Fat tire ebike for a long steep hill

[mpea]

Desperately need advice on which ebikes to buy for myself (leisurely cycling/cruising female) and my 11 year old son. We are in NY.

What we need to be able to do: carefully and slowly ride down and up our very long and very steep dirt and gravel covered driveway AND leisurely ride around on flat surface - grass, dirt, gravel - pedaling or using a motor when needed.

I understand that we need: fat tires, mid drive motor and probably at least 700W power? There are so many bikes in the reviews section, my head is literally spinning. Please just tell me what to buy.

Also, do we need a trike for balance or a 2-wheeled bike will be fine? We are both fine riding regular 2-wheeled bikes, just worried about turns on our extremely steep hill.

TIA!

 

[PatriciaK]

The problem with asking for folks to just tell you what to buy us that almost everyone will recommend THEIR bike, and you'll still be all over the map .

You don't necessarily need all that wattage - it depends on the bike. Generally, a mid-drive needs less power than a rear hub to get the same hill job done. I ride a 250 watt mid-drive bike (Giant La Free E+2) in a very hilly area and it does a great job!

It's very difficult, especially for your first bike, to make a choice from research alone without actually riding some bikes. Right now that's not easy to do because if Covid and bike shortages, but it's still very important.

If you can ride a bike, you can ride an ebike. Just like on a regular bike, don't take sharp turns too fast. One thing you DO need is disk brakes; hydraulic, if possible.

I would try to ride a few hub drives and mid-drives to see which I preferred, and I'd try to ride them under conditions as close as possible to what you'll normally be riding.

Don't get too focused on specs until you've ridden some bikes and talked to your Local Bike Shop about the best fit for you .

 

[mpea]

PatriciaK thank you so much for your reply! We don’t have a bike shop where we are staying right now (Andes, NY) so unfortunately there is no way for us to try any bikes. We have to choose what “sounds” right for us and order it to be delivered.

 

[rich c]

Fat tires are for flotation or lower ground pressure. They are useless for any application I’ve ridden, and find midsized tires around 2.4” far superior. I’ve owned both.

 

[Tars Tarkas]

"Steep" is a relative term. I have what I consider a long, steep gravel driveway and the last time I tried riding up I couldn't make it. I think I probably could now due to being a better rider but just about 100% of my riding is away from the house. I take my bike on a rack to where I want to ride. That isn't a solution for everyone, I understand.

The only ebike I've ever ridden is my Rad Rover. It handles some pretty steep hills, now that I know what I'm doing. PatriciaK's advice is good though so I won't recommend Rad Rovers for you. At 70 pounds I think they might be a little much for an 11 y.o., and maybe for a lot of women anyway.

Going downhill on a steep gravel road, it can be tough to be cautious enough, which is another reason to rack your bikes elsewhere to ride. Of course, that pretty much eliminates taking the bikes out for a run to the market, and it means spending some money on a rack.

Walking up, if not downhill, is an option too. Many bikes have a "walk assist" mode to make that easy.

Good luck figuring something out!

TT

 

[vincent]

i would check out biktrix, not knowing how tall you are etc they have some 20 and 24 inch bikes, not sure if all are mid drive or not

steep and gravel is tough, but there may be plenty of hub drives that will do it

maybe check rad rovers and biktrix facebook pages and see if anyone close to you has some of their bikes and tests them on the hill

rad and biktrix fat tires are going to be pretty heavy, that is actually the case on a lot of fat tires

i got an app for my iphone a while back to try and tell me % of grade but havent used it yet, that might be an idea