On Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 2:30:24 AM UTC+1, news18 wrote:
On Sat, 20 Apr 2019 09:45:36 -0700, Andre Jute wrote:

On Saturday, April 20, 2019 at 12:10:53 AM UTC+1, sms wrote:
On 4/19/2019 3:52 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Fri, 19 Apr 2019 14:21:17 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

I received an email from a local bike shop. They were advertising
e-bikes. Three of them were shown. $2400 Raleigh. $4050
Specialized. $5050 Specialized. I had no idea electric bikes were
that F---ing expensive. That is almost Half the price of one of
those $10,000+ Specialized Venge Tour de France bikes. I have not
looked recently, but I am positive that you can buy a new or used
motorcycle, scooter, moped for much less than those prices. I
suppose riding e-bikes can get you some exercise which is good for
you, but if you have to pay that much for it, wow. It almost makes
those monthly gym membership fees seem reasonable.

Those are name-brand e-Bikes, mid-drive. A decent rear-hub drive e-bike
costs $1200-1500.

You can build your own for much less. At
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGbuildingpedelec1.html I describe
fitting a front motor

Mid frame conversions are better and fit the riding habits of perople who
would benefit from a e-bike; aka more activity and ICE replacement.

Front and rear motors are not designed for the average bicle rider and
would be rapidly destroyed.

Including a suitable battery in each case, the mid-frame electric motor installation now on my bike cost almost twice as much as the earlier front electric motor installation I describe in the post and article you refer to. The front installation lasted about 3500km and could have been rebuilt for less than Euro 100 but I'd bought it only as an interim measure while I learned about electric motors, so I didn't care. I always intended installing a mid-motor as soon as the mid-motors were a bit further along the early-adopter timeline (see the Endless Sphere discussion group on the net) and the packages became a little more sophisticated, as happened with the D965 controller.

Andre Jute
Fools rush in