Yose Power E-Bike Kit Review – Best Value Hub Motor Kit?

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If you’re thinking of converting your bike to electric assist, navigating your way through the huge amount of kits on offer can be mind-boggling.  Fortunately, one of the cheapest and most reliable conversion kits is available on eBay. In this Yose Power e-bike kit review, I will look at the pros and cons based on my experience installing over 50 of these kits on customers’ bikes.

Motor Type	Front or Rear Brushless Geared Hub Motor
Power	250-watt or 350-watt
Voltage	36-volt
Pedal Sensor	Cadence PAS
Display	Multi-Function LCD
Accessories	Tool Kit, Installation Manual, Cable Ties
Availability	Online Only – UK, EU and USA

Summary

From 2016-2019 I made a living converting bikes to electric assist and one of my favourite conversions kits was sold via eBay.  Yose Power is based in China but sells a majority of its e-bike kits through eBay in the UK and EU. I installed my first Yose Power kit in 2017 and was immediately impressed with the quality and performance of the motor.

Fast forward to 2020 and I still do the occasional conversion, since 2017 I reckon I’ve converted over 50 bikes using this kit. One of the stand-out things about these conversion kits is not only the price, but long-term reliability is about the best I’ve encountered in the DIY e-bike world.

I have had lots of issues with mid-drive conversions and a few problems with cheap direct-drive hub motors but the Yose Power kits have never caused me any major bother. On top of that you get a hell of a lot for your money – it’s one of the few kits that gives you a useful tool kit and headlight.

Below I have outlined some of the key features of the Yose Power e-bike kit.

Buy from Yose Power direct and use the coupon code BH2E24BXQH for a €10 discount

Motor Kit

The kit comes in a variety of options and wheel sizes (listed below) and is available as a front or rear-wheel conversion – the latter being the more popular choice.

• Wheel sizes: 26″ / 27.5″ / 28″
• Motor colour: Silver/black
• Gear cassette: Screw-on freewheel or cassette (8/9/10 speed)
• Power rating: 250w / 350w
• Voltage: 36v

As you can see there are options to suit all the common wheel sizes and gear systems used on modern bikes.

Compatibility

The Yose Power kit is designed to fit regular ‘quick release’ front or rear dropouts of approximately 100mm wide on the front and 135mm at the rear. A lot of modern mountain bikes and road bikes have ‘thru-axle’ hubs – bikes with this type of hub would not be suitable for an electric hub motor.

Another occasional problem I’ve encountered is tyre width – this isn’t a problem on hybrid or mountain bikes, but if you’re thinking of fitting this kit to a road bike you will need clearance for a 28mm wide tyre. This is the minimum width tyre recommended for this rim.

Pedal Sensor Compatibility

A cadence pedal sensor is included in the kit – it comes in the form of a split magnetic disc (secured with a spring clip) and the pick-up sensor. This is usually fine to use with a regular square-tapered bottom bracket axle but it will not work with a Hollowtech-type external bottom bracket. If you have the latter fitted to your bike you will need to purchase a separate sensor.

Brake Lever Compatibility

The supplied brake levers with integrated motor cut-off sensors are suitable to use with cable brakes (disc, cantilever or v-brakes). If your bike has hydraulic brakes or an integrated brake lever/gear shifter you are faced with two choices – don’t bother with cut-offs (the motor will run fine without them) or buy specific sensors for hydraulic brakes.

Do you need to fit the supplied brake levers? I’ve never used them. The motor will start and stop only when you pedal – even if you use the supplied throttle, it will only work once you are travelling at least 6mph. In the unlikely event, the motor stays on, you can hit the kill switch or apply the brakes hard.

Compatibility with Disc brakes

Both the front and rear hub motor have six bolt fixings to mount a brake rotor if required – you must use the disc bolts provided as if you use longer ones they will interfere with the running of the motor.

Display

On the older kits they used to use the proven KT-LCD3 display but more recently they use a different display which is very high quality and has an aluminium back plate. This is an excellent display, especially when you consider the price of the kit – I would go as far as saying it’s better than a lot of the displays you get on factory e-bikes.

The information available to the rider:

• Speed (mph or km/h)
• Pedal assist level
• Battery indicator
• Real-time battery voltage
• Trip function

Accessories Included in the Kit

Yose Power is one of the few e-bike kit suppliers that include instructions and a toolkit. The toolkit comprises a full Allen key set, crank puller, chain whip and cassette removal tool. They also include a headlight that plugs into the wiring harness and can be powered on/off by the display. Cable ties are also supplied which is a nice attention to detail.

