vincent
Well-Known Member
i am going to post this and not spend hours of my time defending it, but again today i saw a post where someone was asking for help with picking a class 2 bike and half or more of the replies were about how they did not need throttle??????
going to list 2 examples of my friends and mid drives vs hub with throttle bikes right now
sold a good friend of mine my haibike yamaha hardtail mtn bike when my wattwagon got here
this friend does not ride bikes but has ridden hours and several times 30-40 miles with me on the radmini, some other hub motor 20 inch bikes i had and the rad rover and done fine
she had ridden the yamaha a few times with me , it fits her, she is a light and fit woman and i thought it was going to be a great bike for her
yamaha is rock solid reliable and i wanted her to have a good bike
she has not done well with it, it is exhausting her
she is getting halfway through the rides, getting tired and falling- she has never fallen riding the rad power bikes with me for much longer distances
i sold her husband a flx trail bike with way more torque/power and she is having to ride that
the extra power on the flx and throttle are making a big difference
and now i am considering finding a rad city, mini , aventon, ride 1up etc some other kind of quicker bike to trade her the yamaha back if she wants
i feel really bad that i sold her a bike that is not working well
the reasons she is not doing well with this bike are quite a few
it is an under powered euro spec bike, they live in some BIG hills- will it climb them? absolutely, it will also take a lot out of you doing it
riding is something she wants to do 4-6 times a month with her husband, this is not her only hobby, she has horses
half the time she gets on the yamaha she probably got up at 5am and rode horses for 3 hours, she is tired going into it
so she doesnt want to learn how to shift the gears perfect and become a big time bike rider, she wants to ride a couple of hours with her husband on the weekends and be able to keep up with him and have fun
my bikes are my only hobby and all my extra time is spent riding, that is not my friend and never will be
another friend owns a ranch
he has ridden mtn bikes a LOT with one of his daughters that was on the mtn bike team in college, he knows how to shift gears to climb hills etc
i left him my bagi bike 500 watt hub motor and a yamaha mid drive
they have some huge hills on this ranch
really thought he would like the yamaha but no, he likes the motor on the bagibike way more
for what he needs to do dragging stuff around the ranch etc it is a better , quicker power bike
and it is climbing those hills SUPER easy which surprised me
yes an ultra bike would probably work for both of these people but would be very heavy and expensive
i think a lot of us forget this is a part time deal for others, yes they MAY end up riding a lot more in the future and some of them may get into this a lot like most of us are
but others have families to take care of, limited time to ride, other hobbies etc
they want to ride 4-5 times a month but cannot wipe themselves out riding a lower powered bike in hard terrain just because it "feels" more like a bike
they dont care about that
these are not their goals, they are YOUR goals
there are nicely programmed cadence bikes, not all cadence are on/off switches
i am disappointed in this forum the way some of the people with several expensive mid drives that obviously ride a lot/ several times a week judge others on the fact that they want something different from their bikes
i would like to hear more from people that are casual riders and that are not drinking the koolaid
every post gets overloaded with 10 people on here that bash throttles and push mid drives
i met a couple several months ago on a bike trail, they bought sondors on the first round kickstarter, they have been riding those for years and love them
they have no desire to upgrade or get anything different, those bikes are doing everything they want
and that is PERFECTLY ok
lots of people bought pedego and have probably been riding them for years
lots of people bought rad power bikes and have done great with them
there are plenty of nice hub drives out there that will do great for a lot of people
lots of people are just riding their cheap hub bikes on the weekends and not on this forum talking about bikes
going to list 2 examples of my friends and mid drives vs hub with throttle bikes right now
sold a good friend of mine my haibike yamaha hardtail mtn bike when my wattwagon got here
this friend does not ride bikes but has ridden hours and several times 30-40 miles with me on the radmini, some other hub motor 20 inch bikes i had and the rad rover and done fine
she had ridden the yamaha a few times with me , it fits her, she is a light and fit woman and i thought it was going to be a great bike for her
yamaha is rock solid reliable and i wanted her to have a good bike
she has not done well with it, it is exhausting her
she is getting halfway through the rides, getting tired and falling- she has never fallen riding the rad power bikes with me for much longer distances
i sold her husband a flx trail bike with way more torque/power and she is having to ride that
the extra power on the flx and throttle are making a big difference
and now i am considering finding a rad city, mini , aventon, ride 1up etc some other kind of quicker bike to trade her the yamaha back if she wants
i feel really bad that i sold her a bike that is not working well
the reasons she is not doing well with this bike are quite a few
it is an under powered euro spec bike, they live in some BIG hills- will it climb them? absolutely, it will also take a lot out of you doing it
riding is something she wants to do 4-6 times a month with her husband, this is not her only hobby, she has horses
half the time she gets on the yamaha she probably got up at 5am and rode horses for 3 hours, she is tired going into it
so she doesnt want to learn how to shift the gears perfect and become a big time bike rider, she wants to ride a couple of hours with her husband on the weekends and be able to keep up with him and have fun
my bikes are my only hobby and all my extra time is spent riding, that is not my friend and never will be
another friend owns a ranch
he has ridden mtn bikes a LOT with one of his daughters that was on the mtn bike team in college, he knows how to shift gears to climb hills etc
i left him my bagi bike 500 watt hub motor and a yamaha mid drive
they have some huge hills on this ranch
really thought he would like the yamaha but no, he likes the motor on the bagibike way more
for what he needs to do dragging stuff around the ranch etc it is a better , quicker power bike
and it is climbing those hills SUPER easy which surprised me
yes an ultra bike would probably work for both of these people but would be very heavy and expensive
i think a lot of us forget this is a part time deal for others, yes they MAY end up riding a lot more in the future and some of them may get into this a lot like most of us are
but others have families to take care of, limited time to ride, other hobbies etc
they want to ride 4-5 times a month but cannot wipe themselves out riding a lower powered bike in hard terrain just because it "feels" more like a bike
they dont care about that
these are not their goals, they are YOUR goals
there are nicely programmed cadence bikes, not all cadence are on/off switches
i am disappointed in this forum the way some of the people with several expensive mid drives that obviously ride a lot/ several times a week judge others on the fact that they want something different from their bikes
i would like to hear more from people that are casual riders and that are not drinking the koolaid
every post gets overloaded with 10 people on here that bash throttles and push mid drives
i met a couple several months ago on a bike trail, they bought sondors on the first round kickstarter, they have been riding those for years and love them
they have no desire to upgrade or get anything different, those bikes are doing everything they want
and that is PERFECTLY ok
lots of people bought pedego and have probably been riding them for years
lots of people bought rad power bikes and have done great with them
there are plenty of nice hub drives out there that will do great for a lot of people
lots of people are just riding their cheap hub bikes on the weekends and not on this forum talking about bikes