with a conversion kit makes a very cheap and high performance electric bicycle. It's built for speed and comfort and suits motors between 200W - 500W. Pictured above is a 500W setup we performed for a customer today with a new 11.5Ah Panasonic lithium ion tube battery.

Matt, Solar Bike

I have covered many hundreds to thousands of kilometres on my bike with the Solar Bike kit. I am extremely pleased with it! My main concern was the battery but I am happy to report that the extra money paid for the long range battery was money well spent. I can travel around 100 km on one charge, albeit with considerable pedalling assistance. I am totally amazed! The 200w motor is more than adequate. It has plenty of grunt so I wonder why people would want the more powerful motors that drain the battery quicker. Several of my friends and work colleagues have had a go at me for fitting a motor to my bike.  They reckon I should just get a gopher and be done with it. Even though I know this is light hearted banter, I tend to pedal as much as I can. I live in the Adelaide Hills, the terrain around my home is very steep.  I can ride my bike to just about anywhere in and around Adelaide, but without the motor I can't get home again. I am 57 years of age, I think the best thing about having the motor fitted on my bike is the "insurance" factor.  It removes the anxiety that I used to suffer when I went on a long ride and was concerned about not having enough energy in my body to get home.  Now, if I feel like I am running out of steam, I know I can rely on the motor to get me home.  A far more relaxing and therefore therapeutic ride. Thank you for a brilliant product and truly excellent service.

Live long and prosper!

Brenton Barron

The Giant Roam (2013) is a 29er that is good for electric conversion (only suitable with mini-motor). If your commute to work involves a fair bit of stop-starting and up and down curbs then an electric 29er is a good option. A 29er is essentially a mountain bike but with the slightly larger 700c rims. With slick tyres, it makes a very handy and fun electric commuting tool. Bike retails for $600, electric kit for $1050.

Perth Electric Bicycles

Over the past 3 years I've purchased 3 kits from Solar Bike. The first 2 are always being used by family members. Recently, I decided to build a high power electric bicycle. I had been looking for a downhill frame but then I noticed the Phasor Prototype frame and the fun began. It has a Fox rear shock and Marzocchi forks, with 200mm front and rear travel. The bike produces 4000 watts and the battery has a 1.3 kWh capacity. The 100 volt battery can be charged in 1 hour. The battery was made here in Perth and the charger is a 1500 Watt Elcon charger. With moderate pedalling, I get 60-70 kilometers out of the battery. My commute to work is 46 km, so plenty left in the battery – especially if speed is kept to 30-40kms per hour with some pedalling. I have the controller in a position for airflow and also easy to touch to make sure it's not too hot. I’ve had this bike up to 88 km/h on a slight downhill. The battery reads 100.8 volts hot off a charge and drops down to 94 volts after a 25km ride. It’s set to cut off at 84 volts for protection.  

It wasn't cheap but it’s awesome and I’m absolutely loving it. I paid the following for all the main parts:
  
$1500        Dual suspension components
$750          Kit (Motor, controller and throttle)
$1400        Battery
$300          Charger
$2400        Frame (including postage)

Rod, Perth

I have a 12 km ride to work (24km return) and wanted to ride every day so my teenage daughter could share my car.  After 12 months I decided that my 49 year old body was never going to be fit enough to ride every day so I started researching electric bikes.  After months of internet research and test riding the two local electric bikes I decided on Solar bike.  Solar bike appeared to have quality parts and battery, a reliable motor and I was confident Matt would be around to offer technical support should something go wrong or breakdown. I emailed and spoke to Matt at Solarbike several times and he was fantastic, always supplying the information I was after without pushing a sale. I eventually decided on the 200 watt mini motor with water bottle style battery.  I originally wanted the carrier style battery for extra distance but they were out of stock and while waiting I changed my mind.  In hindsight it was the best decision as the smaller battery is lighter and sits better on the bike and still allows me approximately 50 kms of riding.  I started charging the battery every 2 days for convenience but  I now charge it each night as I usually detour on the way home and travel over 30km and I don't want to run the battery flat. Not being much of a bike mechanic I was worried about installing the kit myself but decided to give it a shot; I was amazed at how easy it was.  About 2 hours and it was going, and that included putting the front wheel on the wrong way so the motor ran backwards. I have been riding every work day for 6 months now and am still loving it.  Even on days when I'm feeling tired I know I can slack off and use the motor a bit more without worrying about hitting a headwind or struggling up hills.  I also use the bike more for any short trips up to 5-10 kms. Many people have asked me what riding an electric bike is like, the simple answer is it's like riding on flat ground with no headwind - all the time. I average about 27-28km/h on the flat, and about 20km/h up normal size hills. I'm 90kg's and reasonably fit and I still get a good workout during the ride as the 200 watt motor needs a reasonable amount of rider input to stay at 28km/h.  If you are over 90kg's or not fit you may want to consider the 350 watt motor. I can confidently recommend Solarbike if you are interested in an electric bike. Thanks for the great electric kit.

