If you’re parking it outside it needs to be out of the rain. Rad says not to let their bikes stay wet for longer than 3 hours at a clip, wiping and drying it out after it gets soaked.
I know it’s tempting to order the rover ASAP because they’re hard to get these days but I would hold off and make sure it will work for you. Rad says not to climb hills over 15% in their manual for the rover. I don’t know if that would hinder them helping you with warranty issues if you burn out the motor.
To give you an idea of how the rover performs I’m 250lbs and I have one hill I climb on my commute that’s probably a half mile long at maybe 12% max. In PA 5 I shoot right up it, but towards the end I really have to pedal to keep it going around 15 mph. If the hill was longer and/or more steep I don’t know if it would work.
If you are lighter than me (probably are haha), or maybe can go a different way home where you add say two miles but aren’t going up really steep hills or breaking the climb up into sections you can attack with some starting speed, then I think the rover could work.
But If I was you I would look around for an ebike shop in SF and see if you can test drive some bikes. You might want to try a mid drive which might be better for those hills. Also if they have something comparable to the rover or even something with just a 500W motor but on a lighter bike you could get a feel for how it will handle those hills.
Like Blix has a 40 lb 500W geared hub motor bike that’s I think around 2000. I could see that working better because it’s 27 lbs lighter even though there’s less power from the motor. Also the ebike shop might be able to tell you what works best in SF and you can go from there.
Best of luck, let us know what you end up getting!
