Need advice from actual ebike users
(thelemmy.club)
47
TL;DR: help me, Micromobility, you're my only hope
Long story short, I am fed up with the state of public transit in my city and feeling envious of the e-riders whooshing past. However, while trying to pick an actual model, I've ran into being unable to find a model that fits my needs:
- being able to drive 30+ km, with ~100 meter elevation difference between start and finish
- being able to handle 100+ kg of load (I am, unfortunately, fat)
- being able to handle rain and possibly light snow
- being foldable or otherwise transportable, because I'll have to keep it in the apartment
The Ebike store I've been to suggested picrelated, Yokamura Apache, which seems to fit the requirements, but is expensive enough to give me pause. Are there better options? Am I dreaming the impossible? Please help!
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2026
47 points (100.0% liked)
micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
3600 readers
58 users here now
Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles, heelies, or an office chair: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"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"
Recall warnings available here.
Feel free to also check out
It's a little sad that we need to actually say this, but:
Don't be an asshole or you will be permanently banned.
Respectful debate is totally OK, criticizing a product is fine, but being verbally abusive will not be tolerated.
Focus on discussing the idea, not attacking the person.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
So, since I assume OP is at the ebikes 101 level, let me elaborate a bit on hub drives vs mid-drives.
If you have to climb steep grades, a mid-drive can have an advantage because you can lower the gear and it helps the motor. With a hub drive, the gearing has no effect (though it can still help you with pedalling, of course), so you may need a more powerful motor. I think historically, mid-drives have been more popular in Europe than North America because there were stricter restrictions on how powerful the motor can be. I don't know if that's still the case?
One advantage of hub drives is that it's easy to add a throttle mode (where you don't have to pedal at all). It's getting harder to find a hub drive ebike that doesn't have a throttle these days.
Also, in principle, the motor can be on either the front or rear wheel. ebike conversions like to put it on the front, since the front wheel is easier to replace. I find this interesting, in that in some sense, you're getting an all-wheel drive bike! Like the motor drives the front wheel while your pedalling drives the rear. Might be good in snow? Less fish-tailing? That's just speculation, though. I haven't actually tried it.
Yeeeeaaah, pretty much. Thank you
Just did my first FWD hub conversion. So much easier than matching cassettes on weird sized hub bodies, stretching frames, etc. My previous conversions were rear hubs and mids.
Oh cool! I really want to try out a FWD!