First ride on new KBO Breeze

neutron

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Dec 6, 2022
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Took my first ride on the KBO Breeze yesterday. I don't have much to compare it to since I've only ridden one other e bike which was a rental Trex. Compared to that the KBO is way more powerful and faster. I think the Trex was a bottom of the line model used for rentals. I live alongside a paved rails to trail bike path which is where I'll do most of my biking, so the KBO is perfect for that. I've done 20 miles so far and the battery just went from all full bars down one bar. I use pedal assist 2 which keeps me at about 14.5 mph on the flat trail. pedal assist 3 keeps it at a little over 18 mph which is a little fast for me (72 years old) and above the speed limit for the trail. The throttle is fantastic for getting the bike moving from a dead stop and then having pedal assist kick in and take over. I really appreciate this feature when stopped at a road crossing and having cars waiting for me to cross. I can just twist the throttle and zip across. The 2.4" tires are quiet and should extend the battery range compared to a 4" fat tire bike which is what I was originally thinking about getting. Also the KBO is 62lbs compared to over 73 lb fat tire bike. The only problem I've encountered was the headlight doesn't work. I called KBO and they were extremely helpful with having me troubleshoot the problem. They even called me back on the weekend and followed up with emails! I was happy to receive this kind of support after hearing some e bike companies are hard to deal with after the sale. They are sending me a new headlight after we determined that mine was defective. The bike went together easily with the tool that came with it and no adjustments were needed other than air pressure in the tires brought up to recommend pressures. So far I'm very pleased with this bike and look forward to using it a lot this spring and summer.
 
Up to 50 miles now on the first charge and still have one bar left on the battery indicator. I decided to go ahead and charge it since I don't want to get stuck out somewhere and have to pedal home with no power. I ordered a suspension seat post to take some bumps out of the ride. You don't realize how bumpy the streets are until you do it on a bike. Yesterday and today was mostly riding local streets and testing the bike on some hills. I'm very pleased with the performance on hills. Actually I'm generally pleased overall with this KBO bike. Most of my riding has been on fairly level bike trails but this afternoon I did a combination of level riding, hill climbing and straight throttle trying to push the battery to get a feel for the kind of range I can expect from this bike. So 50 miles with the combination of different types of riding and still having one bar out of four ain't bad. I think if I stayed on fairly level bike trails and used PA 2 and 3, and some limited straight throttle, I could get 60 miles from a full charge.
 
So I've had the KBO Breeze for about a month now. I am really enjoying this thing. Haven't been on any long rides yet. Usually go 5 to 10 miles on most rides so I'm over 100 miles on the bike. I added the Suntour shock absorbing seat post and it makes a huge difference. I think I'll also add a wider, more cushioned seat. The seat post took care of shocks to the spine, so now I'd like a little more comfort for my butt. I also added a mirror to the left side which is really nice to keep an eye out on what's coming up behind me. I don't know if I'll install the right side mirror as it seems kind of unnecessary. The new headlight they sent me didn't fix the problem so they sent me a new controller ($99) deposit. I haven't put it on yet because it looks like I'll need to take everything off of the handlebars so I can turn the bike upside down to get to the wiring and connectors. I'm not particularly looking forward to that job. If anyone has any suggestions about a new seat or tips on replacing the controller I'm all ears.
 
I finally got around to replacing the controller. It was actually pretty easy. I had to remove the mirror and twist the handlebars so that the inverted bike could rest on the grips without the display or brake levers being impacted. I think this was accomplished a little easier because I have the adjustable stem on my bike. Once I got the bike turned up side down it was easy to access the controller and wiring. I had to clip 4 cable ties to get at the wires and connections and the connections are color coded and different sizes so it's no problem to keep them going to the right place. The new controller fixed the problem with the headlight. I'm not sure what other, if anything, the detective controller affected. I'm not completely familiar with all the functions on the display yet so there might be some things that the controller affected there as well. All seems to work now.
 
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