Bicycles are a must for full time RV travelers. The USA has thousands of bike trails. Traveling by bicycle is fun, cheap and good exercise. But how many times have you regretted taking the bike when coming home is an uphill challenge. An electric-assisted bicycle solves this problem. We searched the web to find all electric bicycles. We chose the Made in China Riviera 20" Electric Folding Bicycles. We rate these bikes a 4. Priced at $550.00 (04-2006). They were the only 20" folding and electric bike that we found, at that time. We love the fact that we can carry them under the motorhome in our storage compartment. This protects them from the weather and dirt and keeps our home from looking "Clampetty". In addition, we can charge the batteries as we travel.
We purchased two bikes. They come with the baskets, which remove in seconds and are very handy for bringing home purchases or carrying our camera, water bottles and other items.
We purchased extra height handlebars and seat posts. Make sure you test ride the bikes and get bars and seats that feel comfortable. At 5'10" and 6'2" the standard bars and seats were awkward and tiring.
We also purchased two extra batteries thinking that we could charge one as we used the other. We have found this to be unnecessary. We only use the battery assist on hills or coming home from long trips. Ellen's longest trip was 35 miles and she did not run out of battery. In our test a full battery carried us 5.5 miles on flat terrain without any pedaling.
The 4 rating is due to poor finish, but they have performed flawlessly for over 1600 miles! (01-2012)
While our Riviera bikes have served us well, we have looking to upgrade them for years. Our bikes weight in at 70 pounds including the battery. This gets heavy loading them into the storage bays.
The have only a single gear. We replaced the front gear with larger sprockets. This is better as now when you peddle and use the battery power, you are in "sync". You peddle comfortably at the same speed as the power.
This is nice, but you still cannot get a good workout as the single speed is still geared too low. Additionally the brakes on our bikes are not very strong especially on a downhill.
Prodeco Mariner 8 Electric Bike
After years of research we have located the best bikes in the market (07-2015). The Prodeco Mariner 8 weights in at 46 pounds including the battery. It has 8 speeds, large disc brakes front and rear and a purported range of 25-35 miles (this will depend on the terrain and your use of the power). It's folding pedals will make it easier to store in your bays.
We have test driven these bikes and we will be purchasing two as soon we locate a nice home for our current bikes.
See Prodeco Mariner 8 Electric Bike