1000 watt powerful motor fat tire ebike for adults. That was the chinese description for the first ebike I purchased from Amazon for the amazing price of $99. So cheap, I bought 3.
Well, that bike never arrived, but I ended up liking that description so much I found a way to buy it in the form of a Keteles K-800. This ebike goes by many different sticker names, like Philodo or Qikaitu, and it is a basic ebike with bafang hub motor, 48 volt hailong battery, and huge tires.
I’m pretty happy with my Keteles K-800. The motor is powerful. nothing has broken after a few hundred miles riding, and the price was good.
First Ride, Testing Hills & Range
My first ride on the K-800 was in western Washington winter on extemely hilly streets. First, it got me up a super steep hill at about 7kmh, slower than a car but not much because this hill is super duper steep.
The rest of the ride was through more hills and I took it onto a closed golf course. It felt solid and fast at every moment. I was able to explore some roads I would never want to on a normal bike because of the hills and having to turn around and possibly go back up a hill.
The bike came with a 13 amp hour battery and after 16 km of lots of hills it was out of juice. The bike is definitely heavy to heavy when you don’t have battery, but I’m used to it and can peddle easily after only a few weeks of use.
The Pedal Assist Is Bad
The K-800 has pedal assist or a handle bar throttle. The pedal assist is pretty worthless and I decided to disable it, which is easy.
The assist would sometimes turn on when I wanted to be stopped. I felt that I would pedal and when I got going faster than the assist level, it would turn off and it was a weird, unatural feeling I did not like.
The bike works much better with only the throttle. I like having the control of when the motor kicks on so I can ride like a motorcycle, or give myself a boost while pedalling.
Breaks Squeek
I never had a bike with disk brakes before and I didn’t even want to try to figure them out so I took the bike to local mechanic. But they still made noise, and I took the bike back to have the mechanic try again. They still made noise but I was too tired of going to the mechanic and just lived with squeeky brakes.
I have looked at some disk brakes now and I should try and adjust them myself to see if they are bad or not. Maybe I will do it today but it’s super hot and I don’t know.
The brakes seem strong enough though and should last a decent amount of time. I can edit this to see how long they last.
Comfy Ride, Imposing Appearance
The fat tires and suspension make for one of the most comfortable rides I’ve experienced. It feels like I am riding on a big old sofa most of the time, I feel high up and visible.
The seat is big and comfy too. I’m 194 cm tall and it is probably a little small for me. But it looks huge and every small person I have heard from said it looked to big for them but I think the tires make it seem bigger than it is.
Yes, I think the Keteles K800 looks huge to everyone on the street, and the blue walled wheels add flashiness. I feel like a viking among paceños gliding to concur Coromuel riding this ebike.
First Ride In La Paz
I got my battery after about two or three or more months of failure while having a no juice ebike. So I was pretty excited to go Maleconeando but on the way I ran into a hanging fiber-optic cable and almost hung myself.
The cable was at the perfect height to wrap around my neck and it pulled me off of the bike and I was suspended like that for a second. I was in tremendous pain and I rode home slowly.
I had a red scar for a week but I was ok after a few days of pain. All this to say ebikes are super dangerous.
Bigger Battery Is Better
I started with the 13 ah battery but I really believe the bigger the better and now I’m at a 23ah, which does well. I’m very careful with my batteries because I want it to last as long as possible. I try to keep it’s charge state between 20% and 80%.
With the bigger battery, I can go about three days of running errands before I need to recharge. I made it as far as Coromuel and back to centro without using the pedals much before the battery ran out, but it got below my target of 20% to never go below.
I think the 13 ah could be ok if you can charge your battery each day. Like just riding across town 20km or less it would be good.
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