Electric Bikes - recommend me an E-bike that does not resemble a motor scooter?

I'm looking at e-bikes, but I agree with the many cyclists i've met that say the large e-bikes that look like motor scooters, with pedals added as an afterthought, those aren't bicycles and are wasteful.

my older sister had a yellow moped that was really low profile, even though it had a gas engine, it was at least tiny. That's what I'm looking for but with electric instead of gas.

I've seen some, and I've seen some conversion kits, but I'm new to it and know you probably know jsut what I'm looking for in this forum. I searched, but am looking for what you think is a high quality ride. I'm not into disposables.

any models i should be looking for particularly?

Depends on what you want to spend.

There are several brands of hub motors that work well that you can install on a regular bicycle. A good one will run about $1000-$1500.

There are complete, ready to go bicycle options like the OHM, or Optibike, which are expensive, but have some increased usability, IMO.

These are electric assist options - you still have to work at getting the bike going and although some allow you to just use the throttle to power the bike without pedaling, doing so decreases your range considerably.

Don't want to pedal? Get a motorcycle.

Good luck

I think you're looking in the right direction!

The eBike market, in its current state, seems to have a wide range of 'toy' eBikes that use cheap bikes as the foundation & then cheap motors & batteries for the electric assist. As these are not good bikes to begin with, they usually aren't very good eBikes either. For some reason, these bikes tend to look like they are from outer space.

I think the best way to get what you're looking for is to find the right bike first, and then use one of the better conversion kits currently on the market. There are some good articles, if your search around, on selecting a bike for electric conversion. Basically, find a bike you'd love riding even without electric assist, make sure it has a strong (preferably chromoly steel b/c of its strength) fork, and then select a kit. My personal preference is for direct drive, brushless, hub motors. Using a front hub motor, as long as you've selected a bike with a strong fork, and mounting your battery pack on a rear rack, is a great way to acheive a simple conversion that retains good balance & handling. This type of motor also keeps the bike freewheel friendly, so if you don't feel like using the electric assist, the bike is still a pleasure to pedal. If you're not the DIY type, some of the better shops that sell kits also install them. . .

Not exactly sure which country you are from.
But if you are anywhere in USA, Canada or Europe
then the best kit out there that fits on any NORMAL bike are the BionX set.
they are quality made specially the ones from 2009
and you should be able to get it from any LBS (local bike shop)
there are plenty of online retailer for it as well.

However since you highly you are new to this, it might be better to have a LBS set it up for you, as they have more experience on doing so.

I bough mine locally, but i installed it myself.
it's easy as plug and play.
just screw in the battery mount it to your bottle cage
then slide on the battery
replace your rear wheel, with the new wheel
connect all the wires, and you CAN NOT get it wrong, it wont fit any other way (good design)
mount the controller on either side of the handle, and you are ready for test run. :thumb:

Note: BionX are made to be an assistance, it's by no mean an electronic MOTORcycle as many people seems to want their eBikes to be :rolleyes: ...sigh... using this or any other kit.

Most hobbyist do their own custom eBikes and actually turns their bikes into e-Motorcycle, but the draw back is that when the battery dies, you are just like a Car out of Gas.

However going via an Assistance type of eBike, then if you ever runs out of battery, you can still pedal normally :thumb:



I'm looking at e-bikes, but I agree with the many cyclists i've met that say the large e-bikes that look like motor scooters, with pedals added as an afterthought, those aren't bicycles and are wasteful.

my older sister had a yellow moped that was really low profile, even though it had a gas engine, it was at least tiny. That's what I'm looking for but with electric instead of gas.

I've seen some, and I've seen some conversion kits, but I'm new to it and know you probably know jsut what I'm looking for in this forum. I searched, but am looking for what you think is a high quality ride. I'm not into disposables.

any models i should be looking for particularly?

I know this is personal preference, but I have found that I prefer a bike without any kind of suspension on the front or rear, but especially the front.

To get the electric assist going from a dead stop you have to push off and then pedal and the suspension kind of messes this action up a little for me.

those aren't bicycles and are wasteful.

