Thanks 15 rms. We're kinda gadget challenged and went with the Trek cuz it's a major manufacturer with fixit shops all over the country, the one here in town being owned by one of my clients However, Dan the Bike Man in Corvallis, Oregon (Day 3 on blog) duly noted that Trek could fit 1/3 more cells in the battery if they gave up it's sleek, stylish look and squared it off some. And check out what John said in my guestbook about a kit he put on that gets him over 80 miles of hills or 150 on the flats:

<< Hi - I've been reading your blog and as I now ride an ebike because of a heart problem I thought I'd chime in (cardiologist said to keep heart rate below 70% of calculated max - at my age that's just under 110 - the slightest grade and it goes above that so without the motor I'd be walking more than riding). I rode from San Diego to Illinois on 2007 on a (non electric) touring bike and from San Francisco to Virginia Beach in 2009 on a (non electric again) recumbent. Both trips are blogged at crazyguyonabike.com under my username (JohninSD).

The ebike thing started about a year ago following an unfavorable diagnosis - but the main reason for my post here is to let others know that there are many options in the ebike world. I'm using a conversion kit from Ezee that drives the front wheel on my recumbent and another Ezee kit that drives the front wheel of my Co-Motion Americano. I've ridden the recumbent as far as 80 miles of hilly country on a single charge - and it should go close to 150 miles in flat terrain according to my Cycle Analyst - a gizmo that monitors the battery as I ride.
For more info than you can stand about ebikes I suggest looking at http://endless-sphere.com/forums/ and at http://www.bikeforums.net in the Electric Bike forum.

John in Sunny (sometimes) San Diego >>