First thoughts

[Dorkyman]

Just got a white ST and set it up last night. First impressions:

(1) Beautifully packaged and the workmanship and paint are excellent.

(2) This thing is HEAVY. Hadn't ridden in years and I was then on a featherweight street bike. But heavy isn't a big deal; I'm not carrying it up a flight of stairs.

(3) Actually, I did walk it up a flight of outside stairs in walk mode. Bouncy-bouncy but controllable. Sweet.

(4) Bought a WSDCAM bike alarm + bell and mounted it under the cushy seat. Great quality for the price, and gosh the thing is loud! Wish they had more than three horn choices. I've started with the chirping birds on the theory that it won't freak out someone when I come up to pass on the trail. We'll see.

(5) Brakes were TERRIBLE, it felt like crunching through cardboard. Hmmm, it feels like the cables are bone-dry. So today I snipped off the crimped ends down by the calipers and pulled them out at the handlebar, coated them liberally with motor oil, and back in. Amazing difference. Now they feel much more like the hydraulic brakes on my big Honda years ago. The lubrication must have slipped someone's mind, since the rest of the bike is so well-assembled.

(6) 7-speed works perfectly. Snick-snick both up and down. I will be putting in an 11-34 freewheel to replace the stock 14-28, however. Won't have to pedal like a maniac at 20+ speeds and I'll be able to pull stumps on the bottom end.

(7) We have a couple of significant quarter-mile hills in the vicinity. Bike was able to climb, albeit slowly, without leg assist. Pulled 20 amps, though, so we can't have too much of that at one time.

(8) I plan to leave the key in and on most of the time. I have the motion alarm and the included lock. Good enough for a store run or lunch. But probably not leave it in a dark alley overnight.

(9) A bit tricky to use Pedal Assist from startup or when making a slow sharp turn. Probably easiest to use the excellent hand throttle for startup and for gentle turn assistance.

(10) Bought a clever LKEREJOL folding basket that I bolted / zip-tied to the sturdy rear rack. When folded, the bike itself folds into about the same volume as before without the basket. When opened, plenty sturdy to carry two full-sized grocery bags.

(11) Cruise Control works great.

(12) Mounted drink holder to the front side of the seat post tube, no interference with the folding. Lectric bike lock mounted on the back side per design, also works great. Heavy.

(13) Nice headlight, nice to have a taillight.

(14) I'm gonna call it The Hog.

 

[Redwood]

Nice review, thanks. I just get the standard XP 2.0 this week and took my first quick ride around the block yesterday. It sure came well wrapped and protected. Most of the setup time was spent cutting zip ties and removing foam wrap. You mentioned walking mode. In all the many YouTube reviews I watched I don’t remember that was mentioned. I only learned of it by reading the user manual. I want to try it as soon as weather permits, but it sounds like a great feature for a guy in his 70s like me. I’ve got a steep driveway and this should help.

 

[lectricG]

Can't wait to try mine in the snow!!! Snowed last night here in Minnesota

 

[Redwood]

I’m originally from the Minneapolis area myself and was there just a couple months ago. I would love to ride the ebike around the Minnehaha parkway.

 

[gord320]

I have a "walk mode" on mine and I do need it on a couple of local hills.

 

[lectricG]

I’m originally from the Minneapolis area myself and was there just a couple months ago. I would love to ride the ebike around the Minnehaha parkway.

Snowed today bet the falls looks cool

 

[Dorkyman]

It's been two weeks since my initial review and I've gotten delivery of the black Step-Through. Once again, nicely packaged and perfect paint and welds. BUT the rear axle protective bracket was bent inwards about 20 degrees, and prevented shifting past about 3rd gear. So I carefully used a prybar to bend the bracket back out.

(1) Lectric needs to install additional padding around the rear axle so that bracket is not bent in during shipment.

(2) Added new 11-34 freewheels to both bikes. Big improvement for both bottom and top end. Got them on Amazon and contrary to some negative reviews there, they seem to be true and well-made. Anybody want a couple of cheap 14-28 freewheels? A bit of a challenge getting to the bolt on the chain side of the rear axle due to the protective bracket--my crescent wrench was just a bit too meaty to fit inside the bracket.

(3) Changed the drink holders to a design that could adjust in and out, so that supermarket water bottles would also fit.

(4) Once again, lubed the dry brake cables for greatly-improved performance.

(5) Mounted smartphone holders. Lots of variety out there, including a Lectric-branded one. I picked a holder that grabs by the corners, leaving side-located smartphone buttons accessible.

(6) I have ordered two little boxes that will attach to the handlebars and which have a USB port. Other brands of ebike flat-panel displays have a built-in USB port, but not the Lectric display. So the box will be wired into the 48v line and will allow a smartphone to be charging even while in use as a GPS map, for example.

(7) The Comfort Package includes a bigger cushy seat (that matches my bigger cushy rear end) and also a spring-loaded seat post. On both bikes the posts "worked" but had a lot of "stiction" in that the sliding motion was not smooth but would stick as the mechanism telescoped. I tried disassembling the thing but finally decided to instead apply a ring of heavy grease around the top of the mechanism, and then wrapping that joint with kitchen plastic wrap tightly. I could then put some muscle to it, telescoping it, while also squeezing the wrapped junction, forcing the heavy grease inside the sliding joint. Now the motion is very fluid. I also backed out the setscrew plug in the bottom of the column to improve the range of motion while in use. The plug can't fall out; there's a snapring at the end of the threads that keeps that from happening.

(8) Based on Amazon reviews I put 8oz of Flat-Out in each tube. I began by completely exhausting the tire by letting out most of the air and then unscrewing the valve stem (carefully, or the thing will shoot out 10 feet). Amazed to see just how thin and seemingly delicate the tire sidewalls felt. After squeezing in the goop I partially inflated the tube just enough that I could grab the tire with my two hands and physically move the bead around the circumference so that it was evenly-spaced on the wheel rim. If I didn't do this intermediate step I found that the tire bead wouldn't automatically position itself correctly upon inflation--in fact, the uninflated tire could easily come off the wheel rim without needing tire irons. The bike was turned upside-down for this process, so that the tire wasn't resting on the ground, and it only took a few seconds to rotate the tire around while adjusting the bead location. The Flat-Out product seems to have excellent reviews and is "reinforced by kevlar," if you believe the advertising. I've used the Slime product years ago and this stuff is supposed to be far more effective. We'll see. Apparently these 20x3 tires can be easily punctured by thorns and such, which the Flat-Out fixes.

(9) Perhaps I've already mentioned it but I found it very difficult to remove the battery if the rubber charge plug was left inserted in the side of the frame. I snipped off the rubber nipple on the charge plug tip and it no longer jammed the removal of the battery.

At some point I'll take some photos. I think the folding basket is clever, as it looks sturdy enough to hold grocery bags yet can be folded down into a small flat package permanently bolted to the rear carrier.