Today we rolled over 1000 miles on electric converted Yuba Boda Boda cargo bike! Based on timestamp of the original post where I wrote about the conversion it’s been 8 months since we started riding it. We did about 10-15 miles today with two kids on the back:
My main regret with it is that we didn’t do this sooner. Having a solid acoustic cargo bike as the base for this project has made all the difference in the world vs. our direct-to-consumer cargo ebike that this replaced.
Maintenance wise it’s been easy aside from one dramatic incident during the summer where the tire exploded from heat. We had left it in the sun while we were at the pool and when we came back we hit a bump and the sidewall blew out and broke a few spokes. A massive advantage to having a standard wheel instead of a rear hub motor is that finding replacement spokes was simple. I was able to buy a new tube, tire, and spokes for less than $100 and do it myself the next day. Otherwise, it’s just been minor adjustments here and there. All bikes require maintenance and this one isn’t an exception to that rule.
If you’re on the fence I’d strongly urge you to either get an ebike or convert your existing bike. It’ll change the way you think about getting around your city!