Not Found E Bike Reviews.....
The Juiced Bikes RipCurrent is a hefty, well-built, full-featured fat-tire electric bike ready to take on trails and some fairly extreme biking conditions. The RipCurrent picks up where your standard fat-tire bike leaves off with Juiced Bikes putting their brand unique spin on it. The RipCurrent’s powerful 750W hub-mount motor gets you up and over hills and through long-distance rides with a kick of extra power to take some of the stress off the rider.
Typically, fat-tire bikes require a bit more effort to keep them moving, and while the RipCurrent makes up for this with ample power, it’s still a big hefty bike with some extra weight that needs to be pushed up hills.
Start with 60-some pounds of wide aluminum tubes and add dense extra-wide rubber, together with solid componentry, and then add an extra 10-plus pounds of battery and 11 pounds of motor, and you top the scales at over 80 pounds of a trail pounding e-bike monster.
One clear benefit of all that added heft is the somewhat smoother ride. The giant balloon tires cushion and absorb a lot of the bumps in the road and make traversing over uneven terrain a breeze.
Juiced Bikes makes powerful, capable e-bikes, and the RipCurrent is no exception. The 750W Bafang hub motor gives plenty of power to take the grind out of most riding situations by providing a bit of extra lift up the hills with one of the five assist settings.
With both a cadence and a torque sensor, the power comes on smoothly. Unlike models that only have a cadence sensor, the electric motor boost doesn’t just seem to take over the ride and jet you up to the next target speed. This system rather supplements your pedal power with the quiet electric boost that adjusts to the force (torque) that you’re applying to the pedals to give the feeling of much more of an assist than just a pure power boost.
With two models on the market, called the RipCurrent and RipCurrent S, there is an option to upgrade to a more powerful battery that increases the riding range you can expect from the electric motor. The cost of adding an estimated 30 miles to the standard 40-mile average range is noticeable, though, as the RipCurrent S lists for about $400 more than the base model.
Like many e-bikes, RipCurrent has a throttle for power on demand up to 20 MPH, with a higher speed of 28 MPH available in a combination of pedal and power assist. The 26”x4” Kenda Tires give some extra cushion to the ride, along with the MoZo Air suspension front fork that provides 80 mm travel to help absorb impacts.
The 1×9 Shimano Altus Derailleur shifts smoothly through nine gears to give options to make your ride easier over hills and challenging terrain. Combined with the power boost, the RipCurrent can get you where you’re going without breaking too much of a sweat.
With the speed and power of a 750W electric motor boost, stopping power becomes essential when you combine the power and weight of this bike. Fortunately, Juiced Bikes is on it, with Tektro hydraulic disc brakes with 180mm Rotors for strong stopping power.
The headlight provides excellent illumination for night biking and safety, drawing power from the main battery, so there’s no worry about a dead headlight battery leaving you in the dark. A decent-sized LCD display shows the charge remaining, speed, power assist level, and more information on your ride.
From the wide, hydro-forged aluminum tubing to the quality Shimano components, the RipCurrent is built to get off-road and onto trails and into some rugged conditions.
The 750W electric motor has the power to work with the bike’s nine gears to give you the boost you need to get up and over any hills in your way.
The base model RipCurrent has a list price that comes in under $2,000, which is a pretty solid bargain for a fat-tire bike with an electric assist motor built in.
With the ‘monster bike’ look of a fat tire bike, the RipCurrent blends in on the trails without drawing attention to the power boost and battery built into the downtube that can be your secret weapon in getting ahead or keeping up on the hills.
With a slight air-pressure adjustment to the wide tires, you’re all set to take your ride off the road over solid dirt, through soft mud, loose sand, or even snow. A good tire pressure meter is critical so that you can find and maintain your optimal tire pressure for the conditions that you’ll be riding.
It’s no surprise to realize the RipCurrent weighs in at 80 pounds (even if twenty-some pounds of that total is in battery and motor weight). Still, though, the ample power and nine gears make moving the size and weight of this bike fairly effortless.
E-bikes have come down a bit in cost in recent years, and the list price of the RipCurrent is in a range in the middle — there are some cheaper and some that cost more — but at a ‘decent used-car pricetag’ of $1800 – $2300, a bike needs to earn some respect with the full range of its features. In general, RipCurrent does this pretty well, but it’s an investment to think about, for sure.
If you ride primarily as a commuter, you may need to load your wheels onto a bus bike rack or take the bike onto a commuter train as part of your trip to work — the weight and bulk can be a real drawback in these situations.
While it’s less of an issue with a power boost available, fat-tire bikes are slower, in general, and take more effort to propel them down the road. As long as you respect the charge level and don’t run the batteries to zero, you can avoid peddling this monster home under your own power.
The RipCurrent gives you all you need to get going on the trails or just to navigate bumpy and uneven street surfaces with ease. This bike has many of the essentials well covered: front and back fenders, an integrated front light and independent taillight, and a large LCD screen readout of conditions all come standard with the bike.
Not everyone indeed needs fat tires, front suspension, and an 80-pound big-wheeled monster to get around town for just commuting or doing errands. But if you really like the idea of a powerful and robust e-bike that offers the smoother ride that the wide rubber tires can provide, or if you’re planning on getting off-road and ripping through trails, the RipCurrent may indeed be the electric bike for you.
Not Found E Bike Reviews.....
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