Mike,

The bike is heavy, but it's pretty solid to accommodate the additional weight of the electrical system, e.g. the size of spokes, rims, etc. BTW, if I get a chance to measure the current voltage on the fully charged battery pack ( I don't know if I'll be permitted to open the pack to test each battery separately), it might help to give one an indication of their possible lifespan. From my understanding, the batteries (an additional pack was purchased later) have been well maintained, i.e. never left more than 3 hours in a semi-discharged state including the time on the bike. The original battery pack will be about 5 months old and the newer one about 3 months old. I'll try to get the tests done by next week. I suspect that one could commute on this heavier (80+ lbs with both packs) beast if the distance were no more than 15 miles each way and the bike was equipped with TWO battery packs and TWO 24v chargers. At work, the rider would simply plug BOTH battery packs into an outlet at the SAME time which would prevent one of the packs remaining in a semi-discharged state while the other one charged which takes about 4 hours.