Electric Bicycle

[Richard McGuire]

I've had a Rad Power RadMini for more than a year now and I love it. I've put on more than 4,500 km.

It's the only Rad fold-up bike, along with its smaller step-through version for shorter people.

I simply fold it and put it in the back of my car -- no need for a bike rack. It is heavy, so I remove the battery before lifting it into the car.

The other big advantage with this model is the 20X4" fat tires which are better on rough unpaved roads and rail trails. I was on a rough trail a couple weeks ago and met a couple with more expensive ebikes with narrower tires and they had to turn back because the trail was too rough, but I had few problems.

I've even managed to recharge the battery while boondocking using the solar power of my trailer, though I've also been unsuccessful when it's overcast, so don't count on it.

To people saying they quickly run out of electricity, stop trying to use it like a motorbike with all throttle and no pedaling. If you use lower levels of pedal assist on flat ground you should be able to get 80 km (50 mi) on a charge.

[jeepers29]

Originally Posted by Richard McGuire

I've had a Rad Power RadMini for more than a year now and I love it. I've put on more than 4,500 km.

It's the only Rad fold-up bike, along with its smaller step-through version for shorter people.

I simply fold it and put it in the back of my car -- no need for a bike rack. It is heavy, so I remove the battery before lifting it into the car.

The other big advantage with this model is the 20X4" fat tires which are better on rough unpaved roads and rail trails. I was on a rough trail a couple weeks ago and met a couple with more expensive ebikes with narrower tires and they had to turn back because the trail was too rough, but I had few problems.

I've even managed to recharge the battery while boondocking using the solar power of my trailer, though I've also been unsuccessful when it's overcast, so don't count on it.

To people saying they quickly run out of electricity, stop trying to use it like a motorbike with all throttle and no pedaling. If you use lower levels of pedal assist on flat ground you should be able to get 80 km (50 mi) on a charge.

Our bikes from BikTrix, we can get well over 50 miles on a charge, but as said we use assist level 1 and 2 mostly with a bit of 34 on big hills. We never use the throttle because we still want some exercise. These bikes are great at getting older people back out and riding.

[dickinsonr]

Originally Posted by parmm

I was really interested in the idea of e-bikes until I tried navigating the many state and local laws!!! What is legal in your home town may not be legal in the neighboring town, let alone that state a 1000 miles away!!! I've got a clean diriver's license and intend on keeping it that way.

Yes, the laws for e-bikes are all over the place at the present time. One which is ridiculous is if you have a throttle you are not allowed in some places. A throttle is so important to get a heavy e-bike, (I ride an e-trike, 75 plus pounds), started at intersections, etc., especially on a hill.
Also, the big strong trail riders profess a dislike of e-bikes, when they get older or have health problems and they themselves cannot ride the trails without e-power, I wonder what they will say.

The best analogy I have seen is the snow slopes that snowboarders were outright banned from early on. Just like the snowboarders, the e-bikes are here to stay, so rules/laws will become reasonable, just as they did for snowboarders.

So, I ride reasonably, on my e-bike, just as I did on a normal bicycle, enjoying every ride. I am only restricted on some mountain bike trails at the present time, which will change, and the police in Bend, Oregon are not silly enough to enforce unreasonable/confusing laws.

So enjoy your e-bike ride...

Take are,

Randy

[JWoods]

We have 2 RAD Runners, love them, and take them Scamping with us. They will do 20 mph and will hold a charge for about 40 miles. We use a small generator to recharge them when remote camping. It takes about 3 hrs for a full charge. They are great around campgrounds, quiet and fast. They also do well on dirt and gravel roads. Using the pedal-assist, they can climb relatively steep hills with no overheating. We learned the hard way to buy the extra tire liners, around $100 extra but worth it if you go off the pavement!!! We can easily remove the front tires and both RADs fit inside a FJ Cruiser. They are heavy, about 70 lbs.

[Hancock]

We have two Rad Mini Step thrus that we have had for six months. We are very happy with them.

