Himiway Big Dog E-Bike Review
This bike is a monster, it's beefy and built to carry a whopping 400lbs!
It's called Big Dog for a reason!
Unboxing:
The bike came mostly assembled, all I needed to do was install the handlebar, the front wheel, pedals, front fender, and front light, but, but, it doesn't stop there!
You need to take the time to go through every single, screw, bolt, and nut on your bike, don't leave anything to chance, people make mistakes and things get loose in shipping! Even take an S2 T20 torque driver and tighten up your motor screws because mine came loose!
Now let's start with some features this bike comes with:
1. Its 6061 aluminum frame feels strong and rugged, the color and finish are nothing short of sweet, and gets tons of looks when you're riding.
2. The 20"X4" KENDA FAT TIRES are smooth on and offroad, grippy in dry and wet conditions, and definitely help to absorb bumps on rough surfaces.
3. The SHIMANO 7 SPEED GEAR SHIFT SYSTEM offers more flexibility for climbing steep hills with its big sprocket and smaller sprockets for level surfaces.
I see a lot of bikes only having one sprocket and I wonder how they climb steep hills!
4. The 180MM front and rear MECHANICAL DISC BRAKES not only look cool, but they also work, stopping this bike fast and reliable.
Even though the brakes are cable and not hydraulic, they work well, I see other people complaining about this, but for me, I don't make a big deal for hydraulic brakes unless I'm traveling on bikes and scooters that go 30+ mph.
5. The main middle stand is easy to use and you don't have to worry about tipping over your bike and scratching it.
6. The 80mm FRONT FORK COIL SUSPENSION absorbs most of the vibration from getting into the handlebars.
The suspension fork has preloaded adjustments for the spring’s stiffness and a lock-out lever.
Attached to the fork is your front fender, which does a good job protecting you from water splashes but some water still gets on the battery shield, the rear fender on the other hand will protect you fully from water splashing on your back, also Big Dog is IP?????? rated, so don't worry, ride through the puddles!
7. With a HALF TWIST THROTTLE, you don't need to be overworking your wrist to get moving.
8. The extra cargo rack is definitely cool to have, especially if you plan to do groceries or run a lot of errands with this bike! Himiway also makes a front basket that easily bolts on in front, in case you need to carry more stuff.
You can load up to 400lbs so do you!
9. The 48V LED Headlight works well for the type of city riding that I do, if you're doing a lot of riding in the suburbs with no street lights, you will need to buy additional lights.
The red tail light is plenty bright and lights up when you press any of the brake levers.
10. The nice big LCD display, shows, speed, power, mileage, battery life, 1-5 levels of pedal assist power, Walk mode, and more. It can be password protected to lock thieves from battery power and the pedal assist is programmable up to 9 assist levels!
11. The 750W rear-wheel Motor has decent power, don't expect an adrenaline rush but it definitely gets you going places.
It easily gets you up to the legal 20 mph limit and you can easily unlock it following the instructions in the manual to squeeze a little more juice out of it.
12. The removable battery is very convenient for charging without bringing the bike indoors and you can also charge the battery onboard the bike itself too.
The battery is 48V 20Amp hours Samsung/LG battery with a 5000mAh (milliamp hours) which according to Himiway can deliver up to 60 miles on pure battery and up to 80 miles using pedal assist.
From my riding, I was able to get about 35 miles per charge and I only pedal when I need to, generally from what I have been hearing, all these manufacturers claim extreme battery life, but it's best you cut it in 1/2 to be safe and 35 miles per charge without really using the pedal is good enough for me. Full range test coming soon so stay tuned and subscribe for more!
Now on this note, let's talk about some of the things I don't like about this bike because nothing in this world is perfect, in case you haven't figured it out yet!
1. Handle spins all the way around when sitting on the main stand, not a big deal but a bit annoying because it wraps up the cables sometimes, I can't see anyone doing BMX stunts with this, so a stopper would definitely be apricated!
2. The seat looks and feels premium but it was very uncomfortable for me, to the point where I couldn't ride more than 5 mins without feeling heavy discomfort and pain.
Again not a big deal, I understand everyone is built differently, and you might love the feel on this seat but it just doesn't work for me and that was the first thing I changed right away on this bike, now I am using this from Amazon and it works perfectly for me so far!
3. Ebikes are not cheap and unfortunately, they don't come with locks, which is not a big deal but having a lock holder latch of some sort built in, would really be beneficial, instead of running the risk of leaving my lock at home or fetching it around on my backpack, locks for these bikes are heavy!
4. The fastest sprocket doesn't have any pressure when I'm riding at 20mph, so I am essentially burning through battery power to maintain a 20mph speed!
I feel like a faster sprocket will allow me to keep pedaling to maintain top speed and save even more battery power. However I do understand that bicycle cassette typically built to go over 20 mph can take up a lot of space which probably couldn't fit on this massive rear wheel, so not a big big deal.
5. And my biggest problem with this bike is the battery power response time.
Whether you are using pedal assist or twisting the throttle, there is almost a 1-second delay before power gets applied to the motors, which can feel like playing a video game with lag time and it definitely takes away from the fun factor of riding.
To sum up this review, I am definitely happy with this E-bike, it handles great and it's good for all-around use, I definitely recommend this bike for commuting and for pleasure. Also if you are lightweight and don't need a ton of range Himiway offers a ton of different bike options on their website to fit different needs, check them out:
https://himiwaybike.com/products/electric-cargo-bike
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