FUELL refugee that hates driving looking for a long-range commuting bike

[Portalboat]

I bought into the FUELL FLLUID 2S thanks to it's stellar claims (225 miles and 130 Nm mid drive motor) and the history of the 1S, but then the entire company went bankrupt just a few days ago. There's a *chance* that I might get my money back, and I'm still looking to upgrade, so just out of curiosity I'm looking into other options.

I've never even gotten a driver's license, so since this is a car replacement for me the #1 priority thing is the range, but the market seems to all over the place on that. I'd prefer something like...50 miles, at least, but I have no idea how reasonable that is. I'm limited to 750W and 20 MPH unassisted, though there's no cap on assisted, and I'd like a throttle if possible.

I'm also not opposed to building my own, but I'd need a fairly comprehensive guide since I've never done something like that before.

Anyone happen to have a product list or youtube channel that they can just throw at me?

 

[amberwolf]

To know with a degree of certainty what mileage you will get with any particular system, you must first know what conditions it's reported range were tested under, and compare them to your own riding conditions. This may be difficult to do, as I haven't seen any published data on any OEM bike that describes the test conditions; most don't even say whether it's with or without pedalling, or at what speed, both of which could make a huge difference to the results. Other conditions like terrain, wind, continuous riding vs stop/start traffic, etc., can also make a huge difference.

So next best: To guesstimate your required battery size and power required, you'll need to know your own riding conditions, and take them to a simulator or calculator like the one at ebikes.ca to find out how much wh/mile your conditions and speed and riding style will take. Then you take your required max range including detours, etc., and multiply that times the Wh/mile, to get the total required absolute minimum Wh for the battery size required.

If none of the systems you are looking at have enough Wh, you'll need to buy extra batteries and carry them with you to get the necessary range.

There's a lot of threads around here discussing that sort of thing if you poke around, if you need more details.