T42 Upgraded Version Electric Bike, 750W Motor Foldable Ebike for Adults 48V 20AH Removable Battery 20''x4.0''Fat Tire, Shimano 7-Speed, Hydraulic Disc Brakes, Adustable Shock Absorber

I bought this G-Force T42 Folding e-bike for commuting 13 miles. Since American roads are actually hostile to bicyclists and pedestrians, I drove the different routes to plan it out before actually buying this.My commute route takes about 27 minutes by car, up the back way over a steep hill, or 40 minutes on the flats, or 35 if you take a short section of freeway. Google & Apple Maps show 75 minutes for bicycle on that same 40 minute route, although I could probably do it in 65-70 with my old 20" folding bike and probably 55-60min with my old 26" mountain bike.The bicycle is much bigger than it looks, The wheel is 20", but the fat 4" tire makes it more like a 25" wheel. My old 20" folding bicycle looks puny in comparison. It also looks bigger than my 26" bicycle, because of how thick the frame is. I thought I could take it on transit, but the size makes it unwieldy for the racks on the buses or to take on board even when folded. Also, at 67 lbs, it's too heavy to comfortably lift up to a bus's rear rack, unless you're a big guy. It's more a moped than a bicycle. That means I will be riding all 13 miles and forgoing any transit. It's 6 miles to transit, that I would take if I was using my old folder, but unnecessary now that I have the e-bike. It's 1 mile to a bus that would take me longer than just bicycling the entire way to get to work, even if I didn't get an e-bike.I got the smallest battery, rated for 30-40 miles, which is the maximum if your route was all flat and you mainly used the pedal assist. I have hills at both ends, while it's mostly flat in between. If I had a hill in between, it would be better for the regenerative assist to charge the battery, but I start with the battery charged while it's trying to regenerate. Except for my first ride which I was testing it out, I've mostly been using 3 of 5 bars with 2 bars left going about 13 miles, so it's about half of the 30-40, but I'm going full speed for a lot of the way. This was exactly as I expected.Some weirdness:The handlebar is ridiculously high if you're used to cycling. If you're taller, it wouldn't be quite as high in the lowest position, but it's still high. You can't lean forward comfortably to pedal faster. It's obviously designed more like a moped or Harley upright "comfort ride" than a "sport ride" position. If you try to lean forward, to actually pedal better, your elbows are bent too much and you'll have to sit back after a while.The frame is wide. I've brushed my knee against the folding joint. I guess my pant leg will wear out there faster.You will need to get used to the operation of the bicycle. There are a lot of buttons.Pedal assist gets you to about 20mph and then it drops a bit, following the laws. I pedal faster than that, even on my old 20" folder. It's feels a little weird that you lose some assist going faster. Use the throttle and you can go faster. I guess the law sets that for the non-cyclists to keep them safer. As someone that actually used to bicycle daily, I've never liked that limitation.750W is great on the flats, but it can only hit 9-11 mph, with me pedaling along, going up the last section of my hill. A 350W motor would drop that down to 6-7mph and I would be doing that at 3mph without electric assist. I would like a 1kW or 1.5kW motor for that section. Unfortunately that would double the price of the bicycle.It seems you can't get a normal bicycle frame or normal tires with any 750W+ motors unless you build them yourself. They all come with these ridiculously fat tires.Gear shifter is a click shifter for up shifting, I would rather just slide it from low gear to high gear instead of clicking multiple times. Otherwise it's a very smooth and solid shifter.Good Points:It maintains a decent speed.The lights are built in.The brake lights work if you turn on the bicycle, even if you set the electric assist to 0. All bicycles should be sold with built in lights.Front shocks. You will want this on all the time, since the bike is heavy. If you set it to off and not use it, you will feel every bump and rattle on the bumpy bicycle unfriendly roads. I tried my first ride with it off since I though it would be too squishy, but it became jarring because of the weight. This is my first bicycle with shocks because it's heavy. I've never needed shocks before on lighter bicycles.Wishlist.I wish the handlebar could be set lower. It's too high.I wish there was a stronger motor for the hills.I wish it had built-in turn signal lights. Having the throttle on the left means you must remove your hand to signal your left and right turns.I wish there's some cushioning for the battery. It rattles a bit over the poorly maintained roads and bike paths along my route. The shocks help, but there's still occasional rattling. Maybe an additional shock on the rear might help. Bicycle paths are an afterthought on American roads.I wish they had a larger front sprocket. I don't like the really low gearing, but