I have already asked a few questions and made a few posts, love the forum, so thought I'd say hello properly.
I am retired and overweight. I weigh 120kg, and thought it was time to get some exercise. I rode a bike a lot before I was old enough to get a car licence, but not since then, and given the many hills I need to cope with, my one experience with bike riding, on a normal geared bike, put me off completely.
More recently, I began noticing that my car spends a lot of time sitting in the garage, because we tend to use the wife's car when we go out. This got me thinking about a scooter, or something to replace the second car. Then, I started thinking about battery power, and tried to search online for electric scooters. Found nothing but mobility scooters - but I am not ready for that yet
However, I stumbled across electric pedal assisted bikes, started to read about them, and was intrigued. I rented an ebike for a couple of hours and loved it. I was hooked. I really liked that it didn't let me sit and do nothing, that I still had to get some exercise, especially on hills.
My purchase was a Freego Eagle. I wasn't ready to outlay more than about $2000, and the Eagle came in under that. It is Australian compliant to the older specs, i.e. a 200W motor. It seems they sell them with a 250W motor as well, but they don't have the throttle control, which I find nice for negotiating places where I need to go very slow.
I don't know what other variations have been made for the Australian market, but it has disc brakes front and rear, Kenda tyres with Kshield, 36V 16AH Lion battery, 7 speed Shimano gears. It is a step through design. The only thing I changed was to get a softer seat. My backside is not tough enough yet and I needed more padding .
2 rides so far, both about 20-25km. Thoroughly enjoyable, even having to get down to low gear a few times for hills. Already feeling fitter (yeah, I know, probably just psychological). I don't think I'll regret not having a 250W motor. I can get up the hills without standing up on the pedals, and as I get fitter, the only thing that I'll do is turn the power down - so looks like it is powerful enough for me.
I am retired and overweight. I weigh 120kg, and thought it was time to get some exercise. I rode a bike a lot before I was old enough to get a car licence, but not since then, and given the many hills I need to cope with, my one experience with bike riding, on a normal geared bike, put me off completely.
More recently, I began noticing that my car spends a lot of time sitting in the garage, because we tend to use the wife's car when we go out. This got me thinking about a scooter, or something to replace the second car. Then, I started thinking about battery power, and tried to search online for electric scooters. Found nothing but mobility scooters - but I am not ready for that yet
However, I stumbled across electric pedal assisted bikes, started to read about them, and was intrigued. I rented an ebike for a couple of hours and loved it. I was hooked. I really liked that it didn't let me sit and do nothing, that I still had to get some exercise, especially on hills.
My purchase was a Freego Eagle. I wasn't ready to outlay more than about $2000, and the Eagle came in under that. It is Australian compliant to the older specs, i.e. a 200W motor. It seems they sell them with a 250W motor as well, but they don't have the throttle control, which I find nice for negotiating places where I need to go very slow.
I don't know what other variations have been made for the Australian market, but it has disc brakes front and rear, Kenda tyres with Kshield, 36V 16AH Lion battery, 7 speed Shimano gears. It is a step through design. The only thing I changed was to get a softer seat. My backside is not tough enough yet and I needed more padding
.2 rides so far, both about 20-25km. Thoroughly enjoyable, even having to get down to low gear a few times for hills. Already feeling fitter (yeah, I know, probably just psychological). I don't think I'll regret not having a 250W motor. I can get up the hills without standing up on the pedals, and as I get fitter, the only thing that I'll do is turn the power down - so looks like it is powerful enough for me.
