dan emery
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6892
Location: Maine9/10/20 2:00 PM |
e-bike demo
I went over to the dark side yesterday (temporarily). The Bicycle Coalition was loaned some e-bikes and was offering demos, so I went over and rode a few. They didn't have any road bikes, so I rode a sort of hybrid and 2 Yuba cargo bikes, one with large front and rear racks, and one a full-on Belgian style, with a large wood box between the handlebar and front wheel.
My favorite was the big cargo bike, which I loved:
https://yubabikes.com/cargobikestore/yuba-electric-supermarche/
It handled really well and was a blast to ride. I can see the boost being handy with heavy hauling. It had a funky Enviolo continuously variable shifting system, which seemed to work pretty well. Great bike for groceries.
All the bikes had pedal assisted boost that cut out at 20 mph. It was kind of fun to add boost. One interesting quirk is that the bikes had a torque adjustment so if you pedal harder, the boost increases. So if I pedaled hard up a hill, the boost kicks up and I'd shift to a BIGGER gear!
You could manually vary the boost, including no boost.
I would actually consider one for utilitarian commuting/errand purposes. I don't feel as negatively as I did before about an assisted road bike for recreational purposes - the boost is not disruptive and it might be fun to take long rides without killing yourself - but I'm not ready to go there.
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