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They article quotes $1400 for these bikes as initial investment. Add that to my personal assertation that anyone working on a bike should be handy enough to DIY for all things related to service/repair. Bikes are not hard to work on at all. If you agree with that, then you should be able to convert a standard bike to an e-bike with a couple hundred dollar kit that is readily available. Unless there's some kind of market capture here where they can't access the cheap parts I have access too via Alibaba/Amazon, this could easily be a DIY with a few simple tools and some research on YT. I've done this myself with no special electronic experience (however, I did service my own BMX bikes when I was a kid/teen).


The only issue with the cheap kits is that they seem to be much likelier to catch fire.


You can buy well built kits that are inexpensive. If you buy the cheapest available on Alibaba then maybe there's some risk of this


Do you have any recommendations for something weatherproof? Maybe something easy to convert back to regular bike? I would love for a little supplementary power to flatten the hills on the commute.




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