I bought a couple ebikes

 I love riding bicycles and even built one to commute to work on years ago but since my knees prevented me from even riding around the block it's something that's been missing from my life. So I've been enamored with ebikes for a while.  I've been to the bike shops and test rode several but never pulled the trigger.  As I often do I went down the YouTube rabbit hole and ended up watching the KevCentral review of the Walmart line of Hyper E-Ride bikes.

Then this happened;

I picked up the 26' version for my girlfriend and the 29er for myself. 

They are both 36V-250W pedelecs.  Same motors, same interchangeable 7.8AH batteries and same controllers with three assist levels. The marketing blurb says they are good for 20 MPH and the batteries are good for 20miles. They both arrived surprisingly undamaged via FedEx. There is no weight listed for them but suffice it to say they are both very heavy.

The 26" bike is equipped with V brakes and slightly narrower handlebars than the 29er. I'm glad I went the the 29er because this one is too compact for me to fit comfortably

The 29er has cable actuated disks front and back and has a darker graphite paint along with darker green accents.  Being 6' with long limbs I fit much better on this bike. 

I haven't been able to test ride the 29er yet as my good knee decided to swell up to twice it's normal size for no apparent reason but I did get to ride the 26" bike around the block the other day.  It's not much different than riding around a heavy box store mountain bike with the power off. But it's effortless with the power turned on even in the lowest assist level.  If anyone is interested I do suggest watching the KevCentral reviews as he covers every detail.

I already have trigger shifters waiting to go on to replace the grip twist shifters. I despise twist grip shifters. I'm contemplating changing out the controllers. I'd like at least five assist levels. On the lowest setting I feel these are too aggressive. The step up between low and medium as sharp but the difference between medium and high is negligible. And depending on how my knees react I may have no choice but to add a throttle as well. I'd also like to have a display with speed and an odometer along with some wattage and amperage information. I'm also considering adding rear racks and parallel another battery to add some capacity. 

I'm looking forward to playing around with these.

Be careful about "paralleling" Li-ion. If they are at dis-similar states of charge bad things happen to them.  Would it be easy to get backup battery packs & swap them out? 
What configuration/type cells are they?
Did they come with good chargers? 
We are seeing more of them on the beach. They cruise fast on packed sand.
 I ventured into Li-ion packs when I just got my 12.6v 18650 pack from China. Runs the lights on my CR80. Sold as a 20Ahr pack. Don't think it's that much capacity but so far so good. Since it's 6 cells, it must be 3s2p configuration & amazingly small. There are some small boxes on Amazon that 6 cells fit perfectly in. So small it tucks behind the #plate between the fork shafts.  The charger is super cheap though.  If you can wait at least 30 days, getting them from China is much cheaper. I think all raw cells come from China anyway. 

Don't want to hijack to dirt bikes, it's just my only experience with Li-ion.
 

In reply to mdshaw :

That's a pretty cool way to power the lights.  I did something similar with my commuter bicycle build to power the lights but I was using a 6 volt  headlamp in which I swapped the bulb to led and used a 7.4v rc car NiMH battery to power it.   

I've heard that if you call hyper they will sell you replacement packs but they are not listed for sale on Walmart or the hyper bicycle website.  Information about the packs is a little hard to come by so I'm not sure of the details. But it would be 10s. Your suggested solution is a very logical one.  If I can in fact get the replacement packs that's likely the way I will go.  

Well knee was feeling a little better and the sun was out so I had to test it out. Turned out to be a big mistake because know it's swollen again and hurting more than it did originally.  Oh well. 

Anyway,  rode it for about twenty minutes.   We have a bike path a just around the corner that goes for about a half mile or so.  The bike is smooth. I like how it rides.  The brakes seem to work pretty good.  Tested out all three assist levels.  Low is a little fast for slow speed maneuvering but with some practice strategically cutting the motor with the brake cut off switches it's manageable.  Medium worked pretty well for the bike path.  Had just enough cadence to be able to give a little pedal assistance in 7th. In high assist mode the cadence required to keep up with the motor was a little much for me so I just slowly kept the pedals turning giving it no human assistance whatsoever.  This sapped the power very quickly.  I used about half the battery capacity in about twenty minutes.  

I think a front chainring swap may benefit me. 

My son and I rented some e-bikes when we were at Daytona Beach earlier this year. They're heavy, so you have to pay attention at low speeds, but the assist functionality is really helpful for hills, etc. In a bike-friendly location (and a warm climate) I could see one as a cool commuter, but I'm not sure if you're allowed to use the bike lanes with a powered vehicle.

I think you'll have a blast with them!

In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :

In most locations yes if they are a class 1 or 2. Class 3 ebikes are typically not legal in bike lanes or trails.

Well I haven't used mine much. Even just free spinning enough to activate the cadence sensor destroys my knees.  

Yesterday I rode up to the Frisbee golf course, about a half mile away,  played a round and rode back.  I've had my knees on ice ever since. 

So I'm going to have to look into adding a throttle.  Which will mean changing the controller.  So I've got some research to do.