Fat Tire Beach Cruisers - Same Bikes with Different Names?

[RealDeal]

I'm considering a Fat Tire Beach Cruiser because I like the upright riding position and the fat tires can help offer a smooth ride. I've found quite a few online that all seem to be the exact same bike from China, they just have different names. Here are the one's I've found so far.

E-Lux Tahoe

Electric Wave - by American Cycle Company
(Link Removed - No Longer Exists)
SchryerPower

Motiv Stout
(Link Removed - No Longer Exists)
Beachnik

Equalizer

Electric Hummer Fat Tire

They all seem like the exact same bike and all have the same components. I'm 6'4" and it's hard to find a bike that fits me. I rode the E-Lux Tahoe and I think I prefer the battery behind low and behind me like each of these bikes. I'm hoping to go 25-30 miles throttle only. Does anyone have any experience with any of these? Should I just order one from Alibaba and skip the middle man?

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Unfortunately, none of them seem to be a quality product.
I would invest a few hundred $ more and get a solid product with warranty.

 

[pxpaulx]

Of all those bikes, the motiv is probably the only one with any sort of a brand backing it up, they make and sell a few different bikes. The rest are most likely a clone of their bike.

That said, none of those bikes will likely take you that distance on throttle only, fat tires just have too much resistance.

 

[George S.]

I ride my DIY cruiser more and more because it is much easier on my hands, no direct connection to the fork and all the road stresses. But they are very inefficient because you sit completely upright, like a giant sail. Add to that big tires and you make things worse. You need a 48v 20 AH battery. That's where you need to start. Then you need to decide if you are going on sand or snow because that means more motor power. The battery will go in a bag, in the frame, so find a frame that can hold a battery. Simple.

You can easily build the bike you want. Buying from China means an illegal battery shipment. If they find it, they keep it, Customs that is. The people making batteries with range are Eric at Luna Cycle and Paul at EM3ev. My advice is to find a battery, find a frame, and find a motor. Maybe find someone to do assembly.

Eric runs a forum with a lot of custom fat info:

http://electricbike.com/forum/

Warranties are great but fatbikes are still a specialty product. The notion you can find a local dealer with a big battery fatbike is unlikely. So, again, you build it, you fix it.

https://www.electricbike.com/18-reasons-to-build-a-diy-ebike/

Find a battery. Find a frame. Find a motor.

 

[MLB]

I'm considering a Fat Tire Beach Cruiser because I like the upright riding position and the fat tires can help offer a smooth ride. I've found quite a few online that all seem to be the exact same bike from China, they just have different names. Here are the one's I've found so far.

E-Lux Tahoe

Electric Wave - by American Cycle Company
(Link Removed - No Longer Exists)
SchryerPower

Motiv Stout
(Link Removed - No Longer Exists)
Beachnik

Equalizer

Electric Hummer Fat Tire

They all seem like the exact same bike and all have the same components. I'm 6'4" and it's hard to find a bike that fits me. I rode the E-Lux Tahoe and I think I prefer the battery behind low and behind me like each of these bikes. I'm hoping to go 25-30 miles throttle only. Does anyone have any experience with any of these? Should I just order one from Alibaba and skip the middle man?

If you look carefully those bikes are similar, but far from exactly the same.

 

[J.R.]

Looking carefully... Bike #2 from American Cycle Co. shows the drive on the wrong side of the bike!

The photo was electronically inverted when published. It happens, but the company shows 3 bikes of 5 they offer inverted like this on their web site.............

 

[George S.]

@J.R. Wow, that might be the least of this company's problems:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/electric-bike-599-aluminum-shimano-fat-tire#/

You can't sell stuff on IGG anymore unless you are Sondors. No one cares about this stuff anymore. No one around here even much cares about Sondors anymore. His latest campaign for the fat bike, a couple of weeks old, has sold 360 bikes. Same old same old, 499 + 200 shipping. But he's now saying they need a set volume, and they'll run the clock out to get there. Tough biz.

http://gosondors.com/pre-order-sondors-ebike/

 

[tinasdude]

(Link Removed - No Longer Exists)

 

[J.R.]

@J.R. Wow, that might be the least of this company's problems:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/electric-bike-599-aluminum-shimano-fat-tire#/

You can't sell stuff on IGG anymore unless you are Sondors. No one cares about this stuff anymore. No one around here even much cares about Sondors anymore. His latest campaign for the fat bike, a couple of weeks old, has sold 360 bikes. Same old same old, 499 + 200 shipping. But he's now saying they need a set volume, and they'll run the clock out to get there. Tough biz.

http://gosondors.com/pre-order-sondors-ebike/

Yes George, there have been a few promising looking IGG campaigns go down in flames lately. The original Sondors bike had a great team with the PR firm they used. I've never shopped for any kind of fat bike, yet I was targeted with ads this time last year every time I watched an ebike related YouTube video or did any ebike related looking/shopping on eBay. That's what seems to be missing with these current campaigns, that advertising and all the PR blogs on just about all the tech sites. Sondor's first campaign was the perfect Storm...

 

[tinasdude]

https://goo.gl/photos/53RD44jpVewm93pT7

 

[harryS]

Huh. He needs 2000 pre-orders. That is like a million dollars. for the bikes and $400K in shipping money. Looks like the profit here is in the shipping, as the factory probably wants most of that $499 for the bike.

 

[George S.]

Huh. He needs 2000 pre-orders. That is like a million dollars. for the bikes and $400K in shipping money. Looks like the profit here is in the shipping, as the factory probably wants most of that $499 for the bike.

Last time, the Thin, they took pre-orders and then moved to Indiegogo to close the campaign. This time it looks like they are just doing pre-orders to a set goal, and then building. They've done 150 more bikes since I posted the link, so OK pace.

Irony? The only guy who makes crowdfunding work doesn't seem to need crowdfunding anymore.

 

[Donny]

The bike the OP is talking about, if it is the one I think it is, are made or marketed under the name of Xtreme Bikes. There are tons of places that sell them, but I can't really find any rock solid reviews on any of them (with the exception of the handful of reviews on the seller's sites that are generally pretty good). I came across a guy on another group who is supposedly a CEO with the company and I think it's based out of South Africa (I could be wrong). I looked at the same bike along with a few of their other models. For the price (which includes shipping to your door), they seem OK. The one I was looking at is $749 and that includes lithium battery, rack, Shimano parts, aluminum frame, tool kit, light, etc. I think their top of the range model is around $1800 which, when compared to the name brand bikes going for double (or more) that price, I can see why they are attractive. I talked to a local distributor for their company (lives about 20 minutes from my house) and he said he was willing to give me a $20 coupon (dropping the price to $729) and a one year warranty if I bought one. He only had one model set up at his house for demo and it wasn't the one I wanted.