October 5Oct 5 I'm thinking about getting an ebike for the beach. Traffic and parking blow chunks down there. I do not want some Ms Gulch looking bike. Will do riding to the bars and also riding on trails. I think getting a legacy company bike (Trek/Specialized) makes sense due to dealer support. Teach me Horns
October 6Oct 6 21 hours ago, Litig8r said: I'm thinking about getting an ebike for the beach. Traffic and parking blow chunks down there. I do not want some Ms Gulch looking bike. Will do riding to the bars and also riding on trails. I think getting a legacy company bike (Trek/Specialized) makes sense due to dealer support. Teach me Horns Well if you are at the beach you want fat tire. And do you want to use the bike for your personal fitness, or just as transportation? Most of the legacy MFG are really fitness based, with electrical assist. What I would look for at the beach is how well sealed and water proof (resistant) the set up is. I wanted to buy one to take the Port A jetty boat to the North Jetty and ride north to Cedar Bayou. But that's a trip not to be made alone... If you are mainly riding on the street then maybe you could go with a skinnier tire? But I would go fat. The other thing to consider is whether or not the bike has a torque sensor. Which links the bikes performance to your effort on the pedals. All the bikes that are more fitness based use the torque sensor technology. There are three types of classes- Type 1 -you have to pedal, and max speed of 20mph. Type 2 - adds throttle option, instead of pedal only, up to 20 mph. Type 3 are higher speeds up to 28 mph and more like a scooter. The one thing I considered a lot was getting a bike with both front and rear wheel drive. As in sand and off road tougher conditions, the "2wd" allows both push and pull. Since I was going to use it for remote location fishing the second motor was something I thought I would need. What sort of frame? Do you want a step through, or a step over? If you every want to be lugging stuff on the back rack then a step through might be preferable. Finally I would look at the potential theft deterrent/ tracking options eight included or after market. I was going to pay for insurance as I thought they would be an easy steal to toss two grand into a truck and haul ass. I was looking at this brand, before I started to seriously consider all wheel drive. Aventon Adventure E bike link. $1500-$2K This guy fished the corpus /port a area and his bike is 2WD and is about $4K, but interesting to see him on off road on this trip
October 6Oct 6 Author Thanks --Aventon is in the picture as there is an old bike shop that sells them. I don't want to buy something online and not be able to get it serviced or get parts.
October 16Oct 16 yes i think 100% if you buy an ebike, due to potential rate of failure of the motors and batteries, you should have a friendly local dealer and servicing network and proper warranty. consider a so-called longtail cargo bike or some similar utilitarian style. you might like to carry shit to the beach, make quick beer runs or grocery runs without having to drive. much better with dedicated/built-in storage than to strap on bags and racks.
October 16Oct 16 On 10/6/2025 at 2:57 PM, horn4life said: I wanted to buy one to take the Port A jetty boat to the North Jetty and ride north to Cedar Bayou. But that's a trip not to be made alone... That would be an interesting trip to explore the St Joseph Island beach. Not quite as daunting as exploring all of Padre Island but definitely a trip that few have made.
October 16Oct 16 On 10/6/2025 at 2:57 PM, horn4life said: I wanted to buy one to take the Port A jetty boat to the North Jetty and ride north to Cedar Bayou. But that's a trip not to be made alone... I have a buddy that would buy a cheap mountain bike at a local pawn shop, take the jetty boat to the North Jetty, then ride on the hard sand for 15 miles or so. Not quite as far as Cedar Bayou, but close.
October 17Oct 17 I own a Lectric and use it for short trips to town (10 mile round trip) and for when I have to park way tf out in a parking lot. Fits in a car trunk.
October 28Oct 28 I was telling the wife that maybe the ticket is get a front hitch fro my truck and buy a pair of E-bikes. One bad mofo for me, and something smaller for her. Thought the eBikes would be great if we we started doing more RV trailer stuff. As I could back in trailer, never take it off the hitch and just use the EBikes for weekend transportation. But mainly I see fishing use for me, along with very possible SXSW weekday music venue rapid movement and parking. But the idea of us both having a bike to go to more remote spots or to cover more trail is an intriguing idea for me.
October 28Oct 28 We have one of these that the wife uses to schlep our 6yo daughter and her friends around. Back can be used for kids or other cargo. https://lectricebikes.com/products/xpedition-dual-battery?g_acctid=790-567-9445&g_adgroupid=&g_adid=&g_adtype=none&g_campaign=PerformanceMax.branded&g_campaignid=16467002383&g_keyword=&g_keywordid=&g_network=x&nb_adtype=pla&nb_ap=&nb_fii=&nb_kwd=&nb_li_ms=&nb_lp_ms=&nb_mi=129756959&nb_mt=&nb_pc=online&nb_pi=401-01423-C203&nb_placement=&nb_ppi=&nb_ti=&nbt=nb%3Aadwords%3Ax%3A16467002383%3A%3A&utm_source=google-pmax&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16467003553&gbraid=0AAAAACvpgWiy5NvhES6HJWhmtbPfLaltV&gclid=CjwKCAjw04HIBhB8EiwA8jGNbeENZibIH9Jiu6hcRXc906dD6VYr5zvr3g8byPEPcxIQGUMVCcNSkBoCjDEQAvD_BwE Lectric is a solid brand. That said, the beach kills everything and an e-bike doesn't seem that well suited to wet salty air.
