Electric Bike

[checkthebudget]

Anybody tried the electric bicycles? My commute is 35 miles, so I'd have to have that to make it in a decent time... It would probably need to go close to 30 mph too... Lots of "electric" options coming in the near future. Just wondering if anyone tried this with any success?

[Caoineag]

We had eGO's, great bikes, very handy. We mainly stopped using them because we weren't comfortable in our new place taking them on the road (traffic is 45 mph in all directions, a little dangerous to be doing just 30). They were perfect for commuting at our old location though.

[mikewoodbooks]

I've been looking at electic bikes for a long time. I even bought a bike with a full fairing that I was going to add an electic motor to. The problems I ran into were that:

1. laws prohibit bikes from going over 35 mph
2. my route to work needed me to go at least 40mph to safely keep up with traffic (even though i would be on the far right side of the road)

A problem you're likely to face is that I don't think you're going to find any electric bikes with a range of more than 25 miles. This means that you would need to take a stock bike and add additional batteries to it. There are a number of electic scooters available (which is actually more likely to be what you're looking for) that have a top speed of 30 mph, but I don't think any of them covered the range you need. Although they typically have a small storage compartment in the back, it would be a difficult task to shoe in enough extra batteries (and keep up the reliability) to achieve what you need. (I think all these I have read about run off of standard lead-acid batteries).
Ideally, someone would manufacture one of these with a mass of lithium cell-phone batteries. That would up the range to about 60 miles. With a recharge at work, that would allow you to make your commute.

[mikewoodbooks]

Another option might be to look into NEBs (Neighborhood Electric Vehicles). These are legally limited to 35 mph. And typically they're limited to secondary roads. The Xebra is a possibility. There's another good one, the name was something like Zena but i don't remember it off hand. One website you might want to look into is homepower.com. They run a column every month on electric vehicles. You don't have to subscribe to the magazine as they post everything on the website.

[tark]

I think if you do not plan on needing any space for stuff and if you are not going to travel far, go ahead and get one!