Customer Reviews

2008 eZip Trailz Women's Electric Comfort Bike (26-Inch Wheels)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

First off, I will discuss my disappointment with UPS. The bike was delivered to my front door but the top of the box was completely open and styrofoam inside bashed up as well as holes in the box itself. The UPS driver did write down on his sheet as "damaged". This could be remedied simply by taping the top of box so when the stapled areas "blow", the box still remains intact.

My husband then arrived and immediately set to work on putting the bike together (took him 20 minutes) to verify that all components were in the box. All bike components were there. However, because of the shipping, the frame had a small ding on it and the back rear rack was bent down (I have read this happens quite a bit on the rack).

I immediately emailed Amazon about the small ding on frame and rear rack being bent. The bike was temporarily out of stock so they could not replace it. I mentioned that I could live with the small ding and get the rack fixed if they would offer a discount instead of shipping the bike back which Amazon did.

We took the bike to a local bike store and had heavy duty tire tubes with Slime put on so I am not stranded with a flat (we have lots of stickers in the desert).

I have ridden the bike around a couple of times and it is great! I LOVE the electric motor kicking in when I do not wish to pedal. We bought the bike for small trips to the library, Post Office, Karate class, stuff that can be done locally instead of driving. My husband works 1.5 miles from the house and is thinking of purchasing a second bike for his "commute". We can then put both batteries (the bike only comes with one) on one bike if needed for longer distance biking. However, we still have two bikes with their own batteries again for short trips.

The bike is heavy but it is motorized so that does not bother me. As the technology increases on ebikes and prices go down, we may upgrade in the future. Overall, very pleased with investment of bike and Amazon's willingness to make the deal to keep the bike instead of waiting for the next stock to come in.

I was very excited to find an electric bike for this price and hoped to ride it to work. The combination of the motor and peddlng would be good exercise, and save on gas as well as help the environment. I was soon very disappointed.

The bike was packaged very well, and easy to assemble, although my son and I never did get the front brake adjusted right. I decided to ride it to the bike shop to get the brake adjusted, using the rear brake. I charged the battery... I know it was charged because I own a izip 500 scooter made by the same company and I have charged that battery many times. But this bike didn't get any power. The lights on the right handlebar wouldn't light up. I inserted the battery according to the instructions and turned the key, still nothing. I took the battery out several times and reinserted it, turned the key following all instructions but still no power. Then I decided to try peddling it so I took it to the road and tried the gears. That was the second problem. The entire gear assembly turned around the handlebar but it wouldn't change gears. I finally got it to change but it took 2 hands. The third problem was the chain skipped as I peddled. So I pulled up to my house and applied the brakes-- oh yeah, they don't work. The rear brakes did work though.

I fooled around with it for a weekend, wondering if I did something wrong, but I'm not so stupid that I can't get a bike together and running. So Sunday night I went on Amazon.com and set up for the package to be picked up. Here is where the bike earns the one star. Amazon has always been great about returns. The next day they had UPS pick it up at my house and Amazon said I will get a full refund.

I don't recommend this bike. But if you do decide to buy this, DO NOT throw away the carton and styrofoam.

Length:: 3:07 Mins

I have had my Ezip for a few months now. The bike arrived in slightly torn packaging. I assembled it myself in about two hours (I am not mechanically inclined). I was not able to properly adjust the brakes, so I took my bike to a bike shop where the brakes were adjusted for free. I have ridden it to work and back, a seven mile two-way trip. I take my charger with me when I go to work and let the battery recharge for the return trip home. I have equipped my bike with a Wald basket to carry items and will soon place baskets on the back rack too. Other items that have added to the safety of my bike are a side view mirror and flashing lights on the front and back of the bike. The bike is heavy, about 80 pounds. Don't try to bench press it, and you'll be fine. The bike is a little slow going up steep inclines, but then again, so am I. You will need to help it by peddling while on hills. I have had no problems with the battery or any other parts. I love my Ezip and would recommend it to everyone.

I am very pleased with this Product. This is the Third one I purchased. 1st a mens bike, I paid $100. extra in delivery from Norther Tool. Then another Mens- whent to Northern Store & Purchased to be deliverd to thier store/ saved on delivery charge. But the Best Deal was this womens Curry on Amazon.com they charged No tax and No Delivery, just a strait $389.

