You have to think about how you’re going to use your ebike to answer that question. If you need to carry your ebike with you into your office or on public transportation weight matters. No one wants to carry a 65 lb bike around.
If you need to commute a long distance weight may not matter so much. Range and speed will be much more important. How do you get more range and speed from your ebike? You use larger motors and batteries which add weight.
The more weight you and your bike have, the more energy the bike and you need to use to move it. The heavier things get, the more battery capacity is needed to go the same distance. It gets worse going up hills where more energy is used. Fortunately, you can double the capacity of your batteries for only a few pounds of added batteries.
If you want to use your ebike for mountain bike trail riding than weight placement matters a lot. A big motor hanging on your rear wheel or battery on a rack over the rear wheel will affect the bikes handling. Your bike will not feel balanced during technical riding. In these cases it is better to keep the extra ebike weight near the center of the bike.
The below video shows the effect or riding a lightweight vs heavyweight bike. The effect is the same for an ebike. The only difference is you the bikes motor is providing some of the power instead of the rider. More energy will be used going up hills on a heavier bike and with a heavier rider.
https://youtu.be/IOuhnQGE-yY
Post time: Jan-14-2022
