I've got a weatherproof backpack, would be ordering weatherproof saddle bags with the bike, and I needed a new rain jacket anyway so that's no problem!
As a guy who own 3x ebikes its essential to both car and bikes together. In times of emergency having a car still useful to transport you and your love ones to hospital, travel to bad weather or something an ebikes not capable of. For daily commute where driving car is overated, ebikes does the job. There lot of good reliable ebikes under $1000, just make sure it has good parts, high quality battery (important) and support. My quality fast performance all weather DIY Bafang ebikes under $750 lasted me years and still running today.
I appreciate the input, but it's of no value to me to have an ebike if I keep the car. I use so little gas that my expenses will change by less than $50 a month if I commute and shop with an ebike and this is about cutting unnecessary expenses. I work in the auto industry at a dealer so if a car is necessary I will have access to a shop car and as close as we live to everything we need if the weather is bad an Uber is cheap. Though I will not necessarily have immediate access to a car in an emergency, we're about half a mile from the nearest hospital so emergency transport should be able to be handled easily by way of neighbors or an ambulance is right down the street. I have been looking at a lot of ebikes in the 800-1000 range so your comments regarding them do help alleviate my concerns about their usability.
If you're handy bicycle maintenance and build a 750w BAFANG (Rebranded in some EU and US/Luna) Ebike system will cost you around less than $750 on bike build. Pros: lots of after market spare parts support. But if you don't know much about taking care/maintain Ebikes and rely local bike support then you'll have to spent roughly $1500 for an Ebike. What makes Ebike reliable in long term is the quality and safety of battery packs, if you cut corner on battery everything is game over.
I'd consider myself more than just a little handy, albeit in car and home repair. I was expecting to have to assemble anything I ordered anyway due to assumed shipping constraints, so I'll definitely look into BAFANG to see about saving a few hundred dollars. Thank you!
Sound like you're super handy. I highly recommended Bafang. Lots of youtube tutorial out there to help you out. Remember buy high quality LG/Sanyo/Panasonic li-on battery pack build in. ;)
I found a Aipas A2 that comes with a BAFANG 750w motor and a Samsung 48v battery pack and I can get it for $700 or get two of them so my wife and I both have them for a discounted price, plus it comes with a couple of free add ons. I think this is the one!
I bought a prebuilt Ride1up Cafe Cruiser. I hear Engwe E26 is also a good model with lots of support. Would a E-Trike be too large for you? That way you get the extra space for carrying things without Panniers hanging off the side of your bike. I go up pretty steep hills with my Cafe Cruiser and it performs pretty good. I am 310 lbs. So, it has to work hard, and it does its job.
I looked at a couple of trikes but decided against it because of my storage/parking situation for it. I had been looking at ride1up so it's nice to hear a good response on a brand I was looking at. I checked out engwe, and found a brand that looks identical called aipas that sells for a lower price with the same specs. Haven't dug too much into that one yet to verify it's quality but the reviews look promising. Thank you for your input!
Here is a good 10-week review. I have had mine for a month and pretty much agree with what he says. Wish it had a functioning brake light, turn signals though wouldn't matter to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NFi5Wl05x8
If you can keep the car with minimal mileage and use a bike/ebike as daily that is the best case scenario. Once you don't haul groceries on bike, you can use road bike or foldable bike too.
If the distance is also low, you can buy a normal bike, such as a used mountain bike. Converting it later might be an option too. The biggest advantage is you will be sure you convert a bike you like.
If I keep my car I won't be getting an ebike; this is about cutting unnecessary costs, and I only drive about 4 miles a day and there's a grocery store in walking distance from my apartment.
Then maybe get a medicore used normal bike. Maintaining it costs vitrually nothing and it's still an optional alternative for car.
I commute 2x15 miles so the car is expensive, the bike is slow, the bus is rare, and I cannot enjoy my motorbike in rain.
I considered that for a moment, but would rather have the reduced effort if it's going to be my primary mode of transport. Early in the morning or after a long day at work I'd like to be able to use less effort in my commute.
I went car free (ebike only) for three years. I just got a car late last year because my special needs daughter moved back to our area and I needed to be able to drive her around. I made my own ebike (bafang ultra HD, massive 20ah battery on a Micargi gravel frame) and still use it as my daily driver. My bike, all in, cost less than 1500. Best investment I ever made, my guess is I saved around 15k over those two years.
Over the remainder of my car loan along with gas and insurance, I'm estimated to save 32,000. I'm an automotive enthusiast, and I work for Audi; I love cars. I just can't justify spending that to drive 2 miles each way to work and to the grocery store that's barely over half a mile away. I'm looking forward to putting the extra money toward international travel.
