Imagine you’re an 80 year old man. Get your pants hiked up to just below your sternum. Put on your best loafers, your town cruising hat, and carefully step onto this bike. Riding this bike is easy enough, once you remember to turn the key on. Turn the key on back at the battery pack, then schwinn mountain bike turn the handlebar controller on (if you want the assist), get on, and start riding. The second thing to notice is the battery pack removal lever. If you have a key on an electric bike with an expensive, exotic battery pack, it might make sense to lock the pack into the bike somehow.
Biking is a nice middle ground — a bit more exhilarating than hiking, but not as expensive as buying a motorcycle. With all do respect to the tiny bikes for toddlers and motorcycle sidecars, the three-wheeler never really went mainstream. But there’s a new electric trike in town looking to change the way we view the bike with an extra wheel. The simple, somewhat disappointing truth is that the Coston DX doesn’t stack up against other e-bikes of a similar price.
The battery meter is comprised of five segments to give you an estimate of how much power you have left. The Coston e-bike is controlled with a handlebar-mounted LED schwinn road bike panel with three buttons on the side. Nothing feels cheap, plastic-y, or vulnerable to quick failure. It all seems like a robust and well-built electric bike.
Road or trail grit will stay out, and chain oil will stay in. They can do this because all the shifting is done in the rear hub – so it’s a straight, simple chainline with nothing other than two sprockets and a chain. I really, really like this feature – I can ride it in long pants and not get dirty, and if I take it on a dusty trail, the chain will stay clean and grit-free. This is awesome, and I’d love to see more bikes doing something like this. While it could use a little boost to a 500 watt motor to help on the hills, the smaller motor keeps the price lower.
Anyone who has tried to back up a bike while the pedals are locked with the kickstand will appreciate what I’m talking about. I understand that I’m a big guy, and I’m also about 50 pounds over the maximum advertised weight for this bike. I was probably never going to get 35 miles out of this or any other bike.