My Sondors electric bike came today!
Well well well, to all you haters and trolls that have cried since February claiming we'd never see our bikes... not only did my bike come today but it was fairly easy to assemble (hour and 45 minutes but that was mostly due to swatting mozzies every few seconds and the fact that I'm quite heavy and it's 88F and 65% humidity). The bike is both exhilarating and terrifying. I took it for a quick two laps around the neighborhood finding if I put it at full throttle for a single second and then let off I'd still be going several miles an hour at each stop sign. Using the front or the rear brakes provides stopping power more than adequate for stops you know are coming up and applying both at once stops the bike more than fast enough for 99% of emergency stops. I don't know how fast I was going but it was faster than I go down my street in the car. Picked up a group of kids that were going "woooaaahhh" and pedaling as fast as they could trying to keep up with me.
The bike claims a net weight of 62lbs and a gross weight of 76lbs however UPS had it listed as 89lbs on the tracking info. I can't honestly give you a good judge of character as I Olympic lift as well as lift random heavy things for farmer's carries and the like so the box was just an awkward size, the bike itself is quite easy for me to pick up and carry distances. Men and women that don't lift regularly (and especially smaller ones) might have issue with the box or lifting the bike above their waists but even then you could load it into a truck fairly easy I imagine by just getting one tire up first like I used to do with my mountain bike as a preten.
I was able to lift everything straight out of the box by pinning the cardboard between the table and my leg, it definitely would have been easier to rip the box open but I wanted to use it to hold the packing material as I pulled it off the bike. The tire on the left is only attached by a zip tie.
Not pictured is a box or two and the seat. Ignore my tangled hose, I water my garden most nights and got tired of wheeling the hose up every night.
It looks way way better than I ever could have hoped. I'm not happy with how I have the handlebars but I was starting to get dehyrdated and my head is pounding. I took it for a quick spin and then called it quits for the evening. Tomorrow morning I'm going to ride it around town (a few square miles) till I either get bored or till the battery dies while tracking with whatever GPS app I find for my iPhone. It wasn't hard for me to pedal it at all without battery assist so if it dies on me I'll get home fast. I imagine I get bored or overheat (looking like 90F and more humidity tomorrow) before the battery runs out though but I'll fix the handlebars then. Right now the throttle bar is in the 5/7 (depending on what side you are on) o'clock position AWAY from me and the little wing/paddle things on the handlebar are in an awkward position too so I'll fidget with it tomorrow until it feels right.