I commute about 16km~ daily on a cheap bike. The components are bad, it sucks going up hills, and even with good cycling infrastructure I don’t want to ride across town or carry more than a backpack. Next year the prices on ebikes in the US are going to start going monkey in response to both Biden and Trump’s tariffs on China this seems like it’s my last cheap chance to minimise my car use. I went with a Lectric Xpress which seemed to be the best urban commuter at a low price. Good enough to last but not nice enough to steal over the bikes next to it.
From what I was reading it seems like the window for sales is largely October-January. If anything you’d get a better deal than I did around New Years Day. This is definitely a purchase to research heavily and invest in. I ruled out so many models where they cheap out on brakes/throttles/safety features/batteries/motors, basically any of the <$1000 dropshipped ones on Amazon. A lot of brands either lack service centres entirely or didn’t have local ones for my potential 30kg deadweight. Most normal shops either charge a premium for ebike repairs or can’t service them due to the battery. It took me a week of obsessively comparing what I could get at $1300 versus the $1000 or $2000 models left, which of the different classes would be the best compromise between my needs, and which was most likely to last at least 5 years without a costly repair. From my research my Xpress 750 model is like the bare minimum of what you should aim for in terms of price/features/quality/support/chance the company will stay in business post-tariffs. The only better options I found were $1800-2100.
yeah so far i’ve only really just browsed some subreddits and those astroturfed “top 10+x budget e-bikes for 202x” sites
i could probably swing up to 2k but that will literally tear my soul from my body clicking that purchase button. so nervous right now trying to protect our meager assets so we can survive the coming Great Depression 2
but thanks maybe i will see if i can get something locked down by Jan. if everything goes to shit (including my car that needs foreign import parts) i live near a 2 small towns i can ride to and could always transfer to a store there.
for a while i was researching conversions but they seemed really annoying to do.
This youtube channel has great in-depth reviews where they run all the bikes through the same trials: https://www.youtube.com/@ElectricBikeReport . I kept going back to them for every bike I was considering. Converting was an option but my current bike is a $450 super basic commuter that I got at the start of COVID anticipating those supply shocks. The price would be about the same if I got a conversion kit and replaced the components that give me trouble at lower speeds than the 45kph I’d be biking at. Plus if the electrical components fail I’m out of a bike entirely. Instead I’m keeping that bike as my backup/rainy day/guest option.
been browising through some of the videos and im like
on this one the “titan”
i could go long distance backpacking with that thing
That’s more or less what I plan to upgrade to eventually if I get a lot of value out of the one I just bought. There’s so much great camping within an hour’s drive, and minus the lack of bike lanes it seems like it’d be much more fun to bike those canyons than do the really stressful drive.