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Griffin Hales

Himiway Big Dog E-Bike Review

Every Himiway bike like the Big Dog we’ve reviewed has a theme; many of the direct-to-consumer e-bike brands produce a stable of models that run the gamut from cruisers to commuters to all-terrain models and more. In some cases, the approach has seemed a bit like spaghetti-at-the-wall. And in this environment, it’s not that hard to find something that will stick. Himiway Electric Bikes has gone in a different direction. They have a definite design philosophy.

Looking across Himiway’s line, three recurring themes emerge: Big tires, big motors, and big batteries. Every bike in their lineup, including the Big Dog, shares these priorities, and yet each model is noticeably different from the others. In our Himiway Big Dog review we will look at what separates it from the other Himiway models and how this cargo e-bike stacks up among the other e-bikes we review.

The Himiway Big Dog earns its stripes as a cargo bike thanks to its payload capacity of 400 lbs. To handle all this weight, the Big Dog is built with oversized aluminum tubing, a heavy-duty rack and ultra-strong, cast aluminum wheels.

With a 750W brushless hub motor and a 960Wh Samsung/LG battery, this is one e-bike with the power necessary to haul a full load. It’s built with a 7-speed drivetrain, disc brakes, front and rear lights, as well as fenders, this is a full-featured e-bike that can handle a trip to Home Depot.

Let’s dig into what makes the Himiway Big Dog a cargo e-bike worth considering.

3 E-Bike Safety Tips When Riding

*We receive a lot of requests to write for Electric Bike Report. We don’t typically let others write content for us very often, but we appreciated the advice of this article and agreed to publish it.

E-bikes are racing ahead in the clean-transportation revolution, with approximately 1.1 million imported into the United States last year. But even with the best electric bikes came collisions.

Between 2017 and 2021, the US saw a staggering 127 percent increase in injuries related to micromobility devices, totaling 77,200 cases and resulting in 119 deaths. These statistics are only getting worse. New York alone recorded ten fatalities resulting from cyclist collisions in the first quarter of 2023 — the same number of accidents that occurred throughout 2018.

Evidently, as the e-bike takes to our urban streets, there is a vital need to prioritize rider safety and encourage responsible use. An e-bike subscription platform for last-mile delivery drivers Whizz emphasizes three fundamental safety rules that every urban e-bike rider should follow. By embracing these guidelines, riders can roam their cities in a safe way — both for themselves and those they share the roads with.

E-Bike Safety Tip #1: Always Wear a Helmet

If there’s one piece of gear you should never ride without, it’s a good helmet. Not only are they proven to be highly effective in preventing fatalities, but they also reduce the risk of head injury by 69%.

To be certain that your helmet will hold up during an accident, ensure it meets safety benchmarks such as the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) Bicycle Helmet Standards. This certification ensures that it has undergone rigorous testing to provide suitable protection.

Your headgear should be constructed from high-quality materials such as polycarbonate, which offer durability and impact resistance. Additionally, helmets with an expanded polystyrene lining provide excellent shock absorption. Some helmets also offer extended coverage at the back for additional safety, while others incorporate technologies like MIPS (Multi-directional Impact Protection System) to reduce rotational forces during angled impacts.

While safety should be your top priority, comfort is important too. Look for a helmet that comfortably fits your head, with adequate ventilation to keep your head cool during long rides. Preferably, it should have adjustable straps, or a dial or retention system at the back that allows you to fine-tune the fit. Not only will a snug fit deter you from removing your helmet to alleviate discomfort, but it will stop it from slipping off at the worst possible time.

Often, new e-bike riders splash out on a dependable bike and battery but overlook the importance of a high-quality helmet. Sure, settling for the cheapest option may save you a few dollars, but is that worth risking your life for?

Understandably, not everybody has the money to invest in high-end gear. To address this, Whizz has taken the initiative to provide free helmets to delivery drivers in New York City as part of its ‘Ride Safe’ campaign. Anyone with an active delivery service account can claim one on Whizz’s website — and protect themselves as they shuttle our orders around the city.

Cero One E-Bike Review – 2024 | A Compact Cargo E-Bike

Substituting an e-bike for a car for some, if not most trips, is a terrific way to improve our health as well as do the planet a good turn by pumping fewer greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. It’s a win-win, for sure. But when we talk to e-bike owners who have struggled to use their e-bike instead of their car, the number one complaint we hear every time is that they have a tough time carrying anything more than a backpack, so stopping at the store to pick up a few ingredients for that night’s dinner doesn’t work so well. Same for dropping kids off or picking them up from school.

The CERO One is a solution to that problem. It’s a cargo e-bike that can carry a rider, a kid and a couple of bags of groceries. In our CERO One review we will take a look at what makes this e-bike different from other e-bikes and what makes it suited to someone whose commute includes a kid and some groceries, not the whole Little League team.

