The title describes the gist of things. In 18 months of owning my Bikonit MD750, I’ve traveled over 2100 km (1300 miles) in day, night, and rain; swapped out four sets of tires trying to lower the rolling resistance; built my own new set of 29" wheels with ebike-speed rated tires; and have taken it on mixed-mode adventures by using light-rail as my range extender.
It’s the latter where the weight is a small issue, as the light rail train has three stairsteps onboard, which I have to carry the bike up and onto. 43 kg is kinda a lot, although that does include all the things I will need for a day out. I can pursue getting stronger to lift it more easily, or convincing the transit department to acquire low-floor trains, but I’d like to know my options:
What are some Class 3, mid-drive ebikes currently available in the USA, that weigh less than 43 kg (95 lbs)? Ideally, less than 25 kg (55 lbs) too, as that’s the most common weight restriction for buses. I want to see what y’all can recommend, irrespective of price or range or other considerations.
I’m not likely to terminate my investment in this current ebike, as it’s provided sterling service thus far. But I wonder if maybe what I have has already been outmoded by the latest developments in this ever-changing slice of the mobility space.
TY in advance!
Marin Sausalito 2 or Specialized Turbo Vado might be good options.
Both of these absolutely meet the request for Class 3 and mid-drive. Thanks!
There appears to definitely be a tradeoff between cost, weight, and battery capacity. But that’s exactly the tradeoff I wanted to quantify, since both these candidates are in a similar price range ($2750-$3000) and are in the same weight ballpark (21-26 kg).
This suggests that additional range would result in more cost and more weight, and these two candidates are already on the cusp of the bike rack with capacity of American buses. Perhaps then my situation can’t be optimized much further by replacing the bike.
Oh, btw, if cost is more of a concern than range (again, you can always get a second battery), the Ride1UP Prodigy Brose Mid-Drive is on sale like now for like $1200-1300. Pretty good deal for a mid drive IMO.
Keep an eye on the sports/cycling section of slickdeals.net and you might see something that looks ideal for your purposes.
Another qualifying candidate, thanks!
You can definitely get lighter stuff but yeah, a huge chunk of the bike’s weight is the battery and the bike you have looks like it has a massive amount of battery capacity. The greater the weight, the harder it is to pedal if you run out of battery too.
If you want something lighter (I would), I’d recommend considering the lightest bikes that still have at least 10 miles more than your longest round trip (keep in mind, companies often give optimistic range estimates and the cold will further reduce range, the more you and your gear weigh the more it will go down).
Price itself does not necessarily dictate range (or even necessarily quality), but quality ebikes aren’t cheap. Your other option if you wanted to save money would be to start with a good regular bicycle, then add a motor and batter that meet your needs though greater battery capacity will always push up weight and cost.
At the end of the day it’s all about compromise, but you could also consider just carrying a spare battery to boost your range. A lot of people do that.
Agree 100%. Although I haven’t had too much of an issue pedaling my MD750 without assist, usually when around parks or other areas where this ebike’s noise would be undesirable. From maintaining my acoustic bike, I make sure my ebike’s drivetrain is efficient under pedal power, since any inefficiencies will only get worse when adding electric assist. It’s one of the reasons I like mid-drives, since they’re tuned basically like a normal bike would be.
I do like this idea, and it’s probably the most sensible for most riders. At the same time, I once saw that electric motorbike riders use this sort of thing, and I can’t help but imagine the doors that would open it I could quickly charge in the field. Circling the entire metro area using free EV chargers becomes a real possibility, assuming the charging was timed to other stops like having lunch or meeting people.