Bafang BBS01b ETM vs Tongsheng TSDZ2 kits

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CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Just ordered another TSD motor and rack mounted battery for just over £500 delivered. Supposed to be delivered in 8-10 days from China
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
No way 3 days from order to delivery. They must have a European distributor or superfast from mainland China

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ade towell

Über Member
Location
Nottingham
OK thanks do you have any idea what their customer service is like if anything goes wrong? I can get it quite a bit cheaper from PSW Power (£238 for the Tsdz8 no duty paid) - I think they are also a Chinese company who send to Europe from a German warehouse. Have bought 2x Toseven DM02 motors and batteries from them in the past and have had no issues, but have read on another forum of someone having trouble getting a faulty Tsdz8 motor replaced. Be good to know if the company can be relied on if there's an issue, could be worth paying the extra
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
OK thanks do you have any idea what their customer service is like if anything goes wrong? I can get it quite a bit cheaper from PSW Power (£238 for the Tsdz8 no duty paid) - I think they are also a Chinese company who send to Europe from a German warehouse. Have bought 2x Toseven DM02 motors and batteries from them in the past and have had no issues, but have read on another forum of someone having trouble getting a faulty Tsdz8 motor replaced. Be good to know if the company can be relied on if there's an issue, could be worth paying the extra

I can only comment on their prompt service and the motors have been spot on. Worked out of the box.

Personally if I was to have a problem, I would make small attempts to get the company to take back the product. However seen as these items are reasonably simple to repair and spares are cheap, I would opt for that option. If it was a major problem I would just scrap the item and buy a new one. Like yourself, I've had Tongscheng since 2019. I've only had one fault this year, after thousands of miles of use and it cost me £15 to repair. I would say on track record, Tongscheng make a decent product and reliability is proven for normal use
 

ade towell

Über Member
Location
Nottingham
Yes one of the huge positives with these DIY motors on top of cost and so far great performance is the ability to do most repairs yourself if needed, and relatively cheaply. Good luck if your lovely Bosch e-mtb goes wrong out of warranty, have a few friends who have been beholden to very high repair and postage costs from the manufacturers.
Fingers crossed the Toseven motors have been very reliable so far, but it would be good to know the supplier would at least honour that 1st year warranty if things did go wrong
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
The discount price compared to Bosch, Shimano, etc is more than compensation for a small chance of product failure. Which from yours and mine experinves and many others, seems to be very rare indeed.
 
Yes one of the huge positives with these DIY motors on top of cost and so far great performance is the ability to do most repairs yourself if needed, and relatively cheaply. Good luck if your lovely Bosch e-mtb goes wrong out of warranty, have a few friends who have been beholden to very high repair and postage costs from the manufacturers.
Fingers crossed the Toseven motors have been very reliable so far, but it would be good to know the supplier would at least honour that 1st year warranty if things did go wrong

I saw a survey based on data from users and from manufacturers about Bosch motors

they found that - as suspected - if they fail then it is a "back to Bosch and buy a new motor" situation

but many others were more repairable

however, the reports of Bosch were very common - but in reality the failure rate was much lower than for a lot of other "top brands"

so the conclusion was that if they fail then it costs much more - but they are much less likely to fail

not sure where thta was
but the AI (therefore it MUST be true) at the top of my Google search said they are have a very low failure rate
 

ade towell

Über Member
Location
Nottingham
I saw a survey based on data from users and from manufacturers about Bosch motors

they found that - as suspected - if they fail then it is a "back to Bosch and buy a new motor" situation

but many others were more repairable

however, the reports of Bosch were very common - but in reality the failure rate was much lower than for a lot of other "top brands"

so the conclusion was that if they fail then it costs much more - but they are much less likely to fail

not sure where thta was
but the AI (therefore it MUST be true) at the top of my Google search said they are have a very low failure rate
This was all anecdotal from my side and just a couple of friends experience so am not trying to pick on Bosch in particular, but the point is more to do with if an e-bike from one of the large manufacturers does stop working out of warranty it can be a very expensive repair bill and one that the bike owner isn't often able to do themselves due to lack of parts etc. These companies imho have you over a barrel to some degree. The beauty of the converted bike is that not only is the initial cost a lot less, repair costs are also small in comparison and most can be done by the bike owner at home with simple tools ,you don't need to send it back to the manufacturers at cost and inconvenience of not having a bike in the meantime.
I have had no issues with the Toseven mid drive torque sensor motors and it sounds like the Tongsheng is also pretty reliable. I know someone who has had an issue with a Bafang mid drive cadence motor but in my little world I know more people who have had issues with Bosch. Make of that what you will
 
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ade towell

Über Member
Location
Nottingham
The discount price compared to Bosch, Shimano, etc is more than compensation for a small chance of product failure. Which from yours and mine experinves and many others, seems to be very rare indeed.

This absolutely, and as you say if it does become unrepairable a new motor at under £250 is not bad, you can buy a lot of those motors before you get to the price of a decent factory built mid drive e-bike. They both have their place but am enjoying taking relatively old bikes that are worth very little and giving them a new lease of life as an electric
Apologies this is way off topic from the initial query of this thread. My answer to which is torque sensor of the Tongsheng or Toseven mid drive motors are much nicer and more natural feel compared to the Bafang with its cadence sensor
 
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This was all anecdotal from my side and just a couple of friends experience so am not trying to pick on Bosch in particular, but the point is more to do with if an e-bike from one of the large manufacturers does stop working out of warranty it can be a very expensive repair bill and one that the bike owner isn't often able to do themselves due to lack of parts etc. These companies imho have you over a barrel to some degree. The beauty of the converted bike is that not only is the initial cost a lot less, repair costs are also small in comparison and most can be done by the bike owner at home with simple tools ,you don't need to send it back to the manufacturers at cost and inconvenience of not having a bike in the meantime.
I have had no issues with the Toseven mid drive torque sensor motors and it sounds like the Tongsheng is also pretty reliable. I know someone who has had an issue with a Bafang mid drive cadence motor but in my little world I know more people who have had issues with Bosch. Make of that what you will

One of the otehr problems with Bosch is the way the bits talk to each other

If one of the components sees another one is not there then it can disable that missing on - or something

then only an authorised dealer with the correct software can then re-authorise it

a while ago the speed sensor on mine broke
it is only the small things that detects the magnet going past
but when I asked the LBS he said that I could get it online but if I tried to replace it myself - which was clearly easy
then I ran a chance of the whole system failing to work


so it was easier - and no more expensive (ish) if he did it all

in the end he said he got everything ready and unscrewed the old one
then disconnected it and reconnected the new one as quick as he could - and it didn;t realise

but apparently he has seen ones where the same thing causes the whole thing to freeze and the bigger bits are even more sensitive

which does lock you into the dealers - even if it is easy to replace
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Thats the proprietary manufacturer design.

My wife's tongscheng, I can use any battery capacity, voltage from 36-52V, have access to several displays options. I used a 6 year old speed sensor from her original bike, they still use same connection.

Its all plug and play, not to mention the rider settings too.

I have a spare setup now, so if any part broke or she damaged it , just drop in that part.
 
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