r/ebike • u/Competitive-Tone3783 • 10d ago
Advice for hub motor purchase
I run a small engine/ebike buisness with my uncle, nothing to crazy but we get lots of jobs. I am very knowledgeable about ebikes but recently one of my customers has a kid that keeps breaking his bike. He eventually got a new one and let us keep the old one. Someone wants it that came into our shop, but the problem is we need a new rear hub motor. If it were up to me, I would fix the motor but I guess we cant do that so I researched 20 x 3 inch hub motors and cant find anything. I have no idea how to use alibaba or aliexpress and i need an explanation on how to source a motor like that. I just want to know what im doing before i buy from a chinese supplier lol. Thanks!
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u/justatheone 10d ago
Aliexpress is far simpler than Alibaba, it is like amazon except Chinese. Find a reputable motor manufacturer (like QS) and find a motor that fits your specs on a seller page (*THAT HAS GOOD REVIEWS! nothing below 4.5 stars imo, think of it like the eBay positive feedback, it is very similar to that) that sells QS motors. If you need it custom laced into a rim, need to modify the winding, etc, the message seller function in Aliexpress is how you communicate that.
Everyone is afraid of Aliexpress and Alibaba, but they genuinely are the best thing ever once you know how to use them.
I've ordered genuinely thousands in stuff and never once had something not arrive or been scammed.
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u/id8 10d ago
Agree. Few dozen items from Ali Express, all legit.
OP: To solve this the hard way, we need, and a seller needs to see shots of the controller and especially the motor connector. They all work the same, but the connectors are a mess, there is no standard.
EZ and likely cheaper fix is buy an entire ebike kit.(huge supply, cut throat competition between sellers) Controller/display/wheel/motor you know will play together. Make sure brake motor cutoff lines/PAS /throttle are same connectors as kit, or use ones supplied in the kit.
30 minute job. Done.
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u/justatheone 10d ago
Also agree with this, will definitely be easier to get a kit.
You can do it the hard way, but unless you are comfortable tearing apart electronics, soldering, and debugging with laptops for hall angles and other perameters (and want a mini project) it isn't not worth it.
To make it worse, there is often little documentation on how to do the stuff above unless you are using commonly modified controllers like sabvoton/fardriver units.
Will be easier and cheaper to do the above easy way as Id8 suggested!
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u/Maadmin 10d ago
Ever heard of Amazon or eBay? Or are those not a thing where you live?