I know….first post….the RED FLAGS are up!
I will try and make this as short as I can. I’m an engineer, not a marketeer so if my grammer is bad, oh well….and I won’t bore you with superlatives….
I am pretty much a noob to bikes. I have a Townie that I ride every few weeks in the hood with my wife. I’m a retired electrical engineer with bad knees and been messing with electric RC planes for about 5 years, I love electrics!
A friend showed me his Outlaw SS and I then was in search of an electric bike. I didn’t want to build my first one and didn’t want to spend $4-5K, $2K was doable.
I ordered an Outlaw from Electric Bike Shop in Florida. They were competitive with the internet and someone I could talk to. Ordered on Thursday, received it on the next Wednesday. Happy with that.
Took about an hour to unpack, mount the handlebars, and plug into the charger.
I’m not gonna spend time telling you how good something is that I don’t know anything about. It rolls, it stops, it’s quiet, it goes by itself, it’s fun so far. It is a little top heavy, it got away from me once.
I can talk about what needs improvement. My motivation is maybe Prodeco will improve so I can buy a better one in a few years or maybe one of you guys can help me improve it.
1. The battery indicator on the battery reads the same fully charged and fully discharged. I mentioned it to my friend who has an Outlaw and he laughed….his did to!
2. After my first 20 mile ride I took a closer look. Both the front and rear discs were not centered on the calipers and rubbing to the point that it was difficult to pedal without electric assist. The manual had an adjustment for caliper - disc alignment, but it did not solve my problem. The easiest solution I could come up with was to shim the caliper mount on the rear and the disc on the front. Think it was about .035”. After that I had the discs centered in the calipers and it was a new bike! Much easier to pedal. Is shimming OK?
3. It came with a free pannier that would not connect to the bike with the sewed in straps, it must be for a different bike. I cut some of my own webbing and got it to work. The pannier covers the battery and makes the bike a bit more stealth.
4. There is very little info on the charger. I have no idea how smart it is or if it will heat up the battery if left on indefinitely. It took about 8 hours to charge my first time. More info needed!
5. It had a noticeable click in the rear wheel every revolution. I checked many bolts and screws for tightness and found many loose spokes. After tightening, the click want away.
6. The left break lever would pull all the way to the hand grip, needed adjustment
7. My first long ride was a bit hard on my thumb…got to build that thumb muscle….
If I had 1 wish…….Give me a 1 hour (1C) charger….or better yet, 5C! All my RC batteries charge at 5C!!! I will gladly trade off # of cycles for charge time!
Oh yeah, I can ride it no handed! Ha!
I’ve been lurking here and know most of you guys are builder / hobbists, most can build a better cheaper bike, so keep in mind I’m a noob coming up the ladder!
I'll let ya know how it holds up....
I will try and make this as short as I can. I’m an engineer, not a marketeer so if my grammer is bad, oh well….and I won’t bore you with superlatives….
I am pretty much a noob to bikes. I have a Townie that I ride every few weeks in the hood with my wife. I’m a retired electrical engineer with bad knees and been messing with electric RC planes for about 5 years, I love electrics!
A friend showed me his Outlaw SS and I then was in search of an electric bike. I didn’t want to build my first one and didn’t want to spend $4-5K, $2K was doable.
I ordered an Outlaw from Electric Bike Shop in Florida. They were competitive with the internet and someone I could talk to. Ordered on Thursday, received it on the next Wednesday. Happy with that.
Took about an hour to unpack, mount the handlebars, and plug into the charger.
I’m not gonna spend time telling you how good something is that I don’t know anything about. It rolls, it stops, it’s quiet, it goes by itself, it’s fun so far. It is a little top heavy, it got away from me once.
I can talk about what needs improvement. My motivation is maybe Prodeco will improve so I can buy a better one in a few years or maybe one of you guys can help me improve it.
1. The battery indicator on the battery reads the same fully charged and fully discharged. I mentioned it to my friend who has an Outlaw and he laughed….his did to!
2. After my first 20 mile ride I took a closer look. Both the front and rear discs were not centered on the calipers and rubbing to the point that it was difficult to pedal without electric assist. The manual had an adjustment for caliper - disc alignment, but it did not solve my problem. The easiest solution I could come up with was to shim the caliper mount on the rear and the disc on the front. Think it was about .035”. After that I had the discs centered in the calipers and it was a new bike! Much easier to pedal. Is shimming OK?
3. It came with a free pannier that would not connect to the bike with the sewed in straps, it must be for a different bike. I cut some of my own webbing and got it to work. The pannier covers the battery and makes the bike a bit more stealth.
4. There is very little info on the charger. I have no idea how smart it is or if it will heat up the battery if left on indefinitely. It took about 8 hours to charge my first time. More info needed!
5. It had a noticeable click in the rear wheel every revolution. I checked many bolts and screws for tightness and found many loose spokes. After tightening, the click want away.
6. The left break lever would pull all the way to the hand grip, needed adjustment
7. My first long ride was a bit hard on my thumb…got to build that thumb muscle….
If I had 1 wish…….Give me a 1 hour (1C) charger….or better yet, 5C! All my RC batteries charge at 5C!!! I will gladly trade off # of cycles for charge time!
Oh yeah, I can ride it no handed! Ha!
I’ve been lurking here and know most of you guys are builder / hobbists, most can build a better cheaper bike, so keep in mind I’m a noob coming up the ladder!
I'll let ya know how it holds up....