I guess it's for people that aren't cyclists.Overall, I'm satisfied with this e-bike. I'm still getting used to the operation and feel of it and it's performing well enough. There are some things I dislike about it, like the fat tires and wide frame, but I'm adjusting to it. I need to figure out how to trigger the signal lights, so I don't have to wait for a car or pull myself onto the sidewalk to press the crosswalk button to cross at the intersections that need triggering. (Again, American roads are hostile to pedestrians and bicyclists.UPDATE (January 2023 - 3 months later):I hadn't ridden in about a month during the heavy rains and I'm back now that it's sunny again and also warmer, so I didn't freeze my fingers and toes in the morning. My previous two morning rides to work, before all the rain started, froze my fingers my toes a bit, even with gloves and 2 pairs of socks. If my ride was only 10 miles instead of 13, I would have been ok from that wind chill. Late afternoons have been fine without gloves and the extra pair of socks. Temperatures in the 40s are fine, it's only when it's in the low to mid 30s that it makes a difference. I don't have snow weather clothing, since it doesn't snow here, just a hoodie and a windbreaker hoodie over that. It gets too warm in the day to wear anything more than that.I'm typically riding 43-45 minutes going to work, because I'm trying not to get too sweaty for work (The whole reason for getting the e-bike for this much longer trek - I've cycled for years.) and it's dark, so I'm being more careful. I'm peddling hard in some sections to accelerate, and it's basically about 1/3 to 1/2 the effort as bicycling the whole way. I did get 39 minutes once, when I hit all green lights along the way, so pretty close to driving the same route. I ride about 41-43 minutes coming home. The slope at the work end is more gradual, so I can maintain faster speeds for a longer stretch coming back. If there were no lights and no stop signs, I could do under 30 minutes.I'm also using the throttle assist more now and at about a mile to my destination, I'm at 2 bars left and drops to one bar when I reach home. For work, I still get 2 bars about a half mile from my destination, then dropping to 1 bar. I think it may have to do with the colder weather. I'll check again when it warms up. If lean forward and bring my elbows and knees closer together when I throttle through the flat straightaways, it ekes out an extra 1mph. If I peddle along, I can burst it up an extra 3mph, but can't keep my legs moving that fast for extended periods. I really wish they had a larger front sprocket. I should look into replacing that.I also figured out how to trigger the lights by placing my bicycle tire just right on the sensor loops, so I don't have to wait for a car or get onto the sidewalk to push the crosswalk button. It saves a bit of time on intersections that have a visible loop, especially for left turns. It's easier than maneuvering onto the sidewalk to press a button. They need to mark the ones that got repaved.Update March 2023 ( About 500 miles on the odometer)Got a flat the 2nd day of riding after the weather became warm enough to ride without "winter" gear. It was a tiny staple from one of those mini staplers that students use. I tried searching for the hole but it was really difficult to find even with the whole soap and water trick with the wheel still on the bicycle and knowing approximately where the hole was. I even searched along the whole tube and wasn't able to easily find it. I resorted to putting Slime in the tube, since I was having trouble removing the rear tire. The instructions on removing the rear tire the G-Force site and their manual seem incomplete. I'll spend more effort in about 2-3 years when the tire is worn and I have to replace it, but for now slime works.Now, I wish the tire had more protection. The rubber tire that came with the bike is too soft and easy to puncture. I guess I'll make sure my other tire has Slime in it too, and I've also purchased some 4 inch tire inserts for $30 a pair. If you bought this new you should at least think about putting tire Slime in the tires and/or getting tire inserts to protect them. I'll be doing both now. Also found out that it just barely fits into trunk of a normal sedan. You must fold everything down and it's a tight fit. I only had to fold the old 20" in half and could leave the pedals and handlebar if I was feeling lazy.Still wishing I didn't have a click shifter, since I've really only needed 3 gears, high, medium, low. I only need the medium for hills, and I usually just sprint from low and then jump to high from a normal bike and I can't do that with this shifter. I should look into switching it. The extra gears are salesman scams for the masses that get easily tricked by larger numbers. The majority of people do not know how to shift gears anyways, so I always thought those 15, 18, 21 speed gearing were scams. Just give me 3 gears, or 6 (2 front sprockets). I really want a larger front sprocket so I can go faster than the 35 mph while pedaling in the 45mph zone along my route.

