Otherwise, the headlight is adjustable to your preference, and the rear light is built into the fender itself. I understand that I’m a big guy, and I’m also about 50 pounds over the maximum advertised weight for this bike. I was probably never going to get 35 miles out of this or any other bike.
The battery, which cannot be plugged in or charged while attached to the bike, is advertised as lasting up to 30 miles per charge. Then again — the bike is still a functioning piece of equipment once the battery is dead, so maybe we should all stop being so lazy. Power up your adventure and turn your everyday ride into something extraordinary with an electric bike. With pedal assist and throttle, you can go farther, faster, and have more fun doing it. A comfortable, cruiser style electric bicycle with classic styling Schwinn, made only in the approachable step-thru frame style and one frame size, but you get four bold color choices, matching fenders, and a rack.
As a result, Schwinns became increasingly dated in both styling and technology. By 1957, the Paramount series, once a premier racing bicycle, had atrophied from a lack of attention and modernization. Aside from some new frame lug designs, the designs, methods and tooling were the same as had been used in the 1930s. The Paramount continued as a limited production model, built in small numbers in a small apportioned area of the old Chicago assembly factory. The new frame and component technology incorporated in the Paramount largely failed to reach Schwinn’s mass-market bicycle lines.
Wider tires provide better traction and the freedom to leave the pavement with little penalty, and a suspension fork will help tame some of the rougher roads you might explore. Good disc brakes are a must, too, for slowing a heavy bike at high speed. The standard batteries that come on our Marshall, Coston CE and Coston DX bikes are good for up to 45 miles of riding. But Schwinn knows many riders want to go farther, so we developed higher capacity batteries that are super easy to install (you’ll only need a screwdriver). These additional batteries extend the riding distance up to 80 miles on both our Coston and Marshall series of bikes. This guide is designed to make the decision to buy the best e-bike for riders of all types as simple and stress-free as possible.
We’re fans of the unpowered Treadwell for its clean looks and upright rider position. It’s not quite a hybrid but also not schwinn electric bike a foot-forward-style cruiser. The line is comprised of unique, practical bikes for city commuting or riding around town.
The Coston e-bike is a good example of that in a much more approachable price range than some others. That is not the case with this e-bike and I think it comes down to a question of power management. Even at level 3 assistance, my pedals are free spinning in 7th gear. In this generation of e-bike, Schwinn seems to have decided that it’s going to throw as much power at the problem as it can at any given time rather than adopting a lower, longer, and more consistent power output approach. The only time you’ll ever need to balance power output would be if you were planning on doing an entire 20 miles without charging.
E-bikes need regular maintenance and repair to stay in good working condition. Because they’re heavier and go faster than non-assist bicycles, e-bikes often require more regular service on parts like brakes, tires, and drivetrain components. We recommend having a good relationship with a local bike shop experienced in e-bike repair to keep your equipment running smoothly. Measured in Newton meters (or Nm), torque is a rotational measurement of force—and the number to pay attention to when you want an idea of an e-bike motor’s output. More torque means more power off the line and more boost to your pedaling. Lighter road bikes typically have 30 to 40 Nm of torque, and trail and cargo models (generally) have at least 80 Nm.
W. Schwinn, grandson Frank Valentine Schwinn took over management of the company. Manufacturers do not design non-electric bikes to accommodate the extra weight and forces incurred when adding an e-bike motor, battery, and control equipment. This puts more stress on the bicycle frame and other components and can lead to breakage or failure of the bike. Several manufacturers offer kits to add pedal assistance to a non-electric bike. We purchased a few popular conversion kits, fitted them to bikes, and rode them.
You can cross-reference OSHA’s Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories if you want to dive deeper into the topic. The recently launched Aventon Ramblas is a category-defining hardtail e-MTB that impressed us during trail testing. When it comes to buying things in the 21st century, we seem to have an embarrassment of riches. With so many choices before us, human behavior specialists have observed us succumbing to “paralysis by analysis,” meaning having so many options available makes it difficult to make any decision at all. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be an exhaustive and daunting task to pick the best electric bike. Riders of all ability levels and all shapes and sizes can pretty easily determine the best e-bike for them with just a few minutes of reading and research.
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 whole package is aesthetically really old-timey looking — which will not please everybody, though we find it to be really quite charming. It’s surprisingly elegant, and though one friend described it as “goofy” looking, we think that its look suits the intended rider — but more on that below. For those not terribly familiar with electric bikes, the Schwinn’s battery charges up about as fast as its contemporaries on the market, and is actually much faster than many.