i am usually in the pro-shop side of things when it comes to e-bikes like this. most people rely on them like cars, so making sure they’re good enough to work every time without worry matters. that said, buying from a bike shop does not guarantee the bike shop actually knows how to work on e-bikes
speaking from my personal experience, i think buying used e-bikes with bosch, shimano, or fazua motors is pretty reliable. i’m at nearly 7,000 miles on my katu-e with no issues. there might be more informed opinions here tho
far smaller sample size, but i got about 250 miles on this Flyer L885 long tail bike and it didn’t miss a beat. kickstand was infuriating tho
if there’s a mike’s bikes near you, you can take a look at Momentum’s (Giant) and Yuba’s stuff. your local specialized dealer will have the globe haul ST and LT; those are both pretty sweet. most Tern dealers seem to be really, really into their bikes, though the closest dealer is in Palo Alto
Flyer kickstand seems like a dealbreaker, especially with kid on back!
The Yuba I’m going to look at is at my closest Mike’s. My other nearby shop is a Spec dealer so I’ll see if I can look at a Haul LT
I assume any motor problems would go back to the manufacturer be it Shimano or Bosch? Any wiring troubleshooting (seeing reports of too much grease in connectors) I could probably handle myself.
Also, I’m also now questioning if a long tail is the best for this use! My wife would use it to commute 3x a week and then I was thinking it would be on kid duty on weekends and days she’s wfh. So I’ll need a kid seat on another bike anyways when she’s i t be office. Would we be better off with a dedicated e-commuter for her, and I suffer with babby on my acoustic clyde?
yeah most of the time, that’s what happens. in my experience, if the motor is under warranty, they just swap the motors outright. i can count the number of times i’ve seen a motor issue with those bikes on one hand., though early shimano ep8 motors could be pretty rattly.
a mid-tail bike could be good then? the Tern Quick Haul (the nicer one that does 28 mph) i rode last year was excellent as just a bike that happened to do the commuter thing really well but probably isn’t best as a full-time kid hauler. maybe the globe haul st could work well for you too.
Tried out two bikes today: Gazelle with a Bosch and Yuba Combi with a shimano steps. Sup did not like the Yuba and even with no cargo said it felt hard to start from a stop! Bosch motor was completely seamless and feels like you’re on a tandem with a strong stoker. The Yuba slowed down a lot when coasting — but that should’ve have anything to do with the motor I’d say? Maybe something about the power delivery and cutoff made it feel like that though. I forget the model of the Gazelle, but it was one with the battery in the rear rack, which to me, seems annoying and top heavy. These are both over budget, too. Will have to try a hub drive next.
I didn’t get to ride anything yet because I was wearing a sleeping baby!
Went to turn the bike on and got no juice, battery is reading 1 red light indicating 25% or less charge. When I plug the charger into the wall, the one LED lights up green. It stays green when I plug the battery in, indicating that it either thinks the battery is fully charged or is not detecting that the battery is connected. This is a Bafang system AFAIK.
Every troubleshooting blurb I’m seeing online involves multimeters and case disassembly and I don’t want to get into that shit today. If anyone has a method for resetting or something let me know.
Pulled the trigger last night on a Grin All Axle V3 kit with Super Harness for my Xtracycle. Looking forward to doing my first ebike conversion and plan to document it.
Got me looking around and the company I got my kit from seems to have gone under. No big deal because there are plenty of TSDZ-2 parts around the internet but I got a custom-flashed SW102 display from them that I don’t think will be replaceable. I’m not worried about it breaking but I would rather not have to replace that with some iPad display
