Commuter Bike

[mtbtaco]

Hi EBR,

I'm getting my first e-bike for commuting, which I'm very excited about. Curious if anyone has a strong opinion about the Specialized Turbo Vado 5.0 vs. the Bulls Twenty8 E45 Diamond. I was also considering the ICONIC EVO TR 1, so I have the option to do a little off roading. But I think I'm going to pass on that one.

Thank you!
mtbtaco

 

[Ken M]

I tend to be in the increasingly smaller segment of the market. I believe the hub drives are simply better for urban mobility especially if commuting longer distances where you may want average speeds at 20mph or higher. Dont' take this wrong as mid drives are great for acceleration (low speed torque) but at the higher speeds the drive train robs performance because of torque loss due to gear ratios. A hub drive provides torque directly to the rear wheel which also has the benefit of saving drive system wear.

All the marketing $s goes to promoting mid drives so you have to do research on my suggestion on youtube. Bulls has a fast ebike using a Suntour rear geared hub drive call the Outlaw which may still be available.

I like the Vado and Twenty8 but I would put them on my shopping list only if I never planned to ride over 20mph.

 

[Ken M]

Where are you located? I was just wondering if I could help you still get an ebike from pimbicycles.com. Their Archer model was/is a very effective commuter ebike but they are in the process of transition to new models. They hub drive actually performed better than the Stromer hubs.