[John in Santa Cruz]

I've built both a hub/wheel drive eBike, and a torque sensing mid drive ebike, and I way prefer riding the latter, I've also ridden several commercial ones.

my favorite of whats on the market is the Specialized stuff, their drives are so transparent and smooth you don't realize its an ebike until you notice you're flying up a hill in a fairly tall gear without breaking into a sweat or breathing hard. for pavement riding (and an occasional gravel trail), I particularlly like their Specialized Turbo Vado SL, which falls under the heading of a 'hybrid'.. Silly video commercial for them: https://youtu.be/smgpmYM_Xpg
catch-22 on Specialized, they /are/ expensive.

[John in Santa Cruz]

this is my homebrew middrive.



I put a rather large battery pack on it, it will probably go 50+ miles with medium-heavy assist. my biggest complaint about the specific setup I built is, the motor gets too hot climbing long/steep hills at medium-high assist, and if you don't watch the temp and back off, it will hit a thermal shutdown (intentionally programmed in to prevent demagnetizing the motor at extreme heat), and take 10 mins to cool down.

this bike used to be a '3x8' 24 speed (3 in front, 8 in back), but the mid drive replaces the front sprocket, so now its just an 8 speed, with a gearing pretty close to my former front high gear. oh, i've since put slightly larger tires on it, 700x40, it had 700x32.

[dfandrews]

Originally Posted by Raspy

I bought a Lectric, 20" folding bike, with fat tires, and love it. Very good on sandy ground. The frame is very solid. It folds down and will fit in a Lowes, wheeled plastic container. It has a throttle so you can ride in like a motorcycle. Has a derailer and a very nice electronic display. The battery plugs in without removing it from the bike. The key disables the bike. And it is a lot of fun. I can put it in the truck bed and close the tonneau cover, or put it in the back seat area.

We got a couple of Lectric folding bikes as well. Ditto everything Raspy said!
They fit (just) in back of our Honda Pilot. We thought about a rack on the back of our Escape, but road dirt, security, and weight (63 lbs ea.) negate any advantage there.

[John in Santa Cruz]

I'm just not a fan of the small wheels on those folders, most of them are 20", and I'm 6' tall and 215-220 lbs, basically a pretty big dude..... I mean, the folding part is awesome, but on pavement and hard pack I way prefer running on 700c wheels with like 32-40mm wide tires. I used to mountain bike, but i'm in my upper 60s now, and crashing hurts too much, and when I mountain bike, I tend to do gonzo stuff that leads to crashing.

If I take the battery off that dark blue homebrew ebike I posted before, its well under 40 lbs so is reasonable on a bike rack. btw, 1Up racks rule!!



(wife's 50-60 lb fat tire ebike on inside, my 35-ish lb skinny tire on the outside, behind our Escape 21, it all fits under a nice secure cover and gets chain-locked in place if I'm going anywhere sketchy)

[John in Santa Cruz]

btw, this is the hub drive ebike I built from my wife's step-through... this picture was taken when it wasn't quite done, I needed to get some extension arms for that battery rack so it would sit farther back and be more level, and I put a cover over the electronics unit on top of the rack.



THIS bike is throttle activated... I hooked up the throttle that the motor kit came with just to test things out, and when I was happy it worked, I asked my wife to test drive it and she hasn't let me get rid of the throttle, hah hah. its a 1000 watt motor, and can go 25 MPH with no pedalling at all on the flats, but the bike itself becomes unstable much past 30 (starts to shimmy). That battery pack is like 850 watt*hours (48V 18AH), I took it on some 5 hours long rides going quite briskly the whole time, and the battery still had 50% charge left. you need to pedal to get up a hill at a reasonable speed, but not very hard. that is an unusual "Moxie" seatpost that has a rubber elastomer spring and parallelogram geometry, such that the seat goes back and down and keeps your hip-to-pedal distance approximately the same. this was already on her bike before I powered it.

(and bonus points for the first person to note there's no chain in that picture, hah hah, I was just testing the motor in the driveway).

