Help me find the right e-bike?

[john peck]

Sorry, I have to disagree. I've never seen a vehicle hold back or hesitate to pass me, even when I'm doing 25 mph on my bike. If they are doing 26, they'll even speed up to get around me. Nearly as bad as when I drove our farm's semi when I was younger. People would go to incredible effort to get around a semi and then slam on the brakes. My younger brother stopped driving when an elderly couple did that to him and the truck came to a stop with the bumper against the back window of the car.

Cars will pass no matter what; it's survival that matters. 2 days ago I had a postal deliverer zip past me only to stop cold 20 feet in front
of me a second later. I only missed slamming into her bumper by jumping the curb. If it had been a man, I'd have yanked him out
of the drivers seat, but she got off with a heart-felt finger.

 

[daniel58]

Hi Liz,
Have you considered building your own? If you have a bike you enjoy, and it sounds like you do, then building an ebike based on the bike you have might be the answer. I know it sounds daunting, but there are several kits out there that completely plug and play. With just a few hand tools and a little patience you can DIY!
You might look at the Bafang BBSHD. I have put many of these on bikes (just did another one today!), it only takes a few hours, and the results are amazing! And reasonably priced! You can get a complete kit with a very good battery for around $1250-1350, which fits your price point nicely, and you get an ebike that will do 35mph top speed and has about a 30 mile range, and will climb very steep hills with ease. They are very robust, I personally have logged thousands of miles on mine and I have not broke it yet! They include a throttle, which is not included on many factory bikes, and they are completely user programmable, so you can easily dial down the performance to suit local laws and your own needs. The entire kit adds only about 18lbs to your bike. If you do not feel you are up to the task you can have the kit installed for you (I can help with that!) and still be well below your 2k price point! I checked out your bike on line and it looks to be an ideal candidate for a ebike build! You CAN DIY! PM me for more info!

Is there any such thing as a direct drive electric gearless and brushless hub drive motor e-bike conversion kit; I hear that they are very reliable and have been around for awhile now; with basically no moving geared moving parts to potentially have to lubricate and to even go bad down the line; now I also hear good things about direct drive electric hub drive motors in that they can also potentially effectively assist one to help slow down ones e-bike safely also as well; and in doing so that would allow one to actually help to prolong ones mechanical disk brake pad life as an added benefit; especially down those long down hill mountain stretches in particular; I don't know of any potential direct drive electric hub drive motor e-bike conversion kits that might be worth considering for a potential e-bike application; I will also probably have to also likely get a decent branded name Raleigh host bike that has decent performing mechanical disk brakes also as well; that would also give the additional capability of having a triple chain ring front derailleur also as well; this to be able to maintain flexibly in switching from a set of lower set of gearing ranges; while also at the same time also being also capable of switching oneself to a higher set of gearing ranges also as well; I realize that this might be a tall order for a potential D.I.Y e-bike project as most e-bikes converted typically only have a single common front chain ring in front typically; hopefully direct drive electric hub drive motors have improved to the point where they are not only truly affordable but also cost effective to get as I would prefer to get one around 750 watts in power so that their is always plenty of electric motor reserve demand power on tap if needed also as well along with a powerful decent sized higher current controller and something like a King Meter larger sized bicycle computer graphics screen with one or two programmable custom power presets; now I don't quite nearly see that many branded name direct drive electric hub drive motor e-bike conversion kits especially ones with brand name reputable two year direct drive electric hub drive motor product warranties in particular versus the more universal non-branded name direct drive electric electric motor e-bike conversion kits it would seem; I have also potentially looked at RadBikes also as well but they unfortunately also only have a single chain ring in the front which only allows one to have a rather limited selection of higher set of range gears and no selection at all for lower set of range of gears; so that also does not appear to be an ideal effective custom e-bike choice also as well either; so here I am at a crossroads torn between having to make some rather limited effective e-bike conversion choices similar to what Liz was stating previously; is it actually possible to roll and build oneself a custom e-bike and hopefully still save some money in the process; to directly reinvest those savings into getting a somewhat larger higher 48 to 52V 28ah capacity lithium ion battery for $599 from EM3EV; which according to the e-bike forums is tops in battery pricing, battery performance and battery capacity for the money; now if that can all be done cost effectively that would be a really great custom e-bike alternative solution indeed.