Looking at reasonable ebikes for a college kid to use. From a little research it seems like under $1k don't expect quality, but there are some good ones in the $1200-$1500 range. Anyone have experience and/or recommendations?
Looking at reasonable ebikes for a college kid to use. From a little research it seems like under $1k don't expect quality, but there are some good ones in the $1200-$1500 range. Anyone have experience and/or recommendations?
If they are not a tinkerer, avoid.
Quality of parts is low, lithium batteries can be particularly volatile.
They are getting better but not ready for prime time yet.
A lot of shortcuts and no safety.
There are electric Harley's now though!
I think you can build a better bike than you can buy RTR.
But parts choices and integrating with the bike can be tricky.
If the electrics fail they are miserable to ride carrying the extra weight.
I'd also be wary just for theft reason s. College towns have plenty of kids in need of bikes and bike parts, so the less desirable yours is the better, especially when it may get left outside regularly or briefly forgotten overnight
$1500 buys a decent used motorcycle or gas scooter. I'd much rather buy my kid one of those...
Yeah, I'm not sure that's the right choice for a tool that lives outside. Either pick up a decent normal bicycle if it's just for around campus, or pick up a cheap 50cc scooter if it's for around town. An eBike that lives outside will get stolen/vandalized almost instantly.
Case in point, I rode a $200 steel road bike in college. I locked it up with two locks every night right in front of my dorm in a well-lit area. I still walked out to one of my locks cut one morning (sucker!).
In reply to Tom Suddard :
I had someone steal my bar ends.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
I went nuts with anti-theft measures. Not because the bike was worth stealing (it really wasn't), but because it was one of the shinier ones there after some careful cleanup, and it would be really inconvenient to have my bike disappear. I did the following:
And somebody still tried to steal it. Unreal. It wasn't like I went to school in NYC, this was the mean streets of Deland, Florida.
The bike with bar ends was new, but wrapped in duct tape and generally made to look like crap. It survived pretty well, especially after I scribed my name in the second set of bar ends :) Just the one U lock.
Before that, I rode the "Bush Pig", which was a junked mountain bike that used cardboard for fenders and had a bent frame so that it left two tiretracks in the snow. It had the name of the bike written on the top tube in liquid paper. Nobody ever tried to steal the Bush Pig because nobody wanted the Bush Pig.
This is not helping Steve other than "bikes at college live hard lives and should not be tempting".
Keith Tanner said:This is not helping Steve other than "bikes at college live hard lives and should not be tempting".
The last bike lasted the year, but was beat when it was over. Based on the hassle of having to worry about it breaking, and theft, we have moved on to an electric scooter instead. So far settled on a Segway G30LP after doing some research, but mostly because Segway is a scooter company (hoping that beats an unknown) it folds so it can be brought into the dorm room, and it was on sale for $600 :)
It gets here tomorrow, if she doesn't like it, I'll return it. Her dorm is the far one, but it's a single room with her own bathroom, so that won over location.
In reply to jharry3 :
I appreciate it, I saw that, and the one I bought is on that list.
Good solution.
I can't speak for your situation, but I did 2 1/2 miles one way on a $free Huffy my sister won in a raffle, in downtown Flint, and it was really good for me. It was a high theft environment, and I kept in inside every day at both ends.
I don't think I would leave my e-bike alone on a college campus, even locked up. The good ones are way too expensive and the cheap ones are just that. That said, if you want a good one, try Biketrix out of Canada. I have their Juggernaut Duo 3 and have been very happy with it.
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