I like that they included a bell with the bike and would love to have also had some lights for safety. Considering the relatively low price point aftermarket lights are something that could be added easily later on. By the late 1970s, a new bicycle sport begun by enthusiasts in Northern California had grown into a new type of all-terrain bicycle, the mountain bike. Mountain bikes were originally based on Schwinn balloon-tired cruiser bicycles fitted with derailleur gears and called “Klunkers”.
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. That being said, I also didn’t get much extra range beyond miles, even after I set the pedal-assist at level 3. In the past, the range you got depended on how much work you were willing to put into it. On my older e-bike (also a Schwinn) I get about the same 20 miles of range at level 5, but I also get closer to 40 miles at level 3. What makes me excited about the bike is the possibilities that it opens up, but like a lot of aspects of this bike, it’s something of a double-edged sword.
This bike comes equipped with front, rear, and bottom lights. The front and rear lights are attached to the fenders while the bottom lights are part of the battery itself. If it’s a bright night and you just want some visibility, the bottom lights work well.
“Nice to ride, easy to assemble and make adjustments.” — Mark S.“Great ride! Love my Schwinn….Easy to assemble and charge the battery.” — Stephen G. Although it has an aluminum frame, it weighs in at just over 66 pounds. Maybe that’s not such a big deal, but much of the weight is carried high in the frame. My first impression was that the bike felt unwieldy, like I was carrying a bocce set on the rack behind me.
It comes with dual-function pedals that have cages on one side and SPD clips on the other, so you can choose the footwear that’s best for you, plus they come with SPD cleats. The front stabilizer has integrated transport wheels that make moving this heavy bike easy. All feet have independent levelers to help stabilize the bike on uneven surfaces. An adjustment knob below the handlebar controls resistance, and there are 100 micro-adjustable levels of smooth, quiet magnetic resistance. In 1938, Frank W. Schwinn officially introduced the Paramount series. Developed from experiences gained in racing, Schwinn established Paramount as their answer to high-end, professional competition bicycles.
All three of the new Schwinn ebike models have step-thru and standover versions, 20mph speed limit and 250-watt brushless geared hub drive motor. It’s easy to ride the Marshall for hours at a time. The riding position is comfortably upright but still able to lean into things off-road. It still lets you stand if you’re trying to get up a particularly steep part of a hill or over a rough section on the trail.
This versatility gives the IC4/C6 a leg up on the competition in this metric. By the mid-1970s, competition from lightweight and feature-rich imported bikes was making strong inroads in the budget-priced and beginners’ market. This feature, attractive to older riders, soon found its way to other Schwinn models, especially those intended for senior citizens. You might see the occasional “e-bike” (and we use the term loosely here) blowing through city traffic at speeds of 30 schwinn ebike or 40 mph or more.
It’s a heavy city cruiser with a little bit of power bolted on, driven by a battery pack that makes no sense except as a way to gather press for a particular type of battery. The motor can draw over 200 watts at peak output, so the battery pack is good for less than half an hour of full assist before it’s stone dead. Fortunately, it doesn’t run at full assist all the time. On the right is the shifter for the Shimano Nexus 8 speed rear hub.
For most of my riding around trails and small paths in the city, the 32 km/h motor limit is plenty. For open road riding with traffic you may hit 32 km/h regularly. We tested the Marshall electric bike on pavement, gravel and dirt to see how Schwinn’s new models stack up against the growing number of ebike options. The low power motor is matched by a low capacity battery. With just 288 Wh of capacity, the battery surprised me, and not in a good way. Sure, I’ve seen plenty of e-bikes with 288 Wh batteries before.
Considering there is an aluminum alloy suspension fork on the front of this bike, I’m glad the motor isn’t too powerful or it miay negatively impact travel and perhaps even weaken this part. For that ride, just getting the feel of the bike, I headed for a local paved rail-trail. The bike offers a seven-speed gear range, with a derailleur and double-trigger shifter from Microshift. The rear hub motor offers assist levels of 0-5, with 0 being no assist and 5 being the maximum assist. On the mostly flat trail, the bike rolled easily enough that I could have pedaled its whole length without using any assist at all, just shifting the gears to accommodate the gentle rise and fall of the path.