"SMS" wrote in message
...
On 1/10/2011 3:37 PM, Fred wrote:
I think I might add an electric bike to my collection of trusty and rusty
two wheelers. . They look like a bit of fun with a practical use. Am
looking at the Trek sprint 7 or the Wisper 905. Anyone know much about
these
things? Or any other brands?

I met the owner of Pacific EBikes at Interbike, waiting for an airport
shuttle. He was quite a character. He was railing about the $2000 poorly
designed e-Bikes, of which there were a great many at the show. He has a
factory in Suzhou China which produces his products, which are all under
$US 1000. http://www.pacificebike.com/

You really want to avoid an eBike where the battery pack is placed over
the rear wheel. It should be in the center of the bike. The Wisper 905
line looks good. The Trek Sprint 7 must be a model not sold in the U.S.,
but all the Trek electric bikes on the U.S. web site look like a regular
bike that they just stuck a motor and battery onto.

Aside from "balance" when picking the bike up, what is your issue with the
battery over the rear wheel? Modern batteries aren't very heavy, and the
rear wheel is so over-built that additional loading is not a factor. The
advantage to having it placed as Trek does is perception- it doesn't "look"
like an e-bike at first glance. People like that. I thought that was silly
at first, but old dogs can sometimes be taught new tricks.

The features people should really be looking for in an e-bike are-

#1: Ease of wheel removal. There are e-bikes out there that can take well
over half an hour to remove and reinstall. This is particularly true for
some of the less-expensive units sold at Best Buy.

#2: High-quality charger & decent battery warranty. The two tend to go
together.

#3: Good track record and/or company standing behind the product that will
be there for you two years down the road when some proprietary part gives
out that is no longer available. For the companies with a track record,
they'll have the part. For others, they'll likely go to significant length
to take care of you. We get customers bringing in e-bikes frequently that
are just a few years old for which you cannot get what's needed to make them
functional. Hate that. And of course, no matter where it was purchased, they
blame the shop that can't fix it for them (us).

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA