Vanpowers City Vanture - Never truly appreciated a "Low maintenance" ebike until now

Nautilus

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I recently got my hands on a Vanpowers City Vanture and since they seem to be a newer brand I wanted to post my thoughts on the bike. The bike is a "Stealth" 36V 350W hub, single speed belt drive. It very much looks like an analog bike and compared to my 80lbs XPremium it feels like it weighs nothing.

I got mine mostly assembled but it comes with a fairly unique (optional) assembly style where you assemble the entire frame from essentially a handful of tubes. It's about an Ikea table level of difficulty to put together. I'll be taking advantage of their modularity to DIY an optional second battery (which the company provides clear instructions on how to do).

The belt drive and hydraulic brakes are great. It rides and feels like a bicycle rather than a moped. I've done so much chain and brake work between my XPremium and my wife's RadRunner+ that it's much appreciated to not have to mess with a chain or derailleur on the City Vanture. If you want a fixed belt drive under $2k you're pretty much looking at the Ride1Up Roadster V2 which is cheaper but has mechanical brakes, the VVolt Alpha which weighs 20% more for similar specs, and the City Vanture.

Vanpowers is a brand that's seemingly flown under the radar so far. I think if they were just 10-20% less expensive they'd probably be pretty competitive. The City Vanture is a good looking ebike that makes great sense as a city commuter. As I'm writing this they have a $850 off of two bikes bringing the price down to around ~$1300. At that price I'd say it's a pretty dang good deal, but the normal price is still pretty fair. Once I've tested the range of my battery modification I'll maybe post an instructional on how to do that. I believe the process is similar to other bikes.

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Interesting! I love to see more belt-driven models available! I'd like to see shaft-driven ones too, and recumbents.

Single speed doesn't have to be such a kick in the nuts for an eBike, like it can be for purely mechanical ones. Gear it for 10 mph and let it be electric after that or gear it for 15 mph and accept that it's always going to suck on hills.
 
Interesting! I love to see more belt-driven models available! I'd like to see shaft-driven ones too, and recumbents.

Single speed doesn't have to be such a kick in the nuts for an eBike, like it can be for purely mechanical ones. Gear it for 10 mph and let it be electric after that or gear it for 15 mph and accept that it's always going to suck on hills.
I live in a very hilly area (~400 ft elevation in a bit over a mile) and it's definitely a workout, but honestly it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. If you don't have steep hills in your ride and you don't feel the need to go 28mph all the time I'd strongly advocate for a single speed belt drive just to ditch the chain maintenance and save on weight. Most of the extra power in my Lectric Xpremium tends to just go toward getting the 85 lb. bike up the hill and up to speed rather than actually moving me around.
 
I live in a very hilly area (~400 ft elevation in a bit over a mile) and it's definitely a workout, but honestly it's not as bad as some people make it out to be. If you don't have steep hills in your ride and you don't feel the need to go 28mph all the time I'd strongly advocate for a single speed belt drive just to ditch the chain maintenance and save on weight. Most of the extra power in my Lectric Xpremium tends to just go toward getting the 85 lb. bike up the hill and up to speed rather than actually moving me around.
My other eBike is a single speed one; it's the Lectric XP Lite. That one, although it has "only" a 350 W hub motor, is only set up for 20 mph, so I think they were able to gear it lower and make it more torquey than it would feel if it were geared for 30 mph, like a lot of these bikes. It climbs mild hills OK, and that's all we have here. That XP Lite would've been a great candidate for belt drive, as it would have made it even "liter".

I can't wait to throw it in the trunk and take it to Road America, which is a hilly race course in central WI.
 
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