full description and tips

I love this bike. It replaces a car and a truck. most of the time.

This beast is 2-wheel drive, 72v. Front and rear direct drive (FH212/RH212). It is built on a Yuba Mundo frame (400lbs cargo capacity).

Since this is a post about winter-bikes...

I got the Schwalbe Marathon snow tires for last winter. We don't get much snow here in coastal BC, but some and the spikes are reassuring for the black ice potential too. Sometimes it's slushy and my 3km unpaved driveway was unrideable in those conditions, but cold packed unplowed... that was fine and exciting. The 2 wheel drive surely helped by spreading out the torque.

The hand muffs are critical. I had bought the best expedition winter gloves that I could find, for arctic conditions, but at the speeds I go, whenever the temps are below 0, the hands just get so cold. Good gloves plus the handle bar covers makes it tolerable on a 20 minute 12km commute.

On those coldest days (-15 is the worst) I try to remember to avoid e-braking until the battery is warmed up. This doesn't take too long at my discharge rate. And I wear lots of layers -- down jacket, and insulated coveralls on top of regular warmies.

Unfortunately I did not get snow-riding pictures.

As you can see in the pics, it is a working farm truck. The 2 wheel drive is helpful for spreading out the traction to both wheels, slightly increasing the hills I can climb with weight.

The front motor does skip a tiny bit when bombing uphill, but that is to be expected. Its a reasonable trade-off. At the speeds I like to go, the 2 motors also increases my cooling surfaces -- some days are hot, going faster cools the rider and I'm quite attached to my regen!

I have a lot of battery, which is probably overkill... but it helps with the 1-1.5kw of braking power when decelerating with a load (I worry a bit about the charge rate). It is comforting for longer rides, with a load and going fast. And, as you can see in the pics, sometimes some extra battery juice can run an air compressor on a remote jobsite. Also, I live off-grid, so being able to get the extra rides in without charging can be useful when the sun isn't shining or the water isn't flowing.

Occasionally the extra battery has also run the coffee grinder in a pinch and an electric hotplate, though I'm not convinced that's a great use for high-end lithium cells...

This setup does 60km on the flat with a bit of cargo. (off-road only of course)

I don't really put anything on the front rack and only keep rain gear in front panniers. It makes a nice place to set things down.

I love the cargo-style kickstand on this thing. It is so pleasant when your bike just stands up on its own while loading.

Issues... yeah, make sure you put the torque arm on the specified non-cable side of the axle, especially if you're running 2-3kw through the motor... it will shear! Changing tires is a pain... get the best money can buy. Marathon plus seems to do it.

I have a great trailer for it when the long-tail just won't quite do it. I got that 10+ years ago from Andy at bikebox - it's still holding up well despite many heavy loads.

I went through a lot of seats to find one that is comfortable. And recently got a thudbuster seatpost. I'm comfortable.