October 28Oct 28 46 minutes ago, huge said: We have one of these that the wife uses to schlep our 6yo daughter and her friends around. Back can be used for kids or other cargo. https://lectricebikes.com/products/xpedition-dual-battery?g_acctid=790-567-9445&g_adgroupid=&g_adid=&g_adtype=none&g_campaign=PerformanceMax.branded&g_campaignid=16467002383&g_keyword=&g_keywordid=&g_network=x&nb_adtype=pla&nb_ap=&nb_fii=&nb_kwd=&nb_li_ms=&nb_lp_ms=&nb_mi=129756959&nb_mt=&nb_pc=online&nb_pi=401-01423-C203&nb_placement=&nb_ppi=&nb_ti=&nbt=nb%3Aadwords%3Ax%3A16467002383%3A%3A&utm_source=google-pmax&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16467003553&gbraid=0AAAAACvpgWiy5NvhES6HJWhmtbPfLaltV&gclid=CjwKCAjw04HIBhB8EiwA8jGNbeENZibIH9Jiu6hcRXc906dD6VYr5zvr3g8byPEPcxIQGUMVCcNSkBoCjDEQAvD_BwE Lectric is a solid brand. That said, the beach kills everything and an e-bike doesn't seem that well suited to wet salty air. I also have one of these. Put 2000 miles on it last year. Lectric is solid, and their CS is fantastic if you have issues.
October 28Oct 28 3 hours ago, UnivTex34 said: I also have one of these. Put 2000 miles on it last year. Lectric is solid, and their CS is fantastic if you have issues. It weighs a ton, FYI. But can cruise at whatever speed, with or without pedaling.
October 29Oct 29 32 minutes ago, huge said: It weighs a ton, FYI. But can cruise at whatever speed, with or without pedaling. Has a 450 pound weight capacity
October 29Oct 29 My daughter recently asked for one of these and I said no. She already has her older brother's Yamaha YZ250F which runs like a dime and a Polaris 570 which are more than enough for our area. For the Texas Hill Country I would avoid e-bikes but if you live in a city, I guess yeah that makes sense. Hauled both down to Matagodra Bay last spring and had a blast.
October 29Oct 29 24 minutes ago, F250 said: My daughter recently asked for one of these and I said no. She already has her older brother's Yamaha YZ250F which runs like a dime and a Polaris 570 which are more than enough for our area. For the Texas Hill Country I would avoid e-bikes but if you live in a city, I guess yeah that makes sense. Hauled both down to Matagodra Bay last spring and had a blast.
October 29Oct 29 Following, my use would be different than OP though. Downtown LA tons of bike lanes and parking sucks dick everywhere so I take the bus .8 miles when I have to go to the office for 35 cents (Dash E holla), but I would definitely use it to just get around when I want to not deal with parking anywhere and probably hitting Ralphs and other stuff. My building has bike storage so that won't be a problem and the metro has alot of bike spaces if I do want to hit Long beach or Santa Monica. I know shit about bikes though
October 29Oct 29 18 hours ago, huge said: We have one of these that the wife uses to schlep our 6yo daughter and her friends around. Back can be used for kids or other cargo. link... Lectric is a solid brand. That said, the beach kills everything and an e-bike doesn't seem that well suited to wet salty air. The weight and length made me shy away from those. However, if I still had younger kids the utility of them hopping on the back in the neighborhood would be a neat novelty for them. And likely nature rides early Sunday mornings would be fun. I actually saw a pair of the Lectric brand bikes way down the beach in Port A/Corpus. One tricycle and one regular bike. They looked like they were used a lot and showed the salt damage on a lot of the hardware. But they ran fine and the ladies on them seemed to be enjoying them. No doubt salty air will. basically eat anything. But with a lot of prevention, and religious wash downs I am thinking I can get my $2K back in enjoyment. But honestly how many times would I actually make that trip? Once? Twice? Mostly it would be cruising around the neighborhood, or maybe early morning weekend rides downtown and back up NW. City of Austin gives a pretty damn good rebate if you your bike locally from an approved vendor. I have been looking at versions of this and some of the new tech, like a rear locking hub via app are appealing. What I also thought of last night was that I could ride to the train station, Hop the train, and then use it downtown. But then theft is my big concern, right? I have been looking at the Aventon Adventure for a while now. Anyhow here is a great link with a lot of the questions here answered by bicycling magazine with their 2025 reviews. Most of the bikes mentioned thus far here are on their ratings list. 16 best Electric bikes of 2025 according to bicycling.com FYI - City of Austin E-Bike rebates... Cost of $500 - $999 credit of $200, $1K- $1999 credit of $400, and over $2K nets a $600 credit
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