I like to ride about 20 miles. My wife can do 8. She thinks that with a battery pack, she could keep up (I think she would pass me). It's just bike paths, wih gentle hills. We live in Illinois, and are retired.

So I've been studying how to convert my wife's 700cc tire diamondback to an e-bike. Originally wanted a 250 watt geared motor, rear hub, 700cc rim, 36 volt lithium, and twist throttle. Seems like around $1400. Got that in my slush fund.

Looking at amazon/ebay, hmm, I can get a 26 inch wheel with rear hub for a few hundred dollars. Pick up a battery for $400-500. I could convert her old 26" Diamondback mountain bike. I wonder a bit about the quality, and it looks like they mostly sell gigantic direct drive hubs.

Then I see I can probably get what looks like that whole kit already mounted on a bike for $700-900, with a geared hub. Battery is probably small, but we're not looking for it to take her to work 5 days a week. The lower power is probably better if there's no speed regulation, as 20 mph is too fast for her anyway.

Any thoughts?