This last week I’ve put about 150 miles on a vintage BionX e-Bullitt, it’s on its 2nd battery and original rear wheel. I love it a lot and am having nostalgic fantasies of circa 2011 when I was going to tour indefinitely on my naturally aspirated Alfine 8-speed bullitt.
So that orange bike above is a rear-drive and I’m guessing it’s not so good in foul weather? Has anyone tried adapting their own rear-drive system like a bafang? It seems like the price more than doubles for the -ebike version real quick and it’s a only a 250-watt 65Nm system…
Other e-bike observation I made this week is the mid-drive Mustache that my nephew was riding has the heaviest shifts while he’s pedaling… I tried to tell him about light pedaling while shifting… but like. Do people just explode those drivetrains?
Shifting is pretty normal on my torque sensing bike. I think the cadence sensing bikes can have shift sensors that cut power when you shift but maybe they don’t all have them.
Rear drive is probably fine in foul weather assuming it’s not some super powerful hub motor that hasn’t had some tuning (max power or current limited).
There a lots of kit options out there for probably as much as you want to spend. Grin Tech / ebikes.ca would be a good place to start researching kits/parts/etc if you want to go the hub motor route.
I was at REI over the weekend and saw this thing, which intrigued me. I can’t really fit a long tail cargo bike into my life, but I’ve been wanting an ebike for a bit and something like this seems like it would be more convenient to have around if it does the light duty cargo bike stuff well enough.
I don’t generally have a very high opinion of REI’s house brand bikes but maybe I am just being a snob? Rad power makes one like this that also seems potentially very turdly.
Are those misguided prejudices? Is this style of bike actually good? Who else makes one?
sup has one and loves it. it is torque sensing, the racks are nice, and im not sure if they’ve updated the ones in store, but they switched from a 42t to a 48t ring and sent them out to owners free of charge.
it’s a fun bike. it’s not a high end e-bike, but it is very cromulent
I was looking at those when I was at REI the other day too. Like @karl_dandleton says, it’s not high end but perfectly cromulent. Kinda considering one for grocery runs and other light duty tasks. But if I have to buy a whole menagerie of new bags for the bike that’s kind of a bummer.
I see a lady and her kid on the way home every day riding an orange Rad Power e-cargo bike and it looks like a much nicer bike, but it could just be the glossy paint fooling me.
narrator: it wasn’t a nicer bike unless they replaced all the parts. At least the brakes because 160mm cable disc brakes on a longtail do not in any way fit the definition of adequate for a longtail in Seattle.
We upgraded our 180mm Shimano hydros on our xtracycle to thicker downhill rotors and 4 piston calipers for reliable stopping.
Meant to post in here but forgot… im selling these parts, all purchased from Grin directly.
Bafang G311 Fast Wind (10.5 rpm/V) Front Geared Hub Motor with 9-pin Waterproof Higo Z910 Motor Plug with Combined Speed + Thermistor Signal.
Grin V4 Baserunner_Z9, Flat Field-Oriented Waterproof Motor Controller for Battery Enclosures with Z910 Plug. 60V Max and 55A Peak Phase Currents (~30-35A Continuous).
Z910 60CM Extension cable
Would give a good deal for any Tarck folks. let me know if you are interested. Low miles, I upgraded to a beefier motor/motor controller
Planning on going DIY route eventually hopefully… most of my cycletruck stuff should swap over to a bullitt or ominum frame if I end up going that route. its a hub drive
