E-Bike options! Juiced vs Stromer

[Brandon]

I bought a Juiced Cross Current for my 40 mile roundtrip commute last year. I was doing ~200 miles a week on it for about 9 months until I lost enough weight and was strong enough to move to a regular bike. It was up to the task in my opinion. I commuted all summer and winter on it. The only battery degradation I saw was during the extreme cold snap in early January. I kept it (and charged it) in insulated workroom but it was only heated when I was in there. During that cold snap I had to move the battery and charger into the house to get a full charge. I’d also say that I had the 17.4ah battery and that would be enough to go one direction in full assist without range anxiety on the way home. But if you hang out in level two, with the occasional jump to level 3 or sport, you’ll easily be able to do your whole commute on one charge cycle which will extend battery life.

As far as maintenance, I went through a motor and a controller in that time. I also broke the frame where the seat tube goes into the frame which was bizarre. You’ll go through some spokes, I relaced my wheels with 11 gauge spokes and that stopped them breaking. If you go with the Juiced, I’ve got quite a few spare parts I can sell you. I’ve got 2 extra motors in wheels, an extra controller, brake pads, etc. Hell I’d even sell you my battery. It’s all been taking up space in my work room collecting dust since April.

[ebubar]

@NovaEbike 179598 wrote:

I bought a Juiced Cross Current for my 40 mile roundtrip commute last year. I was doing ~200 miles a week on it for about 9 months until I lost enough weight and was strong enough to move to a regular bike. It was up to the task in my opinion. I commuted all summer and winter on it. The only battery degradation I saw was during the extreme cold snap in early January. I kept it (and charged it) in insulated workroom but it was only heated when I was in there. During that cold snap I had to move the battery and charger into the house to get a full charge. I’d also say that I had the 17.4ah battery and that would be enough to go one direction in full assist without range anxiety on the way home. But if you hang out in level two, with the occasional jump to level 3 or sport, you’ll easily be able to do your whole commute on one charge cycle which will extend battery life.

As far as maintenance, I went through a motor and a controller in that time. I also broke the frame where the seat tube goes into the frame which was bizarre. You’ll go through some spokes, I relaced my wheels with 11 gauge spokes and that stopped them breaking. If you go with the Juiced, I’ve got quite a few spare parts I can sell you. I’ve got 2 extra motors in wheels, an extra controller, brake pads, etc. Hell I’d even sell you my battery. It’s all been taking up space in my work room collecting dust since April.

Thanks for the info! I’ve done the full commute on my Jamis Renegade commuter. Its doable a couple days a week, but I don’t think I can get my fitness up to be able to do 5 days a week in a reasonable time long term. Perhaps with a faster road bike though…

I’m curious how much the replacement parts were and if they were covered under warranty (mainly the motor and controller). I’ve gone through normal bike bits and pieces so know about those costs. Just not sure on motor and controller replacement costs. Cheers and see you on the roads!

[Brandon]

@ebubar 179608 wrote:

I’m curious how much the replacement parts were and if they were covered under warranty (mainly the motor and controller). I’ve gone through normal bike bits and pieces so know about those costs. Just not sure on motor and controller replacement costs. Cheers and see you on the roads!

They were really good about covering things under warranty, I didn’t really pay for any of those even though I bought the bike from them as refurbished. It can be tough getting them to actually send things, you really gotta stay on them. When the first motor went out, they sent me a new motor and controller (in case that was the issue). The actually just sent a full rear wheel with the motor in it. I cracked a rim as well (rear) and tried to buy one from them (just the rim), it was on backorder but when it came in, they just sent it to me for free. To my surprise, they just sent me another rear wheel with a motor in it. Thus, all the extra parts.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I’ve considered the Juiced, but looking at the options in the price range, I think I like the RadPower Radcity more. I’ve actually considered going full cargo bike and getting a Radwagon…but my commute is only 25 miles round trip, so I really would only want the e-bike for lazy days or errand days, so a cargo bike makes sense. If I was going to be commuting on it full time, I’d go for a regular frame.

Interestingly, I find the cheaper bikes more attractive because I like the idea of having a throttle, which would greatly add to my ability to ride 25 miles in my work clothes.

[Dewey]

@TwoWheelsDC 179630 wrote:

I like the idea of having a throttle, which would greatly add to my ability to ride 25 miles in my work clothes.

Maybe for the Rad bikes I haven’t tried them, but on my 250W bafang mid-drive the throttle is more like telling the bike to “gee-up”, I actually like that as I only use it to get going or low speed manouvering up alongside traffic when I’m next to the curb. That being said there’s nothing wrong with the motor, it assists me up some fairly steep hills at 8mph in low gear on my Nexus 8 IGH, eg up to Ft Scott Park from 4 Mile Run the other day which I found mildly astonishing.

As for the OP, full retail on the Stromer ST2 S is $10 grand, $6-7 grand would get you a dual battery 1,000wh Bosch speed pedelec like the Riese & Muller Charger GX Touring HS, or Supercharger GT Touring HS, from Electricity Bikes in Tenleytown. You could spend under $5 grand if you went DIY, Grin Tech could outfit you with a direct drive hub motor, bottom bracket pedal torque sensor plus throttle, programmable controller, Allcell 1100wh battery with an 8a fast charger, to fit on your choice of touring bicycle.

