(New to MTB) Looking for help with my Dengfu E10 build

[Zayd Proctor]

She's ready! Some minor things must be done, but it's 99% done. I used a cheap "carbon fiber" vinyl to cover the paint damage:

Before:

Also, when removing the old paint protection film, some of the paint peeled off. How ironic!

After:

I used an inner tube to cover the damage on the chainstay and seat stay.

Before:

The paint has seen better days:

After:

Me fixing the paint damage:

I filed 2mm of material off the yoke.

Custom battery. LG cells, 960Wh made by Custom Electric Bike, Italy:

I'm using a XT90S antispark connector.

Piece of plastic from a Coca Cola bottle to shield the battery connections from dirt:

I noticed that there is a German seller on eBay selling a 1200Wh battery for the same price as mine. Unfortunately, I only found this out after I got mine. But Andrea from Custom Electric Bike is a really nice guy. We even had a 30 min phone call where he answered all my questions. And he offers a 1 year warranty, so I'm happy with my purchase.


To fit the 2.3mm front rotor, the back of the brake pads had to be sanded down 0.5mm:

I made some modifications to the Ztto dropper lever. You can read more about it here.


Hunt sent me a roll of tape for free, which I used to retape the rim. I think it turned out well. But I don't like their tape because it's completely rigid and not transparent, which makes it harder to apply.

Factory tape:

My guess is that the issue is the rim tape.

In fact, the tape in the middle is a bit stretched, and because of that, when I tightened the valve lock nut, the tape got ripped a little and started leaking.

Tape applied by me:

It was airtight even without the tyre sealant, so I'm happy with it.


Total weight: 27,5 kg.




I have already done a couple of short rides, and everything seems to be fine. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of the motor (m600). When starting from a standstill, the assistance doesn't kick in until you've turned the cranks a quarter of a turn. And when it does, it's very abrupt. It's quite annoying, tbh. Once you get going, it's fine. The power is good, but I wouldn't mind a bit more. That's why I decided to replace it with an m560.

My only other point of reference is a Bosch gen4. The power delivery on that was amazing. It really felt like having bionic legs. Not so much with the Bafang.

Can anyone who has tried both the m560 and the Bosch tell me how they compare?

Also, when riding at slow, steady speeds, the assistance is constantly switching on and off instead of staying on and adjusting the rpm as needed. Does the m560 do this too?

 

[Zayd Proctor]

I updated the original post

Detailed Google Sheets document with costs and weights.

Youtube playlist of useful videos.

 

[Zayd Proctor]

This will probably be the last update on this build. I sold the M600 for 270€ and bought the M560 for 730€. The total cost of the build is therefore around 3000€. The M560's power is amazing! The power delivery could be better. I had the opportunity to test ride other ebikes with Bosch, Yamaha and DJI motors, I think they all outperform the Bafang in this respect. I'm a newbie and I don't know how to express this in technical terms but the Bafang doesn't give the "bionic legs" feeling quite as well as the others. The DJI is the one I liked the most. Hopefully, we will see an affordable bike with that motor in the future.


Click here if you want to see how I managed to fit this bike and my gf's bike inside a Tesla Model 3.

 

[xtraman122]

This will probably be the last update on this build. I sold the M600 for 270€ and bought the M560 for 730€. The total cost of the build is therefore around 3000€. The M560's power is amazing! The power delivery could be better. I had the opportunity to test ride other ebikes with Bosch, Yamaha and DJI motors, I think they all outperform the Bafang in this respect. I'm a newbie and I don't know how to express this in technical terms but the Bafang doesn't give the "bionic legs" feeling quite as well as the others. The DJI is the one I liked the most. Hopefully, we will see an affordable bike with that motor in the future.


Click here if you want to see how I managed to fit this bike and my gf's bike inside a Tesla Model 3.

You can definitely make the M560 feel a lot better with some adjustments in the tune. The stock settings are way too powerful/aggressive in my opinion. I tamed down the Tour and Sport levels quite a bit and have them now comparable in power to an assist level you'd find on other bikes (About 510W on my Tour mode and 620W on my Sport mode that I treat like Trail and Turbo modes respectively). Turning down the acceleration seems to be the biggest thing, I also turned down the assist % just a bit I think. I'm pretty happy with them now, I only use the first 3 modes, with almost all my riding being in Tour and sometimes using Sport when I'm getting tired or going up a big hill, and Eco occasionally for really tight stuff where I don't want much assist. The stock tunes just feel like a cadence sensor based bike and want to run away from you, you can definitely improve it quite a bit with adjusting the parameters in BESST Pro (And possibly even with the app as well for most settings).

 

[Zayd Proctor]

You can definitely make the M560 feel a lot better with some adjustments in the tune. The stock settings are way too powerful/aggressive in my opinion. I tamed down the Tour and Sport levels quite a bit and have them now comparable in power to an assist level you'd find on other bikes (About 510W on my Tour mode and 620W on my Sport mode that I treat like Trail and Turbo modes respectively). Turning down the acceleration seems to be the biggest thing, I also turned down the assist % just a bit I think. I'm pretty happy with them now, I only use the first 3 modes, with almost all my riding being in Tour and sometimes using Sport when I'm getting tired or going up a big hill, and Eco occasionally for really tight stuff where I don't want much assist. The stock tunes just feel like a cadence sensor based bike and want to run away from you, you can definitely improve it quite a bit with adjusting the parameters in BESST Pro (And possibly even with the app as well for most settings).

I did that via the app already (I don't have the besst tool so I can't change the assist %) and got it closer to how I like it, but I doubt that any amount of tweaking will make it as good as the Bosch or the DJI. I'm not saying the Bafang is bad. It's just not as good.
Is it worth it getting the besst tool? Could you share your settings?

 

[kaaskopf]

great work how it turned out!
i still recommend a besst tool for further smoothing out the parameters tho


where did u see the 1200wh battery ?
im down for a new battery myself

the battery from custom bike electric didnt need any mods to make it fit ?
how do u charge it ?
960wh is already nice

 

[Zayd Proctor]

great work how it turned out!

Thanks a lot mate! You were extremely helpful!

the battery from custom bike electric didnt need any mods to make it fit ?

No mods. I just added foam all over it for a tighter fit.

how do u charge it ?

It comes with a 3A charger. The battery has a x30 cable that connects to the barrel plug on the frame.

I also got a x30 to barrel plug adapter from AliExpress for charging when the battery is out of the frame.

where did u see the 1200wh battery ?

I believe it was this one, but it seems to be unavailable now.