Jim: The cost at the moment is high, all I'm seeing on searches is $1749, which is full price. I've seen them as low as $1400 this summer, though, so keep an eye out. I got mine used. (Keep in mind the whole motor-and-battery system is in the hub, a lot of low-price hub kits out there list motor and battery prices separately).
It's a torque-sensing pedal assist system which reacts to how hard you press the pedals. The best way to describe it is levels of tailwind: If you very lightly pedal, you'll get a light tailwind; mash the pedals and the wind gets much bigger. It's a nice experience because it feels like regular cycling, just augmented. This cycling experience can be modulated with the power settings, too. There's Zero, Eco, Standard and Turbo. I mostly ride in Standard which is a fair amount of boost on rolling terrain, but not like a giant motor hammering you down the road. I was out a while today, and into strong headwinds and up hills I just stayed in Standard and hammered the pedals..I worked up a bit of a sweat. Turbo I reserve for traffic when I would rather lead the cars than squeeze between them, or near the end of a ride when I'm tired and just want to blast home. Range is about 25-30 miles if I stay away from Turbo; I can easily kill the battery in 10 miles if I blast it the whole way..so I don't do that! The nifty thing about this kit over others on the market is it's all self-contained, there's no looking for a place to mount the battery, no wires strung all over the frame. It's all in the wheel: you flip a switch on the wheel itself, then adjust power settings from the app on your phone (I have a Quad Lock mount on the bars). The app shows speed, power level and battery level; plus records the whole trip including a map trace of the ride. I'm very happy with it. I've owned more powerful (like stupid power up to 40mph, this one tops out at 25) mid-drive kits that are quite the project to install and are kinda insane to ride..this one is more manageable for me as a cycling experience. A drawback is all the weight is in the back, it can feel a little odd until you get adapted. Also, I don't look forward to wrangling it off the bike to fix a flat, so I run a tough and heavy Schwalbe back there. My first attempt at flat fixing would be to pull the tube from the side of the rim and see if I can get the hole patched, but if push comes to shove I can flip the bike over and pull the wheel..I carry a 15mm PDW "butter knife" wrench for the axle nuts. I hope that's clear enough, holler if you have any more questions. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/7c962a87-e187-483d-8fb2-a504ed264293%40googlegroups.com.
