The downside is this bike feels about as heavy as a light-armored vehicle. The bike tops out at around 57 pounds, schwinn ebike which is tank-like in the biking world. By comparison, my poor, neglected Trek bike weighs around 25 pounds.
With a top speed of 20mph and the choice of pedal-assist or throttle power modes, you will have plenty of choices when it comes to unleashing the power of the motor. The MicroShift components offer great value at this price point, as does the KMC chain and 42T crank. Overall, given the fundamental shift I have seen in my personal bike riding habits this past summer, I very much enjoy having an e-bike. The Coston e-bike is a good example of that in a much more approachable price range than some others. The LED controls are nice, but also missing some functionality.
In the past, the range you got depended on how much work you were willing to put into it. On my older e-bike (also a Schwinn) I get about the same 20 miles of range at level 5, but I also get closer to 40 miles at level 3. The controller is easy to use with one thumb, which is nice. One thing I miss from previous e-bikes I’ve had was a range estimator that gave you an idea as to how much further you could ride at your present power level under present conditions.
We’re not saying it’s without effort, but it’s a greatly reduced effort. Uphill, however, we definitely expended a significantly higher amount of energy with our toothpick-like legs. On flat roads, shifting gears will allow you to put more or less effort into your ride as you please, allowing for a lot of levity in the experience. We didn’t clock schwinn beach cruiser our speeds, but the bike can supposedly top about 15 miles per hour on flat ground with the pedal-assist on, and that sounds about right to us. The Coston CE’s battery is a bit smaller, whereas the 250W motor is just as powerful as the other Schwinn e-bikes. For that ride, just getting the feel of the bike, I headed for a local paved rail-trail.
We found the Tailwind works largely as advertised, with a nice assist while riding around town and a battery with a high capacity that recharges quickly. On our test bike, the front brakes were too grabby, and we wondered why such an expensive bike wouldn’t have disc brakes. And the price of the Tailwind, above $3,000, puts it far beyond the realm of people who may just have a casual interest in an electric bike.
The battery capacity is high enough for extended riding. We rode the Tailwind for an hour without discharging the battery completely. We tried the Tailwind up a particularly challenging hill, putting it in its lowest gear and putting the electric assist on maximum.