John, 2012

I purchased a 700C Mini Motor 200W kit and created the battery myself. The battery consists of two 18.4 volt 5ah lipos wired in series, giving a nominal 36.8 volts, but delivers 42 volts at full charge.  I have been involved heavily with lipos for the last 4 years flying model aircraft and have dedicated high current lipo chargers. Soldering these batteries is not for the inexperienced. The batteries are model aircraft type from HobbyKing and cost about $43 each, so it makes for a very cheap 5ah pack.  For long rides I can take another 4 spare batteries (two packs) in my bike bag and change them when needed. The 3 packs should give me a great range. On my first test with my first battery pack I got 53K out of it!  It was a fairly flat ride but I used the motor on any rise in the road.  Today I did another ride of 35K with quite a few hills and used 3,500 mah out of 4,600 and that was carrying the extra weight of two spare battery packs. These batteries are rated at 15C and will take a current of 75 amps continuous, so at the 15 amp current limit of the controller, they are having an easy life. The batteries just fit snugly into the tube, which is 65mm plastic downpipe from Bunnings.  The battery tube holder is also made from 65mm downpipe and holds the battery tube very snugly but can be easily removed.  The end caps are made from 65mm downpipe fittings. The removable top cap is fitted with a switch and a 25amp fuse. The holder is secured to the bike with four 5mm nutserts. The battery tube is painted white to keep the temperature of the batteries down.  I started off with it painted black but in testing I found that in direct late summer sun the tube heated to over 45 deg C instead of 25 deg for the white. Both my wife and I are deeply in love with it!

Ray Robertson

This is one we thought would be good so put together at the bike shop. It's the GIANT SEEK - a very robust flat bar road bike. It's running a disc version 200W mini-motor and Panasonic 36V 9Ah cylindrical battery. The expected range is 30-40km. For this setup you'd be looking at $900 (bike), $1050 (kit) and $100 (installation), total = $2150. If you live in Perth then you can get one set up for $1800.

Available at Perth Electric Bicycles, 926 Hay street, Perth CBD. July, 2012

This was an experiment to test the limits of electric bicycles - it's an R&D project to one day enter the World Solar Challenge. I put together the most powerful electric bicycle hub, controller and battery components I could find. Selecting the bicycle took a long time. I needed something solid with a decent area within the frame for a battery but most importantly, a stable riding frame that could take the power of the hub motor. The KONA Unit was my choice because it has a plate that bolts to the frame that holds the axle (see here), a feature that would later become necessary. The Kona Unit is a Cromoly single speed 29er (see here for specs). Regular bicycles won't be able to take the torque of high power and will strip the dropout. This happened to me after riding for 5 minutes with the 7mm aluminum factory plate - even with a regular torque bar installed. There's no way a regular bicycle could take a few thousand Watts of power without being well reinforced. I made a 7mm stainless steel plate (pic here) for both sides that totally encloses the axle. This has held to date and will not fail. The next point of weakness is the frame itself around where the plate is bolted. The frame is built well so provided this isn't under very harsh stress then it will also hold.

The motors can take more or less anything that you throw at them - or so I thought. My first effort was to get a rear motor with a 7 speed gear cluster. I powered this with a 72V battery and a 50A controller (theoretically 3600W of power). This went well until the rear dropouts gave way and the motor spun in the axle slot and severed the cables. Next motor, I opted for single speed as there was a higher rated option available and gears just became redundant anyway. With the same 50A controller and 72V battery the bike was extremely powerful and fast; quickly reaching a top speed of approximately 80km/h. It was only just possible to control the bike at this speed and definitely gets the adrenalin pumping but it was way too over-powered and you needed to be very gentle with the throttle. Eventually, when testing what would give first I took it onto the beach and up some sand dunes - really pushing all components hard. Finally, the wires between the motor and controller heated up so much the plastic coating melted and then something gave way within the motor itself - likely a Hall Sensor.

After blowing up another motor, a battery and a couple of controllers I believe the best solution for maximum sustained power with this sort of bicycle lies with a 72V 45A controller and 72V battery. The 50A controllers are a bit bigger and seem to give it extra grunt but the rest of the system doesn't handle it securely - though this will improve soon. The 72V Li ion battery I've been testing it with successfully has a 15Ah capacity. This has allowed me to travel around 25km. With the slightly down-graded 45A controller I expect to get a bit over 30km. I couldn't suggest using a lower capacity battery as the current drain will be too high and result in a short life or cut outs. I created a battery case from a wooden crate lying around work. Other mould options could be plastic, fibre glass and steel or aluminium. I like the wood though, just need a better carpenter. It should be possible to pack about 20% more battery in there to increase range.

The controller can sit well either below the frame for the larger 50A version or above the box & within the frame for the smaller 45A one. I tried controllers with sensors and ones without. Ones without the sensor are a bit more jumpy upon startup but more importantly they judder at high speed. For the extra potential problems with the sensors I think the performance outweighs their cons. I couldn't test power outputs accurately because the system blew up my Cycle Analyst computer. Estimates are 3600W with the 50A controller and 3240W with the 45A controller (72V).

Future additions will be hydraulic brakes, suspension forks and a well crafted wooden box to hold the battery. Until you move to a country where laws allow you to ride something like this on the road then I suggest you find a good off road location to ride and get something properly designed from Stealth.

Matt - Solar Bike

This is a Vanmoof bike (No 3) that I converted for the University of Western Australia's solar-powered electric bicycle charging shed. It came together pretty well with only a few minor considerations. The first of these was the need for an additional set of front brake calipers because the original rim had drum brakes. Because the brakes didn't then go around the mudgaurd I had to cut the front half off. It will function perfectly well but loses a bit of the original style. The battery holder needs points to attach to the frame and these were absent but a couple of hose-clamps worked well. The bike rides nicely when converted, it is very comfortable and easy to control. The 3 speed Nexus internal hub gear is adequate and works well for all motor powers between 200W - 500W, perhaps 350W would be best suited to the gearing and braking capabilities (legalities aside). The downside is that the bicycle is quite expensive, retailing for around $900. For this price a 7 speed internal hub is deserved. The good points are the frame - it's awesome and looks very trendy, there are also internal LED lights within the cross-bar that can be charged with a USB - though not particularly bright. There is another model (No 5) that has an internal lock that is very handy but unfortunately rules out use of the tube battery due to space dilemmas. If future models come out with disc brakes, brigher LED lights and a 7 speed hub then it will be worth the price. It should also look better with silver forks and the mini-motor. In its current state it is a trendy, robust, unique and simple electric bicycle that costs around the $2000 mark for all components and delivery.

