Foodking24
New Member
Hi,
I purchased a Freedom Fatty based on another review I had read and bought one through their early order service. I am here to tell you all about my bike, the mostly good and some of the items I was not impressed with.
My bike was delivered via Fed Ex and well packed. One of the items on the website says that you will be up and riding in 10-15 minutes. Maybe if I had had help from 1 person who had done it before that would have been possible, but even then it would have been a stretch. Everything was so well packed, that it probably took me at least 10 minutes to get all the zip ties and protective packaging off of everything! Assembly was easy and straight forward, but the manual that came in the box was only a slip of paper sending me to the website. All good, except the link indicated on the paper was not functioning (and still isn't functioning as a direct link; (Link Removed - No Longer Exists) ) and I had to manually find the instructions on their website (small complaint, but legitimate at the same time).
There were two other issues with assembly. The first and most obvious was getting the caliper to not rub on the disc as the front wheel spun around. That took me about 10-15 minutes as their is not a lot of room for error on either side of the disc. To be fair, I've never had to adjust a caliper on a bike before, but I would have expected it to either a) fit perfectly (maybe too much to ask with cross country shipping) or b) be included as part of the "ready to go" time that they mention. All in all, it was a straight forward process. The other assembly issue I had was that the rear derailleur was really off, the indicated gears on the front were not meshing with what gear it was actually in on the rear cog and there was a little slippage in the middle gears. I've never adjusted a derailleur before, but a 10 minute YouTube video and 15 minutes with the bike had it all squared away.
I've never ridden an e-bike before this one, but I really felt like it had a very small learning curve and I felt very comfortable within the first 5 minutes. I love how I can adjust the assist level (between 1-5) depending on where I am riding and what my goals are. The bike easily boosts me up to 20 mph when I am pedaling on flat ground and somewhat less when going up the steep hills near my house (my whole reason for buying an e-bike). I have almost 100 miles on it so far and I pretty much only using it for commuting to work and sometimes to the gym. I like the built-in alarm so I can just leave the battery attached to the bike while I am parked somewhere.
After getting about 50 miles on my bike, the seat loosened up (the fore/aft adjustment I believe it is called) while I was riding! I have only been riding on the roads so far, and it has only been a little bumpy, so I was a little surprised by that. Again, I should probably have checked all the bolts before I rode too far, but that was a small surprise for me.
The other reason I bought an e-bike is that I have children and I was physically unable to bike up the hill near my house with the 2 of them in a trailer behind my bike (and I really, really tried). So I bought a trailer a week ago and have attached it to the rear axle. I haven't put my kids in it yet (I only had 1 helmet!), but I did put 80# of dumbbells in the trailer and took it up and down the hill. The brakes held up great going downhill and the motor made going up hill a dream!
I bought the Freedom Fatty instead of the regular Freedom for 2 main reasons. First, I plan on using it year-round and I wanted the more aggressive tires for better winter traction. Also, the Fatty came with a 500W Bafang motor (the regular Freedom is 350W, I believe). I have to believe that the bigger motor is what really helps me get up the hill.
So, all in all, I am very happy with the bike. I have not had an opportunity to test their customer service, so I cannot comment on that. However, my wife liked my bike so much (and me too, of course) that we bought her an identical model!
I will update this thread as the miles pile on!
I purchased a Freedom Fatty based on another review I had read and bought one through their early order service. I am here to tell you all about my bike, the mostly good and some of the items I was not impressed with.
My bike was delivered via Fed Ex and well packed. One of the items on the website says that you will be up and riding in 10-15 minutes. Maybe if I had had help from 1 person who had done it before that would have been possible, but even then it would have been a stretch. Everything was so well packed, that it probably took me at least 10 minutes to get all the zip ties and protective packaging off of everything! Assembly was easy and straight forward, but the manual that came in the box was only a slip of paper sending me to the website. All good, except the link indicated on the paper was not functioning (and still isn't functioning as a direct link; (Link Removed - No Longer Exists) ) and I had to manually find the instructions on their website (small complaint, but legitimate at the same time).
There were two other issues with assembly. The first and most obvious was getting the caliper to not rub on the disc as the front wheel spun around. That took me about 10-15 minutes as their is not a lot of room for error on either side of the disc. To be fair, I've never had to adjust a caliper on a bike before, but I would have expected it to either a) fit perfectly (maybe too much to ask with cross country shipping) or b) be included as part of the "ready to go" time that they mention. All in all, it was a straight forward process. The other assembly issue I had was that the rear derailleur was really off, the indicated gears on the front were not meshing with what gear it was actually in on the rear cog and there was a little slippage in the middle gears. I've never adjusted a derailleur before, but a 10 minute YouTube video and 15 minutes with the bike had it all squared away.
I've never ridden an e-bike before this one, but I really felt like it had a very small learning curve and I felt very comfortable within the first 5 minutes. I love how I can adjust the assist level (between 1-5) depending on where I am riding and what my goals are. The bike easily boosts me up to 20 mph when I am pedaling on flat ground and somewhat less when going up the steep hills near my house (my whole reason for buying an e-bike). I have almost 100 miles on it so far and I pretty much only using it for commuting to work and sometimes to the gym. I like the built-in alarm so I can just leave the battery attached to the bike while I am parked somewhere.
After getting about 50 miles on my bike, the seat loosened up (the fore/aft adjustment I believe it is called) while I was riding! I have only been riding on the roads so far, and it has only been a little bumpy, so I was a little surprised by that. Again, I should probably have checked all the bolts before I rode too far, but that was a small surprise for me.
The other reason I bought an e-bike is that I have children and I was physically unable to bike up the hill near my house with the 2 of them in a trailer behind my bike (and I really, really tried). So I bought a trailer a week ago and have attached it to the rear axle. I haven't put my kids in it yet (I only had 1 helmet!), but I did put 80# of dumbbells in the trailer and took it up and down the hill. The brakes held up great going downhill and the motor made going up hill a dream!
I bought the Freedom Fatty instead of the regular Freedom for 2 main reasons. First, I plan on using it year-round and I wanted the more aggressive tires for better winter traction. Also, the Fatty came with a 500W Bafang motor (the regular Freedom is 350W, I believe). I have to believe that the bigger motor is what really helps me get up the hill.
So, all in all, I am very happy with the bike. I have not had an opportunity to test their customer service, so I cannot comment on that. However, my wife liked my bike so much (and me too, of course) that we bought her an identical model!
I will update this thread as the miles pile on!
