The Good News, the Other Good News, and the Bad News

I'm pretty sure I mentioned recently that I suspected my electric bicycle's battery was about to give up the ghost. For that reason, I've barely been riding it while I tried to decide between:

1. Spending $300+ on a new battery;
2. Buying a better electric bicycle instead of nursing this one along; or
3. Buying a new non-electric bicycle and trying to keep myself from getting so into it (100-150 miles per week) that I blow my knees out every few months.

The good news is that I don't think it's the battery. I've had occasion to ride it several times in the past few days. I'm not getting a dead battery. What I'm getting is a sporadic cut-out of power either to or from the motor, and then things are fine a few seconds later.

The other good news is that this is most likely just a loose or corroded connection. I plan to make time later today to look every connection over, tighten everything up, etc., and see if that's the fix.

The bad news is that if it's not just a loose or corroded connection, then I would probably either need a new motor or a new wiring harness, neither of which I've priced or expect I'd really want to try to install myself. Which would reduce my options from the list above to either #2 or #3.

I'm inclined toward option #2, and this time instead of buying a "cargo" bike (i.e. a glorified "beach cruiser"), I'd buy a "road"/"commuter" bike that's light enough to enjoyably use in non-electric mode.

Update, Wednesday: Yesterday, I went over the bike, making sure everything was tight, jiggling what wire connections I could reach to make sure connectors weren't loose, etc. Then I rode the bike about three miles. No motor cut-outs. So maybe it was just something of that sort. If the battery power indicator is any, um, indication, though, I doubt the battery will be lasting as long per charge as it used to. I may go out and ride it dead later today to see about that.