Bob, I don't want to rain on your parade, but I looked into R+M a few years ago and decided their bikes are just too "special". Like Dan says, that suspension fork is immediately suspect even if you never go off the tarmac. If it lasts 3000km, you can come kick my butt around the block -- and I live on a block several klicks around. I've never had a front suspension fork that lasted even 1000m/1600km, except a very special item overbuilt by Shimano as an electronically adaptive suspension, and that was so insistent on protecting itself that I may as well have had a solid fork. And when the fork goes, and you decide to fit a solid fork instead, you'll have all kinds of problems because the geometry of suspension forks and solid forks are different -- and at that point you'll be back at Thorn because they build one of the few really good aftermarket sus-to-solid forks...
The second thing is that the R-M frame is so "special", it breaks the rules of stiff, reliable structures. Even its "integration" doesn't lead to decent loadability. Compare for instance the Tout Terrain, which is a serious touring bike with an integrated rack, or, if you want something with a special appearance that doesn't break the basic engineering rules, the Utopia Kranich, which has a 170kg load capability and has serious circumnavigation kudos -- and is very comfortable besides on its 60mm Big Apples, upon which the modern iteration was designed, quite literally.
R+M's claimed distances are out of kilter with the visible size of the battery, the second battery being an optional extra for only (!) £800. The battery on my bike is much bigger and, after about ten years of experience with electrified bikes, I reckon its safe range is probably 40-50km. That's the maximum, beyond which it is dicey whether you will get home, and beyond which you will also damage the battery by running it down to the dregs; such damage will cumulatively drastically reduce the battery's life span.
The next problem is also electrical and a bit tricky to understand. It has to do with the instantaneous demands you make on the battery for very short periods, like getting near the top of the hill and being unable to change down without stopping and thus mashing the throttle, thereby asking the battery for huge current, an overload to your normal demands. For this too a big battery is desirable, and a small battery will not only fail to deliver as much current but will have its lifespan cumulatively reduced by a greater fraction than the big battery. So, basically, that second battery isn't an option, it's a necessity. More about these coulombs at
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=12916.msg96679#msg96679 Because of these considerations, one large battery will be infinitely superior to two small batteries for instant power and longevity both. You can buy a large, suitable battery for less than half of what R+M charge for a not-so-optional and still inadequate second battery.
Next problem: R+M are German and, like all good Germans, law-abiding to the point of severe irritation to Irish scofflaws. On a short ride you may not have discovered this, and the dealer would either not tell you or try to pretend it is a feature rather than a bug, but German electric bikes are, unless they're strictly intended for offroad work, which this particular R+M is not, pedelecs. A pedelec is an electrified bike in which the battery's power-input is directly proportionate to your input at the pedals; in short, when you need more, as on a hill, the pedelec gives less. It's very frustrating indeed. But German law forbids pedelecs to have a throttle, on which you can give the motor battery input suited to your own needs, more when the hill demands more from you, rather than the less of the pedelec. The pedelec is also subject to a whole bunch of other rules. On my Utopia Kranich, a bike from eminently law-abiding Germans (they wouldn't even supply me with a sprocket illegal, at the time, on a Rohloff, never mind fit it...), I bypassed these stupidities by electrifying my bike myself (at a fraction of the German cost for an inferior setup), and set it up with a throttle, a five-position power input (nine is actually possible but I don't see the need for more than five) by a button under my thumb for when I'm too lazy to hold down the throttle, and with the motor's output programmed to deliver a high, flat torque curve rather than high power. You can bet an R+M dealer, even if he has the tools and components to do this, will refuse to do any of it for you because he'd lose his franchise. But I got all these facilities, plus more that I didn't want but available mostly free on demand, from the British supplier of my motor, plug'n'play wiring harness which includes the necessary controllers, and battery.
One more thing: An electric motor installation is not a permanent capital asset; the whole thing is a consumptible that sooner or later you will have to replace, usually piecemeal
if you fitted generic parts rather than proprietary parts. If you look after your battery, it is possible, even likely that the motor will wear out first, especially if you're heavy or a hard rider; that's certainly my experience. But the motor is the cheapest part of the installation -- unless you have to buy it from a German firm: then you'll get ripped. Ditto for batteries, even if, as is the case with the R+M, the battery on it is just a much smaller version (that's right, it's Chinese) of the precise large one I fitted.
Looks like you need more homework, Bob, or you'll be back here daily with (on-topic remark) your moan of the day.
As I said, I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but I'd expect you to do the same for me if I was going wrong somewhere you'd been already.
