Well, let’s just say it really, seriously provides assistance. After you crank it on (okay, there’s no cranking involved — just a button press), you’ll feel it kick in after maybe five seconds. It’s a bit jarring the first time or two, but that’s par for the course, and you’ll warm up to it quickly. Once the electric’s on, there are three modes of assistance to choose from on that left control panel — flat, downhill, and hill climbing. On flat riding roads, where we did most of our testing, the assistance creates an experience where, though you still need to pedal, you can definitely feel a substantial amount of help from the motor. We’re not saying it’s without effort, but it’s a greatly reduced effort.
Climbing a hill at the lowest gear setting available, without battery power. I didn’t have the opportunity to try out the Monroe before it arrived, so I went on faith. I was also sent the medium frame version, which turned out to be slightly small for mongoose bmx me but fortunately, the build ended up being just right for how I like to ride. I’ve put bicycles together on my own in the past and tend to be good at putting the bigger pieces together correctly like the handlebars, wheels, pedals, and so on.
Speaking of the seat, it’s not the most comfortable I’ve ridden on, but that’s easy enough to replace with a third-party seat if you like. When you think about EVs, you probably (rightly) think of cars. schwinn mountain bicycles But there’s another class of EV that might have slipped below your radar, but which has transformed my summer in very unexpected ways. The bike was provided by Schwinn for the purposes of the review.
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. Such a feature is fairly inaccurate all things considered, but some estimate is better than no estimate. The Coston e-bike is controlled with a handlebar-mounted LED panel with three buttons on the side.
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.