[travelingman]

I have been looking for secondary transportation for use with our RV. We investigated hanging a motorcycle/scooter on the back or towing a small car. Either of these would have run several thousand dollars.
We have two 14 or 15 year old TREK 720 bikes that we take with us now on our travels.

We have been looking at conversion kits for a while. They seem to run anywhere from $300 to $1000 depending on battery system, motor, etc. I happened across the Clean Republic site and thought this might be an inexpensive solution. We were just looking for something to extend our range and get a little more exercise. Our camper (29 ft) has been pretty easy to park in most places. The bicycles will allow us a little more flexibility. The hill climber kit sounded perfect. Not too heavy and not too expensive. Helping with the hills and extending our riding range would be fine.

We ordered 2 kits about 7 or 8 days ago and they arrived today. We have been unlucky with the amount of rain we have been getting in New England but I was determined to get one installed today and take a quick ride.

For anyone who is familiar with bikes and has minimal mechanical skills the install is pretty quick. I probably spent as much time finding my compressor and filling the kit tire and adjusting my front brake as I did installing the kit. Shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes for most people.

Seemed to be plenty of cable to route and dress the wiring where needed.

I took a quick ride and found it to work very well on flat ground. It definitely helps on hills. I am 220 lbs and both knees are shot. There is a hill in our neighborhood that is somewhere between ¼ and 1/3 of a mile long. Normally I am down to 2nd or 3rd gear, breathing hard and my knees are killing me when I get to the top. With the hill topper I peddled all the way to the top in 14th gear and was still feeling pretty good when I got there. I do not believe that I could go up the hill on motor power only. Flat ground was not an issue.

I will try and take pictures of the second install and will post any information on range etc. once my wife and I ride the bikes some more.

Happy trails;
Travelingman

[Mike]

Travelingman,

Thanks so much for the story and description. We look forward to some pictures of your converted e-Treks, and maybe your camper attachment system too.

[travelingman]

Unfortunately one of the two Hill toppers I ordered was damaged in shipping.

Fortunately Mike and his team have been very reponsive and professional in dealing with this and I have since received a replacment and installed the unit on the second bike. Again the longest part of the procedure is probably filling the tire and possibly adjusting your front brake.

I want to get some velcro straps to tie things down a little more securely and to make it easy to remove the throttle and battery harness when we are traveling. Don't want anything damaged when we hang then on the rear of the camper. I have used 1 tie wrap on the front fork to tie down the primary motor cable and connector.

We have large trunks with panniers on our bikes and we are just dropping the whole battery pack into those trunks.

Two small issues we ran into.
1. Our bike racks rise up slightly near the seat post so we couldn't mount the battery pack as expected. This is ok as we are putting the packs in our bike trunks anyway.
2. The small magnets used with our trip computers wouldn't fit the spokes on the hill toppers. A small file to open the slot on the magnet fixed that.

When I get a few moments I'll get pictures of the install and bike rack.

Happy trails;
Travelingman

[travelingman]

Hello all;

We now have both bikes setup (yes I know I should send in some pics).

We have done 3 10 mile rides over the last week and a 15 mile ride yesterday.
At the end of 15 miles one battery was at 23.4 volts and the other at 23.9 volts so we believe we had used 60 or 70% of the battery capacity. That is about as far as you want to take the batterys down before recharing to extend their useful life.

We are getting alot more exercise because we are taking longer more interesting rides.

We have hit one or two hills where we crested the hills at only 5 or 6 miles an hour (course that is partly the human motor not being as fit as it should be).

I think the motors are doing what we expected and should be a great addition to our RV travels. Hoping to use them in some of the national parks this fall.

Happy Trails;
Travelingman

[Mike]

Thanks for the metrics and technical feedback. We're constantly working to take suggestions and add improvements to the design and clear data from field tests helps a lot.

Cheers