My situation is a little bit different from most people. I caught COVID in 2020 and it messed me up good. Got both my heart AND my lungs. I’m now on disability and no longer have my drivers license. (I let it lapse since I can’t afford a car any more.)
An E-bike would be my main method of transportation. So for me Range is king. it is the be all and end all for me personally. Plus, where I live (Vancouver) the law is an ebike can only go at a max speed of 24 kmh. Which is fine for me since I’m not in a hurry. Plus at my age (52) I’m pretty sure any accident at a higher speed would kill me.😂
So here’s my dilemma. I want to build a bike that can do 150 Km’s on throttle only. now I could go out and buy something like the Eahora Romeo Pro, but where I live it would come out to 4k CAD with taxes and delivery all in.
Or I could build an ebike from scratch. I’m sure it would be cheaper. but it would take longer. I was thinking of getting a cheap amazon 48v 500w bike and build off of that. I was thinking of going with a Bafang BBSHD, two 48v 30ah batteries and a geared hub like the Shimao Alfine 8-speed internal geared bicycle Hub.
One of the other problems is my local transit is very bike friendly so to increase range I could use to local transit system to get close to where I want to go and then use the bike as end of destination travel. But the bike can only weigh as much as 50lbs. any heavier and they won’t allow it on the front bus rack.
So I am torn. do any of you have any recommendations or suggestions?
One more thing for you to consider in canada (I commute in the upper Midwest and found this out the hard way) - freezing temperatures can reduce the range by up to almost half depending on how cold it gets.
Vancouver seems a little better near the coast but you may need to get a heating jacket or extra range to compensate
Yeah, on those days, I am happy to take transit. 😂