New to Ebikes - Need Help Selecting a Bike (Surface 604 vs ESpin)

[Onesky]

I am about 5' 11" and am between two brands and bike models:

Surface 604 - Rook (Step Through) or Colt
vs
ESpin Flow (Step Through) or Sport

I am leaning towards to Rook because of the Torque Pedal Assist. Seems worth
the extra $700. Any thoughts on this bikes and brands.

thanks

 

[indianajo]

I definitely like the idea of torque pedal assist. I hated crank pickup pedal assist. It was too fast at level 1, 11 mph. Accelerated too fast also, about 300 w. I deleted the crank pickup and only use the throttle now.
Espin has 4 pages of "known problems" on the brand forum, Surface 604 has two. Don't know what market share either brand sells.

 

[AHicks]

I definitely like the idea of torque pedal assist. I hated crank pickup pedal assist. It was too fast at level 1, 11 mph. Accelerated too fast also, about 300 w. I deleted the crank pickup and only use the throttle now.
Espin has 4 pages of "known problems" on the brand forum, Surface 604 has two. Don't know what market share either brand sells.

This has nothing to do with the quality of either bike - a REALLY poor way to judge them. As an Espin owner that's been through those notes, I can share that MANY (most?) of those notes have nothing to do with "known problems".

I like torque assist too, but it has to be working right, and I know nothing of the Surface 604 system, so I'll need to reserve judgment, good or bad. If it's not set up right, and there's no way to adjust it as required, it's no better than a conventional PAS.

I will say the Colt is a nice looking bike with some nice features. I just don't know if I could come up with the extra 750 reasons to like it better than the Espin Flow/Sport? Sorry I couldn't be more help there.

 

[PatriciaK]

Only responding RE the Espin Flow, because that's the bike I own and am familiar with:

PAS 1 on my Espin Flow tops out at about 6 mph - not 11. It's also very smooth and natural feeling. PAS 2 goes up to around 10-11, but, since I'm a slow rider and only use it for hills, the only time I'm going that fast is coasting downhill, or on a nice long flat in PAS 1 under my own power after the 6mph boost.

Espin changed up their controller for the 2021 model season. Don't know what the previous one was was like, but this model feels great to this older, slower rider .

 

[GenXrider]

I definitely like the idea of torque pedal assist. I hated crank pickup pedal assist. It was too fast at level 1, 11 mph. Accelerated too fast also, about 300 w.

300 W. Yikes. That's sure different than my Ride1Up 700 cadence PAS system. In PAS 1, with my PAS set to 5%, my bike accelerates at..... wait for it.... about 32 watts. It's power based and remains consistent power regardless of speed up to the max - it doesn't function like a cruise control like last year's Espin controller. It looks like the new Espin controller is improved and doesn't have the strong acceleration, but the word is still out on whether it's speed or power based. Torque pedal assist might be worth a couple hundred dollars if it works well, maybe more depending on riding requirements.

 

[indianajo]

This has nothing to do with the quality of either bike - a REALLY poor way to judge them. As an Espin owner that's been through those notes, I can share that MANY (most?) of those notes have nothing to do with "known problems".

Actually the best way to pick a brand is read the enthusiastic endorsement of a purchaser that has ridden the bike 10 whole miles already.

 

[PatriciaK]

Actually the best way to pick a brand is read the enthusiastic endorsement of a purchaser that has ridden the bike 10 whole miles already.

To be fair, if you read the "Known Issues" in the Espin thread, though there are 4 pages of content, there are only a few actual "known issues" - the main seeming to be derailleurs getting bent during shipping. Which is a minor issue with an easy fix.

Counting pages, without reading content, is not a good way to judge the quality of any bike, in my opinion...