Traveling With Electric Bikes

gurroz · 10-01-2020, 07:57 PM

We just completed our summer travels covering 5750 miles in the south west U.S. We travel in our class C without a tow vehicle. My wife is a nervous passenger when towing anything behind us. At 25' with no slides breaking down camp and touring in the motorhome works for us, however, we were looking for another way to explore. We researched and ordered ebikes which were back ordered for months. While on our last trip of the season we received notice they shipped. It will be interesting to see how they integrate into our RV life. I am interested in hearing from any of you traveling with ebikes. We purchased ours from Rad Power Bikes in Seattle.

**Eagle5** · 10-02-2020, 12:06 AM

Hi Gurroz,
Those bikes sure sound like fun. My neighbor bought a pair of them for he and his wife, and it seems to me that they were fairly expensive. If you pack them on the back of your 25B with a receiver hitch carrier, maybe something I use would be good for you too. I use a Roadmaster (048-10) Hi-Low Hitch to move my bike up; above the level of the rear bumper. That preserves your departure angle, and keeps your bikes from scraping on the road.
Have fun with the bikes; Eagle5

PRK · 10-02-2020, 05:03 AM

We got into ebikes with a RadRover 5 this summer. Thoroughly happy with our purchase. We have endless hilly, gravel roads from our house and they’re a blast to ride. We travel in a class B Winnebago Boldt and carry them with a 1up super duty bike rack fitted to accommodate fat tire bikes. We have the swing away rack so we can open the back doors. The rack also has a ramp so we can roll the bikes up onto it rather then try to lift a heavy ebike. Works well for us.

gurroz · 10-02-2020, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle5

Hi Gurroz,
Those bikes sure sound like fun. My neighbor bought a pair of them for he and his wife, and it seems to me that they were fairly expensive. If you pack them on the back of your 25B with a receiver hitch carrier, maybe something I use would be good for you too. I use a Roadmaster (048-10) Hi-Low Hitch to move my bike up; above the level of the rear bumper. That preserves your departure angle, and keeps your bikes from scraping on the road.
Have fun with the bikes; Eagle5

Eagle5, they are expensive as is the ebike rack and locks to secure them. As they say you cant take it with you! You can get into a quality ebike starting at $900 and easily pay over $5,000 if so inclined. For us we purchased the RadRunner 1 which has a greatdeal of utility at $1,199 each. A quality ebike rack will set you back $500. You have to make sure they are designed for use with an RV. Some are approved for motorhomes but not towables. Apparantly there is alot of bouncing around at the back of a trailer. We went with the Sena R1 helmets which allow for two way communication between riders, also expensive at around $140 each. So the setup is probably around $3,500 for two riders, still less expensive than a scooter and requires no insurance.

gurroz · 10-02-2020, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRK

We got into ebikes with a RadRover 5 this summer. Thoroughly happy with our purchase. We have endless hilly, gravel roads from our house and they’re a blast to ride. We travel in a class B Winnebago Boldt and carry them with a 1up super duty bike rack fitted to accommodate fat tire bikes. We have the swing away rack so we can open the back doors. The rack also has a ramp so we can roll the bikes up onto it rather then try to lift a heavy ebike. Works well for us.

PRK, we went with the Hollywood eBike Fat Tire Rack. Rhere are only a handfull of racks that are RV approved. There all expensive!

**creativepart** · 10-02-2020, 08:09 AM

I bought the Blix Vika + electric bike last December. It’s a folding bike with 500w motor, 48v 14ah battery and bothe pedal assist and a throttle. It has a top speed of 25mph. Jason and Nikki Wynn of the “Gone With The Wynns“ YouTube Channel recommended them and have a $100 discount coupon on their website.

It’s been a great bike and I’m riding it at home as well as on the road. I’ve put over 600 miles on it since the beginning of the year.

https://blixbike.com/collections/new...c-folding-bike

gurroz · 10-03-2020, 10:08 AM

Creativepart, looks like a comfortable bike.

jayelldouble · 10-03-2020, 12:42 PM

I've been playing with ebikes since 2011 - we now have two long wheelbase recumbents retrofitted with front wheel hub motors and one diamond frame touring bike with a front wheel hub motor. The touring bike was purchased for a cross country trip in 2004 and the recumbents were purchased after trying several different saddles on the touring bike and finding none of them truly comfortable for riding several hours a day.
My point here is that there are so many different ways to go about electrifying your ride and so many different types of bikes available that no one answer is going to work for everyone. For more info (maybe more than you can stand) about electric bikes and other vehicles take a look at https://endless-sphere.com/forums/
Happy reading (and riding)

**creativepart** · 10-03-2020, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurroz

Creativepart, looks like a comfortable bike.

It's super. I've found it to tick all the boxes in what I was looking for.

1. It's powerful at 500w motor (peak 750w)
2. Plenty of range with 48v 14aH lithium battery
3. Folds and fits in the rear of the Toad (SUV)
4. Goes FAST - it came with a top speed of 18 mph but an easy software setting changed it to 25 mph and that's as fast as I want to go.
5. It's comfortable to ride as any fullsize bike.

I have a nice "hybrid" street/off road bike and I have thought to just make it a DIY electric bike, but the Blix cost just a little bit more than converting my old bike and that wouldn't fit in the back of the SUV.