Matt, July 2012

The second bike I converted was my Giant mountain bike, to which I fitted one of your specials. It transformed the bike and got me back on it after many years of neglect. We often ride a 25 km round trip to get a coffee and for us old retirees it is great exercise without the grunt of the hills on the return trip.

The third bike I converted was a Bauer flat bar road bike. I fitted another geared motor to it as I like the low down torque and quiet manners of it compared to the direct drive motors. It is really light and simple with no gears, I find you don't really need them with a motor fitted unless you tackle steep hills, which we don't, and I just love it. I also want to thank you for your support and quality products, as somewhere in the middle I tried to do it on the cheap by importing from china, and after blowing up the battery on the first plug in and rejecting a geared motor with bugger all torque and which complained loudly when put under any stress, I returned to you. There was not a lot of savings to be made in any case, what with bank fees for T/T plus freight etc.

Tim, July 2012

We're slowly becoming experts on the best bicycles to convert at our bicycle shop and we've opted to set up for a special sale the APOLLO SHADOW (full specs here). It's a really good Australian bicycle that came out for a while with a Nexus 7-speed internal hub gear. It really keeps the bicycle very simple with no derailleur and is extremely robust. The conversion kit went on great, we tried both with the rack battey and the Panasonic tube battery and the tube was obviously the best in terms of handling and light weight. We have just a few in stock and we hope to able to sell them to locals around Perth. The range with light pedalling will be about 30-40km and it's speed is around 28km/h. Cost is about $1750.

Please come into the Perth Electric Bicycle store if you'd like to take one for a test ride. We're sure you'll be pretty impressed.

Solar Bike, May 2012

After a lot of research and looking around I went for the fixie/single speed with 200W mini-motor. Goes Fantastic Mate. I really love the bike. Something i need to tell you is about the weight of the bike. Fully equipped, it is only 17.5 kg - I measured it a few times. It is amazingly light!! All other electric bikes on the market are from 22 to 27, even 30 kg. This is one of the best points of the bike and I think is good for you to put it in the ad. For example if you have told me this at the beginning i wouldn't hesitate to buy it straight away.

Roumen, Blugaria and Perth

Got the kit and used a Giant Fixie. Fits good and works great!

Paul, NZ

For over a year my Solarbike e-bike has been my main transport for commuting to and from work, a 30km round trip. Since I'm so happy with my bike it is time for a review, which I can do in one sentence:
It assists me to burn fat and keep fit, lowers my carbon footprint and is fun!

Here's a whole page review with a few more technical points.

Richard.

I just built this cruiser bike with a 200 watt mini-motor, it looks great and performs really well with the single speed gearing of the cruiser bike. The water tube bottle mounted well on the top bar and looks a little like a petrol tank. Very comfortable and stylish electric bike I think, perfect for around here in Sydney. 

George Poulos

Having bought the 36V 200W front wheel  mini motor and battery, I found myself wishing I had purchased a more powerful motor for the 50km per day commute. Rather than start again, I put a 1KW motor on the rear wheel and ramped up the voltage to 48V by purchasing another 36V and 12V battery to give me both range and speed.

The result: a range of 50km with light pedalling when using the front motor (which cruises at 33kph) or  a range of 35km with light pedalling when switching to the rear motor on long straights (which cruises at 60kph). Essentially, using a combination of the two allows for the open road with the rear motor, and around town with the front motor give the best results. Common sense must apply – cars and people do not expect a cycle to come towards them at high speed so the rear motor is reserved for special circumstances – no traffic / cyclists / pedestrians in sight!

I have recommended Solar Bike to a couple of people who have taken the plunge and wished they had done so sooner. Some people may argue that this type of conversion distorts the definition of cycling, but I still pedal, and I am sure other cyclists would rather see me on the bike instead of breathing the fumes from my car. Now, where did I put my radar detector...

I just love my electric two-wheel drive (Australian designed) Cruzbike, which I have been using for five months. With the Solarbike hub motor on the rear it’s a dream to ride, the motor is so smooth and quiet.

I find saddles on upright bikes very uncomfortable, so always had a longing for those big seats I saw on recumbents. I purchased one of Cruzbike’s cheapest recumbents, their Sofrider model. It was a very steep learning curve riding this type of bike and it took a couple of weeks to get the hang of it; the hub motor is a great help for starting off uphill at the beginning.

Having just reached retirement, I was looking to make a bullet proof super reliable machine. After a bit of research I put on Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tyres and swapped the derailleurs for a Nuvinci CVP continuously variable transmission hub gear on the front. I researched various electrical assist options and Solarbike’s maintenance free, one moving part hub motor was the perfect choice! It was very easy to fit to my bike, I designed a simple aluminium holder for the battery and put the control box under the seat. I chose the larger 500 watt motor because I'm eventually planning to buy a trailer to take my two dogs regularly to the beach, with an all up weight of 26 KG, the extra power should help greatly up some of Albany’s hills.

