This handle also doesn’t provide enough room for your fingers when you are carrying the battery pack. Second, putting that weight over the rear wheel makes the Tailwind more likely to flip over when the bike is stopped suddenly. Our test bike’s front schwinn ebike brakes were particularly grabby, causing an end-over incident during an emergency stop. We found the Tailwind works largely as advertised, with a nice assist while riding around town and a battery with a high capacity that recharges quickly.
At the very top of the Schwinn electric bike range is the Coston DX. This electric bike is available as step-through and standover options that cover everything from the morning commute to the evening trail ride. More powerful than all the other Schwinn e-bikes, the Coston DX has a 360Wh battery with schwinn ebike a 45-mile range and a top speed of 20mph. Its 288 Wh battery is internally housed in the downtube and can power the Marshall for 35 miles per charge (which takes just 4 hours). The motor is a 250W brushless geared hub drive motor, and you can control all the power from the 7-function LCD controller.
The bike tops out at around 57 pounds, which is tank-like in the biking world. By comparison, my poor, neglected Trek bike weighs around 25 pounds. That’s a big difference when you’re picking up the bike to turn it around or put it on a car rack.
When I first started riding electric Schwinns, I was largely limited to cruiser e-bikes. But with several new commuter-specific e-bikes like the Schwinn Coston CE that I recently tested, this household bicycle name is making a big move on the wider e-bike market. When it comes to buying things in the 21st century, we seem to have an embarrassment of riches.
There is a battery life indicator on the left handlebar, and the Shimano Revo-shift lever — which controls what gear you’re in — on the right. Riding this Schwinn without the pedal assistance on is, as you’d expect, just like riding any other bike… That said, the ride is extremely smooth and comfortable (likely helped by that excess weight), and it’s obvious by the design that the bike has an eye on casual cruising — and it definitely delivers that. The Schwinn Tailwind uses a Shimano eight-speed gearset in the rear hub, its limited gear ratio making the bike mostly suitable for flat areas. Cantilever brakes grab the rims for stopping power, although with the price of this bike, we would expect disc brakes. Front and rear lights that run off a traditional tire-contact generator are included.
Regardless, the battery seemed to be securely locked into its rack, so it’s probably not an actual concern, and probably just more mounting evidence of our insane paranoia. On a subsequent test climb, I experimented with the throttle while not pedaling at all. The throttle kept the bike moving, but as I neared the summit, the speed became so slow that I would have fallen over had I not started pedaling.