E-Bikes

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by duff_duffy

I’d rather see fleets of these things on the road than all the big trucks I see.

Totally agree. I'm half shopping for some sort of cargo-ish e-bike myself, but just not finding what I want. Most of them are just too heavy - I have to get it in/out of my basement, so either down a flight of stairs, or rolling it around from the back yard (mid-row townhouse on a hill). If it's not easy to hop on and go, it won't get used for errands.

The Cannondale Compact Neo is close, but I'd prefer mid-drive. The hub drive doesn't allow use of my cargo trailer (for my dog) as it mounts to the axle ends and the hub motor has a cable going in the DS axle end cap.

I should probably just buy a Turbo Vado SL next time they're in sale. That's what my wife has and it's nice. I just kinda want something lower with a bit more cargo focus.

[Mark Davison]

If the commercial e-bikes don’t fit you, you can, in some cases, convert an existing custom bike to an e-bike. There are kits that mount the motor in the front wheel, next to the bottom bracket or in the rear hub.

I currently have a kit for a custom touring bike. It’s a lightweight hub motor, with a stack of batteries that fit in a handlebar bag.

The advantage of this arrangement is that the heavy batteries and hub motor can be take off the bike and stowed separately when putting the bike on and off of a car rack.

Motor and batteries add about 18 pounds in this kit, so a 30 pound bike becomes a 48 pound bike, which is quite a beast to lift onto a rack.

There is also a security advantage in being able to take the batteries with you when you lock the bike. Here in Seattle theives have been known to seriously damage a bike to steal batteries locked onto a downtube mount. The batteries can be the most expensive part of a conversion kit.

My kit came from Grin Technologies in Canada, and Bill Davidson’s shop did the work for the conversion.

[Dude]

I have a tern GSD. It’s heavy however the Bosch motor (meaning any Bosch mid-drive) has a “walk” mode that engages the motor and will roll the bike at 3mph to assist in walking a bike. Additionally, removing the battery before moving it around makes it lighter.

These aren’t the best solutions but they certainly help. Too heavy is one thing I deal with to have the miles and hours of joy that bike brings me and my family/kids. I’ve had it about 5 years and I’m past the break even point of cost of gas vs cost of this bike.

Originally Posted by Alistair

Totally agree. I'm half shopping for some sort of cargo-ish e-bike myself, but just not finding what I want. Most of them are just too heavy - I have to get it in/out of my basement, so either down a flight of stairs, or rolling it around from the back yard (mid-row townhouse on a hill). If it's not easy to hop on and go, it won't get used for errands.

The Cannondale Compact Neo is close, but I'd prefer mid-drive. The hub drive doesn't allow use of my cargo trailer (for my dog) as it mounts to the axle ends and the hub motor has a cable going in the DS axle end cap.

I should probably just buy a Turbo Vado SL next time they're in sale. That's what my wife has and it's nice. I just kinda want something lower with a bit more cargo focus.