So, a good friend of mine picked up a leftover 2021 Freeride and brought it out to our trails to ride. While it’s not a 300, it is quite capable in the woods. It looks and feels to be about 3/4s of a full size bike and I’m told the suspension is from the 85 bike. It came with some gummy trials tires that hooked up real good. Of course we have had usually dry weather and the trails are actually getting dusty so it may need some knobbies once the moisture is back. I never rode an electric bike so I was looking forward to giving it a try.
There are 3 power settings that are easy to set. I never even tried the first one. My buddy said I wouldn’t be impressed. He was right since I actually preferred the 3rd setting, most likely because of my 220 lb, 6 ft frame! The hardest part to get used to was the location of the rear brake (where the clutch usually is) and no shift lever. I constantly found myself stabbing the nonexistent brake pedal and trying to up shift.
Once out on the trail I still kept pulling in the clutch (brake) as I stabbed for the brake pedal. It got to be comical! I didn’t ride it that long but towards the end I started to get used to it. I also never noticed the 240+ lbs. It felt light and flickable. The thing I missed was the ability to grab the clutch to get that extra burst of power to loft the front end over logs, rocks, etc. You could lift the front end but it was more about body English than power and that was in the #3 power setting. Still, it had plenty of power to get up and over anything I threw at it and it moved right along. We don’t have any big hill climbs at the trail so I’m anxious to try it on some in the future.
The real nice part is how quiet it is. All you hear is chain slap and the whirr of the motor and water pump. My Beta is pretty quiet but I can see being able to ride the Freeride all over the place. Personally I would not get one. It just doesn’t have the power I desire but for someone that is just starting out and needs a quiet bike, it is defiently a good deal. We all took turns riding it so there was probably an hour or more of riding on the 2 and 3 power setting and the battery life indicator was still on 1 green bar (3 all together)…I think that is roughly 20% life. It goes to yellow after that and then red flashing, which means you should already be back at the truck!
There are 3 power settings that are easy to set. I never even tried the first one. My buddy said I wouldn’t be impressed. He was right since I actually preferred the 3rd setting, most likely because of my 220 lb, 6 ft frame! The hardest part to get used to was the location of the rear brake (where the clutch usually is) and no shift lever. I constantly found myself stabbing the nonexistent brake pedal and trying to up shift.
Once out on the trail I still kept pulling in the clutch (brake) as I stabbed for the brake pedal. It got to be comical! I didn’t ride it that long but towards the end I started to get used to it. I also never noticed the 240+ lbs. It felt light and flickable. The thing I missed was the ability to grab the clutch to get that extra burst of power to loft the front end over logs, rocks, etc. You could lift the front end but it was more about body English than power and that was in the #3 power setting. Still, it had plenty of power to get up and over anything I threw at it and it moved right along. We don’t have any big hill climbs at the trail so I’m anxious to try it on some in the future.
The real nice part is how quiet it is. All you hear is chain slap and the whirr of the motor and water pump. My Beta is pretty quiet but I can see being able to ride the Freeride all over the place. Personally I would not get one. It just doesn’t have the power I desire but for someone that is just starting out and needs a quiet bike, it is defiently a good deal. We all took turns riding it so there was probably an hour or more of riding on the 2 and 3 power setting and the battery life indicator was still on 1 green bar (3 all together)…I think that is roughly 20% life. It goes to yellow after that and then red flashing, which means you should already be back at the truck!