As my riding is mostly recreational for keeping fit, I put as much effort into pedalling as I can. I use the motor minimally on flat roads, except with strong headwinds, and only use the throttle minimally on slight inclines just to maintain a reasonable speed. I use full power on steeper terrain. I do a regular two hour ride and only use 40% of the battery capacity. The electric boost is great for quickly getting across busy main roads. I have tried winding the power up on a quiet road just to see how it goes, it has amazing acceleration up to a high speed and is a very exciting ride!

I can highly recommend Solarbike products and you get great customer service.

Rupert from Albany, WA

I have visited China many times and witnessed the large amount of the population on bicycles, many of which were electrical, and they were being used for everything from transportation to commercial vehicles.  I have been bicycling for over 50 years and realized that in the present world environment, this is the future.  I have investigated the Internet for e bikes and was overwhelmed by the myriad of "kits" available for converting a normal bike to e bike status...some good and some not.   

I decided to search for a proper bike candidate for conversion.  I settled on a 2010 Fuji Crosstown 4. The bike is perfect for conversion.  It has a high quality aluminum frame as utilized on the entire Crosstown line and a steel fork. The derailleur is a basic wide range Shimano 7 speed cluster.  Finding the right conversion kit was a bit of a challenge.  I finally discovered Solar Bike, and I immediately realized that this was the quality Green thinking company that I was looking for.  After initial contact with Matt, and expressing my needs to him, we assembled a proper kit.  It is a Swift mini-motor kit with thumb throttle.  Continuing exchanges modified the kit for my specific use.   

The whole project took a little while as I am in America and there were lots of emails passed, assembly took me about 3 hours.  I also slightly modified the stock bike, including a softer saddle to accommodate my aging 70 year old body as well as a bipod type kickstand to better support the heavier load, front and rear racks, and a cup holder for hot coffee - very important!   I am extremely satisfied with the final result. The bike is awesome and has been exceeding all my expectations.  The quality of the product shows!  Many people are amazed at the results! All the parts supplied are of the highest quality and I thank Matt for all his help, I could not have done this without him. I have already recommended Solar Bike to several people.  

Alan Simon, Oxnard, California, USA

Here is my finished electrically converted Cross City 4. It has the 200W front mini-motor and the new 9Ah Panasonic tube battery. I just took it for a 21 km ride and it performed very well. I averaged 21.8 km/h, using power for all the uphill and acceleration. The battery is still showing 75% and I felt pretty fresh for an old dude without much fitness. I was pleased that there is very little rolling resistance from the motor and it is quite fast enough for my needs. I fitted a Spanninga 36V front light and wired this up to the tube battery and that works quite well.

Thanks for all your help with the bikes Matthew and I wish you every success.

My old Giant mountain bike was sitting in the shed not getting much use after I bought a cyclocross bike for my short city commutes and weekend rides. However, when I started a new job much further from home, I decided to look into putting an electric assist on the mountain bike to make the 20km journey easier. Checking out the internet, I came across Matt's site and from my first enquiry, he was friendly and helpful. I ended up buying the 200w Swift kit which has proved to be perfect. It has turned what was a bit of a grind into a pleasurable ride. The motor smoothes out all the annoying stops and starts. I leave the bike in top gear and having the motor means I can pedal up to cruising speed very quickly and maintain a good top speed for the whole of the ride. I fitted the kit myself and didn't have too much trouble. I had to file out the slots on the forks slightly to get the wheel to fit, but other than that, no dramas. Matt was very helpful when I rang with technical questions. I love my long commute now and I still pedal pretty hard and get my exercise. The great thing about having the motor is that you can take a break whenever you like and still keep moving, so the ride is less stressful and you never get too out of breath or sweaty, but still get a good workout.

Thanks, Simon

My daughter Fiona and I share this bike which has a Solarbike 200w motor and the latest incarnation of 36v 10ah battery which also acts as a mudguard. The bike is a Mongoose Alta mountain bike which had been thrown out by a neighbour. We both like cycling but both have problems. My problem is age – I’m 77 now – I’ve been riding a bike to work, for shopping and recreation and on tours for 30 years. But I’ve been getting weaker and having to use progressively lower gears.  Now I’m finding it hard to keep up with my younger associates and also finding the distances between pubs when touring to be very long! My daughter’s problem is weight - she is pretty heavy but likes cycling to work a distance of 10km away. However she has trouble with hills and we live in a hilly part of Sydney.
Now that we have installed the Solarbike kit, Fiona can do the journey home without stopping for walks up the hills. And now I can rejoin my biking friends – last week I did a 65km trip with them from Bondi to Parramatta and still had a bit of battery left when I got home. Of course I didn’t have the motor on all the time – just for hills to let me keep up and for crossing busy intersections where one needs to be nippy. This encourages me to feel that I might be able to go back to country touring soon as long as I can recharge my battery at the end of each day! We both find the 200w motor to be quite adequate for the assistance we need. Installation after watching the video was straightforward although I needed to make an extra washer to stop the motor touching the fat forks on this bike. Overall we are both now looking forward to some good cycling days to come. We might even have to get another Solarbike motor kit to keep us both going!

