Where to buy Dapu hub motor?

[ealanm]

I'm looking for a Dapu M155 hub motor. I've looked on their web site and have some idea about the different models, but I can't find anywhere to actually buy one. Can anyone suggest a source?

 

[Ann M.]

@ealanm are you looking for the motor already laced into a wheel? Also, is this to replace one on an ebike that came with that motor? Or, are you looking to build a kit bike from scratch? Just curious, so we can better help you . I did find some Dapu hub motors for sale on Alibaba.com; perhaps this is what you need.

 

[ealanm]

Thanks, Ann. It's to replace the motor on my Velec R48+. Wires inside the frame rubbed through and shorted, which seems to have blown something in the motor. I can either lace in a new hub or buy a whole new wheel, I'm not too fussed either way.

That Alibaba link looks promising. It seems awfully difficult to identify the correct part, though, compared to other kinds of components I've bought. Even the Dapu web site doesn't list the exact motor I have. Maybe it's obsolete.

 

[Ann M.]

Don't know; sounds like you might also want to look at better locking nuts to keep those wires from getting cut again. If one of the replacement motors matches the voltage on your bike (48 Volts? I'm guessing by the model name) and has the same number of phase wire connections, you should be alright.

 

[ealanm]

What it was was that they had installed the controller (inside the down tube) on top of the wire bundle, without any other support, so that it was bouncing around on top of the wires all the time. I didn't discover this until the short happened. I've flipped the whole thing over so that the wire bundle is on top of the controller, and put some neoprene supports under the controller so that it's protected from vibration and impact.

I call it a wire bundle because it's nowhere near tidy enough to be called a wiring harness! The Velec is an okay bike, but the wiring is pretty much of a dog's breakfast.

Yes, it's an M155, 48 V, 500 W. I'm thinking of going up to 750 W, though.

 

[Ann M.]

Yeah, sometimes I wonder if the companies building these bikes ever think about issues like yours or what's involved for the mechanic that's got to do the long term service

 

[ealanm]

Velec clearly doesn't care about anything except selling bikes to new customers. They don't even bother to stock parts at the factory. I'd be happy to buy the motor from them, even at a reasonable mark up. But I'm not willing to wait three months to get it, which is their standard reply to any request for parts. I like the bike, and it suits my purpose quite well, but I'm not impressed with the company.

 

[marlap]

I was considering the purchase of a Velec until reading this thread. Now I'm considering an Evox, does anyone have experience regarding Evox bikes?

 

[harryS]

It appears to be a geared motor, and may have a 9 pin quick disconnect cable? It's likely that other motors will fit, except the spoke length might be different, which is the best reason to get an exact replacement.

I'm musing on how the motor can be fried by bad wiring, and whether you will have the same issues with a motor replacement. Did you repair the wiring already? Can you say which wires were shorted out?

I think it would be hard to melt a motor winding with a shorted wire on one of the three phase controls. This would be difficult to diagnose anyway. I don't know how to do it.

If the Dapu has them, and I think it does, the magnetic sensors run on 5 volts, and if the motor power got onto the wires, they could be blown up. There's ways to test for that, and some people are able to open a motor and replace them.

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