E- Bikes on the Horizon?

There must be something in the air.
My wife has been wanting one.

We have 2- 1.0 Lectric E-bikes that we have had for a few years and love them.  We fold them and carry them in the back seat area of the truck.  Recently we made a Black Friday purchase of 2 - Lectric Lite E-bikes.  They are 20 lbs. lighter than the older e-Bikes and fold up much smaller.  They are much easier to load and unload and a little less expensive.

Thanks, Gary! ( @pau hana ) 😎

🔋🚴 🚴🏻‍♂️

More later,  
Jim / crewzer

Gary = $$$$  Friends helping friends. 😁

@Crewzer posted:

Thanks, Gary! ( @pau hana ) 😎

🔋🚴 🚴🏻‍♂️

More later,  
Jim / crewzer

Those look sharp, Jim!
Details? What brand are they?

Henry

Both bikes are from Velotric. My bike is the Mango (yellow) one on the left; it’s a “step-over” version of their new Nomad 1 model. It’s a big, heavy, fat-tire e-bike.

DW’s bike is the Cyan (blue-green) “step-thru” Discover 1 model.

Here’s a link to Velotric’s website:

https://www.velotricbike.com/

HTH,    
Jim / crewzer

We have purchased Pedego electric bicycles.  They are heavy.  I got the Interceptor Platinum.  It weighs 58 lbs and the batter is an additional 9 lbs.  Wife got the Boomerang Platinum that comes in a bit lighter at 53 lbs.  We have only ridden them around town at home but have already put more than 100 miles on them since purchasing in January.  We are in flat Florida, and we pedal using their "assist" mode.  Haven't figured out how to travel with these monsters yet.  Willl probably have to get another tow vehicle!

We really enjoy them and because we are home more than in the RV, these make perfect sense for us. 

I am impatiently for the snow and ice to go away so that we can start riding ours. Yes there is a paved road under all of that white.

So, it turns out the combination of my bike’s weight (70 lbs.), my weight (~270 lbs.), and the lonnggg downhill runs on our neighborhood’s steep roads are too much for my bike’s stock brakes (180 steel rotors, front and rear, plus organic resin brake pads).

Additionally, the stock knobby off-road fat tires are very noisy and have relatively high rolling resistance.

I’ve ordered larger (203 mm) fin-cooled rotors, semi-metallic brake pads, and street tires for my bike; I expect all parts to arrive next week.

I’ll post a behavior- and performance update after I complete the upgrade installation and take a couple of rides. 🔋🚴

Safe travels,    
Jim / crewzer

Jim, I read your last post and smiled. You and I have similar specs, bike wt and human wt. To date I have only been on one serious hill, I just let it buck I used no brakes and hit 39 mph. I won't be doing that again. 🤣 Please update your post after the parts swap and tell about the results.

@Bigboom338 posted:

…To date I have only been on one serious hill, I just let it buck I used no brakes and hit 39 mph…

😳

Safe ridin’,    
Jim / crewzer

Most upgrade parts have arrived. The last items are due today, and the rebuild will hopefully start tomorrow.

🤞      
Jim / crewzer

Update: I’m in a “two steps forward and one step back” situation.

The new front tire, brake rotor, caliper adapter, and semi-metallic brake pads are all installed and seem to be working nominally, although I haven’t bedded-in the new pads yet.

The new rear tire, brake rotor, caliper adapter, and semi-metallic brake pads are also all installed, but the rear brakes don’t work at all. My attempt to bleed the rear hydraulic brake system didn’t seem to help, so the bike is doing to our neighborhood shop tomorrow.

Never a dull moment! 😖
Jim / crewzer

Update: I figured out the problem with the brakes (with a little help from YouTube): The master cylinder reservoir for the rear hydraulic brakes was not full. Frankly, it’s possible — perhaps even likely — the bike arrived in this condition, as the rear brake lever bottomed out before I had even opened the system.

Anyway, the rear MCR is now full, the new brakes — both F and R — are working very nicely indeed as they get bedded in, and the new tires are smooooth and quiet. 😎

Here are the upgrade details:

New tires: 2x 26 x 3.50 (89-559) Vee Tire Co. Speedster 72 TPI  
New rotors: 2x 203mm Shimano RT-MT905 rotors     
New caliper post mount adapters: Shimano 160 > 203mm (aka “+43’s”)
New pads: Generic semi-metallics from Amazon

So, we’ll see how all of this survives the ups and downs of our neighborhood roads.

I’ve learned a lot about current bicycle technology from the little exercise. As I told our older son, I’ve done more maintenance on this bike in the last seven weeks than I did on all of my previous four bikes over many, many years.

I’m also going to check a few things on my DW’s bike…

Safe travels,    
Jim / crewzer

Jim, I do not recommend you doing any work on her brakes,  this is a public forum and well if anything happened.......🤣

🤣

Jim / crewzer

Just returned from a lovely 3.6 mile ride up and down our hilly neighborhood roads… all seems to be working well! 👍 🔋 🚴

Safe travels,    
Jim / crewzer

I’ve completed building an eBike rack so that we can carry the two bikes in the bed of our. F-350 when we’re not hauling the TC. We plan to soon try out a local trail!

Safe travels,    
Jim / crewzer

This post is ironic, I was thinking about something like this yesterday. We went to Sioux Falls yesterday and rode the loop, I was thinking there may be a better way than our Hollywood rack when the camper is not loaded.