Shuutle by eBike or Bike?

[JayDubP]

Have any of you used a bike or electric bike to shuttle yourself from takeout to put in?

I am especially interested in any experience with folding bikes and really interested in experience with folding electric bikes-- so can pack the bike on my Watermaster Kodiak.

Not opposed to pedaling, but would like to do some dirt roads with elevation and at 68 I'd like to conserve all my energy for fishing.

Thanks

Jim

[John Sv]

I have a lot of experience with bicycles (worked in shops for 20 years) and with bike shuttling. EBikes are pretty new, only seen a few. Most are in the 50 lb range but are coming down in weight. For reference, most city/road/mountain bikes at a 5-600$ price point are about 25-29 lbs.
If you take both wheels off the bike gets smaller than most folding bikes except for a Dahon). A lot of folding bikes save for the old Giant expression and the old Montagues and Schwinn Montagues have tiny wheels. This makes them a little twitchy at speed and crummy on rough dirt roads. I usually float these rivers in a canoe so space is not an issue but weird high weight is. All seems to work though.
Bikes float.... for about a minute, fyi
I shuttle sections of the Truckee, Yuba from Parks Bar to Sycamore, Upper Little Truckee in spring, Feather, with a bike. I hear the lower Sac has a paved path running along side one of the popular floats, that might be a great shuttle.
Whatcha have in mind for waters to bike shuttle?

[John Sv]

Curious, from the pictures I can't tell, does your raft have a white floor or is there no floor and you dangle your feet in? Looks like you could lash a bike on the back?

Another issue with folders is that some are a finger/knuckle smashing PITA to food. Others are not. I got my parents some Giant Expressions about a decade ago because they were super easy to fold (they were going to try and live on a boat, did not pan out), and they had big wheels. The Dahons and Bike Fridays, especially Dahons, fold pretty small and would lay across the back of that raft pretty nicely. But they have the small wheels and are complex folds.

[tcorfey]

I guess I do it kind of differently. I know I have more energy in the AM than in the PM so I drop the boat/raft at the top of the run and chain it up. Then I drive my truck down to the take out with the bike in the back. Then ride the bike back up to the boat. Then I chain up the bike and take the boat. At the bottom of the run I pull the boat out with the truck and drive back up to get the bike. I use a full size Mountain bike that is older and not very desirable. The only issue is you are leaving a fully operational boat in the water but I figure there are a lot more thieves out in the afternoon then there are in the early morning. My rods and gear is on my back pack. You could probably do the same with a 50-100cc scooter.

[JayDubP]

John Sv:
1) Kodiak has open floor in front, solid under seat & behind seat. Rear cargo area is 27"deep and to outside of tubes is 48" wide at the seat, narrowing to rear end -- so I have lots of room to put a rack that will rest on top of the tubes.

Rack will probably be made of 1/2" square alum tubing & will be 4 pieces so I could also attach on top of rear bike rack to provide wider base for my bag containing deflated boat, oars, waders, boots and fishing stuff

Not sure of the best way to balance everything on the bike. Boat, Oars, boat stuff, waders, boots and fishing stuff can fit into a bag around 36” L x 18” x 18” and weigh around 50lb.
I’ll have to do some testing in next couple of weeks on how to position the bag on top of a rear bike rack—sideways so it sticks out 12-14” or so on each side of the bike.
I considered making the rack one piece and adding small bike wheels to make a trailer. Wheels could fold up or be removed when used on the boat. I felt a trailer would probably be a big problem on a dirt road. Is my thinking off here?
My mountain bike is 56" with front wheel off.. so it would stick out beyond tubes. I do not want anything hanging outside of the boat, especially behind me. With both wheels off, frame is 44" wide. It still would take up a lot of room in the SUV or in a RV.
2) Folding bikes I am considering have 26" wheels and fold to around 36" x 30" by 13". weight is 38lbs (steel) . Amazon has a Stowabike 26" FOLDING 18 speed mountain bike for $140 with free shipping. Seems like there are several brands that look like the exact same bike (China) and are sold at Walmart, Target, online and at some bike shops. There is a bike shop 45mins away that has similar for $160 range.
I worry about a cheap bike, but I could change the stuff that could break. Plus it will not get a ton of miles on it. Main thing is that is can handle 240lbs or so (me plus 45lbs of equipment)
There are some electric mountain bikes with 26" wheels. 7 to12 speeds that fold to around the same size as the non-electric folding bikes. Weight is 45-60lbs (aluminum). Lots of used ones for $400- $1,100. Hopefully I will find someone who selling a used one who will let me test it with all my gear on to make sure it will go at least 10 miles with some slight hills.


tcofrey: At this point I am trying to avoid driving back to the put in. About all I could chain up at the put in would be just the raft- So I'd still have to haul the seat, oars, bags, etc on the bike.

[John Sv]

I do this except chuck the bike in the boat...except one time I chucked the bike in a bunch of bushes at Parks Bar. Turned out there were poison oak!


I guess I do it kind of differently. I know I have more energy in the AM than in the PM so I drop the boat/raft at the top of the run and chain it up. Then I drive my truck down to the take out with the bike in the back. Then ride the bike back up to the boat. Then I chain up the bike and take the boat. At the bottom of the run I pull the boat out with the truck and drive back up to get the bike. I use a full size Mountain bike that is older and not very desirable. The only issue is you are leaving a fully operational boat in the water but I figure there are a lot more thieves out in the afternoon then there are in the early morning. My rods and gear is on my back pack. You could probably do the same with a 50-100cc scooter.