Fastest eBike for 6'2" rider <$2K

[JASmith]

Hi, all, first post! We are looking to sell our bicycles and upgrade to e-bikes, but as I'm the more motivated partner (with ebikes we could actually have the same cruise speed without me dying as the straggler always) so I'm trying to do the research so we can just buy a pair of matching bikes or perhaps at least from the same manufacturer.

I was sold on the Lectric XP Step-Thru 2.0 white for me and the XP 2.0 black for him, but he indicated it looked pretty small which is a good point.

He wants the best possible top speed (and I'll have to find something that matches), reasonably comfortable, 99% on road use flat terrain (we're in Houston, TX), that will fit him as he's a big boy at 6'2" and ~230lbs and all for under $2K max. Our range is very short, basically we just go to the parks, to neighbors, and occasionally light grocery shopping which is just a couple miles down the road. I know, caviar taste on a tuna budget!

Thoughts?

 

[J.R.]

Hi, all, first post! We are looking to sell our bicycles and upgrade to e-bikes, but as I'm the more motivated partner (with ebikes we could actually have the same cruise speed without me dying as the straggler always) so I'm trying to do the research so we can just buy a pair of matching bikes or perhaps at least from the same manufacturer.

I was sold on the Lectric XP Step-Thru 2.0 white for me and the XP 2.0 black for him, but he indicated it looked pretty small which is a good point.

He wants the best possible top speed (and I'll have to find something that matches), reasonably comfortable, 99% on road use flat terrain (we're in Houston, TX), that will fit him as he's a big boy at 6'2" and ~230lbs and all for under $2K max. Our range is very short, basically we just go to the parks, to neighbors, and occasionally light grocery shopping which is just a couple miles down the road. I know, caviar taste on a tuna budget!

Thoughts?

2k total for both? 2k each? I'm 6'-2" and I feel most comfortable on a 29'er MTB or a 700c hybrid/road bike with a frame size of 20 inch. I can do 19 to 21 inch frame okay. I don't feel comfortable on 18" or smaller. I have been able to accessorize an 18" mtb to fit, but that does add to the cost and they're never as comfortable as a larger frame. I'm not a fan of folding bikes, that's me though, as I know plenty taller than I that love them.

Best of luck!

 

[JASmith]

2k total for both? 2k each? I'm 6'-2" and I feel most comfortable on a 29'er MTB or a 700c hybrid/road bike with a frame size of 20 inch. I can do 19 to 21 inch frame okay. I don't feel comfortable on 18" or smaller. I have been able to accessorize an 18" mtb to fit, but that does add to the cost and they're never as comfortable as a larger frame. I'm not a fan of folding bikes, that me though, as I know plenty taller than I that love them.

Best of luck!

Under $2K each, sorry for the confusion.

 

[Dallant]

As usual, assuming you will want support, I suggest looking at bike shops you know and are comfortable with who sell/service ebikes in your price range.

 

[Rickman1]

Check out Soulbeachcruisers.com. Comfortable bikes, unique looking compared to majority of ebikes available. Soul Sonic Saber- $1899. They have smaller versions for the ladies.

 

[ElevenAD]

the Fastest $2000 bike is the Ariel Rider X-Class 52v at around 34mph! its small and has full suspension

X-Class 52V

A consumer direct, Seattle based ebike company making the fastest and most robust e-bikes in the market for the past decade; urban city electric bikes, electric scrambler bikes, electric fat bikes, electric cruiser bikes.

www.google.com

its a great bike but imo you should take your time do as much research as possible make sure you choose something you like, no rush because half the online E-Bike manufacturers are back ordered anyway so you will probably be in for a wait.

 

[Katzenjammer]

Are you sure you want to use "fastest" as your main criteria? There are ebikes that will easily exceed typical city speed limits but given where you say you will be riding you might want to reconsider. I have limited experience with ebikes, but I recently bought an Aventon Aventure that can go 28mph and that's really pretty fast. I got the large frame - I'm 6 feet tall and the seat is all the way down. A 6'2" rider would have no problem fitting it. There are also medium & small, as well as step-through frames. Cost was $1899 (+tax).

 

[JASmith]

Are you sure you want to use "fastest" as your main criteria? There are ebikes that will easily exceed typical city speed limits but given where you say you will be riding you might want to reconsider. I have limited experience with ebikes, but I recently bought an Aventon Aventure that can go 28mph and that's really pretty fast. I got the large frame - I'm 6 feet tall and the seat is all the way down. A 6'2" rider would have no problem fitting it. There are also medium & small, as well as step-through frames. Cost was $1899 (+tax).

We are both experienced motorcyclists, I have a Yamaha WR250X and he has a Honda 954RR, but with how dangerous Houston traffic is getting we don't really ride the motorcycles much anymore. We do know how to handle the speed and have taken advanced safety courses.

The idea with having speed is that if we get rid of the motorcycles we could use ebikes to get to where we want both at the same speed (an issue w/ our unassisted bicycles as he is much more powerful), but also I think its safer as even residential areas around here are not remotely setup for bicycles and are 40mph roads so if you can go 25-30mph you can not only arrive faster but have more airflow to stay cool when its hot and be a bit less of a road block since the speed differential will be less.

