But of course half the fun of riding a bike is using your own power for propulsion (or at least sharing the load). So I usually found myself keeping it in the second or third pedal assist level out of five total levels. There’s nothing overly fancy about it, though I’d say the fact that it comes schwinn beach cruiser with built-in fenders and a rear rack is a nice feature. Many other e-bike companies charge extra for those parts. Putting your bike together is actually pretty easy. We have a video that details electric bike assembly and with a few basic tools you’ll be out and about in a matter of minutes.
Road or trail grit will stay out, and chain oil will stay in. They can do this because all the shifting is done in the rear hub – so it’s a straight, simple chainline with nothing other than two sprockets and a chain. I really, really like this feature – I can ride it in long pants and not get dirty, and if I take it on a dusty trail, the chain will stay clean and grit-free. This is awesome, and I’d love to see more bikes doing something like this. As is standard for geared ebike motors, it has no significant rolling resistance when the wheel is turning faster than the motor.
I’d been hesitant to test an electric bike for years. The way I viewed it was that I ride bikes for exercise, so why would I ride one that does most (if not all) the work for me? Even the term e-bike sounded gimmicky enough for me to want nothing to do with them — it’s like how everything these days comes with the label of smart. The Schwinn Ridgewood launched recently in the electric bike market.
Get ready to look good both on the path and in your camera roll. With throwback features like moto-inspired handlebars and a cruiser-esque frame, the Vega makes it almost too easy. Electric bikes put extra power behind schwinn beach cruiser every pedal so you can ride farther, take on bigger hills, and enjoy cycling more than ever before. I’ve covered the battery pack elsewhere, in great detail. Also, how to bypass the BMS if it’s gotten unhappy.
Some of the added weight is attributed to the battery, which checks in at about six pounds. There are five speeds you can adjust via the bike’s thumb pad controller located on the left handle. The LED display shows you how much assistance you’re getting, as well as how much battery life is left. When you want to stop, just squeeze the brake levers and the motor cuts off. When I finally started riding, I discovered that I couldn’t be completely lazy.
The most obvious thing about riding this bike is the riding position. Imagine you’re an 80 year old man. Get your pants hiked up to just below your sternum. Put on your best loafers, your town cruising hat, and carefully step onto this bike. You shouldn’t ride this bike at night without some other source of lighting. Or, at least, replace the generator with a small battery pack.
Class 2 e-bikes are required to stop assistance past 20 miles per hour. Level 1 throttle tops out at around 10 mph while level 5 will give you the full 20 mph. I mostly used the motor in pedal-assist mode, though I will cover the throttle in the next section. The motor on this bike is very aggressive in that is starts up quickly with even the slightest movement of the pedal, and it goes hard.
You have to turn the switch on first, then turn on the bike from the handlebars. I suspect this is designed to reduce battery drain when idle, but it doesn’t really work. There’s not a great spot for the wheel lock key, though you can sort of wedge it into the frame if you try.
That’s a big difference when you’re picking up the bike to turn it around or put it on a car rack. The Schwinn Coston CE falls in the middle of its e-bike model line, offering a slight upgrade over the Schwinn Marshall but without some of the features found on the higher-end Coston DC. I’ve been riding this bike for a while, trying to get an idea of what it is and what it likes to do. If you need to bring the pack inside to charge, you’ll love this setup.
We’ll get into the range in a moment, but the rest of the bike is fairly standard fare for any bike. You get a 7-speed gear system on the rear wheel with a single gear on the front. The shifter is on the right handlebar opposite the LED display for the motor on the left. As a commuter e-bike, I’m also glad to see some good commuter specific parts, like the included fenders and the excellent lighting. Not only do you get typical head and taillights, but you also have LED frame lights built into the sides of the battery. That adds a nice nighttime glow to the bike to give you better side visibility – an area where most bikes are lacking.