Electric bicycles?
My Wife and I were discussing about ways we could get around a bit, once we stopped at a site for a few days. We both have pedal bikes we could take to ride around on, but after a trip down to Calif...
Forum Discussion
Snowman9000 wrote:
I own one that I bought ready made and one that I electrified from a kit. Honestly, it's hard to get anything that is very good for less than $1000. As mentioned, the lithium battery is the biggest chunk of it. $2000 seems to be the price point for a "good" e-bike.
In the range of $1000 give or take, the ready made ones are going to be fairly entry level in terms of all the bike components. I don't have any brands to recommend or avoid per se. If you google electric bike blog, you will find some nice blogs that have reviews of specific models. One thing most people recommend is to make sure you like the bike itself, that it fits you and your riding style.
You won't be buying anything that violates any laws here in the US or Canada. They are treated as bicycles.
My first one had the front wheel motor. It's the cheapest way, but not the best. Not enough weight on the drive wheel. It skidded easily on gravel.
In Canada (don't know about the USA) the limit is on motor size. Max is 350 Watts. Anything more requires registration and licensing as a motor cycle. In the UK the limit is 250 I think.
I have had three electric bikes, each one better than the previous. Just had the third one stolen, so maybe a 4th in sight.
The lithium batteries makes the difference. Mine was a Whisper 905 SE, 2010 version similar to this.
