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Search Results for: biktrix

What Is The Best Budget E-Bike?

With e-bikes offering better value than ever and companies now fiercely competing for who can come up with the best value offering in the value stakes, it can be pretty confusing trying to narrow down just how much you should spend and what features you should expect – even if you are on a pretty tight budget.

Here we try and demystify the topic by breaking budget e-bikes down into two broad price categories, low budget and lower mid-range to see just what you might expect to see in each category, whilst picking out the best value bikes out what we consider to be the very best value e-bikes out there.

Low Budget eBikes – US$1000 / £1000

Undoubtedly the hardest category to actually pick a bike in as there will be a lot of poorer quality e-bikes below these price points. EBR tends not to recommend many e-bikes below these price points and they have to stand out from the crowd. There are even e-bikes out there for just a few hundred $ but these may well  be even more compromised in design or manufacturing quality than the slightly higher priced ones which themselves can be very poor. Amazon and Ebay are full of such cheaper e-bikes.

Typical purchaser complaints you might find include parts that last only a few months (including more expensive consumables like the lithium-ion battery), motors that feel underpowered compared to what they were expecting, having to deal directly with an company in Asia and waiting several weeks for replacement parts. Communication may be by email only and you may not be sure exactly who you are dealing with and where they are or what your warranty terms are (if any).

All this isn’t to say there aren’t satisfied buyers out there who have purchased such e-bikes; they may even get a few years use from their Ebay purchase but no doubt the majority of these e-bikes end up broken and at the back of the garage or at the refuse tip much more quickly than higher priced e-bikes. In other words it can be a haphazard affair.
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Looking Back at the 2021 E-bike Year

RadRover 6 Plus ST E-Bike Review

E-BIKE BOOM CONTINUES

A couple of graphs might not seem the most exciting start to an article looking back at 2021, but the two below (presented at the recent 2021 People for Bikes E-bike Summit) nicely sum up the continued popularity of e-bikes in the US.

E-bikes continue to boom

E-bikes continue to boom

Both show the amazing success of e-bikes from 2020 and the continued upward direction of both units sold and dollars spent. It’s difficult to pin down the exact reasons why the trends levelled off a little in 2021 compared to 2020 but surely two main factors were pivotal.

Firstly, although the Covid pandemic was clearly far from over, many who wanted to start travelling by e-bike to avoid close contact with others and / or get some exercise had already done so. Secondly the initial boom led to ‘supply chain difficulties’, or in other words a shortage of e-bikes so that all those who wanted to buy one simply weren’t able.

It’s also interesting to note a decline in non-electric bike sales in 2021 as a backdrop to the continued rise of e-bikes – perhaps shortages again playing their part here.

If the amount of investment capital, which poured into e-bikes in 2021 in unprecedented amounts, is anything to go by then the future looks mighty rosy for e-bikes. In the US Rad Power attracted over US$300 million over the course of 2021 which they say makes them the “most funded electric bike company in the world.” The new funding will be used to expand the company’s logistics capabilities, open new distribution centers and expand its mobile service program and in-person retails stores.

This looks set to continue into the future – especially if Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation (containing tax credit proposals) and the government’s proposed Infrastructure Bill (money for more bike lanes and the like) comes into law. These are both topics EBR has looked at in 2021 and ones we will take another look at in a forthcoming article on what 2022 might bring.

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Cool E-Bikes: Aesthetic Trends We See & Like

Electric bikes have come a long way from the days of DIY klunkers and bikes with obnoxious battery and motor placements.

Technology is better, designs are nicer and e-bikes look much cooler than they once did. Many e-bikes are now so discreet that they’re hardly discernible from their non-motorized cousins, and those that are look much sleeker and more integrated. Some companies are even giving buyers the option to fully customize their bikes, making them look exactly as they like.

Cool e-bikes moped styling

A member of the relatively new and aesthetically-driven class of moped style e-bikes, the Himiway Escape has a look we really dig.

While some of these aesthetic changes are being driven by the maturation of the relatively young e-bike market — especially as eCommerce e-bike companies grow older and more experienced — there are some brands that just appreciate nice looking e-bikes.

From fully-customizable bikes that allow you to choose everything from the spoke color to how the frame’s painted, here’s the cool e-bike trends and aesthetics we’re fans of.

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E-bike News: Moped Style Bikes from Juiced and Bixtrix, New VELLO+ E-Bike, New eCargobikes, and more!

eBike News:

In This Week’s E-Bike News:

This week there really is a flavour of the sheer variety that e-bikes encompass, from the moped styling of Juiced’s latest Scorpion X to the ultra-lightweight titanium version of Vello’s latest electric folder, not to mention an extremely capable-looking load hauler from Carqon.

If you want e-bike ideas for getting out on your e-bike, read about trail plans for California’s Lake Tahoe or the emtb World Series of races in some of Europe’s most glamorous locations and the chance to ride one of the courses at Sea Otter Europe.

  • Moped Style eBikes from Juiced and Bixtrix
  • VELLO+, the 28.4lb e-bike
  • eCargobikes – High Quality Carqon Flatbed and Theft of Fiil Prototype
  • Further eBike Access for Lake Tahoe?
  • French Government Progresses ‘eBikes for Old Cars’ Law
  • Massless Batteries on the Horizon?
  • Minneapolis eBike Share Ramps Up
  • No, London’s Cycle Superhighways Do Not Cause Traffic Jams
  • All the Latest eBike Biz

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The Complete Guide to E-Bike Mid-Drive Motors

Mid-drives use a system of complex gears and a torque sensor for the motor to provide electric assist through to the pedal cranks

Mid-drives are electric-assist motors on e-bikes that drive through the pedal cranks (usually on turning the cranks – so-called pedelec power). They have become hugely popular in recent years as the technology has become more powerful, lighter, and more efficient, with every year bringing announcements of new mid-drive developments.

They are frequently used by some of the best electric bikes.

A typical mid-drive motor design that powers the bike along via the pedal cranks. Mid-drives are usually activated on pedalling with power both proportional to your pedal effort and dependent on what power level you have the motor set at. A few designs include an auxiliary throttle control in addition to ‘pedelec’ control.

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