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My existing mid-drive Class 3 ebike weights 95 lbs (43 kg) loaded. What could I replace it with?
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this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
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micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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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.