Originally Posted by
Lastmohecken
Well, my needs are kind of like this:
I want to ride gravel roads, with steep hills and maybe also some off road farm field and woods riding, still possibly steep hills. I am 64 years old and want to get in better shape, and lose some weight. I do have some friends that ride on paved bike trails using mountain bikes, but that are in younger and better shape then me, and there is no way I could keep up with them on any kind of regular bicycle for very long at all. But maybe I could with an ebike. But most of my riding will be on gravel, dirt, and sometimes muddy roads, for general exercise.
I’m in a similar situation. 66, too much weight for my heart and body and too steep of hills to ride. 95% off road riding. I went for a bafang bbshd on a Rivendell Clem Smith bike. It is now essentially an electric motorcycle as the cadence sensing comes on with gobs of power at the lowest pedaling speed making the throttle a safer control on tricky steep trails. On steep open sections and pedaling I’m barely contributing to the climb. Without torque sensing and all that power I doubt I’m providing more than 15% of the effort. I am glad I installed it but for the $1800 for the bike and $1300 for the kit if I was looking for the equivalent ebike just going for a torque sensing midrive under $4000 would have made sense. You have to be careful making comparisons between an add on Bafang and a hub drive Rad bike because they are not the same thing. With your weight and steep hills it’ll require torque and power and that simply doesn’t come cheap. I don’t have any experience with geared hub drives and your weight on steep trails but research it to learn if the Rad can do it. The demands on a motor going up a steep grade compared flat ground is just like it is for the rider, unlike your muscles you won’t feel it if the motor is overtaxed. Again this is where comparing a bafang midrive to a hub drive is apples to tangerines comparison.
And now I’m looking for a decent hardtail to put the motor on as it’s just too rough w/o a front shock.