Cargo e-bikes are easy enough to dream up, but much tougher to design. Just how much does it need to carry? Where will the load be carried? How adaptable does it need to be? How powerful does it need to be? The CERO One’s sweet spot is rider + kid + stuff. Armed with a Yepp child seat in back and a front basket, a rider can tote themselves, a child and a couple of bags of groceries and stay below its 300-lb. weight limit.

Blix Dubbel E-Bike Review – 2024

E-bikes offer a realistic alternative to driving a car. Whether someone chooses to buy one for environmental reasons or health reasons or even economic ones, the reasons to ride an e-bike are pretty compelling. But not every e-bike can serve as a suitable substitute for a car. Car’s provide a ton of utility afterall. But our review of the Blix Dubbel will consider how much utility an electric bike can provide when thoughtful design meets practical function.

The Blix Dubbel is a response to the varied needs we have for driving a car. In addition to driving to work, we usually drive to go anywhere with a child and running errands to places like the grocery store call for the ability to transport more than can fit in a backpack or a pair of panniers.

And there’s more to a good e-bike than just carrying capacity. Load junior on the back and put a gallon of milk in the front basket along with jars of peanut butter and pasta sauce and those additional pounds have the potential to change the handling of the e-bike. The Blix Dubbel is designed to take any reasonable load without blinking.

But it’s not all about what it can be outfitted to do. It’s also just a wildly fun e-bike with sportier than you’d expect feel. Let’s take a look at some of the highlight features and impressive data the Electric Bike Report team collected during our Blix Dubbel review.

*Blix no longer sells the Dubbel, but you might try looking into our Blix Vika X review instead.

Ride1UP LMTD Review, 2024

Ride1Up has a new LMTD out for sale: The LMTD V2. Click here to see that review, as this model is no longer available for sale.

There are so many competitive e-bikes in the $1500-$2000 price range, it can be hard to build a bike that stands out from the competition. With the LMT’D, Ride1UP made an e-bike with a set of priorities different from what we see with the average commuter or city e-bike.

What we will explore in our Ride1UP LMT’D review is how this is an e-bike more focused on performance than function. It’s an affordable muscle car of an e-bike. It features a powerful motor, a sizable battery, a high-quality suspension fork, quick-rolling tires, an 8-speed drivetrain and perhaps most notable is that it uses a torque sensor to control the motor rather than a cadence sensor.

All added up the Ride1UP LMT’d just feels like it’s a performance tier above its price tier which is certainly no small feat to accomplish. To achieve this there were some concessions made by omitting a few standard features, but everything you DO get included adds up to a sensational ride.

For all of our thoughts on the total package on the Ride1UP LMTD head further down into our comprehensive review.

Eunorau Defender S Electric Bike Review, 2024

The emergence of direct-to-consumer e-bike companies has shaken up just what an e-bike can or should be. When we look at the legacy bicycle companies we see a lot of very traditional thinking in traditional models like commuters, cruisers, road bikes and mountain bikes. The D2C companies have often taken that thinking and tossed it out the nearest high window. Thank heaven. That’s 100% the case with the Eunorau Defender S we reviewed – it’s an e-bike that is anything but traditional or found in a common mold.

The Eunorau Defender S is a bike that a company like Giant or Cannondale would never have made. That’s not to say it’s not a worthwhile e-bike; but it required someone thinking about what an e-bike can be in a fresh way in order to see this rig to market. In our review of the Eunorau Defender S we will look at what makes this e-bike so different from most of the bikes we see with big, knobby tires.

The first, most obvious difference between the Defender S and other e-bikes is that this uses two-wheel drive. Yes, you read that correctly. Both the front and rear wheels drive this bike. We will get into just how this works later in our review.

At root, though, this is an all-terrain e-bike with full suspension to smooth out rough roads and rocky ground. It is equipped with hydraulic disc brakes and a 9-speed Shimano Alivio drivetrain, which gives it an increased ability to take in big hills. It also comes in two sizes in order to better fit buyers.

QuietKat Villager Electric Bike Review, 2024

QuietKat is known for being a hunter or outdoorsperson’s kind of e-bike maker, but in our QuietKat Villager review we found an e-bike made with appeal for that crowd while producing a capable commuter bike.

So, what happens when an e-bike maker best known for powerful all-terrain designs decides to make a commuter? In the case of QuietKat, that means building it with a 500W Bafang hub motor and 614Wh battery, spec’ing it with 3-in.-wide tires for comfortable road riding and light offroad riding, a 7-speed Sram drivetrain to conquer hills, plus lights, fenders and a rear rack to give it commuter functionality.

We took the QuietKat Villager on roads, bike paths and even some smoother unpaved roads and trails to see just how versatile this e-bike is for ourselves.

