Hi
New member here.
Looking to buy an ebike in the next few months.
I currently ride a Specialized Hybrid.
I'm considering buying an ADO Air 28 or an Engwe 275 Pro
Both of these seem to be suspiciously cheap compared to a Specialized EBike.
I was wondering what the drawbacks are.
Steve
When you ride a bike without a motor, you need high spec lightweight components that are expensive. When you have a motor, robustness is more important, unless you're using it for some type of sport. The robust components tend to be a lot cheaper.
So, it depends what you want the bike for. If it's for shopping, commuting or just riding around, the cheapest ebikes work very well. It's important that you get one with a battery big enough to get the range you need. Many of the lightest ones have very small batteries.
When selecting your ebike, the most important thing is to get one with standard, widely used battery, LCD and motor. Bear in mind that many bikes have systems locked by communications, which means that only a dealer can diagnose and fix problems, so if you want to service the bike yourself, you should get a bike with standard Chinese parts. If you can't service and fix a bike of any type yourself, you should buy from a local dealer, and you're limited to whatever they have.
Definitely avoid any bike that is loaded with gimmicks and non-standard stuff. You'd be surprised at how many people come on this forum with such bikes not working after the brand has moved on to new gimmicks and can't support them with the old ones, or simply went bust because all the gimmicks gave problems.
If you tell us what you want your bike to do, how heavy you are and what sort of hills you expect to ride, we can probably point you at a suitable solution. Personally, I wouldn't choose either of the ones that you have suggested.