My electric bike is amazing. I got this classic bike from the Glen Parker bike shop in Nedlands and put the Solar Bike 500W complete conversion kit on it. The bike is very fast and I only need to give myself occasional electric power boosts on the flat. I use the throttle full power on most hills and with a bit of pedalling on nearly any hill my speed will rarely drop to below 30km/h. My average speed on most journeys is between 30 - 40km/h. I've had it about 6 months now and haven't had any electrical problems at all. The only small issue was that the nuts holding the battery rack onto the bike had a tendency to come loose. Some Lock-tight has fixed that issue. I have ridden it just over 40km on a single charge without it running out. It's incredibly convernient as I work in the city and ride about 12km each way daily, I use it for about 90% of my trips under 20km as it's fun, cheap, faster than any other mode of transport, healthy and much better for the environment than driving. All up it has exceeded my expectation in every regard.

Sincerely, Christian Wesse.

The Giant Suede has been a very popular model for all ages. It's a well priced bike with good running gear and is extremely comfortable for riding. We've been selling Solar Bike's electric bike kits for over a year now and have had very few problems and excellent back up service. The new 2011 models from Giant have just arrived and we've opted to stock and sell a ready to ride electric Giant Suede. This model uses the lighter and smaller 200W mini-motor and the very reliable lithium ion battery that comes in the double layered rear rack. It rides extremely well as an electric bike and suits people of all ages. Similar electric bicycles we've assembled with the same electrical configuration have speeds of about 26-28km/hr and a range of about 50km. Pictured here is the ladies' model but it will work equally as well on the men's model too. Please come into the Perth Electric Bike shop 926 Hay St, Perth CBD

I've been selling and testing a variety of electric transport for decades now and I must say that these kits are the best I've come across. Everything from the packaging, the quality and the service is spot on. I really haven't been able to find another supplier that offers even close to the range of kits and the battery quality in Australia at such a good price. The final product really depends upon the bike you choose to put it on but the electrical components are great. This bike here is one I set up to display in the shop. It's a 500W motor on a mountain bike with the 10Ah LiFePO4 battery. I've sold plenty of these kits through the shop in the last year and they are getting considerably more popular - it's actually hard to maintain a full stock of them. Once assembled correctly, I rarely hear back from customers with problems. If you're in Sydney then please come in to the shop if you are interested in purchasing a kit or having one assembled onto your existing bicycle. It's best to phone ahead to check what is in stock.

George Poulos, Scooters & Mobility. 422 Stoney creek road, Kingsgrove, Sydney. Phone: (02) 9150 0787

I know Matt from working at the University of Western Australia and have seen and tested a few of his electric bicycles in the past. I very much enjoyed test riding all of them but I loved the design of Matt's newest model, the black and white chequered Electric Fixie, and it converted me from a test rider into an owner. I got the 350W version for $1650. It's a fantastic electric bike and it's cheaper than the $1700 I pay a year for slow public transport ($3.70 each way) and it's much cooler, faster and better than other electric bicycles I've seen that look like things only my grandmother would ride. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to travel about 10km to work on the electric bike, which is way quicker than public transport which takes about 45 minutes and up to an hour sometimes. The bike has not had a single problem since I bought it a few months ago and I use it for nearly all my travels as it's just lots of fun and really fast and convenient. Even on hot summer days I exercise a lot and arrive at work pretty fresh and don't need to shower. I find now that I exercise a lot more than I would have otherwise without it. It’s great overtaking those cyclists dressed in fluorescent lycra and it’s so quiet that they don’t even notice I have an electric kit installed. I absolutely love it.

Ricarda Fenske, University of Western Australia Research Officer.

I was lucky enough to pick up the 200W with 10 Amp/hr lithium ion phosphate battery kit. I travel 30kms each way each day via train and I was very conscious of the range offered by the kit – therefore shunning the 350w or higher kit and the water-bottle-style battery. I had some initial difficulties with the kit and the installation (doing it myself), and Matt helpfully resolved all of the problems I had created. Although the system is exceedingly simple to install if you know what to do, I botched it up royally, and would really recommend that the $90 installation fee is well worth the expense!

As for the performance of the kit it is awesome! It looks great, is very well finished and easily holds 30+ km/h along the flat with no pedalling. I do pedal as fast as I can as well, but being an overweight, ex-smoker having turned 40, it is probably not too much. My average travel time for the 30 km trip to work is currently 57 minutes and should improve soon; this is actually faster than my old method of commuting, which involved a bike ride, a wait, a train ride and and a walk - all up about 65 minutes. Riding a non-electric bike all the way probably would take me about 2 hours and just wouldn't be feasible. Hills are the best part for me – instead of dropping down to a low gear, I can stay in a high gear and keep travelling at 25 km/h+, rather than dropping to sub 10 km/h. Along the flat I now tend to be able to cruise above 35 km/h with relative ease.

The 30 km trip uses around 50% of the battery, I have actually ridden the entire 60 km return trip on one charge, however this used 90% of the battery (270 minutes to recharge) and I do not unnecessarily want to reduce the battery life so charge at work also. I researched the battery options extensively, eventually justifying the substantially more expensive LiPoFe04 Solar Bike battery based on performance, lifetime, weight and packaging. It is definitely worth the extra initial investment and is actually cheaper over the battery lifetime – roughly 40cents per complete recharge cycle. The battery itself can be key-locked to the rack, and easily removed so that you can take just the battery to your chosen charging point. The rack that the battery fits in to is well designed, and when you look at it in profile, it is very stealthy – hardly hinting towards it’s true purpose. You can see in this picture where the battery slides into the rack (battery has been removed). 

