brendan halpin

I’ve now had my ebike for a few months, during which time I’ve been using it for my daily commute, errands, and occasional longer trips. (you can still get the same model for 800 bucks with a 400 dollar crazy bucks coupon if you live within driving range of an Ocean State Job Lots location!) (I have no financial connection here—just trying to alert folks to a bargain) Some thoughts:

Belt Drive: Where has this been all my life? I have read something about how it doesn’t transmit power from your legs to wheels as efficiently as a chain, but this is pretty irrelevant when you’re getting an assist from an electric motor. I can ride in the rain without worrying about rusting, I never get grease on my pants, and I don’t have to worry about going in to the bike shop and having the tech get out those chain calipers which inevitably show that you need a new chain. I will never buy an ebike with a chain after experiencing this.

No Gears: My bike has no gears, and I’m beginning to think it’s kind of weird that ebikes meant for urban commuting have gears at all. Gears fundamentally solve a problem which ebikes don’t have, which is adjusting the ease of pedaling depending on how fast you want to go or how steep the hill you’re on. On my bike, I can just change the level of pedal assist. No need for a finicky derailleur or even the added weight of internal hub gears!

Basket: I bought a rear rack and this basket + bag from Temu for about 25 bucks. As I’ve mentioned before, I live on a steep hill, and so I never bought a large-capacity basket for my old bike because there was no way in hell I could make it up the hill loaded with 25 pounds of groceries. But the ebike’s motor allows me to really load this thing up and still get home without my thighs exploding, which means I use this bike for errands way more than I used my old bike. “Hey, can you pick up 2 12-packs of seltzer?” Sure! No problem!

Weight: Even with no gears, this bike is heavy as hell, especially with the added weight of the rear rack and basket. It is a pain in the ass to get it up and down the 25 steps from the street to my house. This is made much worse by the step-through frame, which I like for riding because I am short but which eliminates an easy way to carry the bike. I hope ebikes will get lighter because this is probably the thing that will prevent anyone who lives in a walkup unit from getting one.

Built-in lights: Standard on most ebikes. Should be standard on any bike meant for commuting. Once Daylight Savings time ends, I’ll be riding in the dark pretty much every afternoon. I love that I don’t have to think about charging and/or attaching lights.

Throttle: I think I’ve used it intentionally 3 times. I have hit it unintentionally while walking the bike probably 5 times. For me, anyway, a net negative.

I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of bike paths and lanes on my way to work and in my neighborhood, but I have to say an unexpected bonus is that my ability to go 15 to 20mph easily makes me feel much safer when I have to ride in traffic.

Still incredibly pleased with my purchase. Still finding it really fun to ride!