Tires & Tubes Problems with Amazon and China - Eahora Cupid

groceryguy

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Just bought a Eahora Cupid, and the it was delivered with flat tires. I replaced the tube, and the tire popped its bead.
Inspection showed the bead is also broken, and I know the company reimbursed me for the tube, but has to see about the Compass tire.
It is a 20"x 3.0" and the rim is 12"x 2.25. I wonder what is the best move forward, a set of new tires? I ride just to the grocery store and joy ride. Anyway comments are welcome, thanks
 
I "think" your Compass-Tire is made by a tire manfacturer named Wanda - chack eBay for Wanda 20x3 and see if there is a matching tire offered there - about $50 (bandits).

A "folding bead" tire has a Kelvar cord as the bead(s) - a wire bead tire (also called clincher) has a wire cable as a bead (nhence non-folding"

I personally have not seen a "broken bead" in many moon's - the bead coming off the rim "usually" has to do with the wheel spokes not being "true" which allows the rtm th etist and throw off the bead.

It is NOT uncommon for eBike's in this range to have either poorly spoked wheels - or sh*t tire - or both.

20x3's - you're looking at $35-$50+ per tire - my fav street tire in that range is Sunlite Cruiser Flame - also called Flame Cruiser - about $35 ea - wire bead - run those puppies up to 35 PSI and be rolling mate.
 
... my fav street tire in that range is Sunlite Cruiser Flame - also called Flame Cruiser - about $35 ea - wire bead - run those puppies up to 35 PSI and be rolling mate.
Have you used them in the wet? I wonder if the siping (which is in a flame pattern) works well to clear water.
 
gigapprunner: Here are my initial thoughts on the subject bike, just from looking at their site and the Amazon page for it. (along with my experience with ChiComm bikes)

+ Massive battery, you can expect to get at least 30 miles on a charge at full throttle, with no pedaling. (the 110 mile figure is if you're OK going 10 mph and doing a large percentage of the work yourself.

- The claimed bike weight of 85 lbs. is a lot. You'll want a ramp going into a van or pickup truck to transport it. Or a sturdy 2" hitch-mounted rack and a strong back.

+ Of that 85 lbs, the battery is probably 20, which can be easily separated when needed.

- Typos all over the ad copy on Amazon don't exactly fill me with confidence. That tells me that they don't have a single strong English speaker on staff.

- The promotional photo of the bike on their site has a bunch of rust on the cassette. This too does not fill me with confidence, as this is supposed to be the one that is PERFECT.

+ You purchased at the right time. With the tariffs increasing sharply on this type of product from China, prices will likely increase soon in reaction.

+/- Rear suspension and 20x3" fat tires should make for a nice ride, but will rob you of pedaling efficiency on a bike that will not be efficient to pedal from the start. This should be considered a bike on which to "ride the loophole" as one of our members likes to say; more of a low speed scooter than an eBike, per se. The bottom line here is DO NOT GET CAUGHT MILES FROM HOME WITH A DEAD BATTERY. You'll havea chest-grabber of a 6 mph ride home. :sneaky:

+ I like the fluid lines of the frame and the central location of the battery.

+/- The fenders offer OK coverage:
The rear could've gone down further in the front to keep grit out of the bottom bracket
The front fender should've been extended further in the front AND back. On a wet road, your shoes and pant cuffs are going to get dirty from the water spray and the water flung out the front is going to go right up and get on the headlight. (ride slowly on wet roads and this will be minimized)

- The fork stanchions are not very thick for the weight of this bike. Expect quite a bit of flex in the fork, which will impact how well it works.

+ I LOVE that basket built into the frame in front of the battery! Features like this are sometimes created on these ChiComm bikes and it makes me wonder why the Tier 4/5 bike engineers don't think of things like this.

- They advertise the 7-speed Shimano drivetrain as "professional", which is completely false. This is the very bottom of the line, and professionals ride 11-speed (or higher) cassettes nowadays. They should have advertised just that it is reliable. Even Shimano's entry level stuff is good; that's why they spent the money for it instead of a cheaper Chinese copy. There are a lot of other things in their ad copy that are completely false. Specification numbers pulled out of their butts everywhere. "60% more efficient motor"? The previous one must've been a real piece of crap. This kind of thing undermines actually true and important stats.

