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Ecotric Starfish, First Impression: Budget Dream

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Ecotric Starfish, First Impression: Budget Dream

Old 11-19-20, 09:23 PM
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lydy 
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Ecotric Starfish, First Impression: Budget Dream

I did decide on the budget choice, (thanks everyone who offered advice) and got an Ecotric Starfish, in blue. She's a folding bike, which means that I can load her in my car. I have a traveling gig in Cleveland, and I am planning on taking her with me, in the forlorn hope that there might be some days in December that are still fine enough to ride. I have named her Jezebel, because she's of easy virtue and no better than she should be. I thought I'd share some first impressions.

First and foremost, it would have been really, really, REALLY helpful if the "Assembly Instructions and Owners Manual" had actually been for the Starfish, rather than for nine other bikes. It did come mostly assembled, and one could triangulate from the manual to figure out what they actually wanted done, but I was intensely grateful that my mechanically minded boyfriend was happy to help. I probably could have managed alone, but it would have been ever so much more stressful.

The battery charged quickly, and seems to be just fine. The rail the the battery slides down was loose, and when I placed it where it pretty clearly needed to go and tightened the single screw that holds it in place, the battery at first didn't want to slide into place. This appears to mostly have been a problem of needing to be slightly bent, said bending accomplished by placing and removing the battery a few times. I'm not happy that it's held by a single screw, a screw that gets loosened as one rides.

The folding hinge was so tight that at first we were afraid we had broken or jammed something. It took the full strength of the pair of us to unfold and refold it. The next day, we put a couple of drops of 3-in-1 oil on the hinge, and that seemed to fix everything.

The saddle is rather spectacularly uncomfortable. I expect to replace it quite soon, though padded bike shorts do help quite a bit. (Tangentially, I have a used Hobson saddle that a friend of mine recommends. I see there are mixed feelings about said noseless saddle. I may give it a try and see if I like it. I do experience quite a lot of pain from sitting in a saddle too long. Dunno if the Hobson will help with that or not.)

I would have to say that while she looks ok, the welds are large and this is not a sleek machine that looks as if craftsman assembled it painstakingly. It looks like it was built in a factory by people who probably needed a lunch break. But it's a low step through, and the folding hinge seems to be quite adequate. She doesn't feel wobbly or weak.

Without the power on, Jezebel is a total dog. She rides, but she's heavy and slow and unresponsive. Part of that may be that I'm not used to the 20 inch wheels. The 7 speed Shimano thumb shift does work,, but it's actually rather hard to get it into first gear.

With the power on, she's a quite nice ride. I think that my Electra Loft 7i is a nicer ride, in a lot of ways, but I am an old slow person, and there were hills I could tackle on the ebike that I would have had to walk my usual bike up. The throttle is nice for getting going from a stop, but I'm not all that used to electric bikes. I knocked myself off the bike once, early on. Because it's such a low step-through, I managed to not only land on my feet, but not drop the bike. So that was nice. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, maybe nothing, but she doesn't...coast. There's a glorious downhill on one of my usual routes, and on my Electra I usually get up to about 20 mph. On the Ecotric, that didn't happen. I ended up pedaling the whole downhill, and didn't get much above 15 mph. Indeed, my average speed on the short ride I took was considerably slower than my average speed on the Electra.

In general, I find that the lowest level of pedal assist is the most comfortable unless I'm tackling a serious hill. At the higher levels, the pedal doesn't seem to have any resistance, and it feels weird and uncomfortable to me. This may be a matter of not being entirely used to ebikes. The power level indicator for the battery fluctuates quite a bit. I do not know if that is because there's some battery regeneration from pedaling, or if the the power level indicator is just a bit flaky. I mean, if the latter, well, that's pretty normal for pretty much every battery, ever. I haven't run the battery all the way down, yet.

I am also very pleased that it comes with a rear rack. I put my Bontrager panniers on, experimentally, and they appear to fit. They were, however, empty at the time. I think I will ride to the coop and fill them up and see how that goes.

All in all, she's a dream. A budget dream, but a dream. And the fact that I can take her to Cleveland pleases me.
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