Respectfully, most of the e-bikes you find online come from companies with alphabet-soup for names that may sell just as many portable batteries as they do e-bikes. The included kickstand is also nice because it mounts near the back wheel so it doesn’t get in the way when you need to back the bike up while the kickstand is down. Anyone who has tried to back up a bike while the pedals are locked with the kickstand will appreciate what I’m talking about. The battery locks in under the frame of the bike, and the front wheel/fender tended to get in the way when removing or reinstalling the battery. One feature I liked was a secondary tab you need to retract to remove the battery. That way, when you unlock the battery it doesn’t just fall out.
Press the power button to turn it on, which will enable use of the motor, lights, and other electronics. That being said, the more you ride the Coston, the more it feels less sturdy than you first schwinn dealers thought. The seat post has a tendency to slide under weight, and the fenders and other elements feel a bit cheap and rattly. That’s surprising, considering Schwinn’s reputation for quality.
And at the end of the day, we’re talking about an affordable cruiser, so I didn’t expect to find high-end shifters, hydraulic disc brakes, or suspension on the bike. The Shimano schwinn dealers Tourney shifter, mechanical disc brakes, and plushy spring saddle are enough for me. I’ve seen this level of components on electric cruisers that cost nearly twice as much.
Otherwise, the headlight is adjustable to your preference, and the rear light is built into the fender itself. The Coston e-bike comes with a typical brick-on-a-string charger that plugs into a normal 110v outlet. Schwinn advertises that it takes about four hours to charge. You can plug the battery in while it’s inside the bike, or you can use an included key to remove the battery from the bike for charging. Nothing feels cheap, plastic-y, or vulnerable to quick failure. You also get two different frame sizes to choose from, which is a big upgrade over the single one-size-fits-all frames that many e-bike companies still offer.
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.