jobtraklite
New Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- West central Illinois on the Mississippi bluffs.
I thought I'd introduce an ebike that I haven't seen mentioned on EBR, or any forum for that matter.
A while back I had a bike wreck, the result being nasty road rash on my knee that didn't heal. The wound doctor I eventually went to kept me off my bike for several weeks. I needed some entertainment while I was grounded and naturally spent the time studying ebikes. I came across a strange YouTube review of a Funhang, a brand I'd never heard of - one of the many youtube reviews titled "The cheapest -- ebike on Amazon", this one "Amazon's Cheapest E-Mountain Bike".
The reviewer spent the first third of the review worrying about his house burning down. He took apart the battery to check the cells, but couldn't find anything wrong with them. So he put the battery back together with duct tape and proceeded with the review.
Now the bike has just about all the features one would look for in a $1000 - $1500 ebike. But the reviewer didn't think much of most of them. For example, he said the pedal assist seemed to kick in and out randomly, and complained that the tires were made of peach fuzz. But as time went on, he seemed to become more positive. After surviving a very rough and scary down hill mountain bike trail he began to recommend it.
There seemed to be hundreds of youtube reviews of the Funhang brand: step thru, mountain bike, and fat tire. Some seemed professional; but most were very amateurish. All were positive. The only actual user reviews I could find were on the Amazon ads for the bike. Almost all were positive. Now I wasn't born yesterday; but I don't see how a manufacturer could conjure up over sixty positive reviews among about 2 or 3 negative ones.
So I thought what do I have to loose and purchased the step thru version for $329 + $100 shipping for a total of $429.
The approximately 3 week promised shipping date seemed a bit long. But it did arrive 4 days before promised; so I can't complain. The box arrived with no gashes or gauges and the contents were well packed. Nothing was damaged or missing. Assembly was about average for DIY ebikes. I did have a bit of trouble seating the front brake rotor. But I think that was due to my having something backwards. Once I got it straightened out, it came together nicely.
I won't go into all the features; the Amazon webpage does a nice job of explaining them, and everything seemed to work perfectly. I'll just mention a few things that struck me.
Build quality - I'm not an engineer or metal worker; but the build quality looked great to me.
The ride - super smooth, nimble, comfortable, and solid.
The seat - It's a seat, about the same as most - OK in the beginning of a ride but as the miles accumulate my boney bottom began hurting.
Pedal assist - I haven't been able to completely understand yet the pedal assist. All I can say for sure is that if you select the right PAS level and gear, you will get what you want. For a given PAS level, leisurely pedaling seems to take you to various speeds depending on the choice of gears.
Twist Throttle - I had to chuckle about the twist throttle. It seems to be a general rule on ebike forums that only thumb throttles are politically correct. Normally, I hardly use the throttle. But my wound doctor eventually let me back on the bike, but allowed no peddling, only the (thumb) throttle. After a while my thumb became sore. So I'm happy to go against the thumb throttle rule. I should note that, unlike the pedal assist, the throttle cuts off depending on the peddle assist level. For example, it cuts off at 6 MPH if pedal assist is set to 1 and at 9 MPH with PAS 2.
Front Disk Brake - Early on I did experience a ticking in the front disk brake. Getting up to speed and locking the brake for a few seconds performed whatever adjustment was required.
Adjustments - Amazon stresses all the adjustments available to dial in a good fit for someone 6'1" or smaller. You've got the seat post height, seat angle, seat forward and back, adjustable stem up and down and in and out, and finally the handle bars up or down. It took me so many tries to get it just right that I began to wonder if all this adjustment was a negative feature. But once I got it right, I was very pleased with the result. As a side note, I hate the threadless stems that have no flexibility at all.
Weight - some reviewers complained that it is heavy. They are only announcing that they are ebike newbies. I didn't put it on a scale; but the touted weight of 55.8 lbs seems about right. That puts it in the middle range of ebike weights, or below it, considering the typical ebike with these features often advertises more than 60 lbs.
Range - the bike claims a 40-50 mile PAS range which is enough for me. But I wondered, considering the Funhang's 48V, 7.8 AH (374.4WH) battery. For comparison I also have a ride1up Turris with a 14AH battery that touts a 30-50 mile range.
I finally got a chance to do a bit of testing. I took a 24 mile ride on a flat rail trail in Central Florida, no wind, no throttle, exclusively PAS level 1 at 10-12 MPH. When I finished the 24 miles the voltage reading was 47.5. Assuming the max voltage at start was 54.6, LVC of 39 volts, and I were to ride the same the rest of the way, then I estimate a range of 52.7 miles. Other parameters such as terrain, trail condition, my weight, luggage weight, tire condition, etc remained the same. I don't know what the margin of error, as the media types would say, is. But I'm confident I could get 50 miles before the voltage dropped to 39.
Long term reliability. Obviously, I can't say anything about this. I only hope that it lasts until I'm too old to ride (I'm 83). As much as I like the Turris, I like the Funhang just as well at about 1/3 the price.
