Thinking about getting an e-bike. Here are three big mistakes e-bike buyers make.

You're gonna be on an e-bike a lot longer and traveling a lot farther than a regular bike. Sometimes three or four hours. Don't get an uncomfortable bike with a hunched-over riding position or else all the bumps in the road are gonna travel up through the forks into your arms, shoulders, and back. Not to mention the strain on your neck, trying to hold your head up. Get a bike with an upright, comfortable riding position.

Don't get a bike with cheaper counterfeit battery cells. They have a shorter lifespan and less range, and if they have paper or plastic casings, they can be dangerous. There are a lot of foreign companies flooding the market with cheap bikes that have cheap and sometimes counterfeit batteries in.

Don't fall for unusually long-range claims made by manufacturers. If you're riding 15 miles an hour on a bike and it has good quality Samsung or Panasonic cells in a 48-volt battery with a 500-watt motor, then the range is gonna be about 25 miles for a 10 amp hour battery and 50 miles for a 20 amp hour battery, no matter who the manufacturer is.

So remember these three things and don't fall for the malarkey.

December 15, 2023 — JP Blake