All about bicycles

Catching up. Note, the bikes are not Amish, but there are bike dealers in Amish country (3 hours northeast of me in Ohio) that supposedly have better prices on their bikes since many of their people need them. I'm not yet sure what all brands they have, and there is more than one dealer up there.
 
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garrett said:
If you and the Mrs are riding together, there's nothing forcing you to use the assist. So she can can be on turbo mode while you have assist turned off on yours. That's one of the things I like best about ebikes; they can equalize riders of different abilities.
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Me as well, I've even said that I didn't want an ebike, and that way Mrs. DTR could ride with me at a level that would actually get me some exercise, while being more relaxed for her (although I want her to get more exercise!).
 
garrett said:
I'm not up on ebikes, but a couple notes come to mind:

If you and the Mrs are riding together, there's nothing forcing you to use the assist. So she can can be on turbo mode while you have assist turned off on yours. That's one of the things I like best about ebikes; they can equalize riders of different abilities.

They're heavy. So if you're going to transport them, make sure you have a solid car rack or can heave them into a pickup truck bed or whatever.

This Bicycling article should be helpful: https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a22132137/best-electric-bikes/ I noticed all the other "best of" articles that came up are from non-cycling-specific sources. Their top recommendation even comes with a kickstand!
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And great point, yes they're heavy unless you spend $$$$
Mine is about 45lb without the battery and maybe 52 with.
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Catching up. Note, the bikes are not Amish, but there are bike dealers in Amish country (3 hours northest of me in Ohio) that supposedly have better prices on their bikes since many of their people need them. I'm not yet sure what all brands they have, and there is more than one dealer up there.
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What horse (& cart) power are they?
 
garrett said:
This Bicycling article should be helpful: https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/a22132137/best-electric-bikes/ I noticed all the other "best of" articles that came up are from non-cycling-specific sources. Their top recommendation even comes with a kickstand!
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I googled "best of" as well, and had looked at this one and 3 others during lunch. Like you say, most that came up were from tech sources. I only looked at the ones from things like "bicycling.com" or "ebikes.com" or things like that. But thanks for the link and any others you might stumble across that are more trustworthy, non-ad funded, sources. And, other preferences like the mid drive thing vs. hub.
 
The couple of ebike brand stores I’ve visited struck me as questionable value. They seemed more about style than quality or durability, and targeted a tourists that would be far away by the time it became apparent that they weren’t built to last.

I would definitely check what the Amish area stores were selling. I would expect a durability bias.
 
dmatthews said:
One last critical thing (to me) is to be genuinely happy with whatever you purchase and not "settle" for something for the sake of $500 or so. I know... not my money, LOL.
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Totally agree. And when I looked at a version of your bike (probably with less options, it was in the $3ks...) I'm not spending $2K on something I don't like. I like what I have now, and it even has a kickstand!
 
veinbuster said:
The couple of ebike brand stores I’ve visited struck me as questionable value. They seemed more about style than quality or durability, and targeted a tourists that would be far away by the time it became apparent that they weren’t built to last.

I would definitely check what the Amish area stores were selling. I would expect a durability bias.
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Thank you. I actually thought about that. A counterpoint being, many of the Amish have taken these up as their sole means of transportation. So, these weren't tourist driven businesses. They were started to provide the bikes for their own people, then started selling to the public. We saw them EVERYWHERE the last time we were up there. Snow on the ground, and teen girls and boys riding their ebikes to work, the store, home, etc..

That said, absolutely will look at brands they carry to assure it's a known brand, with some decent 3rd party reviews/ratings.
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Totally agree. And when I looked at a version of your bike (probably with less options, it was in the $3ks...) I'm not spending $2K on something I don't like. I like what I have now, and it even has a kickstand!
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Just so you know, mine will take a kick stand if you like. It has the proper mount. :D
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
Me as well, I've even said that I didn't want an ebike, and that way Mrs. DTR could ride with me at a level that would actually get me some exercise, while being more relaxed for her (although I want her to get more exercise!).
Click to expand...
At home my wife is on a traditional bike. On bike tours she rents an e-bike as our trips tend to be quite hilly and long. The hope is that we would spend more time cycling together. The reality is she engages turbo and blows by me. So we still ride separately. But now she’s the one who finishes well ahead.
 
E-bike = Mo-ped with better marketing hype. Ugh.

Side note, Bicycling magazine used to be published in my home town until it was bought out by Hearst. A lot of the editors are old friends, and their testing ground was often my home trail.
 
dankilling said:
E-bike = Mo-ped with better marketing hype. Ugh.

Side note, Bicycling magazine used to be published in my home town until it was bought out by Hearst. A lot of the editors are old friends, and their testing ground was often my home trail.
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ha, I've seen some that were... I mentioned this last summer here. We were camping last year and saw 4 adults cruising the campground on smaller ebikes. What I noticed though, was that they weren't "assisted." We saw them multiple times and I never saw any of the 4 pedal. They were cruising around like they were on mopeds.
 
veinbuster said:
The couple of ebike brand stores I’ve visited struck me as questionable value. They seemed more about style than quality or durability, and targeted a tourists that would be far away by the time it became apparent that they weren’t built to last.
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I looked up the one that is local to my office. It's Pedego. They are a brand store and I think (haven't been, but looked at their web site about a year ago) they only sell their brand. Is this one of the ones you reference? They seem to be popular with the local yuppie crowd. (never a good sign. Lots of frontrunners in that crowd... :p) :)
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
I looked up the one that is local to my office. It's Pedego. They are a brand store and I think (haven't been, but looked at their web site about a year ago) they only sell their brand. Is this one of the ones you reference? They seem to be popular with the local yuppie crowd. (never a good sign. Lots of frontrunners in that crowd... :p) :)
Click to expand...
Yes it is.
 
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