How to Choose a Conversion Kit

1. Wilderness Energy Kit
2. Crystalyte Kit
3. BionX Kit

Feature matrix

Once you chose a particular kit, you CAN NOT mix parts from the other brands of kits into your own. Think of them like different brands of car companies, one company’s throttle will not fit into a competitor’s controller and vise versa. The only commonality they kits share is that they can use different types of batteries to lessen the total weight added onto the bicycle after its conversion (With an exception to BionX, you can not add or change any part of the kit is refined down to the best possible parts available). Each kit has a different purpose and is focused to a particular type of individual.

Here is a generalized rundown of the features of each kit.

Wilderness Energy Kit

The simplest kit with the fewest number of options, this kit is focused towards individuals with very minimal knowledge about electric bicycles and bicycle mechanics. The parts for this kit satisfy a broad range of consumers looking to convert their bicycles to electric. The small number of options also means selection is easy in comparison to other brands in which you need to do more research. The secondary advantage to this kit is that with so few parts, replacement parts can easily be replaced on the same day you drop by our shop or shipped out from our warehouse

There are a few things this kit lacks. Those looking for more power, greater range and speed are left only able to change battery types. This kit also must be installed onto the front fork of the bike. Caliper brakes are required because the motor needs all the available space. Wilderness kits can not use different types of throttles, controllers and motors. They only have two choices in motors and controllers. Brushed and Brushless for motors. Instant-start and pedal first controllers. This lack of diversity is the niche in which the next conversion kit that will be discussed fills quite well.

Crystalyte Kit

This is the most open kit of the three conversion kits. Generally, this kit is for people with a decent amount of knowledge about electric bicycles. Praised as the hobbyist’s kit, Crystalyte offers the largest most varied amount of options to be able to fulfill any project small or large. We generally keep 5-6 types different Crystalyte controllers in stock. These controllers generally the ones we find people asking for most of the time out of the 15 types of Crystalyte controllers on the market today. Crystalyte also offers motors that not only can be installed on a back wheel, but also offers one that can allow you to keep your disc brakes as well.  All of the motors can come in brushless and brushed form as well coming in higher wattages for greater power on projects that require your bicycle to exceed 50km/h. The varieties of controllers also allows for the ability to “doublepack”[1] so to either double range or gain an outrageous amount of speed. Lastly, Crystalyte offers lighted, non-lighted, half-grip and full-grip throttles for either the right or left side of your handlebars. This allows you to chose the best placement of a throttle onto your handlebars, as the right side may be too crowded or your shifters take up too much space. The new Crystalyte Journey Kit allows for pedal assistance to be added to your bicycle and comes with its own hard-shelled Nickel Metal battery. Crystalyte is the way to go for a bicycle conversion personalized to your needs.

No vendors will have all of the parts in stock. Crystalyte has front and rear motor coming rim sizes from 16”, 20”, 24”, 26” and 700c.  This number of motors once again doubles on whether the customer wants brushless or brushed, doubling again depending on the wattage of the motor chosen.  Overall, Crystalyte allows for the most versatile customization giving customers a lot of choices.  However, this makes very difficult for dealers to carry all of the combination of parts. Some dealers may be limited to certain type of components instead all of the existing parts. With such a limited number of parts in stock means a vendor can run out of a particular component wanted by a customer. Overall, Crystalyte is a great product offering many options to choose from, but may lack stocked parts.

BionX Kit

The Bionx Kit is the upper tier of conversion kits with astounding amount of included features and manufactured in Canada. This kit is the “smartest” of the conversion kits with circuitry in its motor, controller and display console. The reason for this vast amount of electronics is to provide a feature not offered in the other two mentioned conversion kits. Bionix is the only conversion kit that offers regenerative braking so braking down hills means you can restore a little power back into the battery with the 4 modes of resistance offered. Paired with this ability to regenerate energy is the ability to set the amount of assistance you would want in a fashion quite similar to a cruise control on a car via the handlebar mounted console unit. This console unit is not only your throttle as in a conventional conversion kit, it also acts as an:

·         Odometer

·         Speedometer

·         Timer

·         Battery power indicator

·         Bicycle alarm system

BionX motorizes the rear wheel in 250w or 350w motors. These motors come disc brake compatible and come with 2 types of battery options that come manufactured in their own hard-shell casing paired with the Bionix controller. These options are Nickel Metal and Lithium Manganese batteries in either 24v or 36v. This kit is ideal for female riders due to its lightweight and professional cyclists prefer this kit, as it is everything they want in a nice package. There isn’t a need to tinker or fiddle around with this kit.

The BionX kit is the most expensive conversion kit on the market today. With all the features preset into the package, there is no wiggle room for choosing what you want. The low end of BionX will cost you at least $1000 and this generally will not satisfy riders over 200 pounds. They will have to opt for the higher end of BionX to achieve a satisfactory range and speed. BionX is also a truly closed system, so you can’t go and find your own battery to place into the BionX kit. You must use BionX parts with a BionX system.