Stolen Cheetah Lessons Learned

[The Madmadscientist]

Hello All,
I'd like to share some 'wisdom' that my cheetah owning has taught me.
1. Like y'all said I don't need a 3000w ebike. The Cheetah with 750w (continuous I think) was good for most things. For hills I think I want a simple 1000w cont bike.

2. I'm not sure I ever needed gears. It came with a seven speed. Thinking back to all the riding I did I always left it on the smallest rear gear along with my added 52t gear up front. Are gears really necessary on hub motor bikes?

3. Dang, can't remember...my memory is really Swiss cheesed lately.

I've given up on getting my Cheetah back and have been looking at all the many, many new and used ebikes out there. Most of them are just so boring looking...

Life's too short to ride a boring bicycle.

I've been spending a lot of time ogling the bikes on the Tracer website. Im really liking this bike. Not boring for sure. You can buy it just as a regular bike or the 800w ebike pictured here. Ive been talking with a guy who owns the non electric version and he loves it. He said that he just recently rode it 71 miles in some sort of race. He said its very comfortable. This is a single speed bike.

in general I keep going back and forth on buying just the bike and converting it myself or buying the pre-made version.

Any thoughts about the bike and Tracer would be greatly appreciated.

 

[99t4]

Sorry for your loss. I know how it feels. When mine was stolen I had raging heart rate and unhealthy fantasies of wailing on the thief with a baseball bat with a rusty nail thru the end of it. Thankfully that subsided over time but twinges return every now and then.

Are gears really necessary on hub motor bikes?

Depends on your riding style and preferences. I see many who do not even pedal at all. Neither they nor the bike appear to be suffering for it. Me? I like to get exercise on the ebike so I pedal all the time, in an appropriate gear, aiming for 70 - 90 pedal RPM, moderately heavy force. Smiling most of the time.

 

[calab]

Depends on how much you want to pedal, you need some speeds for a dd or geared hub , at a minimum 3 speeds (igh) for the small hills but often that is not enough for longer or steeper hills so for a hub motor 6 spds to about 8 speeds is good. You can limit the 8spd to 7 or 6 gears with the limit screws on the rear der. I had to do that when I had issues with the chain falling off or auto-shifting.

 

[2old]

Sorry about your loss, and (like many) I know the feeling X 3 or 4 (times). My only concern is that I would try riding a "pedal forward" designed bike before purchasing this one.

 

[Chalo]

I've given up on getting my Cheetah back and have been looking at all the many, many new and used ebikes out there. Most of them are just so boring looking...

Life's too short to ride a boring bicycle.

My life is too short to waste time on a bike that was built for appearance instead of comfort, biomechanics, or practicality.

With a design as mature and iterated as the bicycle, boring normal characteristics were arrived at by more than 150 years of trying other things and finding they don't work as well as the kind that seems boring to us now. E-bikes are a little different than pedal-only bikes, so a sufficiently mature version of them will surely end up a little different than a pedal bike. But it definitely won't end up as a visual parody of a clown motorcycle.

 

[lnanek]

In terms of biomechanics, it doesn't look too different from other crank forward options like the Townie line of cruisers, which are mass market offerings. You aren't going to win any races with either, but a lot of people find sitting up straight and being able to put your feet flat on the ground at traffic lights to be more comfortable than aero road bike positions with a lot of weight on your arms/wrists and being on tip toes or leaning over slanted at traffic lights. As long as you have a motor, it isn't like you are going to have trouble going up hills or whatever either. I wouldn't choose it for the looks, since, as you say, it looks silly to serious cyclists, but it seems like a completely valid choice for comfort.

 

[Chalo]

This is the design comfortable bikes have converged on after over 135 years. It's a modern but thoroughly traditional Dutch omafiets ("granny bike") featuring slack angles, generous wheelbase, step-through frame, large wheels, and an upright easygoing rider position.

This is one of the very first "safety" bicycles, the Starley Rover first produced in 1885. I think it's a testament to how right Starley got it on the first try that after several generations, the most time-tested comfortable and practical bicycles in the world are obvious family relations.

Electra Townie and its many clones (KHS Smoothie, Trek Pure, Sun Drifter, etc.) are well established as comfy and practical bikes, but the few that have pushed beyond their laid back rider position have failed to gain a following. For instance, this Rans model, despite being made for its extreme feet-forward fit and not cosplay, has not developed even a cult niche.

Likewise, the moto-chopper styled bikes with similarly gimped rider position will not hang around except for (very questionable) aesthetic reasons.

For what it's worth, the Revi Cheetah has geometry that falls under the "proven good" category, but the Tracer stretch chopper definitely falls under "proven not so good".

 

[nicobie]

I couldn't agree with Chalo more.

I love my Townie. It's a runner, but if I was to do it over again I would go with a bigger battery but smaller (Amp wise) controller.

It's your choice, but I would stay away from the clown bikes.

 

[lnanek]

I saw a Day 6 bike the other day getting close to that handlebar height and distance between crank and seat:

 

[UtahPete]

Chopper style is all about life-style, not comfort or handling.

 

[m3vuv]

Hello All,
I'd like to share some 'wisdom' that my cheetah owning has taught me.
1. Like y'all said I don't need a 3000w ebike. The Cheetah with 750w (continuous I think) was good for most things. For hills I think I want a simple 1000w cont bike.

2. I'm not sure I ever needed gears. It came with a seven speed. Thinking back to all the riding I did I always left it on the smallest rear gear along with my added 52t gear up front. Are gears really necessary on hub motor bikes?

3. Dang, can't remember...my memory is really Swiss cheesed lately.

I've given up on getting my Cheetah back and have been looking at all the many, many new and used ebikes out there. Most of them are just so boring looking...

Life's too short to ride a boring bicycle.

I've been spending a lot of time ogling the bikes on the Tracer website. Im really liking this bike. Not boring for sure. You can buy it just as a regular bike or the 800w ebike pictured here. Ive been talking with a guy who owns the non electric version and he loves it. He said that he just recently rode it 71 miles in some sort of race. He said its very comfortable. This is a single speed bike.

in general I keep going back and forth on buying just the bike and converting it myself or buying the pre-made version.

Any thoughts about the bike and Tracer would be greatly appreciated.
View attachment 339490

horrid looking american crap imho,getting it stolen was a good thing i would think!.