Thanks for all the input, I'm on a youtube marathon now watching reviews! That ariel rider is neat, almost like a moped more than a bicycle. The Aventon Aventure also looks like a strong contender. I like the stealth battery on the Saber. Very cool!

 

[JASmith]

What kind of bicycles do you have?

I'm asking because the conversion will be cheaper,..

Conversions didn't seem that cheap, and the bikes are old. Mine is a Diamondback Wildwood Deluxe step through if I recall right, and I can't recall his. I was expecting to put mine up for $100 or so on craigslist and see if anyone bites.

 

[JASmith]

Hmm, speaking of conversions, I did just find youtube videos about using a lawn mower battery to jerry-rig a e-bike on the cheap, but just using a rear hub motor.

We do have three 82V 2AH batteries already for our landscaping equipment, and it runs our chainsaw and lawnmower with plenty of power: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IY815LC/

I'll have to look into how complicated that would be if we use a 72V controller which seems to be the closest match. I found an adapter for $18 that says it works with Snapper 82V batteries: https://minne.us/shop/80vebike/

 

[JASmith]

It has 20 cells inside, 1500 watt max, and capacity is 144 watt hours from what I've read (don't quite understand the math on that, assume its advertised 82V but maybe that's just peak) and it runs the 21" lawnmower for about 45min if grass is tall before it dies. I think the blower runs it down fastest, and averages about 15mins on top speed with the last 2-3 minutes you can tell it gets weaker before some internal voltage cutoff just turns it off entirely.

We wouldn't want it to overheat and die, but as mentioned before our range is very short, maybe 5 miles. I would be less hesitant about buying another 4AH battery since I can use it on the mower as well, feels like you get more utility that way, and that one can supposedly handle 3000 watt max output, but that seems a bit excessive for our needs anyway and the 4AH batteries were too heavy for most of the handheld tools.

This is the guy that makes the adapter that shows the Greenworks 80V battery, and from what I understand the Greenworks and Snapper batteries are the same. Snapper just gives one extra year warranty and supposedly the "82V" designation is because it uses higher quality cells just like the commercial version of the Greenworks line. All the same poop made in China with different labels thrown on it, lol!

 

[JASmith]

Thanks, I know what watt hours is, I was confused about the math because 82v x 2ah = 164 watt hours, but its advertised 144 watt hours which would be 72v which I'm guessing is the nominal voltage, so a 72v controller would work.

I had updated my post above that we could pick up a 4AH which would double it to 288wh. I see your point about capacity, but I see range for the Lectric XP is about 20 miles, when we're only going 5 miles or so going to the pool, visiting neighbors, going to the park, krogers, etc. My ballpark math indicates that 144 watts should be able to go that far with us peddling (need to get some exercise after all) considering how perfectly flat Houston is, especially if we're modifying our existing bicycles which are lightweight and lower rolling resistance skinny tires compared to those wombo sized 4" ones, lol!

If we just got one more 2AH (these are more useful on most of our lawn tools as its way lighter), we'd have 2 batteries each, and could go 5 miles to our destination and swap batteries for return trip for 10 miles range? Sound right?

My bigger concern is how well conversion kits will actually work compared to something purpose built, since I understand the cheap cadence sensors have delays, no torque sensing, wires all over the place, not waterproof (not that we go out when its raining but you never know), brakes have to be responsive to ensure it cuts the motor power, and our brakes are the old school pinch style no fancy hydraulic disc brakes and so forth.

If it were too crappy, I did stumble upon this one that looks really cool even though its not in the original budget. They have $200 off sale if buying two and it seems you can jack the seat up a little so could have a standard for me and raised for him hmmm:

I love the color and basket and fact it has headlight, brakelight, blinkers, mirrors, key, and alarm all built in!

 

[mschwett]

“fastest” and legal may not go together until you get into electric mopeds, fully registered and all that. there are reasonably priced class 3 bikes which assist up to 28mph, but in most states throttles are limited to 20.

your use sounds more like a commuter bike to me, e.g. aventon level, which does pedal assist up to 28mph, 750w peak, etc. check out similar bikes in that range and read the brand specific forums here for reviews and problem reports.

i’m 6’2, 190, and it takes way over 500 watts of continuous power to go 28mph on a level surface sitting upright. a large battery (750wh) will be depleted in an hour at that rate, so the range will be in the 25-30 mile level.

long story short, i think the speeds you’re hoping for are not super realistic with a street legal electric bike in texas. 20-25 is possible, 25-30 seriously pushing it!

 

[JASmith]

I was reading some bikes ship as class 2 but let you unlock them. Hardly anyone rides bicycles in Houston, so I don't think it'd be enforced especially in our suburban setting where we virtually never see police. That makes sense, yeah we'll focus on 750+ watt options, and pursue the extra-legal route. Worst case scenario we do actually have M-ratings on our driver's license already. Thank you! I've gotten a lot of ideas from this thread to research further.