A while back I had a bike wreck, the result being nasty road rash on my knee that didn't heal. The wound doctor I eventually went to kept me off my bike for several weeks. I needed some entertainment while I was grounded and naturally spent the time studying ebikes. I came across a strange YouTube review of a Funhang, a brand I'd never heard of - one of the many youtube reviews titled "The cheapest -- ebike on Amazon", this one "Amazon's Cheapest E-Mountain Bike".
The reviewer spent the first third of the review worrying about his house burning down. He took apart the battery to check the cells, but couldn't find anything wrong with them. So he put the battery back together with duct tape and proceeded with the review.
Now the bike has just about all the features one would look for in a $1000 - $1500 ebike. But the reviewer didn't think much of most of them. For example, he said the pedal assist seemed to kick in and out randomly, and complained that the tires were made of peach fuzz. But as time went on, he seemed to become more positive. After surviving a very rough and scary down hill mountain bike trail he began to recommend it.
There seemed to be hundreds of youtube reviews of the Funhang brand: step thru, mountain bike, and fat tire. Some seemed professional; but most were very amateurish. All were positive. The only actual user reviews I could find were on the Amazon ads for the bike. Almost all were positive. Now I wasn't born yesterday; but I don't see how a manufacturer could conjure up over sixty positive reviews among about 2 or 3 negative ones.
So I thought what do I have to loose and purchased the step thru version for $329 + $100 shipping for a total of $429.
The approximately 3 week promised shipping date seemed a bit long. But it did arrive 4 days before promised; so I can't complain. The box arrived with no gashes or gauges and the contents were well packed. Nothing was damaged or missing. Assembly was about average for DIY ebikes. I did have a bit of trouble seating the front brake rotor. But I think that was due to my having something backwards. Once I got it straightened out, it came together nicely.
I won't go into all the features; the Amazon webpage does a nice job of explaining them, and everything seemed to work perfectly. I'll just mention a few things that struck me.
Build quality - I'm not an engineer or metal worker; but the build quality looked great to me.
The ride - super smooth, nimble, comfortable, and solid.
The seat - It's a seat, about the same as most - OK in the beginning of a ride but as the miles accumulate my boney bottom began hurting.
Pedal assist - I haven't been able to completely understand yet the pedal assist. All I can say for sure is that if you select the right PAS level and gear, you will get what you want. For a given PAS level, leisurely pedaling seems to take you to various speeds depending on the choice of gears.
Twist Throttle - I had to chuckle about the twist throttle. It seems to be a general rule on ebike forums that only thumb throttles are politically correct. Normally, I hardly use the throttle. But my wound doctor eventually let me back on the bike, but allowed no peddling, only the (thumb) throttle. After a while my thumb became sore. So I'm happy to go against the thumb throttle rule. I should note that, unlike the pedal assist, the throttle cuts off depending on the peddle assist level. For example, it cuts off at 6 MPH if pedal assist is set to 1 and at 9 MPH with PAS 2.
Front Disk Brake - Early on I did experience a ticking in the front disk brake. Getting up to speed and locking the brake for a few seconds performed whatever adjustment was required.
Adjustments - Amazon stresses all the adjustments available to dial in a good fit for someone 6'1" or smaller. You've got the seat post height, seat angle, seat forward and back, adjustable stem up and down and in and out, and finally the handle bars up or down. It took me so many tries to get it just right that I began to wonder if all this adjustment was a negative feature. But once I got it right, I was very pleased with the result. As a side note, I hate the threadless stems that have no flexibility at all.
Weight - some reviewers complained that it is heavy. They are only announcing that they are ebike newbies. I didn't put it on a scale; but the touted weight of 55.8 lbs seems about right. That puts it in the middle range of ebike weights, or below it, considering the typical ebike with these features often advertises more than 60 lbs.
Range - the bike claims a 40-50 mile PAS range which is enough for me. But I wondered, considering the Funhang's 48V, 7.8 AH (374.4WH) battery. For comparison I also have a ride1up Turris with a 14AH battery that touts a 30-50 mile range.
I finally got a chance to do a bit of testing. I took a 24 mile ride on a flat rail trail in Central Florida, no wind, no throttle, exclusively PAS level 1 at 10-12 MPH. When I finished the 24 miles the voltage reading was 47.5. Assuming the max voltage at start was 54.6, LVC of 39 volts, and I were to ride the same the rest of the way, then I estimate a range of 52.7 miles. Other parameters such as terrain, trail condition, my weight, luggage weight, tire condition, etc remained the same. I don't know what the margin of error, as the media types would say, is. But I'm confident I could get 50 miles before the voltage dropped to 39.
Long term reliability. Obviously, I can't say anything about this. I only hope that it lasts until I'm too old to ride (I'm 83). As much as I like the Turris, I like the Funhang just as well at about 1/3 the price.
