Any motors other than Shimano?

Hey,
I'm planning to buy an e-bike, derestrict it and ride it in safe conditions.
From what I've read, the easiest way seems to buy a Shimano one and mod it using one of the available apps.

My question is - can any other manufacturers (Yamaha? Specialized?) be modded as easily? Preferably without any physical chips and preferably reversibly. I think I'll ignore Bosch for now as their anti-tamper stuff is annoying. Don't wanna brick my bike.

Thanks!

Ever heard of Bafang, make some pretty widely used motors, easily resettable speed wise using the hacked official BESST tool, Cannable, K1 plug in or dead cheap Aliexpress tools.

Avionix is also very " tuneable "

Thanks, I didn't think about Bafang But I see that should be easy with the BESST software.

arbuz said:

Thanks, I didn't think about Bafang But I see that should be easy with the BESST software.

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Not sure of your location, or how much speed you are looking for, but if you are in North America and think you can deal with 28mph as a motor cutoff speed, then the the new gen 4 Specialized Levos come stock with a setting to switch it to "Class 3" mode. Avinox bikes are similarly equipped, but if you are in another country you may need to monkey around with a VPN to spoof your location. Full derestriction beyond that 28mph cutoff requires something with more customizability, such as the options you've been discussing above from Bafang or Shimano.

Nope, Europe here. I'm looking into Bafang, but the issue I'm seeing here that most high quality companies (Cube, Kalkhoff, Gazelle, Koga etc.) don't use them. Are you guys aware of any really high quality e-bikes for mostly road/city with occasional offroad applications that have a Bafang motor?

arbuz said:

Nope, Europe here. I'm looking into Bafang, but the issue I'm seeing here that most high quality companies (Cube, Kalkhoff, Gazelle, Koga etc.) don't use them. Are you guys aware of any really high quality e-bikes for mostly road/city with occasional offroad applications that have a Bafang motor?

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I am far from an expert on the topic, but I know Vitus has used Bafang mid-drive motors (Vitus E-Mythique LT 297 VR Mountain Bike) although the higher-end models seem to have Shimano motors now. Forestal bikes used to use their own motor called the EonDrive, which were made by Bafang, but as of 2025 they seem to have switched to Bosch.

Bafang hub-drive motors are quite powerful and I have seen them used on quite a few high-end road and city ebikes from major European brands, but hub-drive motors are not as popular on e-mountain bikes, so the success of those motors hasn't translated to the off-road world.

Most of the people I see using Bafang motors are embracing the DIY route, buying a frame that they like with a suitable mounting interface from a company like Light Carbon (Custom Full Carbon E-Bike Frames,MTB E-Bike Manufacturers - Lightcarbon.com) and building the bike with their ideal parts, giving them exactly the spec that they prefer. Also, some people like to go this route if they have a previous bike that they want to swap the parts off of. There are several threads on this site with people detailing their experience with the various frames and build experiences if that appeals to you. It certainly requires more research than just buying an off the shelf model, but for some people that is half of the fun, and delivers a truly customized experience. Some smaller businesses are basically buying Light Carbon frames, putting their own branding on them, building them up, and selling them as complete bikes, but I don't know any specific suggestions for them in Europe, and I also don't see as much advantage to going that route, as the companies tend to be less stable than more established brands, such as the ones you mentioned before. Anyway, I hope that is helpful and if the idea of building up your own bike from a frame appeals to you I suggest you explore some of the threads on here. There is also another good forum with similar info called Chinertown (E-Bike Frames & Builds) if you want even more info.

arbuz said:

Nope, Europe here. I'm looking into Bafang, but the issue I'm seeing here that most high quality companies (Cube, Kalkhoff, Gazelle, Koga etc.) don't use them. Are you guys aware of any really high quality e-bikes for mostly road/city with occasional offroad applications that have a Bafang motor?

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I was very tempted to go Bafang for easy derestriction and self serviceability. Like you can just order a motor and have a spare no problem -- like its f* supposed to be

But there are no good frames available. I mean the chinese carbon frames can be good, but the quality is not the same, and you are very very lucky if you don't have to fiddle with something. They also often have a geo that is a bit older then the latest trends. If you are a casual rider, these frames are probably good enough. If you attack the trail with full body weight like the bike is unbreakable, these frames are a bit hit and miss. Disclaimer: I have not owned one, but I have seen enough anecdotes to be pretty confident in this analysis

Here is an outlier, a custom steel frame built on bafang platform: Vessel Bicycles, LLC - Bike Builds & Specs

Specialized Levo 3 with the Levociraptor Gen 3 is plug and play, no apps needed and shows accurate speed and distance.

Add a 36 tooth chainring and crank her up to 30+ mph on the flats with assist!

Yup, seems great.



Until you see it's 300 EUR

300 is miniscule compared to the overall price of the bike to lift the 20mph limit.

Going from 20 to 30+ is priceless when you are riding the thing, completely changes the whole bike more than any other mod you can do!!