You sound like a closeted gay guy…. you can’t call yourself a minimalist and be into long distance ebike camping. Face it, you are now one of us Riding Large. You found out how wonderful rides can be uphill, into the wind and still have creature comforts along to make everything better. To still have enough energy to take a hike at the end of long-distance days. I carry around 150 lb. of gear, water, and food, and that doesn’t count bike, motor or batteries. As far as speed wobble is concerned I have learned to keep the weight well distributed and I always ride with full front panniers when moving between base-camps. If the front is too light the wobble is Way worse. I use a 14-Speed Rohloff Speedhub and it meshes with the BaFang mid-drive like they were made for each other. Peas and carrots. Would I like to have a “Super” high gear for hard-ball sailing? Sure, but I can run at 35+ on level surfaces if I want to spend the power that way and that’s with full gear. My latest luxury is an inflatable chair. Stop anywhere and be able to recline, maybe under an umbrella even, and enjoy the view.

Drawbacks??
My triple crankset was reduced to a single dropping the bike from 27 to 9 gears.
International travel is a burden as airlines won’t let you travel with the battery. NZ Post also refused to forward the battery. Courier costs as well made this method unattainable. Fears in the transport industries of batteries catching fire have increased these costs.
Keep in mind battery innovation is on-going in the industry. New battery configurations are developing yearly and what was new this year can often be obsolete next year. I found this out after arriving in Australia with the intent to simply purchase a new one. I ended up reconfiguring the plug to the motor to be universal and bought a similar size Bafang. Cost for this was half the transport fees.
Another concern…I’m a minimalist when it comes to weight. With the battery and motor mid bike and panniers with camp gear on the rear this puts less weight in the front. Speed wobble becomes an inherent possibility. Redistribute weight accordingly!!!

Wow – sounds amazing!

Trace,

Lithium will definitely save you weight. However, stepping down to 48V but keeping the same amp-hour capacity (reducing cell count by 1/3) will also reduce your total energy by 1/3.

Cheers!

Those are some impressive numbers – I’ll check out the kits!

The new hotness these days is the bafang BBSHD kits. Only mid drive you can buy that handles high power, mine does 1500w which is six times greater than that wimpy european stuff. There’s nothing on the market like it.

And a kilowatt of the new 18650b power density cells only weighs 9 pounds, a couple of those bad boys and you can do hundreds of miles with a mid drive. The future of ebikes is bright indeed 🙂

Hi Trace. Thanks for dropping by and I’m stoked you’re digging the info on e-Bike touring! I hope you get some e-Bike trips under your belt soon. Let us know how your new batteries and charging system go. Alee