[CindyL]

We each have a Lectric step through and love them. We fold them up, put them into large tubs from Lowe's and put them into the back of our RAM 2500 long bed. Kevin found that if you tip the tub on end, you can slide the folded bike into the tub and then tip it upright. I found online a Viking Solutions Swivel lift that will lift the tubs into the back of the pickup and just swivel them in, made for carcasses for hunting (https://www.ebay.com/p/21034514286?iid=233642466643).

CindyL

[ThomasC]

Originally Posted by CindyL

We each have a Lectric step through and love them. We fold them up, put them into large tubs from Lowe's and put them into the back of our RAM 2500 long bed. Kevin found that if you tip the tub on end, you can slide the folded bike into the tub and then tip it upright. I found online a Viking Solutions Swivel lift that will lift the tubs into the back of the pickup and just swivel them in, made for carcasses for hunting (https://www.ebay.com/p/21034514286?iid=233642466643).

CindyL

That swivel lift hoist looks real interesting!

[MontclairBobbyB]

eBike technology is cool, I get it. But DO proceed with eyes wide.open and ask yourself:

- Can I pedal this 60 pound beast if/when the battery conks out?
- Can I reasonably transport this eBike?
- Can I maintain this eBike (or willingly pay someone to service it)?
- Can I perform emergency trailside repairs (incl flat tire)?
- Am I willing to pay a few grand for something that I may very well unload for a few HUNDRED within 5 years? Seriously.

If the answer is "Why yes, silly" then I say go for it.

For my money, my health, and my enjoyment I'd much rather spend for a really fine bicycle that will (in reality) take me much farther (and in the long run easier) than a 60 lb eBike.

Sorry (not sorry) to rain on the eParade, but I'm just not falling for it, at least not until I can answer yes to the questions.

Peace,
BB

[Perryb67]

Originally Posted by MontclairBobbyB

- Can I pedal this 60 pound beast if/when the battery conks out?
- Can I reasonably transport this eBike?
- Can I maintain this eBike (or willingly pay someone to service it)?
- Can I perform emergency trailside repairs (incl flat tire)?
- Am I willing to pay a few grand for something that I may very well unload for a few HUNDRED within 5 years? Seriously.

If the answer is "Why yes, silly" then I say go for it.

-did our homework, we spent extra money and bought a 47 pound bike that is easy to pedal if the battery craps out.

-did our homework and our two folding Tern ebikes fit behind the drivers seat of our F150. We remove and charge our batteries driving down the road. Without batteries each bike weighs 39 pounds, so much easier to lift

-once had a low-voltage electrical license and could be a bike mechanic in any bike shop, so easy to repair, most failures are with the standard bike parts anyway, so same problem, and if you can't pedal your ebike without power you didn't do your homework.

-see previous answer

-there are many who don't understand why we would spend money on a camper when they just get a motel room. Also, many have expensive boats, OHV's, airplanes, guitars, etc, but they understand our discretionary spending. Besides our Escape 5.0 and F150 we have three expensive bikes, three expensive trikes and an expensive tandem trike. What's in your garage?

Originally Posted by MontclairBobbyB

For my money, my health, and my enjoyment I'd much rather spend for a really fine bicycle that will (in reality) take me much farther (and in the long run easier) than a 60 lb eBike.

Sorry (not sorry) to rain on the eParade, but I'm just not falling for it, at least not until I can answer yes to the questions.

Peace,
BB

Yes, the whole reason of your post "(not sorry)" was to "rain on the eParade".

At 72 years of age my ebike/etrike takes me further than I can go on my non-ebikes/trikes.

We all have different reasons for our choices, you just haven't gotten there yet, and with your displayed attitude probably never will.

Perry

[ThomasC]

Originally Posted by MontclairBobbyB

eBike technology is cool, I get it. But DO proceed with eyes wide.open and ask yourself:

- Can I pedal this 60 pound beast if/when the battery conks out?
- Can I reasonably transport this eBike?
- Can I maintain this eBike (or willingly pay someone to service it)?
- Can I perform emergency trailside repairs (incl flat tire)?
- Am I willing to pay a few grand for something that I may very well unload for a few HUNDRED within 5 years? Seriously.

