Originally Posted by
linberl
Afraid I have to disagree with you as some aftermarket solutions as much more stealthy and sexier looking than commercial designs, especially because they retain the light weight tubing. For example, here is my bike with the system installed. You'd hardly know it was there - and the commercial e-bikes all look like e-bikes for sure with the big tubes. It's even less noticeable on a full sized road bike as the motor sits below the bottom bracket.
Battery is in the revelate feed bag; 20-25 mile range at lowest pedal assist. Throttle and PAS are both wireless.
Ehh pretty noticable and kind of clunky looking but probably OK for short trips when you can pedal pretty decently yourself. Plus it looks like that system rubs on the tire, no thanks. I guess there are people that miss bottle dynamos?
I will say your position of the motor does slightly obscure it but if I saw that I would notice something awry. Granted I won't disagree there are plenty of e-bikes that look like e-bikes but there are also some Tri bikes that look like MotoGP bikes or e-bikes and plenty of regular bikes that are aesthetically displeasing.
It is a nice BikeFriday though and no knock on that.
If you haven't tried the Creo it is pretty nice and certainly the cleanest e-bike I have seen that has some decent power and battery life. If I saw one pass by I probably wouldn't notice, plenty of carbon bikes look similar. If I wanted even cleaner I could do one of those seattube motors that some "professionals" use to cheat with.
No axe to grind because I work at a shop, We installed a lot of kit motors for a long while. We stopped because of problems had. I haven't seen any e-bikes overheating but I will keep it in mind in case I do. Our owner is actually out on a Creo doing a nice little tour off road in the heat and hasn't had issues hauling a ton of gear.