Experience with E-Bike Rental
 

Just rode an e-bike for the first time. We went 30 miles and it was a blast.

Renter from a local online service: Village Bike Rentals. We would not hesitate to recommend them for a rental- they were great.

We're considering buying 2 bikes from them. Any feedback on a buying experience?

Thanks!

No experience, but I would compare prices on Amazon before buying. Lots of options.

They are a blast. We bought two Specialized Turbo Como 3.0 IGH bikes from the Villages Cycles in Brownwood and are very happy with them. We had a positive experience with Villages Cycles.

If you want to compare....go to The Trek Bike store in Inverness. It is right on the Withlacoochee bike path. You can rent an ebike for a full day and ride for 60+ miles on the flat, beautiful asphalt trail.

My husband went into that Brownwood bike store to buy bike shoes and had a bad experience. He said if he goes into that store again, it would be by accident.

Rent bikes from other manufacturers/bike stores before you decide.

Trek and Specialized are ridiculously over priced for what you get. I have 4 ebikes and have ridden most of the top sellers. The Velotric Discover 1 looks good for that sale price. Pay no attention the the "peak" power ratings of the motor, it is the continual rated power that is important. The 500 watt motor would be enough for the flat Florida trails. If you are also going to ride any hilly country though, I would rather have a Ride1Up 700 Series with a 750 watt motor for the same sale price. My wife has that bike and it's great. We are snowbirds so her 750 watt motor and mine with a 1000 watt motor fly up those steep hills we have in PA. Just do not get any ebike with small 20" tires even though you may see a lot of them. They are top heavy and the steering is very quick.

Since dhdallas is giving advice and recommentations on watts we might as well be accurate.

There are two types of ebike systems hub drive, which have a motor within the wheel. These operate at 30% efficiency. Hub drives are located at the wheel center.

Mid drives are located at the pedals and run 70-80% efficiency. Most mid drives drives are 250 watts. You can recognize a mid drive in pictures at a glance.

Mid drives feel more natural, go further, last longer and cost more.

There is no standard that ebikes be rated at peak, continuious, or nominal watts. It is foolish to shop ebikes by watts. Some mid drives rate by torque but I have never seen a hub drive do this.

If you are interested in an ebike purchase, you should understand the 3 classes of ebikes and pedal assist versus throttle.

To directly answer the OP I would not buy a bike from Villages Bike Rental. The reason is service.

The weak link on ebikes is the electronics. Dealers will service the "bike" part of any ebike but not the electronics.

Villages bike rental uses 'The Bike Doctor' for all service. I have spoken to the owner, Mike, he has stories of waiting months for parts on the Villages bike Rental bikes.

E bikes
 

If you want to save money and don’t mind putting it together, buy online

No experience buying from them specifically but we bought locally for service reasons. Definitely heard about people having issues with cheaper online bikes and no service available .

We bought two bikes from them two years ago. We also bought the maintenance package. He comes to our house and picks up the bikes and keeps them overnight giving them a complete tune up. If our bikes were stolen, we'd buy new bikes from him again tomorrow. I have 100% confidence in his service and advice.

Always good to buy local!

Try outside the bubble
 

My husband & I have Aventon e-bikes (we have the Pace 500.3) & love them! You can buy them online right from them (aventon.com)…or…go up to Brick City Bicycles in Ocala who sell, assemble & warrant them. Their service is top notch & prices are better than TV. Although any time you go outside TV bubble you get a better price & often better service, IMO.

We did the same back in April. Absolutely loved it & such great service from the guy & his wife. Highly recommend! If we were full time we’d deff buy e-bikes.

Maybe you meant to say "Torque is a measure of force (rotational) whereas Watts is by definition power.. Torque gets you up the hill, how fast you get up the hill is all power.

Great information!

To whom are you referring? More than one supplier has been mentioned.

I bought my E-bike from Rad Power Bikes. It came in a crate from Seattle or somewhere on the West Coast. It required some putting together, but it was easy and had good instructions. I picked their lowest priced solid frame (not fold up) model. It had a smaller 400 watt motor, which was OK with me because I did not plan to have a need to go over 20 MPH or spend much time going up hills. It cost me $ 1,000 with free shipping. It was well worth it and lived up to ALL my expectations.
........Since I purchased mine, I believe that they have established a physical store in Florida (either in Sarasota or Tampa, not sure) where you could test ride one. They are one of the biggest E-bike manufacturers and have a complete line-up of models. Their bikes get good reviews and by shipping in a crate, they try to keep costs down.

My Rad bike comes with 27.5 by 1.95 which gives me very stable steering and I could ride on dirt or shell roads. If a person spends the summer in a hilly area and are often off-road they would need wider tires and a 500 watt motor, or larger. And I agree that Trek and others are overpriced. I think that if money is no object that a person could find a CENTER MOUNTED motor likely superior to the rear wheel mounting that most have. But, I have no actual experience with those.

If I remember electrical stuff correctly Power equals Current squared time Resistance and the answer IS in Watts. Torque is a measure of turning FORCE.

I do not have any experience with Villages Bike Rental. I bought an ebike, TotGuard from Amazon for under $300 two years ago. There are many others on Amazon. The TotGuard has 17 speeds, both throttle and three assists modes, goes about 20 miles an hour, horn, lights, etc.

See reply #20

I have a Bafang motor installed on an old road bike. It has 9 speeds and can also just use electric with a throttle. It is mounted on the crank bottom bracket. They use them on dirt bikes. Will go 30 mph.

Watch the weight. Some are very heavy and putting on to and taking off bike rack is not easy.

Yes they add a lot of weight. And very fast.

If you have a vehicle with a 2 inch trailer hitch receiver check out the Hollywood Destination E bike rack, they are really nice. The rack comes with a ramp to roll the bikes up onto the wheel cradle so no lifting is involved. The rack is designed for the weight of e bikes and is also designed to fit bikes with unusual geometry such as step through bikes with no crossbars and fenders and racks. It’s super easy to use and holds the bikes very securely.

I bought an Lectric bike with 20 “ wheels. Second highest rated at the time. It was a blast. However, as person states top heavy and difficult to maneuver when I got off sold it and looking for a lighter e-bike.

My wife and I purchased our ebikes on line from Himiway. What a nightmare! My motor went out after about 6 months. After about 100 emails to China, and still not got the problem solved with them using Google translator, I finally found someone to service. All the local bike shops would not service unless you bought from them.I found Mike the bike Dr! He is located on 466 across from Wall Mart. I even bought a Ride 1up from him while we were waiting on parts from China. He has several different manf. Do not buy online. Buy from local bike shop that will service! No exceptions!

Thanks. I was impressed when he told me he'd service the bikes at the house or pick them up

You really need to consider service after you buy an e-bike. If you are not mechanically inclined to fix bikes, you will be in trouble if you don't buy it at a local dealer who will also service it. Huge Factor. Bike shops do not want the liability of dealing with electronics or batteries in e-bikes. Pay the extra and take it where you can have it serviced.

Lots of great suggestions from folks. Something that was not mentioned when you shop for e-bikes, is check to see if the battery is easily removable. Our bikes have batteries that could be dismounted quite easily, so we never, ever leave them unattended, even though we have great locks for them. Occasionally we might lock them up "in the bubble " if we are doing something outdoors and they aren't too far from eyesite. Some batteries are encased making it harder to access. There is a high incidence of e-bike battery theft.

You found the best, Mike and Cindy, go for it, we did. Have 9,200 miles on our Ride One Up 7000.........