? Suggestions/Referrals for Foldable Ebike with following features ?

[ebike Richard]

My foldable ebike will be mainly for street use, including hills.
Will be used primarily for exploring and recreational use in foreign travel.
I am a male, 5’ 7”, and weigh 150 pounds.
My budget is $2,000 but have some flexibility.

There are many mass-produced foldable ebikes to choose from on the market. This ebike could either be built from scratch, or modified from such a commercially-made foldable ebike. The regen braking system is an important feature for me, as well as the PAS system, and throttle.

I’m flexible about details such as the size and specs of the motor and battery, but incorporating as many as the following features would be more of a priority – listed in order of importance:

• ~5-level PAS system
• Has a throttle
• ~4-level regen braking system (focussing on its braking capabilities, not on its generating electricity capabilities)
• Comfortable, smooth ride - won’t feel every bump on the road
• Shifter shifts quickly, easily and is simple to use - I favor the Shimano Tourney Shift Lever SL-TX50 (shifts either 6 or 7 gears) or some similar-type shifter
• Gears: lowest gear is quite low; and the highest gear is quite high: would like to climb steep hills with less strain on battery and like to pedal slowly when on the flats. The actual number of gears isn’t that important.
• Durable / Low-maintenance: I’m not much of a fix-it guy and in many foreign countries it’s hard to get repair help for ebikes, in addition to dealing with the language barrier
• Ebike is lightweight or at least on the lighter side
• Electric horn wired into the electrical system of the ebike - loud motorcycle-type horn beep, not a warbling-type sound
• Folds up easily and well (I’ll be travelling overseas so it will be opened & folded up a lot)
• Electric turn signals, front and rear, wired into the electrical system of the ebike
• Difficult one (only if possible): The ebike is easily transportable on planes and its battery is able to pass airport security

Thanks!

 

[Dewey]

Regarding your last requirement the only option that might work is the 8.8ah 320wh 36v split battery from nycewheels for their brompton m3l but as that model is currently unavailable the split battery is also unavailable so you may be out of luck. Brompton are about to release their own ebike so you might want to check if nycewheels intend to continue selling their conversion. This thread is useful, consider renting a battery at your destination.

As for the rest of your requirements in the past there were a few factory built folders using Bionx kits that offered regen, Pedal assist, and throttle, and a direct drive hub motor that is low maintenance, but Tern and Dahon have gone with other motors now so you would need to buy a 20" folding bicycle and a bionx kit or Ebikes.ca is a good source for other gearless direct drive hub motors, all of which will provide some drag when unpowered. As for horn and indicators these are after market accessories rarely used on bicycles, no idea if they would wire into a bionx battery but probably not so either buy scooter accessories and possibly some sort of voltage converter and wire them into the battery harness or frankly you are better off with an airzound horn you can refill with a bicycle pump, and if you really want them either a lumos indicator helmet or zackees turn signal gloves.