I put the kit on a new Trek FX7.0 and it looks great. A heavier battery would not have been a good choice, as you do feel the bike to be substantially heavier with the additional 10Kgs added by the kit. Mind you, I expect to lose 10Kgs over the next 6 months so things will even out. I now ride the bike to work every day, saving my $6.90 train fee and expect breakeven to occur in one year (bike, kit and extra accessories). I am about to get a 2nd charger, so that I can leave one at home and one at work.

The kit gives me the confidence to ride to work – in a mere hour, and although I have never just coasted along, I potentially could if desired. Each day I now get that little bit stronger, fitter and healthier, and potentially one day, the electric motor will only be engaged for the toughest of hills on the hottest of Perth days. Without the kit, the option to ride simply would not have been feasible for me.

The final thing I have discovered is how friendly the bicycling community is, with most of the hard-core lycra-clad riders quite impressed by the kit when they eventually catch up to me at the pedestrian crossings – eager to find out all about the kit. Some have mentioned it is “cheating” and in a road race it would be, but on my daily commute, I am only either cheating the trains, the traffic jams and the parking inspectors- certainly not cheating myself!

Troy Hemetsberger, L7 Solutions - Internal Account Manager, M: 0449 901 659

As a Master of Science (Sustainability) student here in Perth I was looking to make my travel sustainable – in other words use less material, create less emissions and spend less money than I would using any other type of transportation. My main intention was to become much more in control of transporting myself around Perth and essentially replace the car and the bus or train to get around. Outside of this, other considerations included:

Solarbike’s electric kits ticked all the boxes. I did my research and after having ridden a few electric bikes from different stores I caught up with Matt to discuss a solution. Although I have a good mountain bike and was ready to convert that, after our discussion I chose the Giant Cross City 3 flat bar road bike as the better commuting alternative. The conversion took under two hours and I have not looked back.

Fully clad in trousers and shirt, I ride it to work every day under full throttle with minimal pedalling. For the really hot Perth days I make sure I have a few shirts handy at work and change into them when I get in because the backpack can heat up the shoulders and back a bit. On the way home I am usually under full throttle and pedalling flat out. Getting to and from work is now pretty cool. It’s more healthy and I’m finding that I’ve replaced about 65% of all my travel requirements with the new bike – the only reason this isn’t higher is that I’ve got a young child and 50% of the time I’m not on a safe bike path or a bike reserved area of the road. However going to the dentist, the pub, the shops, and pretty much anywhere that I just need a backpack is easier and in most cases quicker – especially to and from work now that I have worked out the bike paths. You know you’ve made a good choice when you pass thousands of cars all grid locked in peak hour. Finally, I chose to get two batteries so I could leave one on charge at home using the solar panels on my roof to charge that battery the next day while using the other. I would recommend the Solarbike solution to anyone interested in removing one more car from the road but without the need to get all lycra’d up!

Adam

My own bike design just arrived and I've now set up a few electric single speeds (see assembly video). The one on the left of the picture has a 350W gearless motor and uses the 10Ah battery in the rear carrier rack; the one to the right uses the water bottle style battery and has a 200W geared minimotor. Riding the one with the small mini-motor seemed to me to be a bit under-powered. It was ok, but I like to have a higher speed and on this bike I felt that with the mini-motor topping out at about 25km/hr it was a bit weak for my liking.

However, when I increased the motor power to 350W, which uses a larger gearless motor, I was super impressed! Though it was heavier (especially with the larger capacity battery), the power was greater and it was very well balanced to the single speed gearing of the bike, not too strong so that I don't pedal somewhat but also not so weak that I struggle. I managed to ride 45km on a single charge with this bike before the battery dropped out, it is a very efficient bike so it allows a great range. I believe the increased range to other bikes is because with the single speed I use the motor a little less on average. If I have a fast bike with gears, then I will ride full throttle everywhere in top gear and will use the battery capacity quite quickly. With the single speed, on flat ground I tend to just give myself power bursts every now and then or sometimes ride with the throttle at about half to three quarters full. I find that I ride a little slower than usual with an average speed on flat ground at about 30km/hr but I thoroughly enjoy even this slightly decreased pace to usual. On my 45km test ride, I covered reasonably flat ground but did encounter a few decent hills; I never found I had to even get out of the saddle on these large hills and was comfortable riding at a happy power input, albeit at a decreased speed.

I believe this to be one of Australia's top electric bikes available. For my personal use, I believe that a 200W - 350W gearless motor with the water bottle style battery would be the correct balance, considering a likely range of approximately 30km with this battery option. The larger motors have a higher top-speed and more torque up hills but do decrease the great range available with the mini-motor.

I have ridden my bike to work and back (7,5km each way) for many years.  I’m from Sandnes, the western part of Norway and during winter it can be difficult to motivate myself to get onto the bike. We don’t have extreme winters where I live, but it is often windy and the temperature can quickly drop to -10°C, mix this with strong wind and you have the reason I got interested in electric bikes. I studied some electric bikes on various web shops but they all looked like my mother’s bike and way too heavy. I’m an “equipment freak” so these bikes were out of the question for me.  Instead I looked at the conversion kits; I wanted a kit as light as possible and it should give me the extra push when cycling against the wind. The Solar bike Swift kit was the one I decided to purchase.

The kit arrived and the packaging was really good, nothing damaged inside. It took me about an hour to install it onto my carbon fibre cyclocross bike. I know that carbon fibre forks are not recommended, but I took the chance.  I have ridden the bike daily for two months, everything is working perfectly. The temperature has been down to -12°C and it also managed 10 mm snow. The maximum range with “normal” pedalling is 50km. After one month of cycling in snow and rain I decided to look closer at the inside of the hub. I was afraid that water had penetrated, but everything looked great, no moisture at all. You can feel the extra 6 kg from the Swift kit installaion when riding the bike, but it gives you the extra push and it’s great in steep hills.

