Terrain EV503

[JackA]

I am going to test ride a Polaris Terrain EV503 this Thursday. We have been looking at Emotion and the Polaris. We have a Polaris Ranger EV Li so this brand has a natural "edge" on the others in our opinion. The BIG deal is finding a receiver hitch platform carrier for these guys. At about 60 pounds each there are not many carriers specifically rated for two of them. I will let the forum know what I think after the ride which will include some street and some dirt trail sections. Jack

 

[JackA]

Today we rode a Terrain EV503 and a Sabre 505 along 12 miles of well maintained, but steep, dirt and rock (not to be confused with gravel) road, one half mile of easy single track trail and about one mile of very rutted not maintained dirt road. The maintained dirt road is a steep 6% grade which gave us an opportunity to try all the Pedal Assist modes. The Polaris system is quite subtle in my opinion. There are two assist modes in the negative values of 1 and 2. The first time I tried these it did not seem that I was getting any assist. The key to both of these settings is to stop putting a lot of pressure on the crank! When I eased off I found that with the same cadence I was in fact climbing with much less effort. When you shift to higher gears and increase speed you do not get assist in these modes (or very little, it did not seem to me that I got any). I also think that the assist in all levels is targeted at a specific cadence and speed in each gear. I could be completely wrong but here is how I experienced it. As I accelerated in first gear I could feel the assist. Shifting to second the assist seemed to reduce as I reached higher cadence. Same when shifting to each gear up to to about forth. Regeneration is another aspect that did not work like I expected. I thought that as I back peddled the regeneration would stay on and slow forward speed. The regen is activated by both brake application and back peddling. Coming down the steep grade I found that the regen engaged and disengaged on its own. My guess is that this is to protect the Li battery pack from being subjected to high voltage charging.

So, both bikes rode well and seem to be smartly engineered and manufactured to high quality standards. I believe the learning curve with these E-bikes will be longer than most because of the sophisticated application of the peddle assist. Figuring out which level to use in each gear and cadence is likely to be personal preference and only "knowable" with experience. I liked the electronic display too. Our 14 miles of riding used about one half of the battery pack (we did about 6 miles of very steep climbing). I was pretty impressed. We ordered two of the Terrain EV503 models.

 

[jazz]

How's the Polaris Terrain been so far?

 

[JackA]

We have accumulated only 42 miles on each bike since purchase. Most of our riding has been off pavement. The bikes handle well and are comfortable to ride. My only real immediate concern is that I would like a few less teeth on the chain wheel for a lower overall gearing. The assist is very different than what we expected and we are still experimenting with the three positive and two negative settings. Polaris says they are working on two battery options for more Ah which I certainly will be interested in as we are experiencing about 14 miles of range on roads with lots of elevation changes. Our local dealer is intending to organize a group ride this Spring so we can all talk about and learn about how these different assist modes work and what the designers envisioned when they engineered them. The three positive modes are named Level 1 - Eco, Level 2 - Utility and Level 3 -Speed. Does that mean when riding fast on easy surfaces that I should be in Level 3? Or, does it mean that Level 3 provides the least assistance. Anyway, the great thing about the electric assist is it got Charlene on a bicycle.

 

[LimboJim]

I am going to test ride a Polaris Terrain EV503 this Thursday. We have been looking at Emotion and the Polaris. We have a Polaris Ranger EV Li so this brand has a natural "edge" on the others in our opinion. The BIG deal is finding a receiver hitch platform carrier for these guys. At about 60 pounds each there are not many carriers specifically rated for two of them. I will let the forum know what I think after the ride which will include some street and some dirt trail sections. Jack

I'm sure you found one by now, Jack, but I use a Saris Superclamp for my ebike transport needs - rated to 60 lbs per bike on a 1/4" hitch. It also has optional fat tire adapters!

 

[LimboJim]

We have accumulated only 42 miles on each bike since purchase. Most of our riding has been off pavement. The bikes handle well and are comfortable to ride. My only real immediate concern is that I would like a few less teeth on the chain wheel for a lower overall gearing. The assist is very different than what we expected and we are still experimenting with the three positive and two negative settings. Polaris says they are working on two battery options for more Ah which I certainly will be interested in as we are experiencing about 14 miles of range on roads with lots of elevation changes. Our local dealer is intending to organize a group ride this Spring so we can all talk about and learn about how these different assist modes work and what the designers envisioned when they engineered them. The three positive modes are named Level 1 - Eco, Level 2 - Utility and Level 3 -Speed. Does that mean when riding fast on easy surfaces that I should be in Level 3? Or, does it mean that Level 3 provides the least assistance. Anyway, the great thing about the electric assist is it got Charlene on a bicycle.

I have about 50 miles on my Terrain. Twice now it's gone from 2 out of 5 bars directly to ZERO, leaving me to pedal this very heavy bike back home unassisted - OUCH.

Its road-riding range in my moderately hilly area has yet to exceed 8 miles, even using regen on every downhill stretch. I'll be calling Polaris to see if maybe I have a defective battery - I realize it's only 6Ah, but I own a few ebikes with 8.7Ah batteries and they get well over 20 miles!

 

[jazz]

I have about 50 miles on my Terrain. Twice now it's gone from 2 out of 5 bars directly to ZERO, leaving me to pedal this very heavy bike back home unassisted - OUCH.

Its road-riding range in my moderately hilly area has yet to exceed 8 miles, even using regen on every downhill stretch. I'll be calling Polaris to see if maybe I have a defective battery - I realize it's only 6Ah, but I own a few ebikes with 8.7Ah batteries and they get well over 20 miles!

Wow 8 miles that is not good. Contact Polaris for sure. 6Ah is pretty low by today's standards, Polaris needs to step up their game. No reason why a $2500 bike or more should come with such a small battery.

 

[LimboJim]

Wow 8 miles that is not good. Contact Polaris for sure. 6Ah is pretty low by today's standards, Polaris needs to step up their game. No reason why a $2500 bike or more should come with such a small battery.

Indeed! Got it as a "demo" from Crazy Lenny's and its the second of three demos I got from them with problems - the EVO Snow I got had a bad controller!