3rd Ebike (Phat Boy)

So after looking around, I stumbled across a youtube video showing someone on a pedal only fat bike, riding around on snow.  I knew the moment I saw it, that's the direction I had to go!  I'm not an environmentalist, nor do I drink the "Green" kool-aid.  I just wanted to keep with an Ebike for exercise. 

So I found this bike online.  Yes, it was ordered from China but doesn't really everything electronic come there anyways.  Specifically from AliExpress.  I was very nervous about ordering from there but the price could not be matched.  Local shops offered just a Fat bike at the same cost and there wasn't even a motor on it.  I figured, if anything I could replace the cheap Chinese parts with high quality parts and it turns out I was right.

 

To attempt to show the thickness, here's a picture of it with my hand on the tire.  It's as thick as my hand and it's pretty impressive.  Originally I thought the spider design would be a bit noisy for the Urban driving I would be doing, but it gives off a nice hum.

 

The controller was a bit harder to understand since there was absolutely no manuals on how this thing worked.  By default, it worked fine but the parameters were set crazy high.  On my first riding, the bike on motor alone went up to 55km!  Which makes it illegal here in Canada to be riding on the bike path..  I'll post another article on how to tame the beast.. Which is btw, it's legal now.

 

I keep the tires at 25psi but it rated at 30psi.  There are no shocks on this setup but with the bike tires and the -5psi the ride is pretty comfortable.  Best part is, I've hit a few big pot holes and the bike shakes but the tube doesn't burst!  So now I finally have a big bike for a big guy, which in turn gives me a big work out.

Detail link FAT BIKE SPECS

General Specifications:

• 500Watt motor
• 48v Lithium Ion battery (Water Bottle style)
• 26x4" tires
• PAS (still awful)
• Controller is programmable (somewhat)

Lessons Learned:

1. Check out the parts of the bike and assemble immediately. Ali express only offers a 15 day "dispute" with the clients.
2. Tighten every single screw, nut, etc.. I lost a few after my first go.  I was way to excited to do a full inspection, I wanted to see what I could do with it!
3. When getting parts from China, be patient and be prepared for extra "Administrative" fees.  Over all with duty, tax, administrative fees the bike cost about $2500.