This was my first electric bike purchase. I have ridden e bikes before as part of "tours" when on vacation, but this is my first e bike and therefore do not have much to compare it to.Setup out of the box:When reviewing other e bikes on several websites and others on Amazon, I noticed that most other bikes required a significant amount of setup after taking the bike out of the box. This bike does not! You literally have to do 3 things: 1. put the handle on 2. connect the light 3. attach the pedals. That's it! Done! Should take less than 10 minutes.Customer service:As simple as the setup is, I managed to mess it up. I broke the connection to the light while trying to connect it to the power supply. A quick search lead me to the customer service department and I sent them an email. I have to admit I was not expecting much and was therefore pleasantly surprised to get a quick reply within 12 hours. After sending them a copy of my purchase order from Amazon and a few pictures, the customer service rep told me that they would ship me another light from their factory - which got to my home in less than a week (from China). I also managed to strip the left pedal and crank while putting the pedals on! The pedals had fallen off a few times and were completely stripped. Once again, I sent and email to customer service with my purchase order (which by now was over a month old and hence no longer eligible for return to Amazon) and images of the stripped pedal and crank. Once again, I had a brand new crank (both sides) and pedals delivered to my home from China within a week! Now that is phenomenal!Riding the bike:The shock absorbers and fat tires cushion the road really well. This bike is not light, but even without any power assist (you can set it to power assist 0), it rides really well. When going up and down hills, the gears work seamlessly. There are 8 gears - 1 being the softest (the gear you use for steep inclines) and 8 being the hardest (the gear you use for downhill rides). I changed the default 0 - 3 power assist setting the bike came with to a 0 - 5 power assist setting, to provide more speed options. There are several excellent YouTube videos that show you how to do this. The bike will provide assistance to get you to the "assigned speed" for your selected power setting. For instance if you select power assist 2 which has a speed of 10 miles per hour and you are travelling at less than that speed, it will provide enough power to get you that speed and will then stop. Why is this important to understand? This is important because the power setting only determines your speed, so if you are going up a hill you DO NOT (and probably should not) need to select a higher power assist setting, as the bike will work extra hard trying to get to the speed you have selected and if it does not have enough power, it will cut out. Since understanding this, I actually use a lower power assist setting (perhaps a "2") when going up steep hills and a lower gear (1 - 3) and while I do have to work hard (which is good as I get to exercise), it helps clear even the steepest hill easily!This is a great bike! I love how sturdy it is and it folds for easy storage and transport.I am very happy with my purchase - especially the company's customer support!

G Force T42 with 16ah battery. Paid a hair over $1,100 out the door. Customer service is excellent. They took care of some issues promptly. The motor is so quiet. I love the cruise control. Power delivery is very smooth. It doesn't thrust you. 31mph on throttle (true speed verified by app), BUT only 24-26mph on pedal assist maxed. I upgraded freewheel to get some pedal resistance to help me get 26mph occasionally. The brakes are great. Grips are so soft and grippy. This is much taller than a Lectric XP 2.0. The bottom bracket is much taller too. The good part of that is you will never pedal strike no matter how far you lean. Very strong build quality. It's a tank. Only real negative is crap fork that bottoms out way to easily. But I like the bike enough to invest in a cheap air fork to remedy that.