I used to regularly ride long distance,100 plus mile rides almost every week with a club. Everyone rode super light racers and everyone broke spokes. With the weight of Ebikes there will be broken spokes.
Nope. Sorry. Weight of the ebike has nothing to do with breaking spokes. First of all they are under tension, meaning they are stretched between rim and hub. Second, you can have riders weigh between 90 and 300 lbs, and the 90 lb rider could have a spoke break just as often as someone weighing 300 lbs. Third, the ebike weighs maybe 50 to 60 lbs, where regular bikes weigh around 25 to 30lbs. So another 10 to 30 lbs is a lot less of a difference than the weight difference between various riders.
What leads to broken spokes is the following:
1) Improperly tensioned spokes, meaning not evenly tensioned within a few percent all the way around the rim, taking into account the drive side will have a different tension spec than the non drive side spokes.
2) Rim that is out of true from the factory, and they tensioned it to make it 'go to true', when the rim should have been replaced rather than used at all
3) Poorly machined hub flange holes
4) Poorly spec'd or ill fitting nipples at the rim
5) improperly spec'd rim (lots of really cheap rims out there, or rims made with inherent flaws.)
6) very cheap spokes commonly found on ebikes that are in the $600 or less range you'd buy on Amazon
Wall92 is experiencing what many first time ebike searchers experience. There are more than 100 brands, and many models within brands, and a lot of very overpriced brands, and some very low priced brands not even worth considering. Staying between $1500 and $2000 gives plenty of choices, for good quality, and the riding situation expressed is not a lot different than what many first time ebike riders seek that come into my shop looking. If it helps:
1) Rule out mid drives when looking in that price range. They automatically add $600 to $1000 if you have a mid drive instead of a hub on the same bike.
2) A 500 watt motor, and 48 volt battery with at least 13 amphours, and a torque rating of at least 50 nm (newton meters) will get you where you need to go, even with hills, as long as you weigh less than 250 lbs.
3) You don't always need shocks, and getting 2" wide 'balloon style tires' can help soften the ride, but know that shocks add both weight, and a fair amount of cost for anything that is decent enough to consider its merits. Unless your roads are littered with potholes, and trails super bumpy, you can probably get away with no shocks, and maybe even just add an NCX suspension seat post and be quite comfortable over most terrain that is not super bumpy.
4) A frame integrated battery in the downtube, allows for a bit better weight balance from front to back, if you have a rear hub drive ebike, which many in this price range are rear hub drives. It also has a lower center of gravity than a battery over the rear tire, mounted in a built on rack.
5) An adjustable stem, even tool-less, can be a decent feature to have, especially if the model you are looking at, is a 'one size fits many', and there are no multiple frame sizes in the model you are evaluating.
6) Other than the above, mechanical disc brakes are just fine, and hydraulic disc brakes usually add about $150 to the same equivalent bike versus mechanical disc brakes (at the retail level).
The rest is more personal preference:
Do you really need/want front and rear lights that are integrated, meaning they are powered by the on board battery ?
Do you really want/need a frame integrated rack, and fenders, or are you ok with buying from dozens of aftermarket available options ?
Do you want swept back handlebars, or more wider style straight across handle bars , like those used more by mountain bikers ?
Do you want straight up posture, or moderate lean forward ?
Do you want pedal forward design, that allows more for your feet to be flat on the ground while seated, or is a standard design ok, where you'll probably be tippy toeing, or only be able to put one foot on the ground while seated ?
Are you ok with 7 or 8 or 9 speeds, or do you want a multiple front chain ring design that can get you up to 24 speeds ?
Do you want smooth tires, knobby tires, or very balloon style tires or something that is a hybrid where it has a smooth bead down the middle for pavement, and knobs more on the sides for occasional trail use and some better grip in turns ?
Brands that offer one or more good quality models in your price range will be in no particular order:
Aventon
Blix
Raleigh
IZip
Rad (on line only)
Juiced (on line only)
Magnum
BagiBike
BESV
BH (Formerly Easy Motion)
Brands that won't be in your price range, and there are many more than I am listing here, but these are just a few you can quickly rule out:
Yamaha
Stromer
Trek & Electra
Riese&Mueller
Benno
Gazelle
Haibike (unless serious discounts which does happen a lot)
Specialized
Electric Bike Co
Pedego
Bulls
Evelo (on line only)
Giant
Unless otherwise noted, all of the above brands do have dealers, though some networks are larger than others.
Someone is bound to chime in, and say 'hey you missed brand x or brand y'. Yep I probably did. Part of the reason is to help you narrow your search, and there is a 90% chance you'll find exactly what you need and want from the above brands listed in the first category which is in your price range.
The E-Glide is not a POS by any means, but the R&M, you can see why that bike is over 6k. I also think that the E-Glide is faster than the R&M. The E-Glide compared to the Rad. Well, the Rad has one major thing going for it that I have yet to see anywhere else. Rad has a FULL line of accessories that fit. Getting things to fit on other bikes . . . sort of hit and miss. The Rad was terrible with the throttle compared to E-Glide. The Rad also was slower than the E-Glide. The Rad was more comfortable because we were on the step-thru which has 45 degree handlebars. You sit pretty straight up and just cruise.