 

[Elkman]

Hi, all, first post! We are looking to sell our bicycles and upgrade to e-bikes, but as I'm the more motivated partner (with ebikes we could actually have the same cruise speed without me dying as the straggler always) so I'm trying to do the research so we can just buy a pair of matching bikes or perhaps at least from the same manufacturer.

I was sold on the Lectric XP Step-Thru 2.0 white for me and the XP 2.0 black for him, but he indicated it looked pretty small which is a good point.

He wants the best possible top speed (and I'll have to find something that matches), reasonably comfortable, 99% on road use flat terrain (we're in Houston, TX), that will fit him as he's a big boy at 6'2" and ~230lbs and all for under $2K max. Our range is very short, basically we just go to the parks, to neighbors, and occasionally light grocery shopping which is just a couple miles down the road. I know, caviar taste on a tuna budget!

Thoughts?

At this point in time I would look for bikes whose manufacturers and resellers provide good support for customers after the sale. If there is a problem with the bike how long will it take to get the matter resolved or to get replacement parts if needed. Many of the very inexpensive bikes also have the worst customer service when there is a problem. One exception seems to be Radpower based in Seattle.

In terms of fastest bikes, those are going to be Class III and a lot more than $2,000 to buy and not really all that important for casual riding around town. One is seldom going to be in such an area speeding along at 25 mph with traffic and other bicyclists and pedestrians sharing the road or bike path.

The better made inexpensive e-bikes are in very short supply and most are out of stock with new inventory not expected for months (many show October 2021 ETA dates). Same goes for bike racks that are strong enough to hold two e-bikes.

 

[JASmith]

Thanks, and to clarify I have no expectation of affording the fastest e-bikes that exist, just looking to get the fastest that happens to be budget class since we're miserly, heh!

Here in greater Houston we don't really have bicycle paths anywhere or a bicycle culture at all really, and there's virtually no pedestrians and they stick to sidewalks. We ride on regular streets that are in the 30-40mph range with actual car traffic going about 10mph over.

Not too worried about bike racks as I drive a Ram 1500 and have a decent ramp even if we went with a real porker that was too heavy to just lift and roll a wheel at a time into the bed. An e-bike should be featherweights compare to our motorcycles!

 

[PedalUma]

The Wildwood is not a good candidate for conversion for several reasons. Basically it was a big box bike with cheep components, from the hubs to the adjustable quill neck. Many Sub $2,000 electric bikes also have cheep components, such as freewheels, but at least they will have mechanical discs. The extra-legal bit is fine, unless there is an injury investigation, including someone viewing this thread after the fact. The best bet is to convert quality bikes to mid-drives with things like e-tires and e-chains or to just buy new electric bikes that have local support. Many internet only bikes do not have local reviews and do not have local support. I am working on one of these today that is overpowered and shredded its drivetrain. Bike parts are not designed for illegal levels of power. Do not trust reviews from a seller's website. Do not trust the 109 reviews, all five-stars, when only five people out of 120 at a Texas church BBQ can agree on the best sauce. Sub 40-pound electric bikes handle the best. Go to a local bike shop and try one so you can taste the difference yourself.

 

[JASmith]

Thanks, I'll definitely research a lot, minus the local bike shops. We have few here and its usually some long haired teenager that insists that unless I spend at least $8K on a carbon fiber bicycle that I'm some lowly pleb not worth his time, lol! Its like please, once you add rider weight to the equation, the total rider+bike weight combo difference from a budget frame to some carbon fiber wunderwaffle frame with wheels that break if you drive over a crack in the road is a percent or two, completely inconsequential to casuals tooling about a neighborhood. If I can self-diagnose and replace the water pump, fan clutch, thermostat, and belt on a Ram 1500 and service my motorcycle replacing forks, sprockets, chains, and what not in my garage, I'm sure I can figure out a e-bicycle with the assistance of the internet and common sense. My bike wasn't expensive new, but it has been super reliable!

 

[PedalUma]

Here is one blue bike I made electric. The photos were taken in the fog yesterday. It has a 36V 350W mid-drive with torque sensor and rides along side the bikes costing several thousand. And it comes in at under 40-pounds. It sounds like you have the skills to make one better than the ones at stores. We did 35-miles of wind, chilly rain and huge climbs. That was fun. I removed the speed sensor so it will go over 28 when needed. No throttle needed because like a car it is in the pedal, just push down and it takes off.

 

[PedalUma]

Here is one blue bike I made electric. The photos were taken in the fog yesterday. It has a 36V 350W mid-drive with torque sensor and rides along side the bikes costing several thousand. And it comes in at under 40-pounds. It sounds like you have the skills to make one better than the ones at stores. We did 35-miles of wind, chilly rain and huge climbs. That was fun. I removed the speed sensor so it will go over 28 when needed. No throttle needed because like a car it is in the pedal, just push down and it takes off.

Given your motorcycle experience these bikes are okay and come in on the money. Heavy for bike culture folks. They have other models also. And if you can work on it that is great. https://shop.sondors.com/pages/sondors-x