eBike News

I got my wife an eBike for her birthday via my son at Specialized. Box arrived yesterday, and I about herniated myself getting it into the garage. One of these: https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear...o-vado-reivew/ I had no idea it was a Buycycling Editor's choice, but I'll go with it. Being family, I got employee pricing -- otherwise it would have been a harder choice. Even the bottom of the range is expensive, but it is a nice bike.

There were some odd-ball assembly issues, and I still have to update the firmware (which is like a huge thing because you want the latest performance advantages!), but it went together fine. Lots of bells (literally) and whistles.

My wife is 5'10" (or used to be), so my son sized her as a large, which is fine for saddle to pedal distance, but the tire height/BB makes the stand-over high, even with a sloping top-tube. The thing is like a mini-motorcycle. She has some neuro/ortho conditions that affect her mobility, but she seems to be fine swinging her leg over the saddle and off the bike. She doesn't complain, which is sometimes a problem. "Oh its fine [followed by catastrophe]." I do worry about the size of the thing, though.

On max setting, the bike is super fast with a top speed of 28mph. I'm going to throw on a QR seatpost clamp so I can use it for shopping. You would need a truck to steal it, and it has a kickstand and a really swanky little rack. The future is now! My son is trying to get me interested in the mega-zillion dollar 22lb stealth eBikes -- so I can keep up with him, but I would need a winning lottery ticket, even at employee pricing.

In another small bicycle-world twist, my son tells me I'll need a hitch rack tray that my wife can roll the bike onto -- made by Yakima. So I walk down the street and ask my neighbor and best bicycling buddy -- who is head of products for Yakima and happened to be working in his yard, for a rack. Its on the way. Life is good.

-- Jay Beattie.