which Ebike to pick
- Thread starter artmann
- Start date
indianajo
Well-Known Member
As you live in California, I doubt that your pavement is perfect. Holes and bumps can be jarring on 20" wheels or smaller. I ride 26" wheels.
Folding bikes are useful for people that live in Europe, and commute on trains & busses. They are a last mile solution. The pavement is well maintained in Germany and London.
I suggest you buy a 20" kiddie bike at a resale shop, and ride it some miles with the seat jacked up, before you drop $$$ on an electric 14" folding bike.
Folding bikes are useful for people that live in Europe, and commute on trains & busses. They are a last mile solution. The pavement is well maintained in Germany and London.
I suggest you buy a 20" kiddie bike at a resale shop, and ride it some miles with the seat jacked up, before you drop $$$ on an electric 14" folding bike.
harryS
Well-Known Member
Are you looking at the 14" wheels to get portability when carrying the bike all folded up? For me, a 20" wheel would be as small as I would go. Anything smaller will be a jolting ride on rough pavement.
My wife and I ride our 20" folders everywhere on bike paths, streets, and empty country roads, but we rarely ever fold them.
Given a choice between your two picks, I wouldn't pick either. I am biased against the direct drive motor in the Eahora. They use it to recover power when the motor is off, and that spins the motor as a generator. This slows the bike down which is OK if you wanted to brake. If you want to coast, you have to do something with the controls. If your battery is flat, which almost never happens to most people, you have to pedal harder to fight the magnets in a direct drive motor. Finally, this kind of motor doesn't have the torque multiplication of a geared motor, so it will need to be larger to compensate. That said, plenty of people like them and it looks like a better made bike than the rinkydink.
I wouldn't pick a 16" bike for sport bike. If i had to ride one of these to work, I guess I wouldn't mind the drawbacks of the direct dive motor. I'd just want to get there. So the Eahora would be better than walking. I'd probably take my regular700cc pedal bike though. Gonna to be faster.
My wife and I ride our 20" folders everywhere on bike paths, streets, and empty country roads, but we rarely ever fold them.
Given a choice between your two picks, I wouldn't pick either. I am biased against the direct drive motor in the Eahora. They use it to recover power when the motor is off, and that spins the motor as a generator. This slows the bike down which is OK if you wanted to brake. If you want to coast, you have to do something with the controls. If your battery is flat, which almost never happens to most people, you have to pedal harder to fight the magnets in a direct drive motor. Finally, this kind of motor doesn't have the torque multiplication of a geared motor, so it will need to be larger to compensate. That said, plenty of people like them and it looks like a better made bike than the rinkydink.
I wouldn't pick a 16" bike for sport bike. If i had to ride one of these to work, I guess I wouldn't mind the drawbacks of the direct dive motor. I'd just want to get there. So the Eahora would be better than walking. I'd probably take my regular700cc pedal bike though. Gonna to be faster.
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