Some serious improvements/modifications to an E3 Dash.

[Brian(J)]

I have 1,000 miles on my Dash now, so far no flats but did enjoy an epic crash. I liked the bike when I got it but I like it a whole lot more with all the changes I've made, some small and some pretty significant.

Fenders- a gotta have.
Rack and Bags- required for me.
Lights, four currently on the bike- the more I ride in traffic the more lights I want.
Floating seatpost- Suntour, so smooth. Suspect Bodyfloat is better but needed the cash for other things.
Jones H-bar handlebars- I really love it. The stock bars killed my wrists.
Handlebar riser- way more comfortable for me.
Two mirrors- won't ride in traffic without them.
New brakes, AVID BB7s. Way, way better than the stock brakes.
New cables, Jagwire low friction, brakes and shifter, a huge improvement.
New tires-Schwalbe Marathon Plus HS440. They look nice hanging on the wall of my shop. So far no flats on the stock tires.

Here's what the current package looks like:




The brakes:

Front, showing the finger adjustment wheel.



Rear, here you can see both adjustment wheels. No tools or bike wheel removal needed. You can adjust the brake pads at a stoplight before the light changes.



The new brake cables


The Jones H-bar
The white blobs are white marker lights with about 100 degrees of spread. Drivers don't see my headlamp from an angle and these greatly improve my visibility from the front and forward quadrants. And they were $8 each.
I've cut about one inch of bar from each side, the mirrors work great, and I like how uncluttered it is now. This mod requires new brake and shifter cables, and the Brake sensor leads should be extended, you can see how tight they are and you can no longer use the triangular wire management clip.

 

[Shea N Encinitas]

Kewl stuff Brain, thanks for the Jones Bar info in particular. When I visited their site they were out of stock on the aluminum model. Since I already had an incident with my right brake lead I would not hesitate to splice in an extension and route along the bars. The BB7's sound nice too, I hand adjusted the BB5's on a Stromer Sport yesterday, some kid was selling it and let me test drive it with virtually no brakes! BTW - I'm at 3566 miles today. And what about that epic crash, did I miss that thread or are you holding that story? -S

 

[PowerMe]

Wow Brian, I really like the changes you made. And a big +1 for the handlebar riser. I had a 3" riser installed on my hybrid bike the other week and it makes a big difference on my neck and back. Just cannot handle an aggressive or slightly aggressive riding position.
What do you estimate were the total additional costs you spent to upgrade your Dash at this point?

One of the reasons I'm thinking of an ebike like easy motion Street, for example, is not only it's step-thru design, but that it comes with fenders, rack, integrated light. Things have a way of adding up.

 

[Brian(J)]

Shea,
as part of screwing up the entire surface transportation system in Seattle they are installing trolley tracks and I didn't have any trouble with them 49 out of 50 times I encountered them, but then I forgot for a moment and weaved out of the way of some idiot driver and dropped the front tire into the rail slot and it was like someone kicked the tire off the bike. Spectacular and with a large audience.

PowerMe,
I'm somewhere around $800.
That EM Street bike might be just the right thing for you. The cost of what it has that a Dash doesn't come with is maybe $200, and the fender/rack, and lights are such an easy install. Those dynamo lights could be pretty cool though.
The primary issue for me would be the brakes, but then I use my brakes a lot and I don't know how I would upgrade the V-brakes to disk. But I may just be drinking the disk-brake kool-aid and the V-brakes are fantastic.