Yes it is a cool bike. I started researching it about a month ago. Since I live five miles from the Juiced Riders warehouse, I called Tora and asked if I could come down and take a look at them. He said of course, so the next day I went there thinking I was just going to talk to him and look at the bikes up close. I got to look at them alright, but Tora also gave me a brief tour of his warehouse, a detailed explanation on how the bike and battery work and a little bit of history on Juiced Riders. Then he pulled out a bike for me and took me on a joy ride. It's quick and powerful. We did a steep hill from a dead stop just to demonstrate just how powerful the 48 V/23 Ah battery is. I'm 6'4" and weigh 230 lbs., but the bike took me up the hill--with minor pedal assist--with no problems.
The seat height gives me enough leg room, and the handlebars were comfortable. I don't have any complaints about the bike, so I'm sold on it. What I had originally planned to do was wait for the 48 V/32 Ah battery to arrive in September, but Tora said there will be a limited supply of those for a time. So, my current plan is to buy the 48 V/23 Ah version (just as soon as I've saved up enough funds). I'll ride around on it awhile and get a better feel for whether or not I really need the larger battery. If so, I can always buy the larger battery and swap it out. Tora said all the batteries are interchangeable. Unless I decide I need to go into the pizza delivery or messenger bike business, I think I'm going to be perfectly satisfied with the 48 V/23 Ah battery.
Juiced Riders makes a front basket that I'm going to get as well. It's $179 bucks, but man it's built like the face mask on a football helmet. I like one of the rear storage buckets that JR sells, but I think I'm going to pick-up the 1392 "Woody" front rack made by Wald.
http://waldsports.com/index.cfm/store/front-baskets/1392ww-zinc-woody-front-basket/. Although it was designed to go on the front, I saw where a guy mounted it on the rear of the ODK utilizing that multi-purpose, heavy duty rear rack the bike was designed with.
I hope to get mine by the end of the month, or maybe early July. I told Tora I would come down and pick it up, but he said he'd deliver it to me personally. How's that for customer service? In reality though, custom delivery would take all the fun out of it. So, thank you for offering, Tora, but I'll ride instead.
As you can tell, I can't wait. I'll update this forum when I do.
Hi Guys! I'm so happy to have found this forum. I love my ODK 500, but I am feeling pretty lonely out here in Massachusetts... I haven't met anyone here, outside of a bike store, who even knows what a cargo bike is. I did a fair amount of research and talked to Tora via email before placing my order. My car had died last March and I decided to replace it with the 23 ah ODK 500. The photo is of me on my way to work last April. Since the picture was taken, I have added the JR front basket and a back rack basket by Basil. Today I ordered the dual kickstand to help stabilize the bike when it is loaded with my groceries.
