Its actually my wife that daily drives the R&M; I have been relegated to her older Diamondback Lindau EXC: a 2014 $2500 20mph class 2 E-bike. (Henceforth "the DB")
The difference is stark: the thousands of dollars more really deliver the mail. The trail quality where I ride is horrific, tree roots have pushed up the pavement, and the lack of suspension on the DB makes for a punishing ride. Between the fat tires and full suspension, the R&M eats all that up such that the rider barely notices. The DB is really on or off - it doesn't analyze my effort, it just notices I'm pedaling and gives 100%; it's near impossible to go less than top speed. The R&M can go any speed you want (so long as it isn't more than 28mph, though if you have the Roloff transmission the 28mph isn't such a brick wall).
The real problem with the R&M's is that they are just too damn expensive. Yes it's a fine bike, to be sure, but having to fork over $7k to get the right bike is frustrating. And hell now a fully loaded Super Delite is like what $12k?? Insane.
Having put 1000's of miles on both bikes, its hard not to want another R&M.
The DB is just about done at 3200 miles:
- the cables are stretched
- the brakes are gone, the brake levers and their adjustments are destroyed
- if you take your hands off the handlebars the front end gets a significant death wobble going
- there have been wiring gremlins that caused it not to function correctly from time to time
- there is duct tape and a chunk of a plastic Costco fork holding various pieces in place
+ wildly the chain and cassettes are still going and don't skip
- there are various squeaks and rattles
- the battery capacity is down 20-30% and a new battery of course doesn't exist.
The R&M has 1500 miles on it and it's basically the exact same as the day we bought it. Its actually a bit faster as the transmission has broken in/loosened up. I haven't had to adjust anything, or change anything. The belt did jump once when it got full of mud, but I think that was my fault.
I specifically went after the R&M after her first year on the DB daily: it was a constant headache and was becoming unsafe to ride or otherwise unreliable with the electrical gremlins. Now she rides a bike I won't even have to think about for the foreseeable future, save tires and brakes.
The DB is more of an appliance, to be thrown away after it's useful life. The R&M rides like a bike I'll still have 20yrs from now. And that's really the question: do you intend to put thousands or even tens of thousands of miles on the bike over the next years, possibly decades? Buy an R&M. If you are more likely to put a thousand miles, maybe two thousand, on the bike in the next few years and that'll be that, you could save a lot of money (albeit with many daily sacrifices) by buying one of those $3-4k Taiwanese bikes. Just a weekend bike or fair weather rider? Don't get the R&M, unless money isn't hard to come by and you just like nice things. But if you live in a metro city and intend to ride a bike daily for years without having to think much (or at all) about the bike, the R&M is a perfect fit (sucks about that price though.)