+ One thing I like about it is that it doesn't have a big chainring. (front sprocket) This will most likely mean you won't be able to "keep up" with the pedaling above 20 mph, (which bothers some people) but it also means that you have some fighting chance of pedaling home unpowered in a low gear in case you over-estimate the battery range. This was The Right Decision. Smaller chainring is better on these eMopeds. Another thing about a small chainring is that it will allow you to ride the bike on crowded multi-use paths unpowered at safe speeds.

- The controller seems to be mounted under the seat, but is not DIRECTLY under the seat. I hope its housing is sealed well against weather, as rain will easily hit it from the front. If not, you may want to seal it up any gaps with hot glue or silicone caulk, if it was not obviously left open for ventilation.

- The advertising for "puncture-resistant tires" also seems to be false. Those appear to be the ubiquitous Chao Yangs, which are soft and thin-walled. You would be well-advised to buy a bag of FlatOut sealant, so you're not trying to change tubes on this beast at the side of the road. Speaking of the tires, for your safety, ignore the printing on the sides that says to inflate them to 40 psi. That is REALLY hard for 20x3 fat tires and will likely cause a crash cornering at higher speed on pavement. 30 is a more reasonable max, and 20 would be a good number for unpaved trail riding. (that will cost you some range though, due to the higher rolling resistance)



groceryguy, how about an update? Surely you have the bike by now and surely you're not the type of fellow to make one post requesting help and then disappear forever? ;)
 
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If you're going to cancel the order, place the order for a bike from a decent manufacturer.

For example, the RIDE1UP Prodigy just went on a great sale and it's a much nicer bike. Same price as Cupid, too. You pay for quality instead of extra battery & rear suspension.

Don't fret too much about the battery capacity. Remember that the more weight you add in the form of battery, the heavier it gets and it NEEDs that extra power to haul its portly butt around.

Or for a gig app runner, how about the Lectric Xpedition? It's the same price as this Cupid you've pre-ordered, but is MADE to haul lots of stuff. You can add the 2nd battery later, if you can't afford it at the moment.

Nothing wrong with 3" wide tires. They roll a lot easier than 4" but still provide some shock absorption that narrower ones don't. I just question the decision to go with knobbies on an obviously street-oriented moped.
 
I still don't know what knobbies are.
Knobby tires or "knobbies" are tires with lugs sticking out that can get better traction on loose surfaces.

We don't have any clarity on Amazon for battery dimensions. I'd guess, with my level of intelligence, 60 doesn't equate double the size. I read the P and S rows.
I lean towards 60s. I'd figure a 100ah is better as two 60s because weight and size.
I'm not sure what bike you're talking about any more. The Cupid has a 30 Ah battery pack. Were you referring to buying a spare pack for the Cupid? ($580)

I want a heavier duty but lighter weight, who doesn't, but I mean that and for long distance. I'm concerned with people seeing me do that getting money. It's a lot stiffer culturally around Philly suburbs.
You worry too much about what others think. (esp. for someone living in Philly!)

People only want it one way. They'll somehow get funding for a bike lane that doesn't make the whole trip sort of thing.
That's not just Philly. That's almost every American city. It is the case in Kenosha, WI where I live and it was in Chicago too.

I ended up only having two hours from them to decide ship today without the satisfied cargo kit I order upfront knowing I need it to make money.
But it's looking like they may have done that to pretend it's an early shipment as it's still showing the same delivery estimate and they also put signature required.
It's as if someone needs it to look like that so I can't get paid for it either. I almost took the refund just to make sure but same time I'm obviously not doing it with anyone.
Try to calm down. What happens with these Chinese bikes is that they build a huge batch of them in one production run to keep the price low, but then they can't deliver right away. Since it's such a big shipment, there's zero chance it will get through without a Customs inspection and also zero chance that it won't go by container ship. It sounds like they lied to you about delivery time to get your order. That galls, I get it, especially since your income is hurting because of this lie. You've decided to wait it out, though, so it is what it is.

I have to disclose to employers upfront about my car and so on, I just get money. I think it's better to get money than to get paid.
You only have to disclose to employers that you have "reliable transportation", which you will. ;)
 
One thing I'm not clear about on the Cupid: Is the battery lockable? I see the plug and cable exposed on the left side. All the bike's wiring is exposed too, which would make it easy to work on, but also easy to sabotage if you left it in a sketchy neighborhood for any length of time. One bad kid with a wire cutter could screw you pretty badly.
 
I'll sue him to hell
Nope, because you'll never find him and big city police won't be bothered to help on something like this.
You guys typically lock up in a highly trafficked area, go in and are out again in 5 minutes. That should be good enough unless you're really unlucky.
 
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