I'm trying to decide on what would be the best option for me for my first electric bike. I need a way to get around, and as I live on a hill where I will have to manage a fairly steep incline coming and going I am wondering what kind of bike I should get.
There is a bike on Craigslist right now with a 36V 12amp battery and 500-750Watt motor, but as it is a Huffy bike I am pretty sure it is a kit build. They are asking 700. -- My other option is the Kickstarter kit by Barak Electric (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1354698863/barak-electric-bicycle-conversion-kit-electrify-yo) that has a 500 watt motor and 36V 10amph battery, and as I already have a mountain bike laying around I could install it myself and it would cost 655. I have no idea what they would be charging in a couple years when the Lithium batteries die for replacements, but I'm sure I could figure that out then. I don't have a ton of money, so going to a bike shop isn't really an option even though I would love the security of being able to return it if it doesn't work. I was looking into the Currie Electric bikes as they seem quite reasonable, but it doesn't look as though they will have enough power to get me anywhere with their small wattage and SLA batteries (not to mention to upgrade to Lithium with Currie is basically the price of the bike!)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!