Advice please: Need a good electric bike for climbing hills and towing a trailer

[oigoi]

Hi, I am looking to buy an electric bike (budget £1000 to £1800 max) but I need it to be good at climbing hills and have plenty of power for towing a trailer.

If you know a good bike for this purpose I would appreciate your recommendations and advice.

 

[banbury frank]

Hi

oigoi

Look at my bikes they will EAT Hills For Breakfast

Frank

 

[flecc]

Have a look at this thread about a soon to arrive Kudos bike which will be ideal. Also the Tonaro Compy would be suitable, a powerful throttle controlled motor driving through the bike gears makes it easily capable of doing both jobs, but it wont suit all types of trailer coupling.

Not the rear suspension Tonaro Bighit though, rear suspension can produce unpredictable handling when towing a heavy trailer.

 

[shep]

I have what are regarded as 2 of the best hill climbers a Tonaro Bighit and Kalkhoff Agattu with the new 18ah battery and maximum of 1:2 assist. They are both within your budget and will both without any problem at all climb up the side of a house !!!!! The Tonaro is remarkable value for money, and the Kalkhoff is a thing of mechanical beauty oozing quality

 

[Cyclezee]

Hu oigio
A warm welcom to the Pedelec Forum. I have two bikes for you consider the first is a my own Dual Battery eZee Forza with powerful and torquey eZee motor. It climbs hill with ease and is great for towing a trailer too. Photo below.

​

The second option is a bike of your choice which I can convert for you with an eZee Kit, or I can supply the kit for you to convert a bike yourself.
Below is an example of such a bike.

 

[thunderblue]

Don't know if it is just me, but I would always take advice from a dealer endorsing his own product with a pinch of salt. They are bound to say their product is best, aren't they? Shame really, as not that long ago, it would be users who were extolling the virtues of their bikes, not those who stand to make a profit from sales. Spoils this for me. However ....

I have a Technium privilege, which is the same bike as the Kalkhoff Agattu and the Raleigh Dover. Brilliant at climbing hills and you should take a look at Flecc's web pages (trailers) to see a picture of him with a loaded trailer and more information ... I suppose the answer to your question depends on whether you intend to pedal, or if you are just looking to use the throttle. The advice usually given is to test ride a bike first - they are all different and you'll then find out what suits you best.

 

[eddieo]

I see nothing wrong here...Ezee bikes have a good reputation and are regarded as VERY strong performers. What is wrong with recommending an Ezee based kit or bike I wonder.....surely that is what the OP is looking for - advice?

 

[oigoi]

Thankyou all for your advice, and recommendations. All the bikes recommended look to be good for my purposes, at the moment I am thinking theTonaro does look to be great value for money and reading posts on here and reviews on amazon, people speak well of them.

The kudos range of bikes look very stylish and good value for money, it is interesting to see that they have made changes to the bike to make it better at climbing hills, but would it still be as good a hill climber as a crank drive bike, or is it climbing hills simply by shoving lots of power into the motor to compensate for the fixed gearing of it's hub drive? (at the expense of range)

I live in cornwall, which is very up and down, little of the roads I travel on are flat.

One other thing that has occurred to me is that the idea of regenerative braking could be a worthwhile feature, but it is not something that is mentioned often on e-bikes.
If nothing else it would save me a lot of wear on brakes. Do any of the bikes that have been recommended here have a regenerative braking ability?

 

[steveindenmark]

I agree with the comment about dealers endorsing their own products but they would be mad not to on this website.
On the other hand when dealers endorse other dealers bikes (and that happens on here as well), then it is worth listening to and also shows what honest, good allround guys these dealers are.

Back to the subject. I am just going to order a Tonaro Enduro because I have yet to read something bad about the bikes or the company.

Enduro - Our Products

It is 2.1/2 kg lighter than the Bighit but with the same power plant. I live in an undulating area of Denmark and believe me there are some big undulations, especially on the way to work at 5am in the morning.