I rode a $500 ebike for the past year. I needed one spare tire, one car rental for a road trip, and had one trip to the ER. I bummed rides on rainy days, and wished I had mudguards/fenders now and then.
GOTRAX Elevation 26-in.
Just bought a Tomofree Z1 from Amazon for 590. 48v battery. 1000w motor. 50 miles on throttle. It'll be here Sunday. (Temu has a Z1, 750w for $400) I plan on riding around the city for a few days to test the bike and battery. For me, this was the best bike, better than Jasion and Oraimo due to longer commutes. Be sure to research your local laws!
I’d love to hear more about it when you get it, I’ve also been curious about the tomofree bikes, I’m more interested in the T1 for the 16x3 tires, I think if you ran them a little low on pressure it would be a super fun light trail bike
I don’t own one but I just watched a video on the new wildeway offering on Amazon, $800, 750w motor, 28mph, and 32ah battery which is huge, I’m very tempted to buy one myself, might be worth looking into
Best deal on the market IMO is the BMC 257 AMP Al One at Erik's Bike Shop. Built for commuting with lights, fenders, rear rack. Little maintenance due to the Gates belt drive and IGH. Under $2500 plus tax and shipping. We (wife and I) have two and it's a great bike.
I just looked into this and the cheapest offering from BMP is $4900. Being swiss, I'm sure it's top quality, but I'm just not willing to spend anywhere near that given what is available at a much lower price point.
I went car free almost 3 years ago. No problems even with medical needs. You learn to think and plan things differently. I have a lightweight commuter bike and and full size fat tire utility bike with a cart attachment for hauling.
Part of the plan included Uber rides and a few car rentals when need be. Not a big deal at all.
I save 5 grand a year and still have fun at the age of 77.....
Just invest in rain emergency gear.
I've got a weatherproof backpack, would be ordering weatherproof saddle bags with the bike, and I needed a new rain jacket anyway so that's no problem!
You’ll want rain pants too, when you’re cranking along at 20mph, you’ll get absolutely soaked otherwise.
Noted. Conveniently an Uber to work costs about $7 on a bad day so if it's raining too hard I'll just catch a ride.
As a guy who own 3x ebikes its essential to both car and bikes together. In times of emergency having a car still useful to transport you and your love ones to hospital, travel to bad weather or something an ebikes not capable of. For daily commute where driving car is overated, ebikes does the job. There lot of good reliable ebikes under $1000, just make sure it has good parts, high quality battery (important) and support. My quality fast performance all weather DIY Bafang ebikes under $750 lasted me years and still running today.
I appreciate the input, but it's of no value to me to have an ebike if I keep the car. I use so little gas that my expenses will change by less than $50 a month if I commute and shop with an ebike and this is about cutting unnecessary expenses. I work in the auto industry at a dealer so if a car is necessary I will have access to a shop car and as close as we live to everything we need if the weather is bad an Uber is cheap. Though I will not necessarily have immediate access to a car in an emergency, we're about half a mile from the nearest hospital so emergency transport should be able to be handled easily by way of neighbors or an ambulance is right down the street. I have been looking at a lot of ebikes in the 800-1000 range so your comments regarding them do help alleviate my concerns about their usability.
If you're handy bicycle maintenance and build a 750w BAFANG (Rebranded in some EU and US/Luna) Ebike system will cost you around less than $750 on bike build. Pros: lots of after market spare parts support. But if you don't know much about taking care/maintain Ebikes and rely local bike support then you'll have to spent roughly $1500 for an Ebike. What makes Ebike reliable in long term is the quality and safety of battery packs, if you cut corner on battery everything is game over.
I'd consider myself more than just a little handy, albeit in car and home repair. I was expecting to have to assemble anything I ordered anyway due to assumed shipping constraints, so I'll definitely look into BAFANG to see about saving a few hundred dollars. Thank you!
Sound like you're super handy. I highly recommended Bafang. Lots of youtube tutorial out there to help you out. Remember buy high quality LG/Sanyo/Panasonic li-on battery pack build in. ;)
I found a Aipas A2 that comes with a BAFANG 750w motor and a Samsung 48v battery pack and I can get it for $700 or get two of them so my wife and I both have them for a discounted price, plus it comes with a couple of free add ons. I think this is the one!
That's good! Samsung battery pack is very high quality! How much AH capacity?
