Otto recently completed the sale of RW Designs, where he served as the company’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer. He has held CFO and COO positions at companies such as Z Gallerie, Hudson Jeans, Seven For All Mankind, and Affliction Holdings. Kent announced Thursday that it had hired Rob Ottoto as chief financial officer.
And yes, the Lectric XPremium is probably the best game in time now when it comes to mid-drives at affordable prices. For just a bit more at $1,799, the dual batteries, significantly higher power/speed, hydraulic disc brakes, and a pile of other features blow this Kent bike away. But Lectric’s model is also a folding fat tire e-bike and won’t fulfill the trail bike role that Kent’s offering here claims to satisfy. Mid-drive motors are one of the two most common electric bike drivetrains, with the other being hub motors. Most low-cost electric bicycles use hub motors – or a motor housed in the center of a wheel – simply because they are cheap and easy. They cost less to produce, and they are basically bulletproof in terms of user error.
Simple front and rear suspension offer a bit of spring without costing an arm and a leg. A 7-speed Shimano transmission may be low-end, but it is at least a name-brand component. And the mechanical disc brakes are likely plenty for a 250W bike that isn’t going to get up to 20 mph (32 km/h) very quickly. Then one day, a fellow mountain biker asked if I wanted to ride his bike around the parking lot. After a few seconds of strenuous pedaling, the bike suddenly took off with explosive force. It was an e-bike, an electric pedal-assist MTB with a motor that engages when an internal sensor encounters a hill.
The advantages of mid-drive motors, though, mean that you’ll usually find them on higher-end electric bikes, whereas low-cost electric bikes tend to favor hub motors. I started riding mountain bikes when I was a teenager in Augusta, Georgia. When I say mountain bikes, I really mean a 90s Huffy 18-speed I bought from Walmart for $60 without kent mountain bike a front suspension. A group of us would carpool out to a lake trail, then ride with reckless abandon, flying over the handlebars multiple times each trip. The rest of Kent’s mid-drive e-bike fits more in line with the other budget models in its class. A 36V and 10.5 Ah battery claims a range of 20 miles (32 km) from its 378 Wh of capacity.
With a price of $1,498, Kent’s mid-drive e-bike certainly isn’t competing with the several thousand dollar models that use German mid-drive motors, and so it likely opts for a Chinese motor. That isn’t a bad thing, as many riders (including myself) have been very happy with lower-cost mid-drive motors. I have a Truckrun motor on my daily rider city e-bike, and it works wonderfully. Mid-drive motors, unlike hub motors, actually power the bike through the standard gears on a bicycle. Hub motors, on the other hand, are single-speed drivetrains that bypass the gears and chain altogether, allowing them to be controlled quite simply as there are no gears to worry about. This is a gross oversimplification, but you can kind of think about it like automatic versus manual transmission cars, at least in terms of simplicity and ease of learning or use for the driver.
For our third eMTB trip, I chose a 16-mile gravel forest service road in nearby Helen, Georgia. The first half was mainly uphill and the bikes performed magnificently. The last 7 miles turned kent bike into an obscure, unmaintained dirt/gravel downhill road covered in sticks, pinecones, sharp rocks, and other precarious tire-popping rubbish (along with a wild turkey I almost ran over).
Without the battery, the Kent Torpedo is easy enough to pedal, though it will definitely feel a bit heavier than a typical kid’s bike. The geared motor doesn’t provide any extra resistance other than adding a couple pounds of needless weight. There’s also a 6-speed shifter that makes it easier for kids to climb hills in the proper gear, even without electric power. If the battery does die on a ride, the shifter definitely makes it more manageable to pedal. A new partnership with SPIN, an electronic bike and scooter service, will provide 100 electric bikes and 100 electric scooters within the city of Kent.
Van Dessel plans to race the Captain Shred in this year’s World Mountain Bike Championships, where the UCI has sanctioned its first e-MTB world championship series. The Japanese electronics giant, which posted sales of more than $73 billion in 2018, said the system is not just another electric bike motor. ‘The global rollout will see VanMoof open a network of state-of-the-art Service Hubs and certified partner workshops over the next six months….It comes at a crucial time for VanMoof, with e-bike sales more than tripling in the last 12 months. That’s a fivefold increase in riders since 2019, a growth that calls for smarter measures – both online and offline – to achieve truly next-level service.
Add in a bundle of accessories and it all means ‘you can dare to replace your second car with a Makki’ according to Gazelle. There is comfortable looking bench seating, storage drawer and a rain hood. Note that low power e-bikes like this are generally legal for children to ride in many US states and in most European countries, though in the UK you need to be 14 to ride an e-bike.
The Kent Electric Cruiser’s 350W rear-hub motor was more than capable on the flat roads and bike paths around my home, easily reaching and staying at 20 mph. But when the bike was pointed uphill, the performance was much less impressive. With me pedaling and the power assist at maximum, my speed frequently dropped down into the single digits on steep hills. But uncertainty that has swirled around the fate of the company’s high-end Kona mountain bike maker has caused a stir in the sector. I would like to think this will make kids ride further or keep up with their parents on longer ride (oh, not enough battery) but they will be used in the park and even if it’s pedal assist – on short rides it will reduce fitness benefits from cycling. Solving problems that don’t exist for normal kids There might be a use for less able kids.