Stale from Sandnes, Norway

A very good bike to setup an electrical conversion kit on for high speed commuting is the Giant Cross City 3 and Giant Cross City 4. These are flat bar road bikes and retail at most bicycle shops for $799 and $599 respectively. The Giant Cypress (2, 3 & 4) are more of a hybrid style bike suited to the leisurely commuter and are also good bikes to convert but do not accomodate the water bottle style battery option. They are a cheaper option at $579, $479 and $379 respectively. If you are in Perth and want a high performance electric bike then I can highly recommend calling into the Perth Electric Bike shop to organise the Giant Cross City 4 ($599) with the water bottle battery option and any motor power ($950) fully assembled ($120) for a total of $1670.

Tests were performed on two battery systems: a 36V 10Ah lithium ion phosphate battery (6 months old) and a 37V 7Ah lithium manganese phosphate battery (brand new). Measurements were performed using the Cycle Analyst (Grin Technologies). The measuring device was located between the battery and controller. Measurements were performed on a Giant Cross City 3 (700c rim, flat bar road bike) fitted with a "500W" motor. The rider was 35 years old and of average fitness. Riding was performed between North Fremantle lighthouse and Swanborne surf station (equally in both directions), this is mildly hilly terrain and on the day there were 20 knot SW winds blowing. Moderate but comfortable pedalling was performed throughout the tests. The tests began with a fully charged battery and were terminated when power assistance was negligible. The slightly higher Wh/km values when using the 7Ah LMP battery were due to this battery being tested immediately after the 10Ah LFP battery and the poor rider was tiring.

When using a 500W motor, the average Watt and Amp output was approximately 300W and 8.5A over the two tests. The watt output would reach 500W on some reasonable hills whilst pedalling but would decline to about 200W when on flat with some pedalling. When going downhill full throttle the watt output would drop to about 50W. When riding up a very steep hill with no pedalling until the bike came to a grinding dead stop it was possible to overexert the motor to output 710W and 37A, holding it at this point for any duration would surely burn out the motor or other parts of the system. This power was measured between the battery and controller so if measured at the wheel this output would be approximately 20% lower due to inefficiencies of the controller and motor.

I purchased a 500 watt front wheel motor kit last April and obtained my own lead acid battery configuration. The existing bike with the 500 watt motor is a dream. I have been running it at 48 volts (instead of the system designed 36V). I'm using 4 x SLA 12v 9A/h batteries and have put them into a custom designed box you can see from the photos. It does just under 50 km/h with the increased voltage. I burned off a stinky 50cc petrol bike the other day. Running at 48 volts, I believe the motor is delivering around 750 watts at an average speed of around 25 to 30 km/h. I am getting a good 25 km with some pedal power before the batteries drop to 40 volts. The batteries have never dropped below 36 volts. I notice that some of the yanks are using Dewalt 36v power tool batteries in series at 72 volts. This almost doubles the power of the motor, amazingly without detriment to the 36 volt motor system. I have been running mine at 48 volts with no problem whatsoever. It is my belief that increasing the voltage increases the range as well as the power without increasing battery amp hour. I am game to try 72 volts. The yanks seem to be going for smaller batteries at higher voltages. I bought a managers special bike from Big Dub, reduced from $250 to $150. It is fully sprung, I thought it might fall to bits but its been great. I have belted it around everywhere over the last nine months, even over rough ground. The only thing that went wrong was the control wire to the hub chaffed on the forks with the up and down movement and I came to a grinding halt. I rejoined and insulated the wires and re-routed them, all ok now.  

I've been a bike rider all my life but have been unable to enjoy it as much as I would have liked due to ill-health. I now live in Brisbane in the Fortitude Valley/New Farm area which is pretty hilly. When I learned of Matt's Solar Kit I moved heaven and earth to get hold of one and my life changed forever. Hills just disappear when you switch on the motor and as these are the bane of the cyclist's life this makes all the difference. I now do 90% of the family errands by bike and think nothing of it. I have kept my rear basket and sunk the battery in it, but because the basket is big I still get to use it. I now ride my bike more than ever and once a week attend meetings of a hobby-group at the Queensland Uni which hills would have made burdensome before. I arrive there and get home without a drop of sweat on my brow. I've done some more exotic trips too. I took the bike by car to my old home-town in the Darling Downs and spent the day zipping about getting sweet 'revenge' on hills that used to vex me as a child. On another occasion I rode from Lismore to Nimbin for the famous Mardi-Grass and back, a journey of some 60ks. Because I was sparing with the battery the bike still had charge when I returned but the journey was just about painless! Matt's solar kit is the best I have ever heard of and his courtesy and standard of service is second to none. Do yourself a favour and get a solar-bike as soon as you can. Here is a photo of 'Bilbo Bicycle' in former days,  but since the kit known as 'Shadowfax'. This bike has been in constant use for around 2 years now and has travelled thousands of kilometres trouble free.

Hamish.

