E-Bike

[Larry$]

I bought an electric/pedal assist bike today. The 11 mile trip to the shop was getting too long in hot weather for me to pedal. After reading lots of stuff about e-bikes I decided on the Aventon Level. It came in at a local bike shop yesterday & I rode it home today. So far I'm impressed with it. claims to have good mileage on a charge, 47 with pedal assist, 25 w/o. Surprising acceleration. The assist is stronger than I expected. There is only about one mile that I have to travel on side streets. Other than that it is all bike trails. Max speed on motor only is limited to 20mph, 28 with pedal assist. I think I'm going to like it.

 

[C-Bag]

Hub motor or mid drive?

 

[Alcap]

Please keep us posted of your opinion on the good and bad on your new bike . I rode my daughter in laws and was surprised on how quickly it accelerated almost scared lol . I think I was on the slowest speed too. I think they would have been great when we would go camping and wanted to explore the countryside

 

[Larry$]

Rear hub drive. They are fairly heavy. This one is 62#. Yes, surprising acceleration. The 8 speed derailleur works very nicely and greatly affects your speed in assist mode. A little bit of pedal turning and speed increases rapidly in the higher gears.

 

[C-Bag]

Congrats on the E-bike!

one of my long range projects is converting my ICE trike to electric and the big question was hub or mid. The consensus among the bike mech’s is mid drive because it uses the bike gears, hub is direct. Hub is like being stuck in hi gear so it’s potentially harder on the motor and won’t climb like a mid. Also if you’re using the the hub hard keep an eye on the spokes. But if you’re using the hub sanely like using your pedals to start to get going I’m sure it won’t be a problem. I’ve decided on a Bafang 350w mid drive. Way cheaper than the Bosch and lots of parts and how to repair and hot rod vids.

 

[Cheeseking]

Awesome! my wife and I got e bikes last spring they’ve been super fun. Pretty sure you’ll love it. I still use my regular bike too but the fact that you still can get good exercise and have power assist is swaying me to the electric more.
Hers is a Electra townie go. Mine is a trek Allant 8s.

Not sure how many watts the motor is but I know it’s a Bosch mid drive. I got it up to 28 mph a few times but you definitely are pedaling hard. Some of the build your own bikes can be scary fast without all the programmed limits like on the mainstream production ones.

For us middle age and older people e bikes are game changer imo.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mattthemuppet2]

congrats on your new bike! E-bikes are pretty awesome - you still get good exercise but you can go further or arrive cooler. I've used a Giant Road-e for commuting to work since I moved to San Antonio. 25 miles each way every day for 3 years, then less frequently due to Covid and other issues. Still clocked up 25,000 miles since I bought it in August 2017. Lots cheaper than buying and running a second car!

 

[Larry$]

25,000 miles since I bought it in August 2017

Holly cow! My ride to the shop is 11 miles. I thought that would be a lot.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

that is a good ride! I'm pretty far out on the end of the usage curve. The university I work at is at the very south of SA and the decent schools are in north SA. Didn't want to buy and maintain a second car on a single income, so this seemed like the best alternative. Takes an hour and a quarter each way, whatever the weather, unless I have to get off and push over iced up bridges. Even with a new set of wheels and a replacement battery (1st one lasted ~15k) it still works out to about 4c/ mile.

 

[matthewsx]

The hub motor on my DIY eBike stopped working on the 4th and I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet. If it's toast I may switch to mid-drive with pedal assist technology.

One thing to make sure of is wear your helmet!!!! These things are fast enough to really mess you up.

John