All the bikes work Fine. I read a few bad reviews. It appears some people have tried to unscrew the fromt break to adjust it enough to put the front tire on. Not Necessary! Just pull the whole break harnest out of its slot and back in after placing tire on. Also some in reviews could'nt get them started and sent them back. Try the on and off switch for left or right optional battery located underneith back rack.

We had one Nut come off on the Womens Pedel Arm, no problem, just tighten it back on. I dont like the fact that the Extra Battery can only be purchased through Curry at more than $140. tax/delivery. I found the same sealed batteries at a local battery store for $39. each and I'm going to replicate their harnesting shell out of wood/ luan & 1x3's routerd. Overall Very Please. They Ride Sweet. Peddle only on hills, they will last farther distance. God Bless, Michael Siemer, Chatt. TN

I have had an eZip Trailz electric bike for a little less than 6 months. I purchased it at Wal-Mart for $399 + tax. The bike has performed as expect, by and large. That is; 1) it moves at maximum rate on flat land of 15mph and is considerable slower up hill, 2) when the battery was new I could travel 6-8 miles on a charge without paddling, 3) the battery's range declined gradually with usage. Note that I weigh #145 and performance is predictably associated with weight. Another thing is that I use the bike exclusively to travel to and from work about 3 days per week. Round trip is 3.5 miles.

There is one aspect of the bike's performance that I did not anticipate; how long the battery lasted before needing to be replaced. Mine, after less than 6 months, one of which I did not use the bike at all because I was away on vacation, would not hold a charge at all and needed to be replaced. Note that the replacement cost is about $150 with shipping and tax in California. I estimate that I used the bike a total of 65 times to ride to work and back, which amounts to about $2.30 per 3.5 mile trip for the battery alone (I don't know how much the electricity to recharge the battery costs, so I will leave it out of this cost-benefit analysis). Clearly it would cost far less for gas if I drove to work rather than ride this bike. Even at the government driving rate (gas plus all other related auto expenses) of 50 cents a mile, the total cost of driving is far less than the cost of the battery alone ($150 v. $114). My point is, if you are buying this bike to save money on driving, you are making a poor decision.

Another problem I had was the battery recharger broke after only one month. I opened it up to assess the problem and noted that a design flaw almost guaranteed failure within a short period because any pull on the cord was fully resisted by the spot welds, eventually causing the welds to break (unimaginable!). They did replace it free of charge, but I had to pay $20 for shipping and was out of commission for a week.

In summary, I really enjoy riding this bike to work. I'm disappointed in how long the battery has lasted and how much Currie Technology charges for a replacement. Also, gouging the customer on replacement batteries is a poor business plan in the long run.

I was so hopeful that I would be able to commute the five miles to work on this bike since I need a little help with the hills here. The bike does not work. The motor never goes on. I had the battery tested - it's okay. After several tries and 20 minutes on hold I finally got through to Currie Technologies' Customer Service Rep and was curtly told that it sounded like a bad controller (whatever that is). They sent a replacement part - mailed at my expense. It wasn't the problem. I don't want to deal with their so-called Customer Service again so I'm returning the bike.

I bought this bike for my wife hoping that she will go for more rides with me. I don't mind sweating and puffing up moderate inclines but on a regular bike my wife stops, walks, falls behind and I hope this will be a good solution for her. It was very inexpensive ($225) on sale before Christmas with free shipping. It arrived with damage to the box, it looked like one of the hand cutouts had broken and the box dropped on one end but everything inside was OK. The components all look like relatively low end products but it is impressively designed, looks good and is sturdy and comfortable. Assembled very easily and quickly needing only a little truing of the front wheel and adjusting of the rear derailleur. I did remove the tires and replaced the tubes with thicker thorn resistant ones and put slime in them. The manual is pretty complete for a bike manual. Removal of the rear wheel took some time (thus the thorn resistant tubes) but was relatively intuitive - I did find that I needed a 17mm cone wrench from a bike store to tighten the motor bracket on the axle during installation (after re-adjustment of the motor chain tension). I also bought a suspension seatpost from a local bike shop to replace the standard post, it really helps take the jolt out of bumps.

My wife won't be riding until spring but I took it out for a couple of test rides and found it to work well. It shifts perfectly and seems very stable. It is heavy due to the motor and battery (without them it would be standard weight for a steel framed bike with big tires). The motor noise is noticeable but not bad.

Most of the bad reviews I have read on this and other sites seem to be written by people who really needed someone to assemble the bike for them and show them how to use it.

