We continue our journey to figure out the right e-bikes for us by renting 2 very different types of bikes. Come join us on our e-bike travels around Traverse City, Michigan and some crazy fun rides at Glacial Hills. We FINALLY make a surprising bike decision – come join us to see what we’re up to in this episode!

Our New Bikes

We’ll get into these a bit more on a future episode, but for now, we purchased Trek Rail 5 Gen 3 e-bikes. These are basically electric mountain bikes. More than we need? Probably. Fun to ride? Absolutely!

For those interested, here was our criteria:

• Class 1 e-bike
  • THis was to allow us to hopefully get on natural trails on forest land, federal parks, etc.). E-bike rules are changing and it looks like it will be in favor of allowing Class 1 bikes on these trails. It’s already happened in Michigan and several other states are reviewing the expansion.
• Mid-drive motor
  • We wanted a mid-drive motor to handle heftier hills and as we heard, these have a more balanced feel
• Something not too heavy
  • Yeah, that’s subjective. Our regular bicycles were in the 25lb range. The ones we rented in Traverse City were in the 75-80 lb range. These are 53 lbs. Not great, not awful. And we’re well within the spec of our bike rack
• Something with shocks
  • We went back and forth between just front suspension vs front and rear suspension. I think the last rental solidified that choice – these were fun AND handled the larger tree roots and rocks
• A bike that can go the distance
  • The jury is still out on this one – we’ve only had one longer ride (see future video), but it seems like we could make 40-50+ miles if we’re switching between ECO mode and some of the higher modes.
• Bosch Performance Mid-Drive
  • This model had the Bosch Performance mid-drive motor, which we were preferring – a good amount of torque
• Battery Size
  • This model only had a 500W battery, which was not a great thing. We were hoping for something larger. If we have issues, though, we’ll end up buying spare batteries. But after some tests.
• Cost
  • This one still bothers me. Once you start looking into mid drive with full suspension, minimum costs were in the $4k and many were over $10K. It KILLED me to pay this much for a bike, but we did at least get an end of the season discount of $1000. Better than nothing, I guess.

Where we Stayed 🛻⛺

Cheboygan State Park (Cheboygan, MI)

Feels more like a county park, but in a good way!  Some sites are right on the water.  A good amount of space between sites.  We had an electric site, but they also have primitive.  There’s also a decent-looking dump station and water on your way in/out.  

Our Camping Locations 🛻⛺

If you’re interested in seeing all the places (overnight, dining, sightseeing) as well as FREE boondocking locations we’ve been to, check out our Google Maps travel map! Enjoy!