Nice looking bike! I like the way the battery is concealed in the frame- it doesn’t even look like an e-bike. Those are some serious panniers. You look ready for a cross-country road trip 
Great news! Did you find it as easy to assemble as I had said? Can’t wait to hear how the maiden voyage goes.
I just won a rebate in the Colorado e-bike lottery.
This should give me a $500 rebate used at the time of purchase. The only rules are I have to buy the bike from an eligible local retailer, which is pretty much any bike store in Colorado; 750 watts or less; not a full suspension mountain bike; and $5000 or less.
My preference is to keep my final price to $500 or less.
Sometime in the next two weeks I should receive my rebate code, and then I’ll start going to ride some things. I’ll look back through this thread at specific suggestions. Any other advice or things to think about?
Congrats!
My HeyBike Race Max has held up great over a summer of riding. So, if you want to stay at $1000 or under with the $500 rebate plus your money, you could do worse than the HeyBike brand in that price range. I don’t know what advice to offer other than that, but if you have any specific questions, feel free to post here or PM me.
Damn, I can’t believe the pic I posted a few posts upthread here was way back at the beginning of summer-- feels like I took it last week. Summer sure goes by fast 
When I test drove two bikes, one with a speed sensor and the other with a torque sensor, I was impressed by how much better the torque sensor was. When you are pushing off from a stop, the torque sensor gives you an immediate assist, while with the speed sensor you have to push very hard for a couple seconds before the power assist kicks in. Depending on the terrain and your physical ability, this may or may not be a big deal. For me it was worth the extra $$ to get the torque sensor.
I clearly have the speed sensor, because it does take a second or two after I start pedaling for the assist to kick in. I learned to compensate for it, especially when crossing a busy street where I need to get off to a fast start, by hitting the throttle lever for that second or two, to get me going. It’s about the only time I use the ‘no pedaling needed’ mode.
My bike also takes a second or so for the assist to stop once I stop pedaling, which was a bit startling at first when I’m expecting to slow down immediately when I stop pedaling. But I adjusted quickly.
If I was to upgrade to a higher quality e-bike I’d also like to get one with a sleeker profile and more hidden battery, like bobsmom101’s bike, pictured upthread here. In addition to the fact that the big honkin’ battery takes up the entire inside of the a-frame area, making water bottle placement difficult, it also makes it glaringly obvious it’s an e-bike, and I get people yelling out “hey, how you like that e-bike?”
Just commenting that I saw someone on an e-bike with really fat tires, like at least the width of a car tire. Does not seem common; the guy did not look particularly heavy, but perhaps he just likes the lower pressure or better traction.
My voucher codes arrived, so I’ve gone out and tested a couple of ebikes. I’ll test some more this weekend. I rode the Aventon Soltera.2 and the NCM T3s, as those were the two cheapest bikes at the store.
I don’t really have anything to compare them to, so it’s hard to say what I thought about them. The Soltera.2 is 350W, and the T3s is 500W, and I could tell the difference. Both, as setup, were limited to 18.5MPH or something. That was a bit annoying, as I wanted to pedal faster, and then pedaling became much harder.
The Soltera.2 seemed a bit better put together, but I suspect that is a tuning and adjustment issue. The brakes on the T3s squeaked, and at a full stop the levers were pulled into the grip. I’ve also never been on a bike with disk brakes. I assume that isn’t normal, otherwise people would hate them.
Is there any reason I should avoid just getting a Ride1up Portola or Turris? For a lower price those seem to outclass both of the bikes I rode.
Now, please help me get over my internal bias and misogyny. The small wheeled bikes, like the Portola, look stupid to me. I do see lots of that style riding on the street outside my office. The cheaper e-bikes seem to come in one frame size, so due to my height I probably will need to get a step-through model, instead of a step-over model (The XT versus the SR on the Turis). I still think of the step-through style as a girls’ bike. Am I showing my age, do I just need to get over myself? I do see lots of men riding step-through bikes.
I wouldn’t call it misogynist or biased, or showing your age, to feel this way. I went through the same thing-- I looked at the HeyBike Mars, which is a small-wheeled folding model very similar to the Portola, but I couldn’t get over that it looked like one of those little clown bikes to me. I wouldn’t describe it as looking ‘girly’, just more like a moped or scooter. Which is fine if you want a moped or scooter.
I was happy when I found the Race Max model I ended up with, pictured upthread, not only because it looks more like a standard mountain bike, it also handles more like a mountain bike-- I don’t really do trail riding anymore, but there are plenty of roads around here with minefields of potholes, or dirt roads, that are as bumpy and treacherous as a medium difficulty trail. Something like the Portola looks like a strictly urban commuter style bike. I probably wouldn’t want to take it on a dirt road. So what you want to use it for, and where you will ride it, should figure in as well.
Yeah, this just means the store guys haven’t adjusted them properly. The squeaking is probably because one side of the pad is making contact with the disc before the other. Fixing that can be a bit tricky/finicky. There’s not a lot of play in the disc brakes, so even a small error can be a problem.
The problem of pulling to the grip is that there’s too much slack in the wire. Fixing that is pretty easy, and on my bike, there’s a screw thingy on the brake handle itself that can take up at least some slack. These wires do stretch and slip a bit over time, so making such adjustments should be part of regular maintenance. Sounds like they just aren’t maintaining the floor model very well.
