Sondors Fat for Winter

After 20,000+ miles of ebike use in the last 6+ years I'm selling out and getting a pre-built ebike. After ordering in late September my bike arrived the day before Thanksgiving. It was about $800 delivered to my door. It will be used as winter bike in Minnesota so it should maximum abuse.


I'll start with the criticisms:
The Battery is a pain to access. They have these little rubber port covers on the triangle housing. They are a tricky to get off at room temp and even worse when it is cold. (right now it is 16F and will get down below -10F within a week)

Batteries are weak in cold weather - My commute now is only 8 miles round trip and even only below 20F I can feel the bike slowing down in the last mile. I might have to get a different battery to work as a winter bike.

Now for the positives:
I'm initially impressed by the build. It was easy to put together. For the most part the bike seems pretty well thought out. Everything worked right out of the box. The bike handles well on ice. I did have the back slip out on an ice batch, but it didn't go down so which I think the 5inch tires helped.

Overall:
I think most of my concern is about the battery in cold weather. I have probably been spoiled by my Ping LiFePo4 that are beasts in cold weather. I should have done a little more research or I'll have to just bring the battery inside while I'm at work. So far I would definitely recommend the bike to others.

I'll post updates as things break

montyp said:

Batteries are weak in cold weather - My commute now is only 8 miles round trip and even only below 20F I can feel the bike slowing down in the last mile. I might have to get a different battery to work as a winter bike.

Click to expand...

If you store it inside where it's warm, and then wrap the battery area in layers of insulation against the chilling airflow, it will probably help it a fair bit.

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

Although there is some chat on this forum about turn-key factory ebikes, the majority of discussion is about kits and hot rods. That being said, quite a few Sondors owners have found their fatbike to be adequate on flattish ground. The stock motor is not a hot rod, but I have a suggestion for you to consider. If you add a second motor that is nearly identical, then you have doubled the copper mass in your power system, plus added AWD traction, which can be very helpful in slippery conditions.

To do this you would not need to change out the frame or the rear hubmotor, however...the stock battery pack will not be able to supply double the amps that it currently puts out. The front motor in an AWD snowbike will likely slip more than the rear motor, so if you get a controller that provides a little more amps than the stock unit, you would be well-advised to put the higher power level controller on the rear motor, and the stock controller driving the front hubmotor.

Pushing through snow will eat a lot of watt-hours per mile, so...if you do go with an AWD upgrade, get the largest battery pack you can afford. The larger the pack, the less expensive the individual cells need to be in order to safely provide enough total amps to the motor(s)...[needing high amps from a small pack means you have to get high-current cells, which are pricey, and do not add extra miles to your range] Cold weather will be helpful in preventing the motor(s) and controller(s) from getting too hot, but I would recommend starting out with 20A to the rear motor and 15A to the front.

There are not many Sondors owners here, many were chased off and reside at the Sondors facebook group.

I got ripped off on Friday

It was at work, unlocked cause I'm a dumbass and work in quiet 'burb.

That sucks--I hope you get it back (but being realistic....).