This bike was a wreck from the side of the road that I removed everything from and kept only the frame, forks and seat. It has a front and rear 500W motor, each controlled by a separate battery and control system. Thumb throttles in each hand worked the best for me and I liked the olders style handle-grips. It was awesome but it was definitely too much for this bike. It wobbled a bit and with two batteries and a rear motor on the back wheel the weight balance wan't ideal. Also, after crashing it the rear rack snapped, possibly due to the extra weight but more likely the driver. Even though the bike wasn't ideal for this setup it went like bananas upon take off and when pedalling in a straight line it took off more or less as quickly as a normal car. There was heaps and heaps of torque up hills and it was possible to ride up all hills I encountered single speed in the saddle with hardly any effort. I've since removed the front wheel and water bottle battery and it is more tame and ridable with only a single powered motor. I'll retry this system on a more robust mens hybrid bicycle and put the water bottle battery on the diagonal frame to better balance the weight. I'll also connect both systems through the same throttle to see if it works and is better than two throttles. I'd say that if going for a high power electric bike option then the 750/1000W kit with a single 48V 12Ah battery is better than two individual kits. A very sturdy bike is needed and it might be best on a tough chro-moly frame with torque bars. The power from both wheels is great but it comes at a sacrifice of extra weight and a need to charge two batteries rather than just the one. Also, the 1000W kits have a slightly higher top speed than this dual 500W kitted out rocket ship. The acceleration and torque uphills is fantastic but I found that I'd get to 35-40km/hr nearly instantaneously and then it'd not do much more without pedalling very quickly. It seemed to be too much on the side of electric power than pedal power. One kit is ample but the rev head inside us all has to be sated.

Matt - Solar Bike

My mountain bike was converted with a 200W motor and waterbottle style battery. It goes very well and I'm impressed with it's performance. It's made getting around Perth so much easier and I always ride with a smile now. It's my first step toward studying sustainable development.

I got this INDI 500 bike off the side of the road and put a standard conversion kit on it. This has a small 10W panel cable tied onto the carrier rack that re-charges the 36V lithium ion battery directly. There is no regulator between the panel and battery so electricians will likely tell you that this isn't ideal but it is certainly the most direct way possible to recharge the battery via photovoltaic. I had the panels specially cut to give a closed circuit voltage of 42.5V (the same as what the chargers put out) and so far it is working as intended. From my testing so far it seems that for each hour I leave it in the sun I can travel 1km. I am also testing another direct charging system using a 100W 48V panel with a custom designed regulator that outputs at 42.5V and that is functioning well too. A 100W panel is too large to put on a bicycle but if you have space to mount it at work or home where the bike can charge directly from it during the day then it can fully charge the battery from flat in about 4 hours.

Matt - Solar Bike

Residents of Perth looking for an electric bike are very fortunate to have the Perth Electric Bike shop present. They can provide you with a range of bikes suited to both you and an electric conversion kit at great prices. Jack is the resident electric kit installer and is able to give great advice on the ideal bicycle and can also do excellent installations. Jack performed this installation for a customer last weekend and had this to say:

"There are many low quality Chinese models on the market that no bike shop would be interested in due to difficulty maintaining the bicycle performance and having to diagnose electrical faults. The kits are great because the bike and electric components are essentially separate systems and allow us to use a high quality bike. It's much better to get a custom job on a bike really well suited to you and of much higher quality running components all under a warranty. The electrical components all seem to be of high quality and have not caused us any problems to date. This is an electric bike I set up for a customer recently. It's a Giant Cypress a customer had sized up for himself and it was fitted with a 200/350W interconvertible motor for both on and off road. The bike costs $500 and the kit $950 so all up for a fantastic bike and electrical components it adds up to $1450. This is a really great commuting machine and I welcome anyone into the store to discuss options to get one like this or similar made up for themselves."

Jack,

Peter and I traded ideas, design (see some of his work below), skills and solar bike components about 2 years ago. His bike has been running well since then and he recently sent me a short review on its performance.

From Peter: "Bike still going great. I'm able to make it all the way to work and back (via my gf's house) on a single charge. This is a round trip of about 35km with a 300m altitude change! Of that, the motor was in use solidly. A quick thermal check over the whole kit after ariving home found everything to be in good order. Only the fuse holder and controller were remotely warm and I'm confident that the fuse would give out long before anything else. The bike and I weigh about 115kg together so it was a fair old effort on the part of the kit. Of course, I was also pedalling, probably putting in about half of the energy moving the bike on the steepest hills and all of it on the flat. Having ridden up that road on a lighter but un-powered bike, there is no contest in my mind which I'd rather be on after a long day at work. The old prototype battery, controller, charger and switch fit perfectly into the ammo box mounted on the back. I'm sure there would be lighter solutions but this just looks the business. Planning to grab some kahki paint and redo the rest of the bike to match. Being able to carry the charger everywhere makes the idea of riding it a long way much more appealing."

Jacqueline from Canberra sent in this review after converting her semi-recumbent Giant Revive into an electric machine. This was a custom order straight from the factory and took about 3 weeks to arrive as it was a 20" rim with mini-motor. There was a little playing around to get it fitted and a few emails passed between us but she succesfully installed the kit - replete with white unicorn and a lot of other paraphernalia - and it seems to be serving her brilliantly.

From Jacqueline: "It is absolutely wonderful. I can't stop grinning! I pedalled as usual on the flat, freewheeled down hills and used the motor to assist my pedalling uphill, just using it to take up the strain so I wasn't pedalling any harder than I would on the flat. It was as if the hills had all been flattened out! Which is saying something, out here on the Western fringes of Canberra; especially as I had two panniers of shopping on the back that I didn't even notice! There was no strain on my legs or my heart. I even kept up with my athletic husband on his lightweight carbon fibre racer! You have my utmost gratitude for excellent customer service and a superb product. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping to restore freedom to this arthritic granny!"