Hey everyone, I am going to purchase my first bike this year. I am a young 58 and will be riding on fire roads/trails and need suggestions as to which type bike would work best for me fat tire or standard mountain bike. I wish to be able to tackle uphills! Anyway I will appreciate all suggestions.
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Any bike with a mid drive BBSHD will tackle hills. Fat bike is bettter on sand and snow and can give a great dirt bike feel. MTB has more full suspension options and do well on trails. Plus bikes with 27.5 wheels and 2.5-3 inch tires make a good compromise. My getting old back likes a rear shock on the bumps. -
Ditto...
I'm in the same age bracket and spend a lot of times on fire roads and single track. My entry was a RadRover and for the price (~$1500) it's been a good entry level bike for that. With the geared 750W hub drive it can't tackle anything all that steep though and the equipment and in particular the front suspension are, well, entry level.
It's been especially good for a few things though... It was an economical way to tell how much I was going to use an electric bike, how I would use it and what I wanted out of the equipment.
2000mi later it was apparent that I'll be doing a lot of riding and could justify spending more and what I needed. I built a BBSHD mid-drive front suspension fat-bike with top-notch equipment and front suspension and I'm super pleased with it - all the things I found I wanted are addressed. At some point I'd like to try to build a full-suspension fattie but there are some challenges to that and so the hard tail with a thudbuster seatpost is working great and went together easily.
I'm glad I didn't go for a project first and approached it this way but we're all different and if you are comfortable starting with a project, the BBSHD is a great way to get going. If not there are a lot of off-the-shelf options out there that can get you started!Comment
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It is amazing how fast things are developing in the ebike world. Just in the last year options for fully built bikes have increased tremendously. It is becoming such that building your own to get a better price is not necessary. Take for example Lunas bikes, essentially they are putting kit motors on various makes of bikes just as you would but their prices are so low that as a home builder you couldn't match them! Of course other outfits are doing this too so competition in the marketplace is great for customers. What I'm saying is if you don't already have a bike to build up, it hardly makes sense to do a kit. Personally I am on my 3rd kit, just to fly in the face of my own logic! But I just like to tinker, for me it's as much fun as riding!Comment
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I gotta agree with Optimus on the tinkering issue. Also, up until a month ago I wouldn't have dreamed I could true a wheel. I actually paid an LBS ( local bike shop) $80.00 to straiten out my first attempt at messing with wheels 4 months ago lol. Getting back to you Bughunter, you didn't tell us if you currently have a bike that you use for trails already or not. If not and you are mechanically inclined, goe for a kit off Luna and a battery as well. If you do not want to build it yourself, then it's hard to not agree that a ready made bike from Luna is your best option. If I had it to do all over again I would have saved the money I already spent and went in that direction. But then again a lot of the fun I've had and a sense of personal satisfaction have come from doing it myself. Either way welcome to the group, hope you find what you are looking for here. There are a lot of knowledgeable and helpful folks on here to lend a hand.
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I believe i met you today in santa rosa at used bike shop. Looks like you picked a good bike. You need anything you know where to find me. Get thhe smallest chain ring. That 46 tooth you were talking of just runs too fast for trails. Get the chain ring adaptor with 42 tooth ring. Will not have the topspeed but will handle trails at lower speed and power. Your 27.5 wheels also need the lower gear.
the sram hub just listed by luna really puts all gearing issues behind.Last edited by Gr8fun; 04-08-2017, 06:54 PM.Comment
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Surly Pugsley has 135 mm rear dropouts. Sturmey-Archer makes a 170 mm IGH that is supposed to be pretty robust.Comment
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Thanks everyone! I've decided to go with a Luna Fat tire. I'll chat with them prior to purchase and soon fewer "honey do"s on the weekend!Comment
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