LaFree at 3 months
I bought my LaFree E+ 2 on May 16th and since then have ridden it most every day. After a couple of weeks of mentally trying to keep track of how many miles I was riding, I decided to take my bike computer off my non electric bike and put it on the LaFree. At the time I had calculated that I had ridden about 42 miles, since then I’ve put on an additional 212.9 miles, or about 85 miles a month. I know a lot of you ride a lot more, but it surprised me how much I was riding. In one month I biked more than I had in the last year and a half on my non-electric bike and my knees haven’t complained once and I’ve dropped about 5-10 pounds.
Most days I just ride to the Local Community radio station I ‘work’ at, which is about three miles round trip. Riding a bike saves me half a mile over a car due to dead ends and one way streets. The big selling point for me was the auto mode which I used mostly the first couple of weeks, but then a couple of times I just left it on the PAS 1 level and found it relaxing, plus there is one section of my ride where I go on a sidewalk that quite often has homeless around waiting for services and the low assist level is better in that situation. On a couple of occasions I’ve biked without any assist which is quite doable on this ebike. Lately I’ve been using PAS1 and when I need to speed up to make a light or go uphill I switch to auto.
I see a lot of Rad Power ebikes going by my house, especially since the pandemic hit. A couple of times I’ve seen people pushing them. I suspect because they lost power and as heavy as they are, they are probably not easy to peddle without power. Which makes me happy that I choose the LaFree because I know I can peddle it easily without power.
I’ve been contemplating biking to my daughter’s house about 30 miles away but I haven’t found a good route yet. The ones that I’ve tried seem very unsafe in places, and with large potholes in the bike lane on some routes. I think I need to join the local bicycle club to get some help figuring out how to do it and get some longer riding in.
I’ve had two problems since I got the bike, both were my fault. The first was I was trying to make a light and instead of upping the assist level, I switched to a higher gear like I would on a non-electric bike. When I still missed the light I rapidly downshifted. When the light changed the chain came off and got locked. I had to walk the bike home. I took off the guard but still couldn’t get the chain free, so I ended up taking it to the bike shop I bought it at about an hour away. It took them about 15-20 minutes to fix at no charge. There is a Giant dealer in town just a couple of blocks from the radio station, but they had a fire in April and haven’t reopened. Hopefully they will reopen again. Shortly after my first problem I had run an errand and on the way back I decided to take a short cut over a grassy area in a park. It was very bumpy and it switched to auto from PAS1 for some reason and it didn’t seem to be giving me much power. When I got home I realized that my pannier had come loose and knocked the sensor on one of the spokes sideways. Once I put it back in position it was fine.
I love riding this bike, I can just cruise around, or if I need to go fast I can. I can tell that my legs have gotten stronger. When I first got my bike and used the auto mode I could feel the power, now when I use it, I feel like I’m on a rocket on flat ground trying to make a light. Since my wife and I were sharing a vehicle before, now I don’t have to worry about keeping her from doing her errands and I can go when I need to. I would like to especially thank PatriciaK and browneye for their thoughtful comments and advice in helping me decide what ebike to get. I would also like to thank ElectricBikeReview for providing all the reviews and the forums that helped me get educated on ebikes. Biking is fun again!
