First Week Impressions (Updated)
With so many possible choices in wattage, battery configurations and of course, front drive, rear drive or line-drive, I opted for this Voilamart 500 Watt Front Wheel drive 36 volt with a 15.4 Ah battery. Power, cost and intended purpose were my decision points.
Installation was relatively simple, I had some engineering challenges on fitting the front tire, but I suspect every front fork is a little different and may require some custom fitting. For me, I had to add a couple washers to each side, and grind them to fit properly. But not a deal breaker.
As to performance, I've gone on two road trips so far, about 20 miles each, mixed peddle assist and throttle. If I want to further Ill have to back off the throttle and pedal more, although I did go about 5 miles, full throttle, at the end of my second outing to test the range. My intended use for this is 12 miles per day commuting on paved trails, with a couple good hills.
As to performance, I weigh 310lbs and ride a Specialized road bike, 7 speed. I wouldn't have been able to take the rides I took had I not had this. I was very pleased with speed,l and performance. Traversing average hills required a little peddling, with exertion around 3 on a 10 point scale. I'm looking forward to a long and inexpensive summer commute, I just filled my gas tank up on my truck and it was almost $65.00 dollars. I believe I'll recover the cost of this purchase, and then some.
Happy Trails ! :)
Second Week Update:
...still pleased with this purchase but something note worthy here. After a few more trips I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with the battery as it wasn't lasting as long as I had come to believe. After reading through the documentation again, the part about being able to configure the controller to run in 750 Watt mode jumped out at me. I didn't know it was capable of that. So I enabled the two blue jumpers it mentioned and was I surprised! It turned out I was riding in 750 Watt mode all along. The change here was dramatic. The bottom end PAS was now working much smoother, however I lost the top end speed I had before. Recall, I'm in the 300 pound class so my top end is now around 8 mph, it was around 17 mph at 750 Watts. Since I know how to change it back, I may just put a manual switch in of some kind. For work commuting I'll need that speed, and I tested the battery for commuting so that's doable, For cruising however, I like it better in the 500 Watt mode as the battery seems to go forever and I have the power I need to traverse hills when I come upon them.
Would I purchase this product again, yes I am, my girlfriend wants one now :).
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