The Sting-Ray[28] sales boom of the 1960s accelerated in 1970, with United States bicycle sales doubling over a period of two schwinn mountain bicycles years. Although the selection of merchandise is constantly changing, Craigslist can be a great place to score a deal on a vintage Schwinn. This isn’t the place to go if you need a bike immediately, but if you’re patient and watch the listings carefully, you may just find the vintage bike of your dreams.
If you see this electric bike being sold at a garage sale or bike shop as used, make sure you get a good deal and keep an open mind about having to repair the battery yourself or just ride without electric power someday. The best electric bikes tend to be mid-drive because this delivers the most natural ride feel, and the same is true of conversion kits. The weight sits low in the frame and the power gets applied to the crank for a more natural power delivery sensation. The only downside is pricing and packaging, plus it can be complex to set up yourself. Different standards make it challenging to figure out exactly what you need, as well.
Along with 20+ other leading bike companies, Cannondale is proud to be a part of the e-bike battery recycling program organized by PeopleForBikes and administrated by the not-for-profit Call2Recycle. Your payment of $15 goes to an industrywide fund that ensures batteries from Cannondale e-bikes are recycled at end of life and do not end up in landfills. For comparison, my main bike — the REI Co-op Cycles CTY 2.1 — is bigger and weighs just over 30 pounds.
Overall, I think Schwinn needs to better balance its approach when it comes to the motor and how hard it pushes, especially when it has a full charge. 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. 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. Starting in 2005, Schwinn also marketed Motorscooters under the Schwinn Motorsports brand.[69] Production ceased in 2011 (approx).
The battery is a 288 watt-hour battery built with cells which takes about 4 hours to charge. In general, if purchased on the Schwinn website, your new bike will be shipped within hours of being ordered and should arrive within 7-10 days. Please know that we have free shipping for all orders over $49, that we have a live chat option available Monday through Friday, and Schwinn has a limited lifetime warranty on all our bikes. In terms of pricing, this is not the cheapest e-bike schwinn mountain bicycles you can buy. But it’s one of the least expensive ones you can buy from a bike company. 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.
If that works for you and you also like the idea of doing some pedalling, then the very best is a mid-mounted motor paired with a torque sensor. The electric bike conversion kit market is quite dynamic, with brands entering and exiting it regularly. All the options listed below are from established brands though, and we’ve checked the continued availability of these electric bike conversion kits as of April 2024 and updated this guide accordingly. Even though this electric bike offers 24 speeds (and thus has grip shifters on the left and right handle bars) the cockpit is relatively clean.