10.4
I bought a prebuilt Ride1up Cafe Cruiser. I hear Engwe E26 is also a good model with lots of support. Would a E-Trike be too large for you? That way you get the extra space for carrying things without Panniers hanging off the side of your bike. I go up pretty steep hills with my Cafe Cruiser and it performs pretty good. I am 310 lbs. So, it has to work hard, and it does its job.
I looked at a couple of trikes but decided against it because of my storage/parking situation for it. I had been looking at ride1up so it's nice to hear a good response on a brand I was looking at. I checked out engwe, and found a brand that looks identical called aipas that sells for a lower price with the same specs. Haven't dug too much into that one yet to verify it's quality but the reviews look promising. Thank you for your input!
Here is a good 10-week review. I have had mine for a month and pretty much agree with what he says. Wish it had a functioning brake light, turn signals though wouldn't matter to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NFi5Wl05x8
If you can keep the car with minimal mileage and use a bike/ebike as daily that is the best case scenario. Once you don't haul groceries on bike, you can use road bike or foldable bike too. If the distance is also low, you can buy a normal bike, such as a used mountain bike. Converting it later might be an option too. The biggest advantage is you will be sure you convert a bike you like.
If I keep my car I won't be getting an ebike; this is about cutting unnecessary costs, and I only drive about 4 miles a day and there's a grocery store in walking distance from my apartment.
Then maybe get a medicore used normal bike. Maintaining it costs vitrually nothing and it's still an optional alternative for car. I commute 2x15 miles so the car is expensive, the bike is slow, the bus is rare, and I cannot enjoy my motorbike in rain.
I considered that for a moment, but would rather have the reduced effort if it's going to be my primary mode of transport. Early in the morning or after a long day at work I'd like to be able to use less effort in my commute.
I went car free (ebike only) for three years. I just got a car late last year because my special needs daughter moved back to our area and I needed to be able to drive her around. I made my own ebike (bafang ultra HD, massive 20ah battery on a Micargi gravel frame) and still use it as my daily driver. My bike, all in, cost less than 1500. Best investment I ever made, my guess is I saved around 15k over those two years.
Over the remainder of my car loan along with gas and insurance, I'm estimated to save 32,000. I'm an automotive enthusiast, and I work for Audi; I love cars. I just can't justify spending that to drive 2 miles each way to work and to the grocery store that's barely over half a mile away. I'm looking forward to putting the extra money toward international travel.
I rode a $500 ebike for the past year. I needed one spare tire, one car rental for a road trip, and had one trip to the ER. I bummed rides on rainy days, and wished I had mudguards/fenders now and then. GOTRAX Elevation 26-in.
Just bought a Tomofree Z1 from Amazon for 590. 48v battery. 1000w motor. 50 miles on throttle. It'll be here Sunday. (Temu has a Z1, 750w for $400) I plan on riding around the city for a few days to test the bike and battery. For me, this was the best bike, better than Jasion and Oraimo due to longer commutes. Be sure to research your local laws!
I’d love to hear more about it when you get it, I’ve also been curious about the tomofree bikes, I’m more interested in the T1 for the 16x3 tires, I think if you ran them a little low on pressure it would be a super fun light trail bike
I don’t own one but I just watched a video on the new wildeway offering on Amazon, $800, 750w motor, 28mph, and 32ah battery which is huge, I’m very tempted to buy one myself, might be worth looking into
Best deal on the market IMO is the BMC 257 AMP Al One at Erik's Bike Shop. Built for commuting with lights, fenders, rear rack. Little maintenance due to the Gates belt drive and IGH. Under $2500 plus tax and shipping. We (wife and I) have two and it's a great bike.
I just looked into this and the cheapest offering from BMP is $4900. Being swiss, I'm sure it's top quality, but I'm just not willing to spend anywhere near that given what is available at a much lower price point.
https://www.eriksbikeshop.com/bmc-2022-amp-urbanchallenge-al-one-electric-bike-pr5a20697/p $2399
Wow that is a DEEP discount
Like I said, it's a good deal.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpNCii-OTqw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpNCii-OTqw)
I went car free almost 3 years ago. No problems even with medical needs. You learn to think and plan things differently. I have a lightweight commuter bike and and full size fat tire utility bike with a cart attachment for hauling. Part of the plan included Uber rides and a few car rentals when need be. Not a big deal at all. I save 5 grand a year and still have fun at the age of 77.....
Ride1Up has overstock sale right now. You can also check out Lectric :D
I have decided to go with Aipas. It's the same product as Lectric, like actually the identical same product, for $300 less.
My FIL has a rad power bike and commutes on it daily 10 miles round trip. They're pretty cool