Calsun

There is a wide range of road e-bikes available ranging from commuter type with wider tires and racks and flat bars and including Class II ones that can run on battery power alone and at the opposite end are the Class III that allow for motor assist at speeds up to 28mph but only activate the motor when the pedals are in use. Range is a function of battery and motor but also how much the rider contributes to the bike movement with the pedals.

Bike weights range between 27 lbs and 70 lbs which makes a great deal of difference in the bike rack that can be used and whether the rack will require a hitch mount and adding a hitch to a vehicle that does not have a factory installed one. My Trek weighs in at 27 lbs and the lightest Trek weighs 37 lbs. The Trek has more power assist and potentially more range. The Specialized Turbo Creo looks and rides much like a non e-bike and is light enough that I put our two bike inside our SUV (with both wheels left on) without need for a dedicated bike rack for our local area rides.

The Class III bikes allow for motor assist up to 28 mph and I like to go faster than 20 mph on the flats and to gain speed in the hills and power over them as much as possible. The Class I bikes will have the motor cut out at 18 mph and riders comment about it feeling like they brakes were applied. Not a fun experience in my opinion. Yamaha is producing a Class III bike with an excellent drivetrain and selling for $3500 but they have been very difficult to find in the U.S. and so we went with the Turbo Creo bikes instead.

We started with Class 4 e-bikes that weighed 70 lbs and for which we needed an expensive heavy duty bike rack and a motorcycle ramp for loading. Fine for trail riding but not for general use on the roads and open highway where we do most of our riding.

A separate concern is theft and a $7,000 road e-bike is far more likely to be stolen than a $2,000 regular road bike. Also our standard bikes are covered by our auto and homeowners insurance policies but the $7K e-bikes would cost us $900 per year for a special bike insurance policy. That is why ours are not insured and why I prefer to put them inside the SUV and no on an external bike rack where they can be stolen in seconds.