The Enduro does not have the Bighit suspension and I am sure a way could be found to attach a trailer.

Not only does it have pedal assist, it also has a power button where you can power your way up hills without pedalling. It has a 36V battery and users report big milages on one charge.

There are several posts on this forum about their bikes.

They are well worth a look for your situation.

Steve

 

[flecc]

I live in cornwall, which is very up and down, little of the roads I travel on are flat.

One other thing that has occurred to me is that the idea of regenerative braking could be a worthwhile feature, but it is not something that is mentioned often on e-bikes.
If nothing else it would save me a lot of wear on brakes. Do any of the bikes that have been recommended here have a regenerative braking ability?

The lack of mass in e-bikes has made regeneration an unproductive little used feature. None of those mentioned has it and on the one current e-bike with regen, it's not specifically for braking. Panasonic are trialling a batch of front hub motor regenerating and electrically braking front hub motors in Japan, but it's not a high power system and would not match your needs.

I'd recommend a strong crank drive for that area and the Tonaro fits well. However, do take note of the two things I've mentioned. The unusual frame shape of the Compy model will affect some trailer attachments, needing modification. The rear suspension Bighit model is not advisable for heavy towing, the reason being that when braking downhill, the bike pitches forward and the unbraked trailer weight can fold the suspension arm under and pitch you off the bike. Rigid rear frames are best for towing.

 

[banbury frank]

Regen

Hi oigoi

Regen braking is standard on our infinion controllers to activate it you need to fit brake switches if you plug a cycle analyst computer it will tell you how much you have regenerated on the display we also have cruse control

Frank

 

[jasono]

Hi Oigoi. Try and get some test rides to see which bike suits you.

I've got a Wisper 905, which I use amongst other things to tow my daughter in a child trailer. It works great and the big battery means I can cover long distances easily

Have fun with whatever bike you choose

Jas

 

[oigoi]

Hi oigoi

Regen braking is standard on our infinion controllers to activate it you need to fit brake switches if you plug a cycle analyst computer it will tell you how much you have regenerated on the display we also have cruse control

Frank

Hi Frank,
Interested in the capabilities of your machines. Have you much experience of using your bikes with the regenerative braking? Have you found it captures a worthwhile amount of energy? Does it provide a useful amount of braking? What extra costs are involved above your standard prices to buy a bike with this feature? Thanks,

 

[banbury frank]

Hi


Its a standard function off the infineion controller Regen braking No extra cost

It is a soft start mainly works on hills

Unless you want to monitor it the the cycle analyst computer is £150 link to maker in Canada

The Cycle Analyst Homepage - Ebike Amp-Hour and Watt Meter


Frank

 

[oigoi]

Thankyou all for your advice, it is much appreciated. I will consider all the advice given and in due course I will let you know how I get on and what my experiences of my chosen bike are.
Something I also want to develop is solar charging of a bike's batteries, this doesn't look to be something you can buy off the shelf so I will have to engineer this myself, I will let you know how I get on!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Something I also want to develop is solar charging of a bike's batteries, this doesn't look to be something you can buy off the shelf so I will have to engineer this myself, I will let you know how I get on!

Just remember that to charge a 10aH 36v ebike battery will take about 50aH from a 12v lead battery though an inverter, so you need at least a 110aH battery - or maybe two 80aH batteries. Then a 50w solar panel will give about 10aH a day at 12v - if you're lucky, So you'll need about four or five of them if you want to re-charge your bike every day.

 

[oigoi]

Thankyou for putting some figures to the power requirement, is solar charging something you have had a go at yourself?

My idea is to buy a second charger and connect dc power into the charger at the point where it's normal ac mains supply has been converted to dc, thus avoiding the need for an inverter and the associated inefficiencies.

however this idea does mean I will need to put into the charger at that point the same dc voltage which is normally present at that point in the circuit, were the charger on a mains supply, and then get that voltage from solar panels / batteries.

Anyhow I will let you know how I get on, in due course!