First eBike HUGE long hills…need recommendations

[Stone Hill]

Hello,
I've watched at least 20 videos from this website and my head is spinning. I need two bikes one for myself and my hubby so we want to keep it below $2000 each.
We are both around 200lbs each.
The roads around here are long, steep hills
We will be biking mostly on dirt roads.
Round trips will be at least 30 miles
I want super good brakes
shocks front and rear would be nice
puncture resistant tires
gears for the uphills
standard, replaceable parts
We took a Evelo Aries for a spin and liked it but want to check out more before we buy.
Thanks for your help

 

[Kaldeem]

For that price, you want the Pioneer Allroad, from Optibike. I'm pretty sure it meets all your requirements except price. It's like 2700$. And I doubt you'll find anything for under 2k that will me your needs. Other bikes you might want to look into are Haibikes, Easymotion, E-joe.

The problem you'll encounter with your budget, is that climbing requires torque. Mid drives systems have the most torque and utilize your crank set, but also cost more than rear hub bikes. Rear hub bikes (Stromer, some Easy Motions, E-Joe, Izip) don't utilize the crank set, they just spin rear wheel.

I would definitely recommend you check out all the other bikes (Haibikes, Easy Motion and E-joe) first to get an idea of what prices and specs you'll get for a mid and rear drive systems. Most will cost 3999$ or 4999$. Then go check out the Pioneer Allroad. It has the good specs, quality components and a price to match!

 

[JoePah]

@Stone Hill
Dealers will begin unloading their 2015 inventory soon.. I would wait a bit before you buy.

Not sure that Evelo will be good long term. If you do buy it, buy the extended warranty and the larger battery and motor.

 

[George S.]

You have a very specific set of features. The hill-climbing is hard for people to quantify. A steep hill can mean a range say, from 8% to 30%. To handle hills of 10% + is relatively easy with a mid-drive, which lets you use low gears on the rear derailleur. Hub motors are not tied to the pedals, chain, and drivetrain. Hub motors will work with certain grades.

If you were just buying parts (like to build a bike) you could find a bike with a front suspension fork and trail tires. Tires can be upgraded, as can tubes. You would want a bike with hydraulic disk brakes. From there you would add a mid-drive, which is likely to be the Bafang BBS02 or newer HD version. Then you would need a battery.

These parts are available from multiple vendors, at a range of prices. Buying a battery is complicated, but you would be sure of getting the capacity you needed if you made the decision on what to buy. You could probably have any of these parts assembled, but you would need to find a shop, and they might be tied to a vendor of motors and batteries.

Still, for your price range, you might get the most value exploring some sort of kit option. If you can nail down the grades you have to climb, some hub motors might work. The Golden and the MAC come to mind as more powerful hub motors.

My gripe with Evelo is that they low ball their prices and a lot of useful features drive the prices up rapidly. There are more options right now because prices have been dropping. There will be a $2500 Haibike, with a different mid-drive, and it might work pretty well. You could rent a bike and use an app like 'Ride with GPS' to show exactly the grades you are climbing.