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is a favorite of AD PRO Directory member Sarah Storms, the founder of Styled by Storms in Maplewood, New Jersey

Pros: The bottle style battery is extremely convincing and I love the way it operates (twist the cap to the right for additional power (theres a difference between level 1 and level 5 but the middle all feels similar) Its great that this kit can work as pedal assist only or you can opt for twist and trigger throttle options depending on your needs (throttle mode will likely drain the battery faster if you choose not to pedal as actively and requires the bike to be going ~2 mph to activate) The kit is extremely light weight (~5.5 lbs for all pieces combined) and minimal in appearance, the basic pedal-assist only setup has only one wire and keeps the handlebar area of your bike clean, if you add a throttle youll have one wire going from the battery area to your bars Once the mounting plate has been installed, its pretty easy to remove the Add-E motor by loosening one bolt and unplugging the power then simply take the bottle battery off and youre back to a normal bike The bottle cage battery adapter can be used with traditional water bottles (if you take the battery and Add-E off) but the bottle wont sit perfectly flat at the bottom due to the plug interface You can get additional batteries for ~$300 to increase range and since they fit into normal bottle cages you could potentially have two mounted to the bike if you have bosses on the downtube and seat tube, each pack only weighs ~2.5 pounds which is nice Because the motor and battery are mounted at the middle of the frame you get excellent balance and reduce unsprung weight compared with a hub motor that said, I dont think it would work well with a full suspension bike due to wheel movement and limited travel of the Add-E Cons: To unlock the higher speed of this Add-E kit I had to use a little computer chip that was included but there were no instructions In short, remove the battery and unplug the white cable then insert the chip there, now turn the battery all the way up to level five (twist to the right) then plug it into the bottle cage interface, now look for six red flashes (repeating) at the base of the motor then unplug the battery from the bike and you should be good The battery design is cool but didnt appear to have an auto time-off so if you forget to manually twist it to off you may drain the battery slowly, without a display unit or lights to show that its on its just easier to overlook Despite being rated at 600 watts and labeled as a speed pedelec, this version resembles the base 250 watt kit in terms of performance, I feel that it may be the same motor but have the top speed limit removed There are no display readouts so you cant tell how full the battery pack is, how fast youre going, how far youve traveled or anything else you have to estimate or get a separate cycle computer but that still wont display your battery The battery capacity offered by this kit is extremely small compared to most kits and bikes I review (about 30% of average) so the range is lower, but its also much lighter than traditional offerings You absolutely need space to mount the bottle cage but Add-E does sell an adapter kit for those without threaded bosses on their seat tube or downtube Depending on the frame design of your bicycle this kit may be easy to install (using a kickstand plate just behind the bottom bracket) or difficult (mounting Carbon fiber plates directly to the bottom bracket) it took us several hours and special tools to get it working The five magnet pedelec disc isnt as responsive as a 12 magnet disc and you dont get brake levers with integrated motor inhibitors so there are brief moments where you may be braking against the motor If you mount this kit using the kickstand plate you may no longer be able to use the actual kickstand and your bike may tip consider an aftermarket chain-stay mounting kickstand Resources: Official Site: US Dealer: More Pictures: Reader Interactions The Add-E kit has always impressed me with its compact size and weight

Theres a bit of give in this thing, so even stiffer items should work (which has traditionally been a problem weve seen on many of these pockets)

It was a size too big for me