Report on long term use of 2 e bikes

[Hugh]

I started out 3 years ago with a BionX HD 500 road bike, an EVO disc brake model with 700C tires. Rode that for about 1 year then transfered the hub drive and battery into a tadpole trike I built over one winter. 1000 km's were put on the DF bike and in the ensuing 2 years another 1500 plus km's on the trike. Since the trike is so comfortable I often go on 40 km rides with litttle to no rider fatigue. After 3 years the bionx will still go 100 km,s or 60 miles to a charge if I keep the assist low and of course pedal as well. And it is mostly flat land around here. And zero maintenance issues. The 2nd ebike is a KHS fat tire bike I installed a Bafang 1000 watt mid drive motor into. That bike now has 1600 plus km's on it. It gets ridden year round, with the qualifer that winter use is on groomed single track trails most of which are 7 km's in length and I ride these 2 times around at a minimum per use. I did make an insulated foam cover for the battery and if the temp drops below minus 10 C I will sometimes slip a chemical hand warmer into the cover. It also has had zero maintenance issues. For the record I am 65 and now retired. Also these bikes are NOT economical to buy, build or operate in the short term. The only way to bring operating costs down is to ride and pile on the mileage. They are cheap to charge up but since each cost $3000 roughly it takes awhile to realize a financial benefit. How ever the benefits of all the cycling is priceless.

 

[mrgold35]

I have two his/her 2016 Radrover 4" fat tire bikes with +4600 miles between them. The wife doesn't ride as much as I do and I use them both for work commuting and fun trail riding. Having two really does come in handy because I sometimes have one ebike down and just use on the other one when waiting on parts for days or even a week. I've even swapped out parts between ebikes to help trouble-shoot issues.

I agree the financial savings take a while to pan out. I figured the +4600 miles on my ebike might translate to 10,000 miles saved on my car (gas savings, wear/tear on parts/tires, less car maint etc...). I still might be a few years away from breaking even since I paid $3000 for the ebikes, $500 for vehicle platform rack, and +$500 for riding cloths and bike accessories.

The major benefit is the increased physical activity and lifestyle change. We have done more family riding activities around town and taken our ebikes on vacation or visiting out of town family. Met a ton of people that like my ebike and want to know more about its capabilities. The wife and I rent ebikes when traveling to sight see and do local guided tours (we did Newport Beach & Santa Barbara, CA, ebike tours in the spring).

For me, ebikes are like kids. If you don't have them, you don't need them. If you do have them, you can't even think of a life without them.

 

[jhoblo]

I started out 3 years ago with a BionX HD 500 road bike, an EVO disc brake model with 700C tires. Rode that for about 1 year then transfered the hub drive and battery into a tadpole trike I built over one winter. 1000 km's were put on the DF bike and in the ensuing 2 years another 1500 plus km's on the trike. Since the trike is so comfortable I often go on 40 km rides with litttle to no rider fatigue. After 3 years the bionx will still go 100 km,s or 60 miles to a charge if I keep the assist low and of course pedal as well. And it is mostly flat land around here. And zero maintenance issues. The 2nd ebike is a KHS fat tire bike I installed a Bafang 1000 watt mid drive motor into. That bike now has 1600 plus km's on it. It gets ridden year round, with the qualifer that winter use is on groomed single track trails most of which are 7 km's in length and I ride these 2 times around at a minimum per use. I did make an insulated foam cover for the battery and if the temp drops below minus 10 C I will sometimes slip a chemical hand warmer into the cover. It also has had zero maintenance issues. For the record I am 65 and now retired. Also these bikes are NOT economical to buy, build or operate in the short term. The only way to bring operating costs down is to ride and pile on the mileage. They are cheap to charge up but since each cost $3000 roughly it takes awhile to realize a financial benefit. How ever the benefits of all the cycling is priceless.

The benefit for me is my health. I was (I’m ashamed to admit) 70 lbs less when I rode my non-motorized mountain bike everywhere, stacked with groceries, laundry, whatever. An ebike will make that so much more pleasurable. I will die sooner if I don’t lose this weight. I want to enjoy whatever time I have left, and biking was the only excercise that I really enjoyed, but I lived in a rural area where I wasn’t breathing vehicle exhaust, dealing with heavy traffic, etc. The biggest drag was that I didn’t like non-motorized touring, which will be much more pleasurable with assist!

 

[john peck]

I don't know if my bike will last long enough to save me money, but after riding it 1500 miles, I don't care.

 

[harryS]

Not in it to save money, but my costs are low for my ebikes because all but one were kits, and I built them around being able to share the original battery style. My wife and I had 1700 miles last year and up are to 932 miles this year. We're retirees that ride for fun, Rode 24 yesterday. We've both burned off 10 pounds of last winter's fat.

