I'm probably gonna buy an e-bike soon, mostly as a way to shield myself from fuel shortages in the near future and ensure a certain degree of mobility, probably will use it for occasional sport too. Also there's juicy subsidies right now so it's the perfect moment (for context I live in Spain).
Unfortunately, capitalism will capitalism and most e-bikes come with the integrated battery in the chasis, of which I'm 90% certain there's no standard among manufacturers, and even many of the pedal-type motors run with proprietary wiring and even protocols that only allow certain batteries to be installed.
Given this, I'd like to shield myself from this (and also increase repairability) by purchasing a bike with a normal battery outside the chassis, something like the Zazawork CF29:
These e-bikes feature the non-proprietary generic batteries and hub motors that increase repairability and don't keep you forced to an ecosystem that you're not sure will have replacements in 5 years.
However, these batteries are also much easier to steal, and they're not cheap to replace. I can mitigate this to a degree installing an alarm on the battery, but idk if that's enough. My use case isn't the bike sleeping on the street overnight, but rather being able to leave the bike worry-free for some hours during the day if I go to, say, the cinema, or something akin of duration.
What do y'all think?
A lot of them have batteries that lock to the frame, with keys to unlock.
Yeah but most of those locks are garbage that can be forced with pliers in 3 seconds with no skill, hence the alarm idea.
I live in a city that is known for bike theft (what city isn't?) and I've been locking up my ebike outside of bars and restaurants for 3 years now (but keeping it inside overnight) and no one's attempted to fuck with it.
ymmv, but I don't think people see ebike batteries on their own as particularly valuable targets.
Yeah, it's also hard to quantify the risks. I actually love that you told me that, thanks for the input. Is your battery inside the bike structure?
It's on a rail on the down tube. Just slides off.
American brand, and this is a newer model than what I had, but: https://www.radpowerbikes.com/collections/radrunner-electric-cargo-utility-bikes/products/radrunner-electric-cargo-utility-bike
Daaaaamn that's a cool ass bike. Thanks!