e-bike ONLY for assistance up hills, charges on downhill/flat?
 

Is anyone aware of an e-bike setup that will do the following?

- Just enough power/charge to assist on hills
- Can recover charge on downhill or flat areas (motor charges batteries)
- Preferably removable

I would love to commute to work on my bike someday, but there are too many steep hills. I can do the distance on flatter ground. I could walk up the hills but it's really too far for me to slow it down further by walking.

You may wish to look at what was done in This thread. An electric assist mounted on a trailer.

All heavy bikes (or people, or cars, or boulders) "charge" going uphill and "assist" going downhill. So the tremendous weight of an electric bike would be working against your desired functionality. I wonder whether or not the motor could overcome this effect.

Perhaps you'd be better off getting a featherweight bike (15 pounds or less?) to smooth out those hills?

Answer: Bionx. It'll assist on hills just fine. Adjust the assist level from 1 to 4. To recover the charge going downhill you can set the regen level from 1 to 4. Or you can simply press the rear brake just a bit so the switch engages the regen brake and doesn't engage the mechanical brake.

Be warned though: Regen level 4 is very strong! You might not even make it to the bottom of the hill. You'll probably have to change it to regen level 3 or 2 halfway down the hill because you're just going too slow. Thankfully Bionx designed the console so the +A and -G buttons are on the extreme right and are easily reachable with your right thumb while you still hold on to the right grip.

Bionx is easily removeable by swapping the rear wheel, battery mount, controller and wiring. But that will take you about an hour to reverse the install. Hint: keep you're original rear wheel if you plan on swapping it.

The 350W Bionx system really works well on hills. I can keep my butt planted onto the seat while I'm going uphill in the lowest gear. The only time I really need to get my butt off the seat is when I'm going up such a steep hill that my front wheel is lifting off the ground.