If the answer is "Why yes, silly" then I say go for it.

For my money, my health, and my enjoyment I'd much rather spend for a really fine bicycle that will (in reality) take me much farther (and in the long run easier) than a 60 lb eBike.

Sorry (not sorry) to rain on the eParade, but I'm just not falling for it, at least not until I can answer yes to the questions.

Peace,
BB

Your post could start a long discussion and I probably shouldn't get into it but here we go.

At my age any long distance on a regular bike is to far so if there is a break down I would have to get assistance regardless. There are different type of break downs. Could your "fine" bike get home with a chain or drive line failure? My ebike can.

Any transport requires a little bit of ingenuity. That swivel hitch winch a post or two up is a good example.

As far as maintenance and trail side repairs for most people even a bike will be a bit beyond them. I have AAA for my vehicle and it will retrieve me and my bike two times a year if need be. For flats use Stans no tubes but after a lot of research I have been using it in the tube.

Finally how much will your "fine" bike be worth after 5 years? I have found that a couple of my "fine" old bikes aren't worth very much.

My main reason for riding Ebikes is because it is FUN! When you get past 70 there are not as many fun things to do.

BTW my Ebike weighs 120 pounds and I have several ways to transport it. Oh and how old are you anyway because that has some bearing on this whole conversation.

[MontclairBobbyB]

I suspected I might wrinkle a few noses with my opinion, but that's what makes this a.forum. There's no right or wrong; only opinions.

For the record, I'm 63 years old and I admit I've got a few bicycles in my garage, and therefore a natural.bias. I don't necessarily shy away from new toys and HAVE made a.few.bad choices (like my fat bike, which sounded like a.good idea once upon a time).

But like I said, if you've already done your homework and decided for yourself, get an eBike...power to you. I hope my opinion MAY help others to make an informed decision, either way. I have no stake nor an axe to grind, only an opinion, for which I make no apologies.

Peace,
BB .

[Cotton]

Thanks again for all the posts, facts, and opinions, still reading. Riding a bike any distance that might be useful, hurts me. Just looking for a way to keep moving...

[Cotton]

Originally Posted by ThomasC

Your post could start a long discussion and I probably shouldn't get into it but here we go.

At my age any long distance on a regular bike is to far so if there is a break down I would have to get assistance regardless. There are different type of break downs. Could your "fine" bike get home with a chain or drive line failure? My ebike can.

Any transport requires a little bit of ingenuity. That swivel hitch winch a post or two up is a good example.

As far as maintenance and trail side repairs for most people even a bike will be a bit beyond them. I have AAA for my vehicle and it will retrieve me and my bike two times a year if need be. For flats use Stans no tubes but after a lot of research I have been using it in the tube.

Finally how much will your "fine" bike be worth after 5 years? I have found that a couple of my "fine" old bikes aren't worth very much.

My main reason for riding Ebikes is because it is FUN! When you get past 70 there are not as many fun things to do.

BTW my Ebike weighs 120 pounds and I have several ways to transport it. Oh and how old are you anyway because that has some bearing on this whole conversation.

Like your style. Did you build your bike? Where'd you get your parts?

[slowpat]

This is my Gazelle. In two years I've put 3000 miles on it and would have more except for the smoked out days here. It's my baby and I ride it on pavement and off pavement, even had it on a singletrack trail. It has a Bosch mid drive motor.



Here is my loading and hauling system and no, I don't ride it into the pickup, I push it.

[slowpat]

This is the 2017 Radmini. It has 1400 miles on it, I've replaced the brake pads and had one flat on it. It has the rear hub motor and a throttle. There is no suspension and it beats me to death on rough roads. No, I don't think I could pedal it very far if it broke down. I could pedal the Gazelle though and I do sometimes turn off the motor of the Gazelle and pedal on the little bit of flat we have.