I got to play with my new chain rings, they are all better than the stock one, not that anything was really wrong with the stock ring, but I have a better cadence at higher speed with these. With the 52 tooth ring and petal assist on high, I can petal along easily up to 38 kmhr, as my legs get stronger I should hit 40km. I can hit this speed just with the throttle but by being able to contribute 75-100watts I extend the battery range and get a work out.
I am getting the impression that this is very much like having/using a motorcycle up to 40 km hr, except - the weight, - the fuel, - the insurance, - the noise.

I need the fat bike model due to the terrain, and all season ability, but I see that they have just brought out the same model (new for 2019) but with ordinary tires. https://www.voltbike.com/voltbike-bravo.html

I hate the fact that they put their name all over the bike and uglied it up, first thing I did was grab a rattle can and fixed that on mine.

Just for fun I looked up the average speed for the tour de France and it looks to be in the 38 to 40km range, Lance Armstrongs average was 41.6kmhr So on this bike I am now equal, or close with the best in the world.

I am now able to hit 42.3 kmhr on the flat,using the 52t chain ring, I cant hold it for long at that, maybe 300 yards before I drop back to 38-39 kmhr . Not too bad for a older out of shape dude.

Edit..I just realized I have not checked to see if the factory speedometer is accurate..I am going to have to check this out, just to be sure.Trust nothing, verify everything!

So I have confirmed what I suspected shortly after using this bike...it is not limited in speed..it is but it is not...its limited primarily by battery voltage. The factory pack is something like a 13S 5P.....13 cells in series x3.7volts a cell= 48.1 but there is a work around for that...I could just add a 1S 5P pack in series with my factory pack and that would give me 3.7x 14= 51.8 Volt which should lift me up into the 44 maybe 45 ish km range on throttle...another project now...This bike is a serious blast to drive, you should see the heads turn as I go by, everyone is grinning.

I am really surprised that no one else has a electric bike...I quess there is just not much interest, so I will make this my last post on the topic. I had ordered in some meters to install on the bike, as I like to verify everything. Now that I can measure things better I have used the bike hard, including looking for the steepest hills around (long driveways not off road). I zip up all the hills around here no problem at all...infact before I installed the meters I was really questioning how a 500 watt bike was lifting me up hills so well, now that I am measuring the motor parameters I understand how they have programed this controller to do it. They don't do it with 500 watts....more like 1000 They are factually exceeding the legally allowed wattage during exceleration such as when you would give it full throttle up a hill, the software recognises this and opens up the amperage limit to allow you to climb, Or opens up the amperage limit to allow fast exceleration but then as your speed climbs and crosses 32,34 kmhr it folds back to the legal 500 watt level. What I am saying is you are getting really good performance from this bike, more than advertised, under some conditions more than legal.In other words you getting great performance for a off the shelf legal bike.You could pull a 200 pound trailer with this bike no problem at all! And that will be one of my next projects.

Keep posting Peppercorn, This is interesting stuff.

Yes, please do keep posting. I would probably get one and have considered an electric ATV for hunting and noise & odor reduction.

there are likely folks reading your posts who may be in the market and your solid tips and tweaks will help them and all of us when considering new or supplemental equipment! So keep sharing

I am now regularly doing 20-30km evening rides, I am down 5+ pounds since I got this E bike in mid January. I can say my legs are getting pretty strong. I pushed this bike harder than I ever thought I would , one stretch, 25km inside a provincial park on off road ski trails, though I don't know how someone could have skied on this trail in places as it was sometimes nearly straight up, and straight down. I have to get a helmet cam soon as no one would believe some of the riding I have done. I have been adding all kinds of things to this bike, turning it into a tank....I have added tire liners with slime so I don't have to worry about flats (only had one).Renforcing the rear rack so its strong enough to hold a second person, building in attachment points so the rack holds my full size Excaliber crossbow, Experimenting with different types of tires and found that do to the rim width 83mm as opposed to 100mm as on some other fat tire bikes, I can actually run tires from 26 inch x 2.5 inch all the way up to 26 inch x 4 inch. That's a hell of a range. Just ordered some 3 inch (smooth) tires for summertime paved road use.
I found a perfect evening riding jacket (stormtech) at Value Village, brand spanky new for 7 dollars.... https://www.stormtech.ca/collections/mens-outdoor-collection/products/mens-solar-3-in-1-system-jacket-b-2 I still cant believe my luck, its a multi hundred dollar jacket. If only I could have found the bike at Value Village.

I serviced my old (2015) cheap Canadian tire fat tire bike, including repacking the bearings...in surprisingly good condition for a cheap bike, turns out that was a gateway FT bike.....

Edit...I should add it took about 200km of ridding before I was fully comfortable selecting gear and power level combinations with respect to road conditions. Such is how different riding a powerful electric bike is.

Just did my longest ride yet 35km at a average speed of 33kmhr. Used up 2 of the 5 power bars, so I still had 3/5th of a charge left. At that rate of consumption I would roughly be on target for 60-65km with one bar of charge left in reserve. Though I am using this battery hard pushing a high average speed, if the speed is kept around 25kmhr average (easier on the battery) I don't see why you couldn't hit 80- 90 km on one charge.

Before I forget I should say, that from what I have been able to determine my bike, and most the other brands are coming with a general purpose Kenda
60TPI tire. A ok general purpose tire. From most online sellers including the distributers these sell from roughly 90 dollars to 120 each. Canadian tire sells the exact same tire less the white letter branding for 54 dollars each. Its identical, and 54.00 is a fair price, one guy on the bike forums has done 6000km on a set of these tires, and even at 6000km from the pictures his tire does not look too bad, worn but still has tread left. I once spent 1600 just putting on winter tires on my truck, So bicycling cost are much more affordable!

Personal best...50km on a night ride today. That's some serious distance on a bike! For a old, out of shape dude.

I am closing in on 1000 km on this electric fat tire bike. Should hit that this week. My legs havnt been this strong in decades. I have been slowly backing the power assist level down. This is a real blast to ride, I cant say enough good things about this type of bike. Thing is, this wasn't the cheapest fat tire electric bike I found, I would say it was the second cheapest but with "reasonable " parts quality, I am wondering how much better those 3, 4, 5000 dollars bikes are? As someone who likes to have spare parts for everything, I have priced out the individual components and I cant buy the spare parts I want to have for this bike, for less than the cost of another bike! So maybe next year I will order a second bike if the budget allows for it.
I added tire liners a while back, increased the weight of my tires a bit but they have pretty much made my tires puncture proof. By accident in the yard I drove right over a fence board, with 3/8, 1/2 inch nails sticking up, rolled over them no problem, I wont make a habit of that but its nice to know the liners work and stop punctures.

Just noticed I have dropped one pants size, since I have been riding this bike. I think I am down 7-8 pounds.

That’s great news, congrats of all manner of achievements

Building a removable box for the rear rack. In case I want to go grocery shopping, or hit the liquor vendors.

The above picture doesn't show it but I added 1/2 inch stainless tubing struts to the rack so all loads were taken straight down to the axles. This increased the rack from having a 50 pound capacity to 200 pounds

The sides will be done in the same perforated aluminium plate as the bottom.

Note that I can still add and have access to panniers mounted underneath

Now I just need to build a trailer or two.

I have to remove the branding on that pannier..I just hate that shit.