Know of any cheap 28mph city-commuter bikes, with Nuvinci N380 hub?

[onlineaddy]

I find the pain of paying more than I planned for the right bike faded quickly and I was left with the pleasure of riding a bike that ticks off all the right boxes every day I ride.

I agree with most of the wisdom that you imparted, @Alaskan . However, I think for most people we don't know what the right bike is until we've had experience with at least one that is not. It's a knowledge that grows over time. Thus, it may be more economical to make your mistakes on cheaper bike(s) first.

 

[byunbee]

I understand if your budget is constrained by your circumstances. However let me share my experience. The first ebike I bought had a derailleur system, an inexpensive front shock but otherwise decent components. I found I was riding way more often and further than I could have imagined. I was hardly driving my car any more. But my bum constantly ached and it did not go away, various saddles, and two suspension seat posts later, along with frequent chain and cassette changes, I decided I needed and better bike, with better suspension, internal gearing and belt and better lighting for visibility and personal safety. So getting the right bike cost me more in the long run by starting cheap and then moving up to what I should have bought in the first place. When I sold the first bike I lost only got half the money I paid for it back.

As John Ruskin said about 150 years ago:

"It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money – that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."

I find the pain of paying more than I planned for the right bike faded quickly and I was left with the pleasure of riding a bike that ticks off all the right boxes every day I ride.

This is sage advice.

 

[byunbee]

Is it this one, Inter-5E, SG-C7000-5D, first gear is the 1:1 direct drive ratio, if you have a torquey powerful motor with good controller mosfets that don't overheat when climbing hills it shouldn't be a problem. You can change the rear sprocket, I think your choices are 24t, 27t, or 30t, if you want a different pedal cadence in first gear. Sorry I can't speak to reliability, it's a new design.

Shimano G-C7000-5D 5 speed IGH is the model.

 

[byunbee]

byunbee: Well, I figured go big or go home. But seriously, Rohloff is better than the Shimano 5-speed. I also figure it will last longer and give a better range. I also asked the owner (Pushkar) why a Rohloff wasn't an option for the City Commuter. He said that it would be no problem to add one. I believe it's an added cost of $1,099.00, so not cheap.

@AlexZ, you may want to compare the configuration between the City Commuter and the new UC Pro. The latter is a much better bike with better standard components. When you add all the components that are important to you, you may end up with a figure on the New UC Pro that's only slightly more expensive than the City Commuter. When you add other upgrades to be similar to UC Pro you may end up with the same cost.

You said "Go Big or Go Home". Trust me, I understand this. My original target was $2000 when I started looking and I ended up purchasing the New UC Pro.

The only downside is that the New UC Pro won't be ready for delivery until Sept/October timeframe. But @pushkar can provide better estimate on that.

Component	City Commuter	Cost	New UC Pro	Cost	Which is better?
Frame	Aluminum Rated for 250lb Rider	Base	Aluminum Rated for 300lb Rider	Base	UC Pro
Motor	Bafang M600 120nm torque	Base	Bafang M620 (Ulra) 160nm torque (750W version)	Base	UC Pro
Battery	48V 12Ah	Base	52V 17Ah	Base	UC Pro
Fork	Suntour Mobie 45	$199​	Suntour Auron	Base	UCPro
Gear Hub	Rohloff	$1,099​	Rohloff	Base	Same
Drive Train	Gates Belt Drive, 55T Chainring, 22T Rear	Base	Gates Belt Drive, 60T Chainring, 19T Rear EXP rated	Base	UC Pro
Brakes	Tekro 725	Base	Magura MT5e	Base	UC Pro
Handlebar	Satori Riser Bar	Base	Surly Moloko Loop Bar	Base	UCP Pro
Rack	Fender Integrated Rack	Base	Fender Integrated Rack	Base	Same
Headlight	Lezyne Macro	Base	Lezyne Macro	Base	Same
Rear Light	Reflector Brkae Light	Base	Reflector Brkae Light	Base	Same
Charger	2A Charger	Base	5A Charger with 90/100 Switch	Base	UC Pro
Tires	Maxxis Pace 27.5x2.1	Base	27.5x2.4" Schwalbe Super Moto-X with Greenguard and Black reflex	Base	UC Pro
Range with default battery	~30 miles on PAS	Base	~55 miles on PAS	Base	UC Pro
Total Cost	$4,597	$5,698
Extra Battery for added range	48V 12Ah	$650​	Not needed for similar range
Total Cost w/ Extra Battery	$5,247	$5,698

 

[sdtr443w]

sdtr443w, thank you for that. I was on the fence about the Aurora, and your post tipped the scale for me to not buy it. I should stick with an e-bike that is specifically made for 28mph. Watt Wagons City Commuter looks like a good fit for me... It's actually rated for 28mph. Unfortunately, the Bafang M600 motor it uses is too powerful for Eviolo's Nuvinci CVT 380 hub. Guess I'll have to settle for the Rohloff speed hum instead. Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice upgrade, but more money than I'd like to spend.

I feel kind of bad about it but I'm finding a surprising engineering difference between class-2 and class-3 e-bikes. It's more than a basic legal category with a removal of a throttle. The kind of equipment you'd use in that range narrows down the bike selection. I don't know about the other automatic transmissions because I just gave up on the idea. It looks like classic derailleur transmissions are actually more efficient and I have to care about it for the ranges I'm worrying about.

I've just been glossing over all this for the past two months or so and I'm new to this, but I think that's actually most people right now. There's something of a Renaissance going on with electric bicycles. If what's next is The Enlightenment, then I suspect class-3 ebikes are going to be a major part of that in order to get conversions of suburban and exurban commuters. I would think those kind of riders would love to have an automatic transmission that can work at higher speeds.

When going below 20mph, the Nuvinci was great. Having a cadence mode where it just took care of it so I always just pedaled at the same speed was very comfortable. It just might as well have had only one gear when getting near and exceeding 20mph. If I had chained the gear ratios to fix that, I would have been walking it up the benign hills around here when the battery had started to drop out because I probably wouldn't have been able to do anything at the lowest gear.