Thanks, that’s what I suspected. That seems just like the old tire squeezing brakes as far as side to side adjustment and cable stretch. I’ve always liked my brake levers firm. I expect at my price point I’m not going to see hydraulic brakes.
It did leave me with a bit of a poor impression of the shop. I don’t know if that is fair, though. The people I talked to seemed nice, and answered my questions, but I had to almost beg to get an upsell.
Anytime I’m shopping for something like a bike, I always want to know what will another $200 buy me? Often it’s something like the derailleur weighs 50 grams less, and I don’t care. I don’t know where the lines are for e-bikes though. I’d happily go a bit over my budget if it means getting a considerably better bike, but not just for a color screen or something.
Interesting day. I rode a bunch more ebikes.
Those are all in $1000-1500 price range. The Lectric is one of those small wheeled folding bikes, but the others are all normal looking bikes.
If those I think I liked the Cityrun or the Hybrid the best. I didn’t try the Hybrid Pro, which is the 750 watt version.
After all of that I went and rode a $2400 Trek Dual Sport+. The electronics, for what was there, might be higher quality, but there just isn’t much. No screen, no computer, no throttle, 250 watt, that’s just encouragement, not propulsion. But wow, is it ever a better bicycle than the others.
I really don’t plan to spend $2000, so I think I will have to choose from the low end ones, but at least I’ll know what I’m missing.
Have you looked at the Super73 competitors likethe Ride1uo Rev1? I like these bikes because they are very capable, have good speed and range, generally have 750W-1300W motors, etc. Also, as a motorcycle rider, I like the soft tail and full suspension. It makes riding much more comfortable.
I’ve seen full suspension clones for as cheap as about $1300. The Rev1 is more like $2300.
I think I’ve decided on the Aventon Aventure.2. After riding a bunch of bikes, I feel like I got a reasonable feel for the things at the bottom end of the market.
I found I liked mountain bike ergonomics, big motors, and torque sensors. I think a cadence sensor would be fine on a commuter bike, but more predictable response of the torque sensor seems better to me on tight maneuvers and rough terrain.
I’m still trying to decide between the Aventure.2 and the not-quite released Lectric Xpeak.
a few radom thoughts:
so, in short both seem good-enough for years of transportation. My (highly personal) preference set makes me think the aventon might justify the higher price … and if you devide the $300 by the number of month you plan to use it (say 60) … it should not be an issue.
Having said that, also check of “promotion patterns” of prices … but of course black-friday / x-mas should be a good moment to buy
best of luck
Thanks for your thoughts. I did end up going with the Aventon, because, as you say, $300 isn’t too much of an issue.
I’m 160cm, so the bike is not cramped at all to ride. I went with the step over style frame for the added rigidity and strength. Plus, that was in stock at the local store. Swinging a leg over while wearing jeans is a bit of a nuisance, but completely manageable.
The front fork seems fine. When I first test rode the bike it was locked, and wasn’t as smooth as I expected. I unlocked it and rode it some more, and it was about what I expected. I’ll have to play with the preload and rebound to get it adjusted the way I want.
Do people air down their giant bike tires when going off-road?
Unfortunately the clearances on the bicycle’s rear rack mean that my motorcycle tail bag won’t fit, so I’ll buy some panniers to use the bike for errands.
I think the pricing worked out well. When all is done, I’ll have gotten a $2000 bike plus $200 of accessories for about $1100. That is a $400 sale on the bike, $500 of state incentive money towards the bike, $100 of state money towards accessories, and $100 manufacturer cash towards accessories.
I also just found out the Aventon has a USB port on the display screen to charge a phone. For all I was reading about these bikes, I never saw that mentioned until I searched to see if there was an accessory charger or something, and there it was, already built-in.
Congrats on your purchase! Post back in awhile after you’ve put it through some paces, if you feel like it, and let us know how it’s working out for you.
Some general thoughts from someone that finally got one. I ended up getting an REI Generation e.1.1 when they had a big sale this past summer, and I love it. It is a cargo bike, so it is built for hauling stuff, and it is admittedly kind of weird looking. But it works for me.
I am definitely riding a lot more. I went on a local long rail trail with a friend that biked from AZ to GA, and I was able to keep up with her, which was very nice. It’s a class 1 pedal assist, so nothing crazy fast. I usually top out at around 15mpg because I am wary of riding too fast with just a bike helmet.
My town has some bike infrastructure, but not a lot - I am lucky in that I live in a very bikeable neighborhood. I still haven’t worked up the nerve to commute to work on it, which is my end goal. It’s only about four miles, but there are some busy streets on the way and I work at a university, so I’m afraid of texting teens. I read on another forum to practice riding on an ebike first to get a feel for the handling without cars nearby, and that helped a lot. My turns are definitely different on this than my old road bike. The only time I have wiped out is in my own gravel driveway where I turned too fast. I ended up picking some gravel out of my hand, so I would recommend riding gloves!
I can definitely already see myself wanting to upgrade to something sleeker in a few years. My complaint is that it is SO heavy. It’s a real pain to lug around. But for a relatively cheap bike with almost two free years of servicing at REI, I think it is a great starter.