The shifter is on the right handlebar opposite the LED display for the motor on the left. As a commuter e-bike, I’m also glad to see some good commuter specific parts, like the included fenders and the excellent lighting. Not only do you get typical head and taillights, but you also have LED frame lights built into the sides of the battery. That adds a nice nighttime glow to the bike to give you better side visibility – an area where most bikes are lacking.
What makes me excited about the bike is the possibilities that it opens up, but like a lot of aspects of this bike, it’s something of a double-edged sword. Electric bikes are a ton of fun and I’ve had a great time this summer riding them. As an avid cyclist who commuted to and from the train for years in the past, I see e-bikes as a very reasonable step forward in commuting. The bike should have an estimated range of 18 miles without pedalling.
Once I rigged up my kids’ old trailer into a cargo trailer, I could transport even more from the grocery store. Suddenly I was spending hours if not days less time in my car, and more on a bike. schwinn ebike I won’t pretend that exercise was a factor here — the e-bike does 95% of the work for you — but I’ll argue with any doctor that some peddling is better than sitting on my butt in a car.
And when it comes to serious hills, the Coston gets left far behind other e-bikes. The Schwinn Coston DX is a Class 2 e-bike, which means that it has a throttle that is capable of reaching up to 20 mph without pedaling. Its motor is hub-mounted, and it has a 360-watt-hour battery.
Your e-bike comes with a battery, a charger, and a charging cord. Plug the cord into the charger, then plug it into the battery and, finally, plug it into the wall. The battery can be charged while it is on the bike, or you can remove it to charge the battery in a different location, like your office after commuting to work. schwinn beach cruiser A light located on the battery will turn on to let you know that it’s charging properly. 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.
It’s just that they’re usually on smaller, lightweight e-bikes that push the needle considerably less on the scale. The controller can be thought of as the brain of the system. Regardless of the type of motor in the system, the controller takes rider input and communicates it to the battery and motor.
While electric mountain bikes tend to be fairly pricey — it’s not uncommon for them to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $8,000 — the recommendations below represent a wide range of budgets. Check back often, as we’ll be updating our ebike coverage regularly, looking at standout models like the Juiced RipCurrent S and the VanMoof S3. While riding, use the “+” button to increase the level of assist as desired, and use the “-“ to decrease. A higher level of assistance requires less pedaling effort.
But it being a midweek day, I had the trail mostly to myself and was able to test all the assist levels — learning that the bike could indeed do the advertised maximum assist speed of 20 mph. When Schwinn contacted me about reviewing one of the bikes, I chose the Coston DX in the step-thru version, which makes for easy mounting. It also has upgraded fenders, a rear rack and a unique storage saddle that opens like a clamshell with the hinge in the nose and has room for your wallet, phone, energy bars or a multi-tool. All three models have headlights, taillights and integrated downtube lights for full visibility. Riding around on electric bikes might feel a little surprising at first, but most people who try it love it.