TJFogelberg · 10-03-2020, 02:30 PM

I carry a Raleigh Sprite E Bike and traditional (Giant) trail bike in the back of my 2002 Honda CRV. I removed the larger of the 2 rear seats and they fit with enough room for the compressor and a few other odds and ends. The small single seat remains usable. If you've never towed a car before, I would encourage you to give it a try. With the 25B, you have a ton of capacity. The insurance on my toad is less than $15 month. I change the oil once a year. And the license plates are less than $60 a year. If you decide to hang them on the back of the RV, maybe checkout those enclosed bicycle racks that have a solid enclosure. I've seen them around but don't have any further info. There are a lot of areas I travel where it is unsafe to bike on the roads, so I drive to the trailheads or into town and unload the bikes at those points.

gurroz · 10-04-2020, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TJFogelberg

I carry a Raleigh Sprite E Bike and traditional (Giant) trail bike in the back of my 2002 Honda CRV. I removed the larger of the 2 rear seats and they fit with enough room for the compressor and a few other odds and ends. The small single seat remains usable. If you've never towed a car before, I would encourage you to give it a try. With the 25B, you have a ton of capacity. The insurance on my toad is less than $15 month. I change the oil once a year. And the license plates are less than $60 a year. If you decide to hang them on the back of the RV, maybe checkout those enclosed bicycle racks that have a solid enclosure. I've seen them around but don't have any further info. There are a lot of areas I travel where it is unsafe to bike on the roads, so I drive to the trailheads or into town and unload the bikes at those points.

TJFogelberg, We use to tow a Suzuki Sidekick when we had our Gulfstream SuperC. My wife dows not like towing! My choice is RV without a toad, RV without DW or don't RV. There is history here! When I had the 5th wheel I pulled the king pin and then decided to move the trailer up about 7" so it was not on the edge of the concrete. Well you can guess what happened. One insurance claim on the truck and another insurance claim on the brand new trailer. On another occassion we were towing our large very high cargo trailer and high winds came up on I-10 between Lordsberg and Deming NM. The trailer flippedand within minutes we were in a snow storm. We had a blow out on the Suziki Sidekick and never knew it. The Chevy 5500 Duramax was a beast. When we pulled off the freeway the front fender of the car was completely ripped off! There were no cameras back then. So needless to say towing is now not an option.

ncolon60 · 10-07-2020, 04:39 PM

We just got our Radbike Step Thru Mini 2 and they are awesome. They came 85% already assembled. They fold in half and weigh about 67 lbs with the battery. They are awesome to ride

SimonSKL · 10-07-2020, 05:10 PM

I have a Sondors MXS which we take with us in all our camping trips. Since we stay mostly at the state and national parks, the ebike offer us easy way to explore the parks and surrounding areas. Once in a while we rode it to town to get a few grocery items. I put a companion seat behind so my wife can ride with me.

lenore · 10-07-2020, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gurroaz

PRK, we went with the Hollywood eBike Fat Tire Rack. Rhere are only a handfull of racks that are RV approved. There all expensive!

We have two RAD mini's and the Hollywood Rack, What a great Rack, very solid and well thought out. Holds our mini's very well. Trip coming up to see how they do on the back.

gurroz · 10-07-2020, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ncolon60

We just got our Radbike Step Thru Mini 2 and they are awesome. They came 85% already assembled. They fold in half and weigh about 67 lbs with the battery. They are awesome to ride

Great choice, What type of RV do you have and how do you plan on carrying them?

lenore · 10-07-2020, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ncolon60

We just got our Radbike Step Thru Mini 2 and they are awesome. They came 85% already assembled. They fold in half and weigh about 67 lbs with the battery. They are awesome to ride

Love mine,it is truly a blast.

gurroz · 10-07-2020, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SimonSKL

I have a Sondors MXS which we take with us in all our camping trips. Since we stay mostly at the state and national parks, the ebike offer us easy way to explore the parks and surrounding areas. Once in a while we rode it to town to get a few grocery items. I put a companion seat behind so my wife can ride with me.

SimonSKL, what bike rack are you using there?

gurroz · 10-07-2020, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayelldouble

I've been playing with ebikes since 2011 - we now have two long wheelbase recumbents retrofitted with front wheel hub motors and one diamond frame touring bike with a front wheel hub motor. The touring bike was purchased for a cross country trip in 2004 and the recumbents were purchased after trying several different saddles on the touring bike and finding none of them truly comfortable for riding several hours a day.
My point here is that there are so many different ways to go about electrifying your ride and so many different types of bikes available that no one answer is going to work for everyone. For more info (maybe more than you can stand) about electric bikes and other vehicles take a look at https://endless-sphere.com/forums/
Happy reading (and riding)

Jayelldouble, I have seen some kits for around $500 that will convert a regular bike to an ebike. I don't know how well they work but it's certainly an option.

1237dmctlc · 10-07-2020, 05:46 PM

I had looked at some recently but had some questions this thread has me wondering that I'm sure I could get answers from the expertise of those on this thread. What's the life expectancy of the battery, I'm sure thats based on charges, but what's the norm? Can they be changed out by you or do you need to go to a bike shopped? and how much is a new battery replacement? Thxs

gurroz · 10-07-2020, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1237dmctlc

I had looked at some recently but had some questions this thread has me wondering that I'm sure I could get answers from the expertise of those on this thread. What's the life expectancy of the battery, I'm sure thats based on charges, but what's the norm? Can they be changed out by you or do you need to go to a bike shopped? and how much is a new battery replacement? Thxs

The batteries run between $350 and $550 depending on specs. Most can be regarged 800 - 1000 full cycles. After that number of cycles they will operate at 80% efficiency and need to be replaced. On most bikes the battery can be charged on the bike or pulled and charged inside the house. Hope that helps.