Disabled cyclist; with one bad choice behind her, needs help with a new bike

[guerney]

"Lightweight bikes are available but these tend to be sportu road type bikes with minimal battery size and small hubs for the fitter rider who usually only wants light assisstance now and then"

this is a missed market, the disabled rider, the older rider, the smaller rider even the pregnant rider need light weight bike - it's about wasting energy for the rider with a chronic illness

My daughter riders everywhere, but when she was pregnant, when she is travelling home from a performance/dance show she just wants to whizz home (not speed just ease/lack of effort)

Your needs are more niche than hers. In addition: more even weight distribution and larger wheels than your Cruza, and it must be step through. I can't find a reasonably priced lightweight step through bike or bike frame (custom built titanium would be too expensive) which can have a middle-ish mounted large capacity battery easily fitted, for an overall lightweight rear/front hub cadence sensored conversion, which would be lighter tham mid-drive.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

"Lightweight bikes are available but these tend to be sportu road type bikes with minimal battery size and small hubs for the fitter rider who usually only wants light assisstance now and then"

this is a missed market, the disabled rider, the older rider, the smaller rider even the pregnant rider need light weight bike - it's about wasting energy for the rider with a chronic illness

My daughter riders everywhere, but when she was pregnant, when she is travelling home from a performance/dance show she just wants to whizz home (not speed just ease/lack of effort)

More powerful bikes have heavier motors. Longer range bikes have heavier batteries. Beyond a certain point (10-11 kg ) reducing the weight of the non e-bike specific components is chasing diminishing returns. The lightest conversion kit I've fitted had a 1.6kg AKM 75 motor and a 1.8 kg 36v 10Ah bag battery but isn't massively powerful and doesn't have a huge range if you use all the power.

That's the beauty of building a bespoke bike, you can choose what's important to you and fit a conversion kit to suit, but if you want lots of power and lots of range using that power it's not going to be light

 

[guerney]

A trike would be heavy as * so it won't increase my mobility & now I can't even open the sodding car door, so driving will only work if there is someone there to let me out ffs

This is worrying - are you sure you're still strong enough to control a bike? If you're no longer safe cycling, perhaps it's time to start a thread asking which mobility scooters are easiest to hotrod? Increasingly popular with able-bodied people. At times I'm tempted to hotrod one myself, usually when swiftly overtaken walking on the pavement by one whizzing past at who knows what speed, and annoyingly they never ring a bell or beep. Looks fun.

 

[saneagle]

"Lightweight bikes are available but these tend to be sportu road type bikes with minimal battery size and small hubs for the fitter rider who usually only wants light assisstance now and then"

this is a missed market, the disabled rider, the older rider, the smaller rider even the pregnant rider need light weight bike - it's about wasting energy for the rider with a chronic illness

My daughter riders everywhere, but when she was pregnant, when she is travelling home from a performance/dance show she just wants to whizz home (not speed just ease/lack of effort)

The two requirements of high power and lightweight are conflicting characteristics. It's not that somebody's missing a market, it's that physics prevents it.

 

[matthewslack]

A bit like building a house. You can have a good house, a cheap house and a quick house. But only two of those three.

 

[Nealh]

This thread has been going for over a year now plus the previous thread of the bike her brother built for her with the specs to suit himself.
Cat is looking for the nirvana of ebikes wihich doesn't exsist for a rider with debilitaing health issues or a movement disability. Typically one has to accept there will be constraints and not think of being in one's prime when these health issues may not have exsisted or been so prominent.
A trike or legal twist and go seem the probable route

It has all been said . One can't have power , long range in a light weight bike.
The focus does seem to be a tunnel vision view all etched on an unsuitable style of bike system of a torque sensing mid drive bike . Which all in all has all been drawn out and discussed now many times , to which the answer from most is that this is just the wrong bike system for said such use with the underlying health /mobility issues.

 

[Woosh]

It has all been said . One can't have power , long range in a light weight bike.

it's can be done.
You start with a 10kg full sus for comfort. That's the key to build a good bike because the components are very good to start with.
You add a tongsheng 85TS kit with a bag battery for 40 mile or 60 miles or HL downtube battery for 80 miles range. Total weight 14kgs with 36V 10Ah. Mine is like that. I can ride it on any trail and have a throttle if needed.

 

[saneagle]

it's can be done.
You start with a 10kg full sus for comfort. That's the key to build a good bike because the components are very good to start with.
You add a tongsheng 85TS kit with a bag battery for 40 mile or 60 miles or HL downtube battery for 80 miles range. Total weight 14kgs with 36V 10Ah. Mine is like that. I can ride it on any trail and have a throttle if needed.

I thought we already established that a a system with torque multiplication was unsuitable for her. Why do we keep going round and round in circles, with people keep recommending what's suitable for themselves instead of for Katy? She wants lightweight, power without much pedal effort and enough range.

 

[Woosh]

I thought we already established that a a system with torque multiplication was unsuitable for her.

We go in circles because you are looking at factory made bikes which are always less flexible than kits.
I think she only has to dial up assist level to 3, 4 and 5 instead of 2 o3 that I am on most of the time. She can always fall back on the throttle if 4 or 5 are insufficient.
The 85TS has 'instant start' like Mechaniker has on his bike. The main difficulty with fitting the 85TS kit to a high performance bike is most of them have tubeless tyres. The 85TS comes with normal double wall rim, not tubeless.

 

[Nealh]

Problem is with any twist and go use is !!! The risk of plod confiscating said bike and a conviction for motoring offences.
Tbh the only solution to be compliant is one with full twist and go that is lawfully legal and complies with the 250wLPM certification.

 

[Nealh]

Most of us are regular riders with maybe minor issues but once we start talking about major fatique issues with lack of leg power /muscle /stamina then I can't believe TS systems are being promoted.

 

[guerney]

Most of us are regular riders with maybe minor issues but once we start talking about major fatique issues with lack of leg power /muscle /stamina then I can't believe TS systems are being promoted.

...causing Rapid Fatsos to conclude incorrectly all legal bikes are inadequate and only Sur-Rons or escooters will do.

 

[guerney]

it's can be done.
You start with a 10kg full sus for comfort. That's the key to build a good bike because the components are very good to start with.

The lightest conversion kit I've fitted had a 1.6kg AKM 75 motor and a 1.8 kg 36v 10Ah bag battery but isn't massively powerful and doesn't have a huge range if you use all the power.

Is there a large wheeled (larger wheeled than @Katymac's Cruza) <10kg step through which can be fitted with a 20Ah mid-ish mounted battery and 22A controller, for a <17kg cadence sensored bike with legalised throttle? Or would that be too heavy? 22A X 48V = 1056W legal throttle would make nearly all hilly roads seem flattish.

My cadence sensored bike enables me to ascend most roaded hills at 25kph, largely effortlessly, and this is with just 662W (on 20" wheels [18.4A, because I forgot to go up a level to 20A and 720W, which would have been even easier to pedal]).