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so, I just arrived and already fed up with the lack of taxis available here and want to get one of those electric scooters to zoom around (mostly to and fro office about 5km from our apartment, and the occassional run to coffeeshop/teahouse/bar or supermarket)
been looking at 58.com but not sure what to look for – how to assess the many available options… there are many very similar looking bikes, but prices range between 800 and 1500RMB? anybody out there have a simple consise guide to buying ebikes – or key things to look for when buying an ebike? (voltage, battery charging time, incl helmet (seems not required by law?), mirrors, charging time, brake types?)
When taking it for a test ride, what are they usual suspects that I would look for – things that a novice would not know to look for….?
appreciate the insights in this.
cheers
Don’t do it! E-bikes are the devil’s work.
But seriously, spend more than 800, or even 1500. That’s so cheap it hurts to think about how crummy the thing probably is.
Don’t do it! E-bikes are the devil’s work.
I agree, I’d get a bike if it’s for commuting. Traveling 5km should take 9-15 minutes at a normal speed. You’ll spend less, get exercise, and not have to deal with a mostly-plastic piece of junk that you have to charge at night. It’s easily the best way to get around Chengdu, in my opinion.
Walking, too slow.
Taxis, too hard to hail.
Driving, too much stress and hassle.
Subway, packed during rush hour and still not enough stations.If you need to get an ebike, there are some cool customizations done to this type of bike:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.165.3rpKvc&id=40157814759&ns=1#detail
I’ve seen some neat ones around town.
Just go to a nearest bike shop and pick one to your liking.
Alternatively, go to the Chengdu e bike hell near 川藏立交 (if memory serves) and buy one there.
On a side note, anyone tried having couple GPS beacons on a bike?
When you buy an e-bike you need to consider that there is a very real organized bike stealing gang running about Chengdu at the moment. Within three weeks two colleagues and at least two other friends have had their e-bikes stolen. On top of that, I stopped a robbery (along with one of said colleagues) not far from the American Embassy.
Before you buy your bike think to yourself “How much do I want to be tethered to it?” because you’ll want to make sure it isn’t stolen and “How much money can I afford to lose?”
If you park in and only in those little closed off parking spots with a tag, that’s not as much of a problem..
If you park in and only in those little closed off parking spots with a tag, that’s not as much of a problem..
But it does still happen. One of said colleagues had his rather expensive bike stolen from one of those parking bays.
But it does still happen. One of said colleagues had his rather expensive bike stolen from one of those parking bays.
From one of those paid lots? Yikes. I thought those were pretty safe.
From one of those paid lots? Yikes. I thought those were pretty safe.
Yes.
It doesn’t require a huge imagination to conclude that the “guard” had a nice pay off for his troubles.
thanks for all the responses and insights so far!
I should share that I will only be here for 6-8 months, so dont really want to invest too heavily in a brand new ebike/scooter, especially now I learned that there are robbing gangs around. I really dont care about fancy/pimped up stuff, just need something to take me comfortably from A-B, and which allows me to take the missus on the back as well.
I guess it should be safe enough to park in basement of my office and compound building respectively, but will buy a big lock when heading to other destinations.
Budget suggestions are well noted. Am considering the big turtle vs something like this
Any thoughts on how these compare??
cheers
For 8000-1000 you can get a decent e-scooter second hand. Or get a cheap 600-700 one and buy a new battery for it! Personally I’d go with a bicycle too, though.
Locks are mostly useless against professional thiefs, wouldn’t spend too much money on a lock – but don’t buy the cheapest 10kuai lock at walmart either!
Those gangs usually snatch bikes from the street, your bike is gonna be fairly safe in those “guarded” bike parks if its just a regular bike or scooter and nothing too fancy/expensive. Bikes do get stolen from those too occasionally, like Alan said, if you tempt them with something ridiculously expensive. My neighbor had his 60000RMB mountain bike stolen from outside his apartment recently. And we live in a very safe compound imo.
Basically you have two options:
Buy something second-hand, cheap and ugly enough that thieves wouldnt care about it.
Or: NEVER leave you bike/scooter unattended even for a minute.
Oh – and if you go for a second-hand one please don’t go down to the backstreet bike market at jiuyanqiao. So many expats go there and buy a stolen bike that they themselves have then stolen not much later – that’s just retarded. Don’t support the thiefs!
Locks are mostly useless against professional thiefs, wouldn’t spend too much money on a lock – but don’t buy the cheapest 10kuai lock at walmart either!
I think you are mistaken about this – a high quality lock will deter thieves. They can easily identify a cheap lock, and will get through those easily. I have an Abus lock made in Germany that I bought from Natooke and no one has ever even attempted to get through it. But if they did, from what I understand, it would be extremely difficult. As in, require multiple massive tools and a lot of time hacking away at it. I’ve never heard of a high quality lock that’s been gotten through in China – all of the bike thefts I’ve heard about (and there are a lot for sure) are one of the situations described in this post:
– Bike not locked
– Locked with a cheap lock
– Locked with a good lock but not locked to anythingIf you have a bike that costs more than 1k rmb, I would consider a decent lock to be totally necessary.
sorry to go back to my original query, but would like to understand the voltage and ampere values mean.
i take it that the higher the voltage, the faster I can ride it and the amperage reflects the range before having to recharge?
60V and 16-20A respectively should be sufficient for daily commutes?
what lifespan do the batteries normally have?
if I get a second hand bike with 72V battery, can I replace this w a 60V battery?
cheers
The voltage is roughly equivalent to the water pressure, and the amperage, or current, to the quantity of water that flows past a given point per second.(c) Wisegeek.
So its other way around.
60V is pretty enough for a daily rides and i wouldn’t go past 20A unless i’m suicidal.
As long as battery is standard size you can change all you want within reasonable range, wires also have tolerances.
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