While the QuietKat Villager isn’t meant to be a backwoods explorer delivering sportsmen (and women) to their favorite hunting blind or fishing hole that its stable-mates are, it accommodates a broad number of uses and many of QuietKat’s accessories can be added to give the Villager optimal versatility.

For this review of the QuietKat Villager we subjected the bike to all the same tests as we’ve done for its off-roading siblings.

JackRabbit OG Electric Bike Review

Many e-bikes we review attempt to be one-stop shops; e-bikes often try and be versatile enough to be a commuter, cargo vehicle, leisure ride, etc. all at once. But when we got the JackRabbit to review it was apparent that this was a product that knew to lean into what it is: a quirky and fun little mobility solution that is designed to be highly portable and save a lot of collective time by getting you around quickly on shorter trips.

Billed as a micro e-bike, the JackRabbit at first glance could be mistaken for an e-bike for kids, but in fact, it’s intended for adult use as it accommodates riders from 4’10” up to 6’2” (seriously!). The JackRabbit’s short wheelbase and minimal frame make this easy to toss in a trunk or keep in a closet. Heck, they even sell a shoulder strap for the JackRabbit which makes sense given it’s only 24 lbs., making it simple to move around and you can store it almost any place.

While the JackRabbit does have two wheels, a seat, and handlebars it’s readily apparent that it has pegs where pedals should be. There is no drivetrain so the JackRabbit is a throttle-only option. In truth, it’s closer to an e-scooter than an e-bike, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll evaluate it similarly to how we evaluate e-bikes.

In this review of the JackRabbit we will take a look at answering basic questions about how it performs, what it’s good at, what it’s not good at, what use case it serves and whether or not we feel it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

Nakto Folding OX Review 2024

Every now and then an e-bike comes along that throws everything at you but the kitchen sink. This one may have included the sink too. Today we’ll take you through our review of the Nakto Folding OX – a bike that can correctly be called a cruiser, fat tire, step-thru and more.

Not only does it try to give you so much in terms of styling, but it’s also trying to maintain an entry-level price to entice the e-bike curious who might not be ready to make a substantial monetary investment into e-bikes. It makes this bike a curiosity of sorts – one that we were eager to test out as we’ve seen plenty around our corner of Southern Utah.

Besides the handling characteristics of this amalgamation of different bike styles, we also wanted to see how the Folding OX’s 500W motor, 480Wh battery, 160mm mechanical disc brakes, and more would hold up while out in real-world conditions.

Over the course of several days and many miles, we put the Nakto Folding OX through all of Electric Bike Report’s standard tests to see how it performed. To get a better glimpse into how this e-bike does, and if it’s the right one for you, dive into the full review down below.

MOD Black Electric Bike Review 2024

E-bikes by their very nature are versatile products. The addition of a motor to a bike allows you to go further and ride more diverse areas regardless of what style of bike you have. But while you can commute on a mountain bike, or have a beach cruiser be your cargo hauler, there is no better solution to true versatility than purpose-building a bike for it. Making a bike that effortlessly achieves multiple ride styles requires thoughtfully assembling a parts that lets you ride in two worlds. And that is exactly what the MOD Black bike we’re reviewing here sets out to do: be as capable a commuter as it is a trail bike.

That’s a pretty ambitious task for any bike maker to undertake – heck, it’s hard enough to really nail one style of e-bike let alone two. But MOD seems to have done their homework on pulling in the best elements of both styles while giving the bike a signature look that doesn’t feel haphazardly slapped together. Instead, you get a unique bike that fits nicely in a spot all its own amongst some of the other MOD e-bikes we’ve reviewed, and it gives consumers a chance to purchase one bike that can satisfy different wants and needs.

In our MOD Black review, we will take a look at how this bike does at being both a commuter and off-roader. We’ll be evaluating their choice to spec a 350W mid-drive Shengyi that produces 90Nm of torque as well as our battery of performance tests. The Samsung battery offers 557Wh of charge; we will see how its range stacks up. And of course we’ll weigh in on the suspension, tires, shifting, braking and more.

Griffin Hales

Senior Writer | Edtior

Favorite Style of E-Bike

Favorite E-Bikes Reviewed

Current Bikes You Ride/Own

Favorite New E-bike Tested

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Himiway Big Dog E-Bike Review

3 E-Bike Safety Tips When Riding

E-Bike Safety Tip #1: Always Wear a Helmet

Cero One E-Bike Review – 2024 | A Compact Cargo E-Bike

Blix Dubbel E-Bike Review – 2024

Ride1UP LMTD Review, 2024

Eunorau Defender S Electric Bike Review, 2024

QuietKat Villager Electric Bike Review, 2024

JackRabbit OG Electric Bike Review

Nakto Folding OX Review 2024

MOD Black Electric Bike Review 2024

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Griffin Hales

Senior Writer | Edtior

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Griffin Hales

E-Bike Safety Tip #1: Always Wear a Helmet

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