Djavelo and the Schwinn Continental

There's a lead article on this website about these 2 bikes. The Djavelo seems to have died a death, but is the Schwinn in production in the USA now? This is a handsome bike (at last..), and if it performs to half of it's quoted spec it's still good. Potentially I could pick one up in NY when I'm there but I can't work out whether they're currently manufactured or just pie in the sky...anyone know?? The battery specs seem a bit of a quantum leap, is there any evidence for the massive quoted performance?

Jason

No evidence whatsoever Jason, and I think most of it is myth and hype. There has definitely been no quantum leap in battery technology for e-bike usage, and if there had been, the existing top end e-bike companies working hard at this would be using, or at least announcing it.

I'm told the Schwinn exists, but long experience of watching the US market high end has shown that it's full of hype and little substance, usually theory announced as fact. The World's battery manufacturers must share the blame for this, they've been hyping like mad for decades, but invariably failing to deliver what they promise.

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I found a site that may tell us more about the Schwinn line soon.

This guy is planning to ride from Melbourne to Sydney in his suit to prove that electric bike commuting is easy and mess free. They'll be filming the whole experience, so we should learn a lot. They have a great clip you can watch now.

The trip is sponsored by Schwinn and he'll be riding the new Schwinn GSE. This is the middle of the new Schwinn line that includes the lithium polymer battery, but not the shaft-drive system that I was lusting after. Lithium polymer is new technology, but it still only holds so much energy and can only provide so much work.

He starts on April 16, so watch the site for reports from the field.

keith.

Pity it's not the real thing yet Keith, but thanks for the link. Maybe we may learn more eventually.

We've got a Li-polymer option on some of the Powacycle bikes here now, but they are quite low powered bikes so an easy introduction to the market for these batteries.

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