New Owner of a Epik SE

[dp226]

I just got my 2016 Epik SE. All I can say with an hour or two of playing is wow! I ordered it via amazon and it was delivered to my front door. It came in a big box, was wrapped in bubble wrap and had some bags of peanuts. They took a lot of care to make sure it got to me without damage.

It only took a couple of minutes to unfold and get ready. The tool kit that was included came in handy since the handlebars needed to be rotated slightly. All it took was to loosen 2 bolts with an allen wrench twist and tighten back. I added some air to the tires to get them up to 60 lbs and was off to playing.

It has lots of power. I am going to have to experiment with peddle assist. It seems too powerful even at the lowest setting. Might be that I am riding it on a flat paved area and it is set up for hills. Thumb throttle works great. I have options and that is what I wanted.

I was very pleasantly surprised about how well it works as a conventional bike. The gears work great and peddling is very easy. The shocks work well and the seat is reasonable comfortable. Only thing I found that was not of top quality on the whole bike is the bell. I will probably take it off as some point but it is not in the way either.

I will add my two cents and say this is a great bike for a novice rider. I have not ridden a bike in years for various reasons and I can see where this bike will get me out and about. So far I am a very happy customer.

 

[Berry78]

Welcome !
I love these types of reviews/initial impressions.

Too powerful, eh? That isn't something we hear often... Sounds like you need to find some hills, lol.

 

[Ann M.]

Welcome to the EBR family, @dp226, sounds like you've hit the road running! Already got the bike . There are a lot of fans of the e-Joe bikes here, so please share experiences and lots of pics!

 

[dp226]

I went on a ride on the Epik SE after work today. About 4 miles. a combination of packed dirt and crushed shell. Plenty of hills, up and down. some pretty steep and some pretty long. On this ride I got the hang of the peddle assist. Set the assist to low and moved the gears around so I felt some resistance as I peddled. This worked out great.

Moved pretty fast up and down the hills but did not break a sweat. This was great. No problems getting up the hills and had to break a lot to keep from going too fast down hill. The first half of the ride I got used to the PAS and coming back it felt pretty natural. Once or twice as an experiment I used the throttle to go up a hill. It worked better using the peddle assist than just the throttle.

This was on a lot of soft soil. The Epik did ok, but I could feel it sliding a bunch.. I think it would rather be on a hard surface since the tires are pretty slick. It did fine and I had a blast. I am going to look for a paved surface to try next and see how that goes.

 

[dp226]

One other thing. I bought the bike to bring along on our small Motorhome. For those interested in why I picked the Epik from a RVers perspective you can take a look at my blog posting at http://confusedrv.blogspot.com/2016/10/e-joe-epik-se-review-1st-day.html . I won't re-post here since it is mostly about why I chose it for the RV as opposed to the bike itself.

 

[JoeinJP]

Glad you're enjoying the bike. I too, ordered the Epik SE from Amazon and the seller was hands-on to check that it arrived from the distribution warehouse in good order, on time, etc. Hey, you got a bag of peanuts with it, maybe for the ride!

Aside from just a few drawbacks: I find the bell to be dinky, so my bell is "PASSING ON THE LEFT." With 20" wheels, be a bit careful with sharp turns since a little sliding can occur, my thumb throttle sticks sometimes, I bought a CatEye for odometer/distance readings, and power is adequate for me; I'm happy with the bike for my commute.

 

[dp226]

Well I did another ride today. Was going great about 7 miles into it about 100 yards from my turn around point. More hills than last time but I thought everything was about perfect on peddle assist 1 and using the gears for the amount of help I was willing to put in. At 7 miles the battery was still reading full.

But then I got a flat rear tire. The surface I was on was hard packed dirt. Not sure what happened but I went over a bridge and a minute or so later I had a flat. I could not find anything in the tire but when I added air it came out about as fast as I put it in. Oh well, it was a fun first half.

 

[dp226]

Someone asked about pictures:

 

[dp226]

Today I rode the Epik SE 6 miles on pavement. We were at the east bank campground near the dam at Lake Seminole. Some pretty serious hills, some flat areas. Up and down the hills peddle assist 1 works great. I used the gears and changed them to so I had some pressure on the peddles and felt like I was helping some. On the flat areas, I would just turn off peddle assist. Even at low it provides more power than I was wanting.

I had done 7 miles on the last ride and 6 miles today. I had not bothered to re-charge the battery in-between. It was still reading fully charged when I started today but with the 6 extra miles on it it kept going between 1/2 ind 3/4 on the charge bar.

Still having a huge amount of fun. Without the E-joe I would have stayed near the motorhome. With the E-Joe I was able to explore all around the campground and the dam. I am feeling pretty good that the bike could do 25 miles using peddle assist.