Just over a year later, I've put about 750 km on the "Metakoo" mountain e-bike. I added a rear basket, fenders, lights and a bell.
It does exactly what I want it to do. 99% reliable & useful.
The only bug I've encountered is sometimes right after charging, it will randomly power itself off -- just once -- while underway. Hard on/off via the battery pack switch fixes that.
I'd say 80% of its use replaced short car trips (errands).
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BUT... it may have just met its replacement. I just bought the Mitsubishi Mirage of e-bikes!
I picked this up for $100 at a local thrift/overstock store. It's a 1 year-old "Jetson Bolt Pro".
New, these things go for around $425 CAD or $300 USD (plus tax) at Costco. The store I got it from buys warranty returns from Costco and re-sells the working & easily fixed ones for about $225. The rest go "as-is" for $100 to guys like me.
I rolled the dice, threw down my C-note, and it turned out the problem was just a broken wire to the throttle control! (This is actually the 2nd one I've bought. The first one only had a broken power switch.)
The 36 volt / 6 Ah battery is quite a bit smaller than the mountain e-bike I got last year. And the factory range specs are pretty optimistic:
So far, I've only ridden it about 75 km / ~45 miles.
Pros:
- It's silly fun to ride - short wheelbase & wheels make it hilariously steerable/chuckable, yet it still feels stable at max speed.
- It's small enough to easily carry inside / put in the back of a car
- Takes up much less room in the garage
- Surprisingly solid-feeling (100% rattle-free ride)
- It has a "cruise control" button on the throttle, so you can dial in whatever amount of assist you want, then hit the button, making for infinite assist levels vs. the 5 pre-programmed levels of assist on the Metakoo
- very bright, built-in 36v headlight
Cons:
- The pedal-assist function is too aggressive (adds way more power than I want for a given crank speed), so I disabled it (unplugged the cadence sensor). I just use the throttle & cruise control button - thus also saving energy.
- Not very light for its size: 41 lbs (steel frame) vs 46 lbs mountain bike (aluminum)
- If the battery ever dies, it's not a very good bike (short crank arms are my main complaint)
I've been using it regularly for errands and am surprised how useful & enjoyable it is. Yes, it's compromised, but it's about 80% as useful as the bigger bike ... for about 12% of the price!
I'm seriously considering keeping this wee bike and selling the Metakoo.