Hello EBR members! I am new to ebikes and like soooo many others i have become almost overwhelmed with my weeks and weeks of ebike research I've been doing. EBR has come to be my go to for almost all my research. I would love to get some feedback from others on brands and recommendations on making my first ebike online purchase. Here's my situation. This is my first ebike and I have zero experience with them. I've never even seen one let alone ridden one. I have no local bikes shops within 100 miles of me so I'm going blind here. I am more after fun transportation and not so much exercise. It will be my daily driver to work. Round trip being 4-6 miles on average. I love the look of fat tire bikes and we have a really nice park here with lots of bike trail options of varying difficulties so the fat tire is my preferred pick but not a must. I'll do mostly all pavement driving with it, however the roads are rough. I need a rack and fenders for sure. I have a strict $2000 dollar budget which is where the overwhelming online search has struck! There are so many companies selling these budget bikes and i'm just trying to find the best option for my $ and will last the longest. Also I am a big guy, 6'3 and 260 pounds. I have been looking at Rad Rover, Volt Yukon 750 Limited , M2S All Terrain Kush, and BikTrix Juggernaut Classic 750. I might be totally wrong here but I drew the assumption a hub motor might be best for my first bike since i have little knowledge and skill on ebikes and ebike maintenance and that mid drives require a little more finesse? I have had some serious reservations about M2S because is seems their customer service is next to impossible to reach, or so I've read but their Kush has custom gearing for more top speed? I'd like to have that. I've got Reservations about BikTrix Juggernaut classic because i find a lot of blogs with peoples bike issues quicker that i find their positive bike reviews but I still find the Juggernaut lovers and they do seem to love them, I just seem to find more "bike issue" articles that "love my bike" articles. Volt Bikes I just discovered today so i don't know much about them yet but they look pretty promising. Then i start reading about customer service that doesn't respond with Volt Bikes... Then there is Rad Bikes which hands down seems to be the leader in the lower budget ebikes as well as in customer service. I want the most power i can get and it seems like that would put Rad towards the bottom of those four brands as there appears to be an agreement out there that the Rad Bikes seem more like 500w than the 750w claim. I am drawn to Rad Power Bikes because their following is superior and Mike is known, like it was very easy to put a face to the Rad Power Bikes name and CEO. I can't say the same for the others I listed. It's hard to find articles quoting those company owners and it's harder to put a face to them. Mike is in almost all the video reviews Court has done on Rad and he seems to be very confident in his product and seems to strive to offer the best he can. For that alone Rad is very appealing to me. I know the other Brands I've listed are quite possibly just as good but maybe haven't been around as long so don't have the following Rad does nor the means to make themselves marketed and known? I don't know..... I've hit a wall and can't decide which to buy. I don't want to wait a month to get the bike either as I need it for my main source of transportation. Please chime in with any feedback and suggestions pointing me in the right direction. Any other makes i haven't listed are more that welcome as long as they will satisfy what I've tried to describe for you here. I've grown to trust the EBR community the more I've been on here this last month. So i finall For that reason I am looking forward to your feedback. Thanks in advance!
Please help me EBR!!
- Thread starter Paul Dubs
- Start date
He has no "local" bike shop! I can't be of much help because the ebikes we bought were more trekking and city oriented with relatively skinny tires. It's a daunting task to pick the right ebike. We test rode a bunch and ended up with ebikes completely different than the ones we THOUGHT we wanted. It might be worth your while to take a few days and travel to a dealer that has multiple brands so you can try them out but that cuts into your budget
John from Connecticut
Well-Known Member
Suggestion...If you'd like to increase your chances of receiving help, I strongly urge you to write in paragraph form instead of
one massive "Word Dump" . The current is post is extremely difficult to read... I just skipped over it and went to someone else's post.
Thanks John as I read what you said it made good sense! I thought my post looked "off" while writing it but couldn't pin point it. You nailed it though and noted for future posts. Thanks!
rich c
Well-Known Member
My LBS, when I bought my first serious eBike, was 200 miles away. I sure wouldn’t want to drop $2,000 on something I had zero knowledge about. At the shop I went to, they just started rolling out bikes. The local bike trail was right behind the shop. After I rode a bunch of bikes, I knew exactly what I wanted, and what fit. If you ask 100 eBike riders, you’ll get 200 suggestions. How do you make a decision that way? I put in around 2,500 miles a year, I want it to fit me and be comfortable. Now my very first eBike was a $500 Sondors off Craigslist. Even at that price point, I did not want to purchase sight unseen. When’s the last time you bought any vehicle on the word of strangers sight unseen?
