The fast charging capability makes it seem like it was focused on fleet use, perhaps for urban delivery. But it’s just not a good bike for this – it’s heavy and slow. It doesn’t make much sense to me for an electric bike – the focus on fast charging and a high power density chemistry on a bike that really doesn’t need much power is hard to understand. The only thing I can think is that they hoped it would become a delivery fleet bike or something – but a decent delivery rider would absolutely smoke this bike in any terrain. It makes sense, if you’re Toshiba and want to advertise this fancy battery chemistry you’re gearing up to produce, though. Feature rich, relatively affordable, light weight electric bike from ~2009 well suited for city use.
The Lectric XP Lite weighs 46 pounds — 20 less than the Schwinn (Lectric has other models that weigh about 60 pounds.) The Schwinn was like driving a Hummer. The weight of the battery is much lower than with the Schwinn, which allows the rider to maneuver easily and confidently at all times. It has no gears and no chain, which means less maintenance.
The motor driving this bike offers 180 schwinn dealers watts nominal power and up to 250 watts peak. It’s a planetary geared design by Protanium and it offers good torque while keeping weight down. The motor is quiet during operation and blends in with the rest of the bike. One downside to a front mounted hub motor is that it increases the steering weight and changes the ride quality a little bit but the impact is minimized here due to the smaller size of the motor.
Fundamentally, this bike seems like a bunch of parts bolted and ziptied (yes… literally ziptied) onto an otherwise standard Schwinn city bike frame. Of course, as some of my regular readers might know, I bought one. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio.
As a result, Schwinns became increasingly dated in both styling and technology. By 1957, the Paramount series, once a premier racing bicycle, had atrophied from a lack of attention and modernization. Aside from some new frame lug designs, the designs, methods and tooling were the same as had been used in the 1930s. The Paramount continued as a limited production model, built in small numbers in a small apportioned area of the old Chicago assembly factory.
But it’s a great go-to steed for commuting, errand running, recreational riding, hauling a kid in a child seat and other general purposes. And it can still perform when needed for more demanding travel. Fully charged, a 250-watt e-bike motor can take a rider about 22.5 miles at 20 mph. At lower speeds, a battery will last up to 45 miles. These numbers, of course, can vary depending on riding conditions, bike weight, and rider weight. While we offer higher-capacity batteries for our e-bikes, the larger batteries won’t make the bike go faster.
That’s a big difference when you’re picking up the bike to turn it around or put it on a car rack. Before we get into the e-bike itself, I want to take a moment to talk about e-bike ownership and what it has meant for me. I mentioned the shunning of my trusty Trek bike in lieu of my e-bikes this summer, but the reason for that has been life-changing for me. I’ve been using an electric bike and a shoulder bag for most of my shopping “can you grab me XYZ from Target” runs. On the other hand, in the time I’ve had an e-bike, I have barely touched my poor Trek bike. E-biking is very powerful and addictive, and it has ruined traditional cycling for me, and I can’t decide if that’s a good thing.
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.