Lightest E-bike?

[Zero_Enigma]

It has been an interest of mine for a e-bike for a while but I'm curious what is the listest e-bike out there? I prefer to pedal 90% of the time and only use the motor for ~5-10% when I'm on a hill. So I would prefer a small battery and a light motor seeing as I may only use the motor 10% of the time. I like the appeal and use of the motor for times when I'm tired after a long ride and it's dark coming home and I've cleared 3 hills on the way home to kick the motor on if some sketchy people are about as I'm coming over the hill and tired from my riding to kick the motor on and speed off.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Goatbiker]

I'm also about to make that plunge. I am aiming toward the Tonxin Mini Motor (also called the Nano Motor in England) with a 3.2 amp, 36v DeWalt LiPo battery.

The motor is 180 Watts, but has internal gearing and a freewheel that give it the torque of a 250 watt motor. Weight of the motor is 5 pounds and the battery is 2.5 pounds. Wiring and the controller should keep the total weight under 10 pounds.

I intend to use it on the front wheel of my recumbent where I can easily swap in in and out at will. As you can tell, this is not intended to be an electric motorcycle, just a boost up the small hills I encounter.

Some folks on a different forum reported problems with the company, but over the last several months that I have been watching it, the descriptions and product photos indicate that changes have been made in the motor.

Here is a link to the company (in China). If you take time to navigate, and you can learn a slightly skewed English, there is a lot of info.

http://www.tongxin.net.cn/tongxin1.jpg
http://www.tongxin.net.cn/tongxin2.jpg

[Abneycat]

I was going to say that the Nano was probably the lightest practical motor you could get, but Goat beat me to it. You won't do much better than that, some of these frame mounted motors come close when you look at how much the motor itself weighs, but they require you to *add* hardware, whereas the Nano is technically removing hardware since you're no longer counting your old hub.

BionX is the other light hub motor choice, although its not as light as the Nano it has more features, and mounts rear wheel instead of front. The 250w motor weighs about 7.5lbs as opposed to the 200w Nano's 5lbs.

Also, there are a bunch of frame mounted options out there that can weigh in pretty light. Some of them might say they have a 6lb motor, but they might also require you to pack on 2lbs of mounting equipment and an extra lb of drivetrain modification as well though. I'd look around though, something might be out there.

[pengyou]

so rather than a like ebike it seems that what you are looking for is a lightweight kit to mount on the bike you have to make it go hmmmmmmmmmmmmm (the sound of a nice environmentally clean motor :) In your shopping I would also consider how/where the kits need to be mounted - it can make a big difference in the handling of the bicycle.