Which ebike Seattle commuter for 6’2 300lbs?

Rgrtitan

New Member
First post. Looking at Stromer ST2, Specialized Vado 5/6, Trek Super Commuter or others for a 40 mile Bothell to Seattle round trip commute. Path will be some paved bike trails and Seattle streets. I’m 6’2 and about 300lbs. Any recommendations? Thanks!
 
Another alternative might be the Izip E3 ProTour, with Schwalbe Big Ben 2" puncture resistant tires, hydraulic disk brakes with 180mm rotors, thru-axles for strength and stiffness, and a 28mph TransX motor, plus fenders, rack, and lights.
 
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Awesome, will check those out also! Planning on a couple test rides in Seattle, no rush yet, but sooner is better.
 
The Ohm Urban is an awful consideration. Ignore the fact that it comes with upgraded specs including stuff like an Ergon gel padded saddle, an XT derailleur, upgraded flat pedals, comes in a 22" frame for tall rides, has a 90 mile max range, a powerful 500W direct drive motor from Bionx, and is considered one of the best build quality bikes by my master mechanics. At $3599 we consider it a steal. It is not very fast and only has a top assisted speed of 28mph, and has a full throttle that will take you to 28mph just by pushing a button as well. Write this one of your list........LOL

P.S. Ohm is a Vancouver B. C. company.
 
The Ohm Urban is an awful consideration. Ignore the fact that it comes with upgraded specs including stuff like an Ergon gel padded saddle, an XT derailleur, upgraded flat pedals, comes in a 22" frame for tall rides, has a 90 mile max range, a powerful 500W direct drive motor from Bionx, and is considered one of the best build quality bikes by my master mechanics. At $3599 we consider it a steal. It is not very fast and only has a top assisted speed of 28mph, and has a full throttle that will take you to 28mph just by pushing a button as well. Write this one of your list........LOL

P.S. Ohm is a Vancouver B. C. company.
I thought you were gonna start your litany of bad things. However, everything you said were not awful at all, they were awesome! That's a big plus for bionX.
 
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I recently test rode a couple e-bikes.

The first was a Vado 5. It was nice, but my ass and wrists were sore after a short bumpy pavement ride. Suspension fork and seatpost may be a requirement.
I'd probably consider the Vado 6 w/ a bodyfloat .

I tested out some Bulls and Haibike, with suspension forks and a bodyfloat. They were all Bosche CX (20mph), but pretty impressive. I may be more inclined to look at the Bosche Speed.

I haven't seen any LBS w/ Ohm or iZip.

The LBS I went to was very nice and took the time to test ride and educate me, will post more info about them once I figure out which way to go.

One I'm looking at now is the Bulls E2 Street w/ a bodyfloat seatpost. This fits most of my requirements and is nice that I can use as a lite MTB for the 1% I am not using it for a commute.
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I test rode a couple more and I ended up ordering a Bulls Six50 through a LBS.

I'll receive it sometime next week and I'll write up my experiences. Thanks everyone for the great input!
 
All right! I got the bicycle today!

I usually make my purchases online. After visiting several LBS in Seattle, they didn't seem to know much about their Stromer, Specialized and Trek e-bikes, which is very disconcerting since your spending several $k.

After stopping by Seattle Electric Bicycles, I met the owner, Stefan and his store staff. Stefan and the staff were extremely polite, knowledgeable and not pushy. I took a lot of their time w/ questions and test rides. After my experience there, I knew I was going to purchase my e-bike there and not online. They also happened to have a lot of great sales going on.

I decided on the Bulls Six50 E2 Street in 51 with a 20 cog (from 15) chainring upgraded on the front and a Body Float. The bike wasn't in stock and was special ordered.

The bicycle handles and rides great, especially with the Body Float. It's pretty zippy, even in the "tour mode", which is #2 of the 4 modes (eco, tour, sport, turbo). I'll have a better idea of the range later this week. As far as handling, it was great.

I'd strongly recommend anyone in the Seattle and surrounding areas check out Seattle Electric Bikes. They have really good selection of mid-drive and rear-drive bicycles.
 
I'm 6'3" and WAS 280-lbs back in January. Now I'm 240-lbs thanks to my HaiBike FatSix. You'll JUST get 20-miles out of it in Tour-mode, but if you keep a charger at your office, it'll get you back.
 
I'm 6'3" and WAS 280-lbs back in January. Now I'm 240-lbs thanks to my HaiBike FatSix. You'll JUST get 20-miles out of it in Tour-mode, but if you keep a charger at your office, it'll get you back.
Nice! You're my hero! The Bulls is the 28mph w/ 500whr, but probably will mean less distance than yours... Getting some exercise during commute and dropping weight back down is the goal!
 
Nice! You're my hero! The Bulls is the 28mph w/ 500whr, but probably will mean less distance than yours... Getting some exercise during commute and dropping weight back down is the goal!

Excellent! I was on the fence about investing in a high-quality ebike; but soon after I got it I was regretting not diving in years earlier. I was drawn to the fatty since their frames tend to be beefier, and I wanted something that'd carry by weight without trouble. I also wanted a pedal-assist, no throttle: the goal was to get moderate exercise in my comfort-zone and not arrive @ work sweaty. The FatSix has fit the bill perfectly. You can have a look at my past posts...I'd had a few issues with it early on, but they turned out to be minor things that I could have avoided with some standard maintenance and a little better bike-knowledge. The FatSix is rock-solid...still is after 1000-miles...really high-quality hardware, and superb engineering. The only thing I can really complain about is that one of the Miranda crank-arms had a defective ISIS interface which evolved into another issue with a retaining-clip on the Bosch motor; this was all handled under HaiBike's incredible warranty . I really beat on it out of the box, and I should add that I regularly carry about 50 extra lbs of stuff in my backpack, so the frame handles about 330-lbs. just fine (or did...since it'd be 290-lbs now!).

I should add that although this model cuts off assistance @ 20MPH, I installed a chip to circumvent it, and it's worked flawlessly. This bike NEEDS to cruise @ 22MPH. Also, in my experience I've had very little need for the upper two assistance-levels (about 200% & 300% matching effort) VERY rarely would I use them on trail-riding where I'd hit an exceptionally steep section. In fact, after having ridden it regularly on its 2nd-level (100%) with a little more than 20-mile range...I've begun to be able to ride in its lowest assistance level (50%) very comfortably. This, of course, since I've become stronger. On a full-charge, I can get about 32-miles out of it in that mode.

Now, since we're comparable in size: this bike comes in 3 sizes, and the LARGE version is JUST large enough for us. I found that I needed to keep the seat-post at its absolute maximum-limit for a really comfortable ride. I ended up installing a 400mm dropper seat-post to save my balls on the trails, and it added a few mm to the max-height, so I'm in a real comfort-zone there. I also installed a handlebar extender which raises and pushes the bar about 10mm forward. Also installed some bull-horns on the bar-ends to allow me to recline a little when cruising.

One last note: this IS a fatty, so its fatter tires contribute a lot more rolling resistance, hence the lower-than-average range. This is directly related to the tires' pressure as well. That all said, it handles exceptionally well on sand and rocky beaches as well as snow. For regular, long-distance commuting, I would recommend investing in commuter-tires and high-pressured inflation...I'm getting over 20-miles per charge on the knobbies, who knows how many more you could get on slicks and asphalt.
 
Oh geez! I feel like a goose...I just went into a disquisition thinking you were still on fence about which model to get. I just read you'd already received your bike! CONGRATS! Good luck and many happy miles of healthy riding!
 
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