bike check / mountain check for the yuba #supercargo with the little #hillTopper#eBikes kit. Rode from Barbur up Terwilliger to downtown, around with the @bikeloudpdx#pdxBikes#eBike policy ride, and back out Barbur from 1st. The battery indicator was red (of blue, green, red) when I got home but it never faded on the long steady climb out Barbur, 10 minutes for 2.5 miles with 200+ft elevation (ODOT, get your cars off of our essential historically-streetcar-graded bikeways)
@enobacon@bikeloudpdx It looks like a fantastic bike but it would cost 2 or 3 times my (old) motor bike. It would cost very near as much as a mass market electric motor bike.
Why are good electric bicycles so expensive? I did a conversion on a $400 (new) bike and daily rode 100km with 600m vertical. Total cost: AUD$1200.
@davedave they need to be able to sell more of them to have mass-market pricing. Trade extra car lanes for protected bike lanes and priority bus lanes, and more people could consider such a bike for the grocery run, carrying kids etc. This rig with the rain canopy and kid bucket + the tiny hilltopper motor is about the only way to get an electric bakfiets for under $4k. Most are $6k+, up to $14k! Much of that cost is lack of volume + competition to the (rather unimpressive IMO) bosch motor.
@enobacon bafang 350w crank mount motor got me up the steepest hills and up to 60km/h. I couldn't afford the Bosch one, and it's 250w is limited by everything so 250w is when it's not too hot, the birds are chirping, you're not going too quickly....
@davedave this is a small 350W hub (hilltopper) which I really want to be regen-braking capable and then add more power via the crank drive motor (tsdz2 if it will fit or something low-profile under the level-ish bottom bracket tube (the rear right chainstay drops down, maybe too much for that motor.)
As it is, the 350W hub spins out sometimes on bumps and metal plates, even just steep hills if unladen, so we can't send more power to that without more traction (suspension fork + fat tire maybe)
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