Please need tips on choosing Electr or Standard Touring Bike(long distance trip)

[MotionPictureTrips]

Hi, I'm new here. I have a youtube channel where I do travel episodes. I cover ground mostly on vehicles, but I started doing some bike episodes after I came to Uruguay, from the states, where bike travel infrastructure is better. So I bought a used mt. bike and been riding all over with it.  

Anyway, for my next adventure, I'll be leaving UY to Spain,  from where I plan to depart to France initially.

I've been debating whether to buy a used dual sports moto, or get an electric touring bike. Since I'm on a very tight budget, buying a moto would probably not be a wise investment for me. Unless I find one that needs some work. My goal is to cover as much land as possible due to time constraints. Hence why I'm trying to figure out if an electric bicycle would be better than a standard trekking model.


Several questions:

Has any of you done this sort of intl trips using an electric bike? If yes, how did you deal with battery charging? Did you take multiple batts, or a solar panel?

Was it more of a hindrance to your travel, or did you actually enjoy  having an electric motor assist you all along?

For mountain climbing,  would an electric bike be better suited for this? There are some pretty tall mountains (some steep incline!) in the Pyrenees region that I'd like to check out.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any advice!

[evdog]

Seems like keeping an electric bike charged could be a huge limitation.  Range would be limited by battery capacity and your route could be dictated by where you can access places to charge it.  Maybe this is not a huge issue if you aren't planning to travel far each day, and there are lot so of places where you could charge up.  Solar panels can barely keep battery caches charged, they would be of no use for charging an electric bike.  A good quality electric bike will not be cheap. 

A dual sport moto would have some advantages, namely just fill the tank and keep going.  The one hassle travelling internationally is red tape when you go from country to country.  Some countries require temporary import permits or other things.  You'd want to look into this for the countries to plan to travel to.  There are plenty of inexpensive but reliable dual sports, Europe should have plenty.  I had a used 2008 honda crf230L that cost $2200.  They just released the XR150L that sells new for $3000.  CSC motorcycle out of China makes 250cc bikes for around $2500.

The other option is take your used mountain bike with you and ride that.  It's free aside from any cost to fly it with you and set it up for touring.  You don't need to deal with charging it or filling gas.  And you'll get lots of exercise in the mountains : )

[MotionPictureTrips]

Thanks for the tips evdog! Yeah that's something I'm curious about, the charging. I like covering lots of ground, and even if the batt got depleted, I'd still like to keep going. I don't know if 25+miles would make you feel too tired or not, as I haven't done this yet.

I'd love to get those dual sport bikes, but yeah they are out of my budget. I've seen a few used electr bikes for around $400, good quality bikes, but not specifically touring, but they look the part lol. Maybe I could swap tires and make them a bit more solid. I don't know. So much to research still.

Cheers

[AZTtripper]

Nothing is cheaper then a basic pedal bike, a used e-bike likely has range loss, you would likely have to budget for paying for camping or lodging to charge.

Maybe there's a more Euro based bike touring group out there.