Espin E-Bike
This is Espin, an e-bike company making an
innovative pedal assist bike. As opposed to a throttle-controlled electric bike,
which has a throttle the rider can use to power the bike, a pedal-assist bike
relies on the rider to start the pedaling, and then boosts the power of that
pedaling to make the bike go faster.
Espin’s bike has a console computer mounted on the
handlebars for easy control and heads up display. The motor has 0-5 speeds,
giving higher amounts of assistance as needed (e.g., for hills, etc.). Combine
that with the 8 gears, and you effectively have 40 gears to play with.
According to the company’s website, Espin eBikes are
equipped with a 350-watt motor and a lithium-ion battery with a range of 20-40
miles, but according to co-founder Josh Lam, “Keep in mind the battery drains
more on level 5 than on level 1 and you will use more battery life riding up
hills than on flat land. The range is really dependent on how it is ridden.”
Lam suggested that the battery life should be about 500 charge cycles.
