The bad:
The springs on the stock seat are useless, I added a cheap suspension seat post to the stock seat and now it is sane, I dare say enjoyable.
The brake calipers are super close to the spokes, as the pads wear I’ve had to trade rubbing a pad or rubbing the spokes until I replaced the uneven pads. The pads also wear pretty fast, the stock organics only lasted about 400 miles, but they may do better if you don’t enable class 3 speeds.
The top (fastest) gear is still not enough for the top speed, it is hard to keep up with pedaling in PAS 4+. I plan on swapping this for a better one.
The controller can’t handle getting splashed, at all. A puddle splash was all it took for the PAS to start freaking out, it would cut in and out while riding and suddenly try to take off while walking. I put a short piece of pex tube under the controller behild the battery connection plate to raise it a bit above the drain holes and I haven’t had a problem since but I feel like it should have better water resistance than it does.
The good:
The range is decent, I get over 20 miles with PAS 3 and below and about 15 miles with PAS 4.
The power is ok, it struggles uphill and as the battery gets low it struggles against the wind, at full charge it feels very powerful though. Overall I don’t even break a sweat for my 11 mile hilly commute.
The derailer is great, feels very responsive, I haven’t had to adjust anything from when it arrived.
Overall I’d buy it again at the $1k price point I paid but you can get much better used bikes for that price. It’s a good entry level bike, the suspension seat post is absolutely necessary though.
How often do you actually fold it?
In the last year I’ve only folded it about 4 times to stuff it into a car, I do fold down the pedals to wheel it into the office pretty often.
Is there anything you wish you’d known before you bought it? Something else you wish you would’ve went with?
Btw, if you want a nice comfy saddle check out the Brooks b67.
It is a heavy bastard. It’s foldable so I figured I could take it on the subway but it’s so heavy that it’s not practical to carry up stairs, there also isn’t really a good carrying handle and you end up picking it up by the pinch points. I wish I went with something a bit lighter. As a work around, I bought a second charger and motorcycle PPE, i just use PAS 4 both ways and let it charge at work. My 20 minute drive is a 25 minute bike ride and when traffic is bad it’s still a 25 minute ride. Going that fast means the suspension post is a must, sometimes you don’t see the potholes in time to stand and it HURTS.
The brake calipers are super close to the spokes
Is this something which can be photographed? I’m having trouble understanding how this can happen, unless the disc brake caliper body is exceptionally wide or if the spoke angle is exceptionally steep.
There really isn’t much clearance there and with uneven wear the caliper kept getting closer to the spokes every time I centered the rotor to the point where it starts rubbing. Honestly this seems really bad if it gets snagged on a spoke at high speed.
I have the same bike and only have 70 miles or so on mine. I can definitely relate to the hardtail being rough on my back. Can you share which springy seat post you recommend? Also, where do I find replacement brake pads? So I can have those on hand. This is my first e-bicycle and I like that my kid can ride on the back. I appreciate the AMA and now I know to keep the controller dry. Cheers, mate!
Use your legs to support more weight, especially over bumps and drops.
I use a Cane Creek Thudbuster LT4 on my hardtail MTB if you’re looking for a nice suspension seatpost. Just make sure you get the suspension medium rated for your weight.
If you’re looking for saddles, I like the Brooks b67 (I use this with my folding bike and a regular seatpost) and b17 (I use this on my hardtail MTB with the Cane Creek LT4).
I bought this post and attached it to the stock seat: https://a.co/d/d5sUw8X Don’t pick up the bike by the seat, it will eventually pop out the rubber seal on the suspension post. I don’t remember what size it was.
For the brake pads I have these: https://a.co/d/4Sm9TkM They seem ok, they get plenty of bite, I’ll probably have to replace the rotors eventually, I’m not convinced the stock rotors are meant for semi metallic. A local bike shop will have this size on hand but they might be like $45 per pair.
Thanks so much for the info and insight! Have fun riding!
