Rolling in fashion: The Priority E-Coast seashore cruiser

Sometimes, it doesn’t matter what you assume your degree of experience is, you have to observe the recommendation of others. I realized this lesson once more whereas assembling the Priority E-Coast, a $1,999 electrical seashore cruiser from Priority Bicycles. Priority advised me proper there on the field. “Warning: Bicycle meeting needs to be carried out or verified by knowledgeable bicycle mechanic.”

Once I completed placing the E-Coast collectively, I used to be left with a beautiful e-bike that was pleasing to journey. But getting there concerned extra time and swearing than I’m used to. The excellent news is that Priority apparently heard the curses of its clients, because the half that made meeting depressing has been eliminated. So you may not want a professional bike tech in spite of everything.

Unlike some e-bike producers, which appear to have popped up out of nowhere within the final couple of years, Priority has been round since 2014, when it launched through Kickstarter. Nine years and two Kickstarters later, it has a strong lineup of motorized and human-powered bicycles.

The E-Coast is aimed on the occasional leisure bike owner. It’s a fixed-gear, Class 3 e-bike with a belt drive and hydraulic disc brakes. With its curvy traces and big tan tires, the E-Coast hearkens again to when tail fins and whitewall tires have been widespread sights on the highway.

Like the Tenways e-bike we reviewed earlier this yr, the E-Coast has a Gates carbon drive belt. As somebody who degreases and lubricates not less than one bike chain not less than each different week, a zero-maintenance belt drive is compelling. And it is a canny transfer for a seashore cruiser—who desires to scrub sand off the chain after a journey?

Aside from the human atop the bike, the E-Coast is powered by a 500 W rear hub motor paired with a 576 Wh battery with a spread of anyplace between 20 and 60 miles, relying on the help degree and heft of the rider, amongst different issues. Unlike most e-bikes, the battery is not built-in into the body, as a substitute sitting ensconced throughout the rear rack. From a serviceability standpoint, the battery location is a defensible alternative, however it limits the E-Coast’s utility. Neither my saddlebag nor my pannier would work with it. My saddlebag connected with straps and clips, and there wasn’t sufficient house between the battery and rack to string the straps. The clip on my pannier is designed for a smaller-gauge rack.

Assembly required

Assembling this one was not enjoyable. I’m moderately helpful with bicycles—from begin to end, placing an e-bike collectively usually takes me 45 minutes to an hour. This one took me not less than two hours attributable to a few elements.

First, Priority contains little or no in the way in which of written directions. There’s a prolonged handbook, however it would not contact on meeting. Even a web page with some awful pictograms and mangled textual content that reads prefer it’s been run by means of a translation software three or 4 instances would have been useful. Instead, Priority has a 14-minute video that runs by means of the meeting course of. I ended up watching one 10-second-or-so portion of the video repeatedly as a result of second issue, a design alternative by Priority.