Electric bike or trike

I have a Backou ebike. It’s a pretty good one. I’ll try to remember to give you a review later. I’m watching American Sniper right now.

 

Okay, the movie is over.

I don't mean this to sound haughty in any way, but in most cases you get what you pay for, and e-bikes are no exception. I'm retired and on a fixed budget, but when I decided to get one I got one that was at the top of the line.

The bike I bought a few years ago was a Backou Storm. Backou is about even in quality and price to Rambo and Quiet Kat. Heck, they're all made in China anyway.

Like I usually do when I'm making a significant purchase, I did a ton of homework on different brands, models and capabilities. The Storm, as I said, was one of the top of the line e-bikes that Backou offered. It was considerably above the $2k-4k range you mentioned. It was $6,700, but I can only give a review on what I have.

My bike is a 26" 1000 watt model. It can reach speeds of up to 30 mph with a 40 mile range (depending on the setting and how much you want to pedal), Speed is totally irrelevant in my opinion. 15 mph is about as fast as I'm willing to ride it in a hunting environment, and most of the time I'm riding at around 5 mph unless I'm on a road or in an open field. E-bikes aren't four wheelers and an unseen rock, branch or osage "apple" can kick your front wheel right out from under you. That's experience talking.

Power is key, and the top of the line bikes have plenty of power. I'm sure other companies offer them too, but when I bought my bike Backou sold a deer cart trailer. It attaches to a rear wheel bolt on hitch and it only weighs around 25 pounds. I bought one with the bike and it has been fantastic. If I put the bike in the lowest gear and put the bike in sport mode I can haul a deer up a pretty steep slope. On level ground I can haul a buck for miles.

As far as dependability goes, in the four years I've had this bike I've never had a single problem even though I've put a ton of miles on it. I've hauled a lot of deer on it, including some good sized bucks. A few friends of mine in my Arkansas club got cheaper model bikes (in the $2000 range). They work too, but last season one of them tried to haul a doe out by strapping a hand cart to his rear rack and he burned his motor up.
Whatever model you get, do your homework and don't ask it to do more than it was designed to do. Take care of it, keep it in a garage, shed or covered, keep it clean and keep the moving parts lubricated and it'll take care of you.

My only regret with this bike is that I got one with 26" wheels. I'm 6' tall and with the seat at the lowest setting I can't put my feet flat on the ground. That makes it difficult to get my old, overweight butt on the bike with all of my gear on. I wish I had went with the 24" model, but I have what I have.

That brings up another point. You'll have to get creative riding in with all your gear if you don't have pre-hung stands. I hunt out of a climber and I'm mobile, so I had to figure out how to ride in with a Summit Viper, a bow and small pack. My solution was to get a bigger fanny pack with molle straps, put that on, put the climber on my back over the pack and then sling the bow (in a bow sling) across my chest. It's not the most comfortable ride, and God help you if you wreck with that configuration (again, experience) but I've managed 1 1/2 mile rides in in a fraction of the time it takes to walk it with no scent trail and no sweat equity invested.

If you have any specific questions, post them and I'll try to answer them. I'll see if I can find a couple of pics to post