Actually, we bought a yacht sight unseen except for pictures. The boat was 2,500mi. away. Fortunately we wrote in the contract that we could refuse purchase and be refunded our deposit if it was misrepresented in any way and that ended up being a very smart thing to do. The boat had issues and the seller didn't want to pay to get it shipped back across the country so we were made whole on his dime. I do get your point rich and that's why I suggested he travel to a dealer with multiple brands and types for test rides. We THOUGHT we wanted e-mountain bikes but after test riding some and then riding trekking bikes and realizing most of our riding would be done on bike paths we bought that type instead. Oh, we sold the yacht after 10 years and bought ebikes, couldn't be happier 
J.R.
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Piedmont Highlands
It's been some time since I looked at specs for the brands you mention, but as I recall most are offered in one frame size, 18 inch. Many of the budget friendly brands are offered in a medium 18" to cover most people. I'm 6'-2" and an 18" frame is uncomfortable and too small. You being 6'-3", you want to be sure a bike you hope to have for a long time will fit properly and be comfortable to ride. A bike that doesn't fit can be painful to ride, and a $2k bike that isn't ridden is no bargain.
A quick read on bike fit:
https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a20047780/find-right-bike-size/
Good luck in your search!
AHicks
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Snow Bird - Summer S.E. Michigan, Winter Gulf Coast North Central Fl.
Something that might help you on the RAD call is the availability of a kit that offers a big improvement over Rad's standard electronics. Look into the Bowman kits. They're about 200, but even when adding that to the price of a new bike, you still come out pretty reasonable. Bowman seems impartial to me, and has a lot to say about the Rover. Tracking down his videos on Youtube might help make your call a little easier.
harryS
Well-Known Member
@Paul, You do have to ride at least a couple of different style ebikes. Most people who order online are happy because most ebikes are fun, and that's all they know, but some are more fun than others.
@Timpo, you meant to say Bolton kit, $219 for a 35A controller and color LCD. Good way to melt the earlier motors. I'm sure Bolton has a disclaimer. Probably not a good idea to buy something if you plan to modify it, unless you got a good deal on it.
@Timpo, you meant to say Bolton kit, $219 for a 35A controller and color LCD. Good way to melt the earlier motors. I'm sure Bolton has a disclaimer. Probably not a good idea to buy something if you plan to modify it, unless you got a good deal on it.
Sometimes you need to just take the plunge.
Whatever bike you get you will have observations that ebb and flow over time. I’m on my fourth ebike over a period of 13 years. I’m still not sure what I want. People obsess over hub vs mid drive, cadence sensors, type of display and all kinds of things. Most of them don’t really matter. What matters more than anything is your comfort riding the bike. The Rad Rover looks like a good value in your price range that fits what you want. I’m sure it’s not perfect and that there will be inevitable frustrations when you get it. That will be true with any bike. At some point you need to stop agonizing over the decision and just pill the trigger.
Whatever bike you get you will have observations that ebb and flow over time. I’m on my fourth ebike over a period of 13 years. I’m still not sure what I want. People obsess over hub vs mid drive, cadence sensors, type of display and all kinds of things. Most of them don’t really matter. What matters more than anything is your comfort riding the bike. The Rad Rover looks like a good value in your price range that fits what you want. I’m sure it’s not perfect and that there will be inevitable frustrations when you get it. That will be true with any bike. At some point you need to stop agonizing over the decision and just pill the trigger.
harryS
Well-Known Member
Sorry. I meant to say AHiccks, The power of bad typing and old age combined!
AHicks
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Snow Bird - Summer S.E. Michigan, Winter Gulf Coast North Central Fl.
Silly me, you got me. Sorry for any confusion that may have created.
And I agree with your assesment of the kit. That kit gets rid of a lot of built in Rad restrictions, including those that might be keeping the motor safer due to reduced available power to it. The kit is intended for those who are interested in performance and willing to do "due diligence" regarding the custom to your liking set up. The more you know about it, the more you get out of it.
And I agree with your assesment of the kit. That kit gets rid of a lot of built in Rad restrictions, including those that might be keeping the motor safer due to reduced available power to it. The kit is intended for those who are interested in performance and willing to do "due diligence" regarding the custom to your liking set up. The more you know about it, the more you get out of it.
I've narrowed it down to these two and wondering your thoughts of them...Volt Yukon Limited 750 and the Juiced Ripcurrent S. Both have features i like, hydrolic disk breaks and 20" frames. Fat tire. And a few other things but that's the two I'm debating. Any feedback on which you would pick would be more than welcome. Thanks everyone!
more volts doesn't mean more get up and go.. Volts x Amps = watts and watts = power. ( Ah is just battery capacity and only affects range) A lower voltage system pushing more amps can have the same or MORE power than a system with more volts and less amps. It's impossible to say which system is more powerful without riding both bikes as wattage claims tend to be all over the place. Maybe someone who's ridden both can chime in. Generally speaking though, a higher voltage system is considered "better" and will have less thermal stress on components assuming they both put out the same watts which they probably don't..
Similar threads
