Bike choice

[GEEZER37]

I am 85 years old six feet one inch and weigh 262 pounds, clearly a geezer by Biking standards. I presently own 4 hub drive bikes, two rad Rovers, a magnum trek seven, and an E glide ST. I have had two E glide ST and they have been wonderful bikes for me, but one was stolen after 11,000 miles of riding, and the company is no longer in business. I do not find the magnum or the rad Rover to be as powerful or nimble as the E glide ST have been.
I am considering the X2, based on the reviews and descriptions. About three years ago I purchased a Luna x1 for my daughter and it has been an excellent bike. I do not do any serious off-road riding as I would rather not go out via the fractured hip route. My typical rides in the neighborhood are approximately ten miles and eight hundred vertical feet. I ride in PAS 1 or 2 on the E glide ST. In the spring, summer and fall I normally do one or2, 20-mile rides with about two thousand vertical feet. I have the following questions.

1. Will the X2 hold up to a 260-pound rider, riding smooth terrain?
2. I presently ride with a 20-amp hour 48 Volt battery which provides me with a 25-mile ride with 2000 vertical feet of accent. Am I likely to be able to do this ride on the X2 with its 17.5-amp hour battery?
3. If ridden carefully will the hardware on the X2 stand up to the ludi?
4. Do you think the large frame X2 with the ludicrous controller, and 27.5 wheel, would be an appropriate choice for me?

[73Eldo]

I don't know the weight carrying specifics of the X2 frame or suspension so someone else will have to answer that. An issue with a heavy rider and suspension bikes is getting the suspension adjusted to still work. Even the better brands like Rockshock I don't think really expect riders in our weight class so what often seems to happen is we get on and it just squishes down so its more or less like not having any suspension. Having the fully compressed suspension may then bring into question the capacity of the frame because any bumps will have to be absorbed by the frame directly.

My street bike is a hard tail from wally world and I never liked how it rode with the suspension fork which wasn't in the class of anything from Rockshock so that may have been part of the issue. This spring I finally swapped out that cheap fork for a new steel rigid fork and now the bike feels and rides much better. Wish I had done that right away. Makes me wonder what an all steel bike would feel like since I still have an aluminum frame. Steel is great at absorbing little bumps and generally has fairly slow failure modes if you do make one fail. Aluminum or carbon don't usually give you much warning they just kinda snap. Steel tends to bend before it snaps. Non e bikes people don't like steel due to the extra flex loosing slight efficiency and a little extra weight but with E bikes we got the motor to make up for a little flex and add way more weight than the frame material adds. Who makes a nice steel e bike? Dunno, maybe no one so I don't know why I bothered with the steel sales pitch.


On the battery range front I think you should be Ok. The X2 if ridden with some pedaling and at not much greater than normal bike speeds should fall into my 2 miles per amp hour ballpark range figure. 17.5 should get you around 36 miles. I would not hope for a lot more because you have a little more weight than some and it sounds like more hills. On the hills its especially important to take it easy on the throttle and or assist if you want to get maximum range. Especially if you get the ludicrous option you will be able to really cruise up the hills but that will use up a bunch of range.

Ludi or not I would say if you got the money go for it. You don't have to use it but it may be nice to have it available if for some reason you do decide you need it.

27.5 vs 29... dunno. I'm 6.2 and like the 29s. People say that smaller wheels can be a little more nimble but for street riding I don't usually see that being a problem.

[GEEZER37]

thanks for the time and advice