I don't recommend you get a "scooter style" ebike, and I do recommend that ebike users pedal along with their ebikes.

However, I also invite you to think about how non-wasteful scooter style ebikes might be: for people who were never going to pedal in the first place, a scooter style ebike is potentially far more eco-friendly than all of these alternatives that are commonly used:
-a gas scooter or motorcycle
-an SUV
-a toyota prius

there are more alternative...
like this one
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/zero-s-specs.php

and this other new one still in development stage
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8147104.stm

from topic http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?p=9284782&posted=1#post9284782

Don't know if you're still following this thread, but I can recommend the Ezee bikes. Mine is the "Sprint 7", with a front hub motor, 36 volts, 350 watts, and shimano nexus 7-speed hub gears in the rear. There is a choice between a step-thru frame and a diamond frame. It looks like a "comfort bike", a bit like a Dutch bike but not so "sit up straight." I pedal the whole time and augment with the motor, but it goes along pretty well on battery only, where the pavement is relatively flat.

Mine was bought about a year and a half ago and is still going strong. I chose the NimH battery for a lower price, and it's still going strong. Right now you have to get lithium. 20-30 miles on a charge depending on your weight, how much pedaling you do, terrain, etc. All these bikes are quite heavy, but are ideal for commuting. I charge mine again at work but wouldn't have to; it's just a little zippier on a full charge. Tire repairs are not routine because of the wiring in front and the hub gears in back, but mine came with Schwalbe Marathon Plus, and after about 2000 miles I can see that something else is likely to fail long before these tires do. I believe the power supply on mine is about as high as you can go without without registering your bike as a motor vehicle, but I wouldn't recommend a weaker power plant.

There are many other choices of course, and the Ezee's are not cheap.
Hope this helps.

Don't know if you're still following this thread, but I can recommend the Ezee bikes. Mine is the "Sprint 7", with a front hub motor, 36 volts, 350 watts, and shimano nexus 7-speed hub gears in the rear. There is a choice between a step-thru frame and a diamond frame. It looks like a "comfort bike", a bit like a Dutch bike but not so "sit up straight." I pedal the whole time and augment with the motor, but it goes along pretty well on battery only, where the pavement is relatively flat.

Mine was bought about a year and a half ago and is still going strong. I chose the NimH battery for a lower price, and it's still going strong. Right now you have to get lithium. 20-30 miles on a charge depending on your weight, how much pedaling you do, terrain, etc. All these bikes are quite heavy, but are ideal for commuting. I charge mine again at work but wouldn't have to; it's just a little zippier on a full charge. Tire repairs are not routine because of the wiring in front and the hub gears in back, but mine came with Schwalbe Marathon Plus, and after about 2000 miles I can see that something else is likely to fail long before these tires do. I believe the power supply on mine is about as high as you can go without without registering your bike as a motor vehicle, but I wouldn't recommend a weaker power plant.

There are many other choices of course, and the Ezee's are not cheap.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for this review... it's indeed very helpful to me as I am in the process of making a similar decision right now. You mentioned you are in the bay area... can you tell me who your dealer was? Although I am a few hours from SFO, it might be worth it to see if I can come pick it up in person, or at least test drive it prior to purchasing. Anyway, hope you check back in and see my post. :)

Hello, Stormsteed:
Sorry it was so long before I saw your msg. I bought mine from the Seattle distributor and had it shipped, but they stopped shipping complete bikes after that. Also I bought it with an NimH battery, and those seem to be unavailable now for that bike. You have to buy a lithium battery which is said to perform better, yet they also say it "cuts out on hills". (shuts down to prevent overheating). If you ride a lot of steep hills you should keep that in mind. Costs about 100 bucks more, too.
There is a dealer of electric bikes in west Berkeley. Seems to me it has "pacific" in the name. Anyway they sell a line that look very much like the Ezees and they are cheaper as I recall. You could search for it. Good luck.

i have a bionx and I can easily pass most people up a hill with my motor turned OFF. :) The whole bike weighs 50lbs. Light enough to lift onto a bike rack or a bus bike rack. And it looks like a regular bicycle. Most people don't notice it's an electric bike.

Thanks for the info.