Hi,

Thanks for the heads-up on the Wal-Mart deal -- unfortunately, although I have no qualms with the price, I do like the feel and look of my roadster . Also, a 90lbs bike (like that) would be quite a monster to have to wrestle with when an electrical breakdown happens, not to mention hefting it on my bike rack for weekend trips.

WRT the hub kit, with exception of the Bion-X, hub motors have terrible efficiency and low-torque (for the same wattage as other types of drivetrains) because of the low-rpm. Geared hub motors aren't cheap, and also they don't work on 700c road bikes. Besides, at 6ft tall -- not exactly a good candidate for a one-size fits all bike.

For a nerd like myself, building the bike is very much part of the e-bike experience ...

An update on my previous posting:

I got a chance to try out the Dewalt/A123 lithium nanophosphate battery pack this weekend. Of course, since my bike is not built yet, I could only try it (ducked taped!) on my electric skateboard. Absolutely fantastic performance! The motor-controller on the Raptor didn't mind the 36V and the 24V motor survived the occasional full-throttle. The acceleration I feel when I pull on the trigger is better than my 240HP V-6 SUV :-)

The downside was I was caught off-guard by the much-shortened range of this 83WH (I think I got abt 15mins of heavy-trottle fun) vs the original 384WH -- I had to hoof-it back home. True to its reputation, these A123 cells have an extremely flat-discharge curve until the very end, and then they fall over in a blink of an eye. I'm going to revise the bike design to accommodate 3 of these packs. As each pack weighs the equivalent of two soda cans, it doesn't affect the feel of bike at all ... although it might hurt the wallet