Help buying/Choosing an electric bike.

Steel,

Gosh, I have never seen the words Tragic and Minor, used in the same sentence before :-}

Ok, you might want to consider these things;

1. You like to go fast. vs The electric bikes you mention go slow, very slow.
2. You mention steep hills. vs Most electric scooters don't do hills well at all.
3. Mud guards means water. vs Certainly the XB600 would not be a good choice for wet, let alone muddy conditions, as it is not well insulated at all.
4. The XB600 has peddles to be legal, but they are not helpful or useful under normal conditions.

Editorial;

You might want to look at some of the 10 speed style electric bicycles, they allow human assisted propulsion, and they have gears that help with the hills.

Alternatively, you could consider a larger moped, perhaps one of the 300 watt scooters. Some of them come with a two speed transmission, which will help with the hills, will go faster, but may have to be licensed, registered and insured.

Good luck with your decision,

Tom

The bikes-that-look-like-scooters aren't very practical for pedaling. Many here report taking their pedals OFF and not bothering with them. I myself haven't ridden one but looking at people who are riding them and attempting to pedal, I believe that they're right, the pedals are useless and are there soley to satisfy a legal requirement that then makes them a bicycle.

If you want to do bicycling (as you say, your rehab requires pedaling) there's a number of real bicycles which are electric. And there are kits to convert normal bicycles to electric. These fake bicycles aren't the be-all-end-all of electric bicycles.

I do my grocery shopping using an electric bicycle hauling a trailer. I've used this trailer also for laundromat runs etc. It is really great to avoid short trips as you say.

You can get a cheap Wal-mart bike or you can go with a name brand expensive bike. I find a lot of people buy "whatever" and then decide that is not for them. In this case you buy the cheaper bike, not that big of a loss if you end up not using the bike. Now if you know for sure a electric bike is for you, you would want a quality bike that fits your riding style. The more money you spend the better the bike gets. The battery is the item that will drive up the cost the most. I would see if you could rent or barrow one first. Check in your area to see if there is a forum member that can give you the low down and let you test ride their bike.

I bought all my rides off of Craig'slist for pennies on the dollar. They needed new batteries, but that was pretty easy to take care of.

Deron.

I have to agree with the others, that if you like to peadle, those are not the bikes for you. First off, what are you riding now?

Keeping costs down can be important, one way I do it is by buying old nonfuctional bikes and putting thier quality components onto a wallmart bike. Even the wallmart bike need not be new.

For a bike to do spining therapy on and some shopping a comfort bike with no rear suspension is a good choice. Something with 7 speeds and a fixed front can easily be turned into a 21 speed with a crank and derailur off a garage sale bike if you want more gears. The hardtail allows carrying a battery pack and panniers to carry big loads of groceries. The motor comes as a kit from lots of places, including ebay. Ampedbikes and crystalite dealers usually have rear hub motors. That allows you to have a front suspension fork on the bike. For your 6 mile distance, a 48v sla battery setup will be adequate and inexpensive. Later, if you get hooked like us, you can invest in long range lifepo4 batteries.

The cheapest option is usually a front hub kit, under $500 including batteries on ebay, and a 50 buck bike from a garage sale or goodwill. The bike can be pretty crappy and still be a great ebike, since all you need is strong steel front forks for a front hub bike. Even the gears can be pretty lame since you will tend to just use the tallest one.

I am planning on getting a "cyclone" kit because I have significant hills where I am. (As a truck driver, I have marked my road map with the "Roads Of Unusual Steepness" (ROUS's).

This kit requires you to pull off your BB sprockets and install the Cyclone double-freewheel. The motor then drives the front free-wheel, so it can use the rear gears in hilly situations.

The "double" free-wheel means you don't have to pedal when the motor is running if you don't want to.

http://www.cyclone-tw.com/dc24.htm

I agree with Reikiman. Buy something that was designed to be pedaled, not a scooter with useless pedals stuck on to satisfy a legal requirement.

Don't buy any product based on marketing alone. Find one that has been discussed on this forum and others so you know the product is more than hype.

Bionx is my favorite bike kit, but I have also heard positive things about Cyclone and Tres Terra. (Actually Bionx and Cyclone are kits. The Tres Terra is a complete, purpose-built bicycle.) It's a little more work, but it is nice to pick the bike and the electric kit separately. This way you get a bike that does what you want (mountain, cruiser, recumbent, folding) paired with a kit that does what you want. For a good view of what is available and for what price NYCEWheels has a nice selection and they never carry crap.