mid drive bike advice needed
 

Hello, please forgive me if this is a common question. I have been reading the forums for a clue but the graphs and technical speak I have been reading in posts have me confused and many posts relate to builds or kits.
My wife suffers from ankle injuries and finds it hard to pedal to and from work(no motor vehicles allowed where we live). So I have been looking at complete electric bikes which may be suitable with little clarity. The ezip bikes seem to be very heavy which is a concern because our daily commute includes 2 miles up a unforgiving steep hill. I have heard that mid drive would be best as we often haul groceries either in the huge front basket or in a burley hooked behind. The island has a habit of destroying bikes due to rough trails, slick roads, steep hills and all weather riding every single day. One other requirement is the ability to ride without having to pedal assist the motor uphill. So a tough bike is needed. Any suggestions for something in a complete ready to run bike would be greatly appreciated.

You are correct the EZip bikes are heavy but not that heavy. Lets say you bought an average alm. Bike without an electric motor setup. It would likely weigh about 32 pounds. I know because I bought 5 of them this year. Then you add at least 6 to 10 pounds for a motor and mounting, a good 24v 20ah lifepo4 battery (15 pound) and a controller. That's 52 pounds total. Guess how much the EZip step through (ladies) bike weighs....you go... Just about the same exact thing. The problem is it has a low power SLA ....lead battery. And personally, it may not be good enough for you hills. But if you change the battery to a high output low weight battery it would improve.

Be careful with the term "mid-drive" there are bike that have a mid-drive but the motor is not using the bikes gear system so it's no better then any other type of drive. If you find a mid-drive you like be sure it have changeable gearing as I mentioned.

Bob

Mid-drive? KalkhoffUSA, they may still have blow out prices in smaller frames.
They use Panasonic systems developed in the early '90s and improved since.
The come with a 9 tooth drive sprocket but I'd consider an eleven. Easy to change out.

Most Kalkhoff come fully fendered & lighted. I was considering a Pro Connect for myself.

A well reviewed hub drive is the Ohm Urban.

Another hub type, IZIP Metro.

Check reviews and youtube videos.


Good luck

This is a hub-powered bike. However, no doubt it could handle your demanding trail and ruggedness requirements. Not cheap though!http://www.electricbike.com/pedego-trail-tracker/

I'm thinking Panasonic or Bosch mid-drive, maybe? I've had pretty good luck with Cyclone mid-drive units but I'm not so sure they would stand up to the kind of salt water and monsoon wet season abuse your likely to get in island habitation (I'm making some assumptions there of course and if incorrect please inform) and one of the two problems I've had with the Cyclone systems is that they are not 100% water proof sealed out of the box, although a tube of silicon calking does go a long way towards fixing that (the other problem I've had with them is that their smaller internal controller units burn up the weak internal controllers, but that's easily avoided by getting one of their models with an external controller).

Although I don't have any personal experience with the Panasonic and Bosch mid-drive units that come in the form of an integrated crank motor unit from what I've heard about them on this forum and the endless sphere forum they are among the best tightest sealed and fully integrated mid-drive units so they might be worth looking at for your needs. I personally could probably put together a Cyclone based unit that could handle your environment but it wouldn't come that way out of the box and I'd have to use quite a bit of shrink wrap, calking and some home fabricated weather proofing boxing and mounting options.

How does the islands infrastructure, regulations, and your wife feel about a trike or quad set-up? A lot more options available with that kind of configuration for weatherproofing since you don't have to maintain a narrow profile and could completely box up the drive system in a weather proof box with just an output shaft for a chain sprocket and a throttle and charging wire coming out of a weather proof sealed box.

I don't know what kind of a budget you have but one of the places I know of that would build you a bike using whatever set-up you wanted with custom weatherproofing options for your environment is Light Foot Cycles. I know about them because they are in my home state (no relation, I don't work for them and I build my own rather then pay their prices) and provided that you are willing to pay their prices they will build you just about anything you want customized to your specifications and unlike a lot of other custom bike builders they are very familiar with and build and deal in motor assisted bicycles (both electric and small efficient internal combustion). I've often used their photo pages for ideas for some of my own builds.

Thank you everyone for your advice.
Turbo 1889 you have given me food for thought. Fortunatley we don't have to deal with salt water as the island is situated in lake huron. The city doesn't allow quads, we even have to have a medical certificate to get a permit for an electric bike, trikes are allowed but used mainly by the street sweepers who pick up the horse droppings. Trikes and quads can be dangerous to use here on the island, the streets become very congested with tourists who haven't ridden a bike in years wobbling all over the road, pedestrians who walk and wander all over the road thinking that because we dont have cars there is no traffic and horse drawn dreys and carriages sqeezing past each other with inches to spare. Its nothing to see over a thousand people on bikes or walking with several hundreds of tons of horses all trying to get where they are going. Dodging all that can be a challenge and we average 1 death per year from bike accidents. The EMT's make several runs everyday for people injured in bike accidents.

Okay, I was thinking a much wetter, harsher environment as in a small tropical zone ocean island from your description. Beautiful and mild in the dry season but incredibly nasty soaking wet and salty in the wet monsoon season. Great lakes island is going to be damp, yes, but as you say no salt and probably don't have a dreadful soaking rain season like a tropical ocean island. Some silicon calking and some shrink wrap and you could probably get a cyclone drive to work reliably under those conditions which aren't as bad as I first thought you were talking about, possibly even a GNG drive as well along with some other mid-drives.

Thank you very much for sharing the traffic issues - I have long disputed those cyclist who claim that there is no reason why cyclist should be expected to follow the rules of the road such as stopping at red lights and at least yielding at stop-signs even if they don't come to a full stop - they claim that such rules of the road are only necessary because of those darn cars and if we got rid of all the cars it would be a utopia and there would be no need for any traffic control or signals. Your experience seems to very clearly indicate that such a naive and unintelligent argument right in the line of what those street cleaners are scooping up from the horses on the street and they just want to justify themselves riding like a jerk and thinking that their convenience is a higher priority then anyone else on the road and they can just do whatever the bleep they want and they don't owe other road users even the slight courtesy of actual stopping at red lights and letting green light traffic proceed without having to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting the jerk on a bike running a red while waiving to them with only one finger on his hand.

Okay - so got off a little bit on a rant there. From the traffic conditions you describe, if it were me personally (although I'm not actually there and haven't actually ridden in the kind of traffic stream you are describing) I think I would want an upright slightly reclined tadpole trike setup (two wheels in front and one in the rear, delta trike is the other way around) with the two front wheels up front set about three to four feet apart with a flip up side protection bar shaped like a horse-shoe with the two end of the shoe mounted on pivots behind the two front wheels that surrounds my personage while riding on the sides and loops around my back and then flips up for dismounting. Provided there weren't trails I needed to travel that were narrower then that width I think that would work nicely for people not to crowd me too close. But then I've got the skills and equipment to fabricate things to my own desire so I'm not nearly as limited (although it does take a lot of time, a lot more then you would think).

Anyway, just a few more thoughts.

Just curious, are you on Mackinac island? I was there many years ago and I recall no motor vehicles for citizens. I also believe it was in Lake Huron.