Allrighty, so this is my first official eBike. I bought two of these because they were a steal for $500 a piece from a local eBike rental place.
http://www.ecobike-usa.com/products/elegance-electric-bike.asp
By the way, the specs on the site are not correct. The bike contains a 250 watt 36v controller ( not 360 watt.. it even says 250watt in the manual ) and a geared hub motor. I wonder why they lie about this!
Anyway. The bike itself is of marginal quality. Sort of what you'd find at k-mart:
+ The front wheel is not quick release. It's got bolts and some washers.
+ The rear motor wheel has some weird c-clips that don't look effective at all.
+ The fenders bend really easily, but maybe that's normal for fenders.
+ One bike has a squeaky, unlubricated sounding headset/fork.
+ The other bike has a handlebar angle adjustment that makes the handlebar have some play in it permanently :/
+ Wuxing brake levers
+ Non-serviceable looking crankshaft with grease coming out of it.
+ Front cables for brake and etc. are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too long.
+ Suspension seat post and front fork certainly even out the blows. Very comfortable.
+ Rear spokes are standard bicycle spokes. I think these should certainly be thicker.
Ah, but what about the electrics?
+ Acceleration is quite good. With some pedaling, 15mph up a hill is no big deal! This bike is faster than some 350-450 watt hub motor bikes i've ridden!
+ Battery housing is cheap, but not too bad. There is a BMS inside and all wires are covered in some sort of protective goo, so it's possible to mess around inside without fearing being zapped.
+ Rear motor looks familiar to many cheap-mid price conversion kits.
+ Battery housing has an indicator on it, And a two locks: one for battery locking to the frame, and one to turn the battery on/off. This is good!
+ Battery Life is good. Put 12 miles on it, 4 of them being full throttle, up a 5-10% grade, 4 being city miles with an average of 50% throttle... and the battery went down from 42v fully charged to 38.2v, with far more life to spare. This is one a one year old battery. Considering that i abused the throttle as much as possible, i have a feeling this bike lives up to the 25 mile range claim.
So all in all. Good electrics on a k-mart bike with some custom work on the frame.
I think a better value would be a conversion kit and a prebuilt battery with charger. Because for a retail price in the $1500-$1800 range, they could have thrown in higher quality bike parts.
http://www.ecobike-usa.com/products/elegance-electric-bike.asp
By the way, the specs on the site are not correct. The bike contains a 250 watt 36v controller ( not 360 watt.. it even says 250watt in the manual ) and a geared hub motor. I wonder why they lie about this!
Anyway. The bike itself is of marginal quality. Sort of what you'd find at k-mart:
+ The front wheel is not quick release. It's got bolts and some washers.
+ The rear motor wheel has some weird c-clips that don't look effective at all.
+ The fenders bend really easily, but maybe that's normal for fenders.
+ One bike has a squeaky, unlubricated sounding headset/fork.
+ The other bike has a handlebar angle adjustment that makes the handlebar have some play in it permanently :/
+ Wuxing brake levers
+ Non-serviceable looking crankshaft with grease coming out of it.
+ Front cables for brake and etc. are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy too long.
+ Suspension seat post and front fork certainly even out the blows. Very comfortable.
+ Rear spokes are standard bicycle spokes. I think these should certainly be thicker.
Ah, but what about the electrics?
+ Acceleration is quite good. With some pedaling, 15mph up a hill is no big deal! This bike is faster than some 350-450 watt hub motor bikes i've ridden!
+ Battery housing is cheap, but not too bad. There is a BMS inside and all wires are covered in some sort of protective goo, so it's possible to mess around inside without fearing being zapped.
+ Rear motor looks familiar to many cheap-mid price conversion kits.
+ Battery housing has an indicator on it, And a two locks: one for battery locking to the frame, and one to turn the battery on/off. This is good!
+ Battery Life is good. Put 12 miles on it, 4 of them being full throttle, up a 5-10% grade, 4 being city miles with an average of 50% throttle... and the battery went down from 42v fully charged to 38.2v, with far more life to spare. This is one a one year old battery. Considering that i abused the throttle as much as possible, i have a feeling this bike lives up to the 25 mile range claim.
So all in all. Good electrics on a k-mart bike with some custom work on the frame.
I think a better value would be a conversion kit and a prebuilt battery with charger. Because for a retail price in the $1500-$1800 range, they could have thrown in higher quality bike parts.
