I have to mention one thing for anyone who has not had a chance to ride a Japanese electric bicycle: they are really actually pretty damn good. Many electric assist kits appear to be sold in the US and Europe that can be retro fit to your bike, and there are obvious advantages to that. But these things are something else. Most noticeably, there is no throttle on a Japanese electric bike. The throttle is automatically adjusted depending on the pressure you put on the crank via the pedal. This makes a big difference, because it means using one of these bikes is as easy as, well, riding a bike. However, you can select between "economy" and "high power" modes at the press of a button.
Naturally, they also come equiped with basket, lock, light, mud guards, quality gears, stand and chain guard. All you need to do is pick the colour you like. Here is the website of the make I bought. Best 600 dollars spent in a long time.
http://www.panabyc.co.jp/
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4 comments:
oh yea - and they also have a built in lock for the battery, so you don't have to worry about that being stolen either.
can i ask which shop on tokyo you purchased the electric bike from? my thanks in advance.
Sure. I really must expand my information here sometime with a new post. Thanks for the reminder.
In the meantime, I bought ours online, but when a spoke broke, I took it to the local shop. Most local bike shops in Japan will sell you an electric bike if you ask for one.
Online, there are hundreds of resources. For example, go to Rakuten, and search for 電動自転車
This is all the models by National Panasonic sold there:
http://directory.rakuten.co.jp/rms/sd/directory/vc?s=1&tz=302204&v=3&p=0&f=0&o=4&oid=000&k=0
Ours is something like this, only with a whopping great wicker basket on the front:
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/nextbike/pa-epcd03/
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