So call it 4000 miles on nine motors in three summers. No motor failures. Maybe 12 controllers have been used, with one bad one out of box, No FORD (found on road dead) experiences, Have had racks come loose, batteries fall off, wires pull out, but that's all my fault in being careless, like when I motorized my folding bike and didn't leave enough cable for the bike to fold.

Only two flats and both happened within 100 yards of home, when the street was being resurfaced. I have Gaadi tubes in 20", 26" and 700cc and never needed to put one in.

One goal is to ride the Hiawatha rail trail next summer, but my wife will need a wider tire bike for the crushed cinder road, and I will need to get over fear of falling over the railing.

 

[john peck]

[/QUOTE
Harry, that trestle reminds me of one on the 'Iron Horse Trail' that crosses the Cascades eastward from Seattle

 

[jhoblo]

Only two flats and both happened within 100 yards of home, when the street was being resurfaced. I have Gaadi tubes in 20", 26" and 700cc and never needed to put one in.



View attachment 23432

Wow, that’s some nice scenery.
Hehe, it doesn’t look like goathead thorn country... I was fixing a flat a week in ABQ in spite of tire liners and slime before I bought Schwalbe Marathons. I can’t be carrying around a torque wrench to pull off the rear Bionx hub to deal with thorn flats. I haven’t had any since.

 

[Bruce Arnold]

Wow, that’s some nice scenery.
Hehe, it doesn’t look like goathead thorn country... I was fixing a flat a week in ABQ in spite of tire liners and slime before I bought Schwalbe Marathons. I can’t be carrying around a torque wrench to pull off the rear Bionx hub to deal with thorn flats. I haven’t had any since.

Good to know. That sounds like a major pain, and a major relief.

 

[Nova Haibike]

The only way to bring operating costs down is to ride and pile on the mileage. They are cheap to charge up but since each cost $3000 roughly it takes awhile to realize a financial benefit. How ever the benefits of all the cycling is priceless.

If you pile on the mileage though, the costs of the other mechanical bits...chainrings, cassettes/freewheels, brake pads, tires...start to add up. Still cheaper than car maintenance (and insurance!), but the operating costs never really go down.

 

[rannyv]

I started out 3 years ago with a BionX HD 500 road bike, an EVO disc brake model with 700C tires. Rode that for about 1 year then transfered the hub drive and battery into a tadpole trike I built over one winter. 1000 km's were put on the DF bike and in the ensuing 2 years another 1500 plus km's on the trike. Since the trike is so comfortable I often go on 40 km rides with litttle to no rider fatigue. After 3 years the bionx will still go 100 km,s or 60 miles to a charge if I keep the assist low and of course pedal as well. And it is mostly flat land around here. And zero maintenance issues. The 2nd ebike is a KHS fat tire bike I installed a Bafang 1000 watt mid drive motor into. That bike now has 1600 plus km's on it. It gets ridden year round, with the qualifer that winter use is on groomed single track trails most of which are 7 km's in length and I ride these 2 times around at a minimum per use. I did make an insulated foam cover for the battery and if the temp drops below minus 10 C I will sometimes slip a chemical hand warmer into the cover. It also has had zero maintenance issues. For the record I am 65 and now retired. Also these bikes are NOT economical to buy, build or operate in the short term. The only way to bring operating costs down is to ride and pile on the mileage. They are cheap to charge up but since each cost $3000 roughly it takes awhile to realize a financial benefit. How ever the benefits of all the cycling is priceless.

Do cars see you on the trike? My fear with those, and even some recumbents, is that they would be even more invisible to cars than an upright bike. How is visibility (your visibility of others) on the low bikes?

I also have a Bafang BBS-HD and have been riding it for several years without any issues. It's been both powerful and quiet.

 

[Hugh]

Well Rannyv oddly enough motorists almost universally give me more room. A good example of this, last week I was in a 60 km charity ride for Habitat for Humanity, while on one leg of the course on a small rural highway a semi with 2 trailers of fuel came up behind me, he didn't want to slow down and so moved over to safely pass me while forcing 3 oncoming cars to move over to the shoulder. As soon as I saw what was happening I also took the shoulder. My speculation is either they think I'm disabled - I'm not - or maybe they see so few trikes on the road they are not sure what it is. For safety I always have a flashing red LED at the rear plus a flag. And the trike has 2 Mirrcycle mirrors that I monitor when a vehicle is coming up behind me. My thought is my safety depends on me and if needed evasive action is always an option. One area where caution is required is riding on a road with parked cars, due to the lowness of the trike someone coming out of a lane or side street can not see you.