Motor Performance

The motor supplied with the Yose Power kit is available in 250w or 350w power options. These small hub motors have an internal gear reduction system so the motor is always spinning faster than the wheel. This makes the motor more efficient and produces more torque than a similar direct-drive unit.

Motor power is determined by the controller – 250w has a 36v 15A controller and 350w a 36v 18A.  In the UK and EU, the law states the motor should not exceed 250w of continuous power – it’s up to you whether you get the 350w version, but I don’t feel the extra power is worth the risk – the motor power rating is visible on the hub motor.

I live at the bottom of a short steep hill (10% over 0.25 miles) and I converted the old Giant hybrid bike (pictured below) for a chap in his 80s – he rode up the hill whilst simultaneously laughing his head off saying “This is brilliant”! I think that sums up the Yose Power motor. It’s not a speed demon in the way a Bafang mid-drive is but the power it produces is more than adequate for most riders. I used to own a bike fitted with one of these kits and I very rarely used it above level 2 assist (out of 5).

How Reliable is the Yose Power E-Bike Kit?

The simple answer is very reliable indeed! To date the only problems I’ve encountered have been very minor and relate to the pedal sensor – on some bikes there is limited clearance between the pedal crank and bottom bracket, which can cause the magnetic disc to stick. I have never had a motor fail or cause problems.

One other issue I’ve had a couple of times is on the cassette freehub version – occasionally this fails and can be a pain to fix. If your motor kit is still under warranty then it shouldn’t be a problem as their customer service is usually very good.

Potential problems with broken spokes. If you ride a bike regularly, broken spokes are a frustrating fact of life. With an e-bike motor because of the increased weight there is an increased risk of broken spokes. My customers haven’t reported higher-than-expected incidences of broken spokes than I would expect. Although I have heard from other people that broken spokes can be an issue with this motor.

Ease of installation

Installation is fairly straightforward even for a novice. What you will need is a bit of patience (roughly 2-3 hours) and preferably a workspace and bike stand. Most of the tools are provided but you will also need some cable cutters (to tidy up cable ties).

The front wheel conversion is a little easier than the rear as you don’t need to swap out the gear freewheel or cassette. You will need to remove the tyre, inner tube and wheel liner.  Then remove the freewheel/cassette and disc rotor (if you have disc brakes). Then you transfer everything to the motor wheel.

Fitting the wheel can be a bit tricky as the hub is a little wider than the standard 135mm – on alloy and steel frames you will need to splay the dropouts by a few mm to get the axle to drop in.

Then it’s a case of mounting the pedal sensor, battery, controller and display – plug everything in, tidy the wires, charge the battery and you’re good to go. If you’re not confident in doing the job yourself I would try a local bike shop as more and more are doing conversions these days.

Battery

Some of the Yose Power kits are supplied with a battery. These kits are great because the controller is integrated into the battery mounting plate – this makes for a really neat installation. Batteries available are usually 36v 12.5Ah and these battery packs seem to be very reliable.

The Verdict

I think that if you’re after a cheap electric bike kit that’s going to perform as well as a hub motor found on something like the Carrera Vulcan, then you can’t go wrong with the Yose Power kits. When it comes to quality they punch well above their weight.

They perform well, they’re reliable and can be used for leisure riding or commuting – I did one back in 2017 and the guy used it for commuting 5 days a week for three years all through British winters and it was still running like a dream!

See the most popular Yose Power kits on ebikepricecomparison.com

I always recommend these kits for their simplicity. Even if the motor packed up after a couple of years, they’re easy to fix (for the DIY-minded) or cheap enough to just buy another kit.

The Yose Power kits represent an affordable entry to the world of e-biking, and feature on my list of the best e-bike conversion kits in 2023  – if you want to breathe new life into an old hybrid or mountain bike, these kits are the best value by far.

Where to Buy the Yose Power Electric Bike Conversion Kit

Buy from Yose Power direct and use the coupon code BH2E24BXQH for a €10 discount
eBay UK
Amazon UK
eBay Germany
Amazon Germany
eBay France
Amazon France
eBay Spain
Amazon Spain

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions please use the comments section below. I usually respond within 24 hrs.