[ebubar]

@TwoWheelsDC 179630 wrote:

I’ve considered the Juiced, but looking at the options in the price range, I think I like the RadPower Radcity more. I’ve actually considered going full cargo bike and getting a Radwagon…but my commute is only 25 miles round trip, so I really would only want the e-bike for lazy days or errand days, so a cargo bike makes sense. If I was going to be commuting on it full time, I’d go for a regular frame.

Interestingly, I find the cheaper bikes more attractive because I like the idea of having a throttle, which would greatly add to my ability to ride 25 miles in my work clothes.

Thus far i’ve got two commuting rides on the Juiced. It performs well. Cuts about 30 minutes off my commute each way, so I gain an hour of my day back. Not too shabby. Its worked great for a couple of grocery trips as well. I’ll just consider it my cargo bike. It certainly handles like one (the thing is a tank).

I like the Rad bikes, but none have a big enough honking battery for the distances I need to cover. I’m planning for a pretty big loss in charging power during the cold winter months and have read that keeping the charge between 20-80 is ideal for longevity so a bigger pack was essential. Juiced and Stromer were the only I could find with such large packs.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@ebubar 179738 wrote:

Thus far i’ve got two commuting rides on the Juiced. It performs well. Cuts about 30 minutes off my commute each way, so I gain an hour of my day back. Not too shabby. Its worked great for a couple of grocery trips as well. I’ll just consider it my cargo bike. It certainly handles like one (the thing is a tank).

I like the Rad bikes, but none have a big enough honking battery for the distances I need to cover. I’m planning for a pretty big loss in charging power during the cold winter months and have read that keeping the charge between 20-80 is ideal for longevity so a bigger pack was essential. Juiced and Stromer were the only I could find with such large packs.

Ah, yeah, the Juiced does have that bigger battery option.

Soooo….I just ordered a RadWagon. The 2018 models have a 20% bigger battery, so that helps bridge the gap between the Rad and the Juiced. I think if I were going for a normal hybrid style bike, I might’ve gone with the Juiced because they look better. But I figured if I was really getting this for the utility, I’d go whole hog and get the cargo bike.

[Judd]

@TwoWheelsDC 179750 wrote:

Ah, yeah, the Juiced does have that bigger battery option.

Soooo….I just ordered a RadWagon. The 2018 models have a 20% bigger battery, so that helps bridge the gap between the Rad and the Juiced. I think if I were going for a normal hybrid style bike, I might’ve gone with the Juiced because they look better. But I figured if I was really getting this for the utility, I’d go whole hog and get the cargo bike.

Damn it. Now I’m considering buying a radwagon.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TwoWheelsDC]

@Judd 179753 wrote:

Damn it. Now I’m considering buying a radwagon.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ll let you know how it goes. Once this forum has a Juiced and a Rad, we can do all sorts of comparisons.

[drevil]

@TwoWheelsDC 179756 wrote:

I’ll let you know how it goes. Once this forum has a Juiced and a Rad, we can do all sorts of comparisons.

… and races!

[TwoWheelsDC]

@drevil 179757 wrote:

… and races!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjNQdIUGP-E

Regardless of what one thinks about e-bikes and what level of power is acceptable or not in various scenarios, it seems like nearly all the bikes these guys sell fall well outside what might be called “legal” in terms of meeting the federal definition of a bicycle. Frankly, this strikes me a huge liability and I’m shocked they can stay in business. Most of their bikes would be classified as mopeds, and several would be full on motorcycles under most state laws. There’s some gray area there, but they don’t even seem to acknowledge that on their website. Like, if people are willing to spend $10k on a 5000w “bike,” more power to them, but you’d expect there’d be some disclaimer like “we can’t actually call this a bicycle; you will probably be breaking the law if you don’t register and insure this thing in your state; you definitely can’t ride it on any bike/ped trails.”

In the interest of making this relevant to this threat and not the other one…make sure you’re buying from a reputable dealer and you have a firm grasp on the laws in your area before buying your e-bike.

[hozn]

While I agree with that sentiment, it doesn’t sound like there’s much you can do legally with an e-bike on DC-area cycling infrastructure. In which case, I say embrace the road and go all in with 9,000 watts!

[dasgeh]

@hozn 179773 wrote:

While I agree with that sentiment, it doesn’t sound like there’s much you can do legally with an e-bike on DC-area cycling infrastructure. In which case, I say embrace the road and go all in with 9,000 watts!

In Virginia, you can ride on all the trails and such, so there’s plenty to do. With Jump being associated with Uber, I’d expect more changes on the horizon.

[hozn]

Except the MVT, right? And the NVRPA-run W&OD is certainly open to interpretation.

But it’s good you can at least use the bike lanes in VA. Of course, TwoWheels is in DC, so that’s not gonna help him too much. @dasgeh 179780 wrote:

In Virginia, you can ride on all the trails and such, so there’s plenty to do. With Jump being associated with Uber, I’d expect more changes on the horizon.

[lordofthemark]

@hozn 179781 wrote:

Except the MVT, right? And the NVRPA-run W&OD is certainly open to interpretation.

But it’s good you can at least use the bike lanes in VA. Of course, TwoWheels is in DC, so that’s not gonna help him too much.

You can use the trails owned by Arlington County and the City of Alexandria I am pretty sure (so Custis, Holmes Run, Four Mile Run, Eisenhower trail, PY trail, etc) and of course all the bike lanes – feel free to ride your ebikes up and down the King Street lanes!

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