Thoughts on the M800 system?

[lcarc]

I'm hoping to make my very first e-bike purchase and am looking at the Motobecane eMulekick gravel bike which uses the Bafang M800 motor w/ C260 controller/display and F05 200 wh battery. Is the system reliable? User friendly? Others shared the problems with the C260 a few years ago, were these resolved? I didn't even think to try changing out the bike battery when doing test rides, but have since learned that some like the Fazua system can be tricky to remove and must be removed to turn on the battery if left unactivated for 8 hrs. (maybe good to prevent accidental draining?), and by design is removed from the underside of the downtube. M800 battery appears to be removable from topside of downtube, but is the compartment watertight in case of light rain?

Also, can anyone recommend any dealers of Bafang products in case I might want to upgrade the battery someday to F09 430 wh? Some Bafang battery replacements can be hard to find on the internet. Thanks!

 

[Cartload4653]

For anyone else looking into the M800 (or M820 which I think is the same) I would suggest avoiding this system because finding spare parts for this system is impossible or just not worth it. What happened to me is that my bike was held in storage for a prolonged period of time and this killed off the battery. A better BMS system would likely have prevent this.

The only place that was willing to sell the F05 battery in the US was charging $500 at the time. There were also no sellers on Alibaba willing to sell just one piece. Even if you do find a seller on there, expect shipping to be very expensive because of lithium battery export laws.
I am now in the process of trying to rebuild the F05 with new higher capacity cells but we'll see how that goes. Another serviceability issue that I read about is that the bikes with this system use a proprietary CANBUS communication system.

The F09 battery is also a different size so I highly doubt it would be a drop in replacement.

 

[Gionnirocket]

A BMS can not stop a battery from self discharge... It happens within the cells and is a known attribute.
If anything it's the (SOC) voltage it was stored at and the environment stored in.. assuming they are name brand quality cells.
You probably got a big discount buying new - old stock and the battery condition should have been on your radar prior to purchase.
That said $500 for a new quality battery is very reasonable.
CANbus is where the industry is headed as it's more feature robust than UART. As long as the bike performance is to your liking there's nothing wrong about it... but again, that's something you should have known before buying.
Educating oneself is the best defense against buyers remorse.
ymmv