Update:

I find reviews of products helpful to me so I thought I would update my review if anyone was interested. My wife has gone for a rides with me on her Ezip and she told me she loves her bike. We have gone on about 10 mile rides with some pretty significant hills without any problems, she is able to keep up (I'm the one having trouble keeping up on hills when she uses the motor). She peddles all the time and uses the motor only as an assist when needed - that is really what these bikes are designed for - and tells me that at the end of the rides the battery is noticeably weaker than at the start but it still works for her.

For fun I tried riding up a hill in my neighborhood which has about 300ft elevation gain in just over 1/2 mile. I tried on my regular bike and a low gear mountain bike and didn't get very far but with the Ezip I was able to ride to the top without stopping with a lot of peddling effort. The hill is steep enough that just coasting down I reached speeds of over 35 mph with liberal use of the brakes (which work very well). I have done this several times and impressed a neighbor with my athleticism, he didn't know it was an electric assist bike and I haven't had the heart to tell him. I weigh about 240# so this is no small feat for this bike.

First of all we are very pleased with Amazon.com ! our order went out right away and they had these bike's for the lowest price. Second, Nothing was damaged upon arrival and each box was 70lbs. As far as our Bikes,I had both put together in a little more than an hour. About the performance,They will not take on a medium hill on the motor alone but we live by the beach so there is not to many here. We get about 10 miles of rideing with some pedaling to each charge. We found that it is best to leave the bike in 7th gear, give it some throttle, and then you can pedal here and there. So far we are enjoying them. We have a place that we stop at for a break with an outlet so we top off our batteries. The bike's are heavy so you do not want to be far from home with no power.

And if your a guy, The womans bike is much more practical with a bike this heavy. Just cover the pink decals with some reflectors if that bothers you.

Like anything complex toy you need to mantain it and it should last.

Great price for this bike. It is electric up to about 18 miles per hour. 1 Flaw is that ridding over bumps dislodges the battery and so you need to get off and pull the battery out and re-set it back into it's holder....but if you are not ridding on bumpy ground it's great. You can probably get something to hold this battery in place?? The battery is heavy, if you had 2 batteries, it would probably make it harder to pedel--but it will hold 2 batteries. I feel it's a great price considering some others w/ better names cost $2000. Therefore at < $400 it makes a great 1st electric bike.(because it's so heavy & not well padded, expect damage in S&H)Which they compensated me w/ %20 off the price.

I bought a used one of these for my wife, and had to do some maint on it since the previous owner was a bit rough on it. I bought a mens mountain trailz for myself and will reuse part of this review for that one. They have the same running gear.

Pros:

* Fun!!!

* absolutely the cheapest reputable ebike on the market

* both TAG (twist and go) and PAS (Pedal ASsist) modes

* easy to use. The electric assist is easy to use

* unbelievable price

* decent range. I get about 10 miles of PAS before I notice the motor wants to run slower (about 12.5mph instead of 15mph). I figure my practical range would be 13-15 miles.

Cons:

* "real" bikers will scoff at you

* womens frame has no built-in mountpoint for water bottle.

* Heavy! You can pedal on your own but will like it better on the "juice:

* only 7 speeds. Currie must assume we'll be on the juice all the time

* SLA (sealed lead acid) batts only last a year or two, unless you get a better charger like a BatteryMINDer.

* Currie tech support has limited hours and seems overwhelmed. Expect to have to wrench on any replacement parts yourself.

* the brushed motors whine like angry bees, but not obnoxiously so

Tips:

* these are fullsize bikes with 26" wheels. If you are short it might be easier to mount/unmount the ladies bike than the mens.

* this is an electric -=assist=- bike, not an electric motorcycle. Pedal!

* max out your tires at 65psi to get more distance and less possibility of breaking spokes in potholes

* charge those batts every time you get off the bike! make it a habit.

* it appears that you can use common 40A agc 36v fuses in the battery pack instead of the impossible-to-find 40A 250V ones that come with it.

* you can disassemble the pack and rebuild it for about $50 worth of new deepcycles instead of paying $129 for a new pack.

* a desulphating charger like BatteryMINDer will help your batt packs last as long as possible.

* brakes and derailleur will likely need adjusting for best performance.

Read some of the online forums like ecoforumz, bikeforums, endless-sphere, etc, to get a feel for the community.