Long Range or Suspension?

[Alton Dillon]

Hi all,

Only 3 months into EUC, but I’m already thinking about my next wheel haha. I currently have a KS 16X, which is great for commuting, but I’ve been going on fast and long group rides. 
 

With this in mind, I think I want suspension as there are a bunch of roads here in Houston filled with potholes, but I also want good range. 
 

Would you rather go with suspension with okay range, or full send and get a long range wheel but with no suspension?

[Whalesmash]

EX20S would fulfill both criteria of range and suspension, but it's a 40 mph wheel tops (for the torque version). Might also be getting a 134V version soon so who knows if it's even worth springing for it at this point. There's a lot of interesting stuff coming out this year, you've got a lot of options.

[LanghamP]

On 4/22/2022 at 12:29 PM, Alton Dillon said:

Hi all,

Only 3 months into EUC, but I’m already thinking about my next wheel haha. I currently have a KS 16X, which is great for commuting, but I’ve been going on fast and long group rides. 
 

With this in mind, I think I want suspension as there are a bunch of roads here in Houston filled with potholes, but I also want good range. 
 

Would you rather go with suspension with okay range, or full send and get a long range wheel but with no suspension?

Big batteries and range is highly overrated. Despite the safety concerns of riding with a lower battery, the vast majority of the time you're not using that huge battery, and when you do two small chargers and a 30 minute coffee shop break will fix that right up. If you can keep your KS16x for a few more months, then you can see the newer wheels with bigger range, cheaper and better performing batteries, and very probably with suspension.

I find it incredible that my first wheel, a VF5+, was only about 33% cheaper than my latest wheel, a KS18xl, despite the XL having 5 times the power, 5 times the range, lights and bluetooth, a built-in handle, huge pedals, and weighs just 18 pounds more.

I know everyone is complaining about the higher prices of EUCs, but if you broke it down by kWh and motor power, EUCs are now way cheaper, and the midsize ones make wonderful last-mile low-speed commuters.

[Tawpie]

@Alton Dillon It really depends on what you want to do! Commander range means you can ride for an entire day. The new crop of suspension wheels is looking like 2-3 hours of riding at a brisk pace, maybe another hour at group ride speed. The trade off is pretty abrupt.

If you're not wanting to ride pavement in the boonies for an entire day, the benefits of suspension are many and real. I'm personally quite certain you can be safer on a suspension wheel than you are on a hard tail, just because suspension makes the wheel a little bit more forgiving when your attention wanders and you hit that defect in the road. "Can be safer" is not "will be safer", suspension does NOT allow you to get complacent!

But if the long and open road is calling your name, you might have to cowboy up, keep the meat suspension in shape, and maintain an eagle eye on the road ahead.

My sense is that non-suspension wheels will become less common, just because they require more rider attention to operate. There are certainly some that eagerly exchange the weight of the suspension for more batteries, but even they appreciate a ride that lets them daydream or sightsee just a teeny bit.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Tawpie

[LanghamP]

3 hours ago, Tawpie said:

If you're not wanting to ride pavement in the boonies for an entire day, the benefits of suspension are many and real. I'm personally quite certain you can be safer on a suspension wheel than you are on a hard tail, just because suspension makes the wheel a little bit more forgiving when your attention wanders and you hit that defect in the road. "Can be safer" is not "will be safer", suspension does NOT allow you to get complacent!

The newer crop of big long ranged powerful wheels (with or without suspension) is way more dangerous as they're being used as proper street vehicles instead of last-mile transportation. However, that's not to say they are even close to being as dangerous as motorcycles, judging from their fatality rate, but that their ability to cause injuries is now very high.

[Alton Dillon]

Hmm. I think based on these answers, for my case, having suspension is better than having a long range wheel like a Sherman Max.  This brings up the wheels I'm considering: Kingsong S22, Begode Master, and potential Inmotion V13.  S22 looks good, but the range is on the lower side.  At first I was wary of buying a Begode/Gotway wheel, but with custom battery packs with Litech, I feel more at ease.  Begode Master has a slightly bigger battery, more speed, but I'm not sure if its suspension mechanism is better or worse than the S22.  The Inmotion V13 is speculation, but it might be worth waiting for.  

Any thoughts on the wheels above?  

[.....]

Let the KS option pass you by until its seasoned a year.

I enjoy big batteries for their overhead and not range. I dont ride far, but i sure do like to push into the wind and excell while already doing 20+mph. I havent jumped over to suspension yet, but the time is coming. One thing I simply can't stand, is a wheel that throttles me and makes me play nice, while I've still got some legs left. Offroading is too much work for me to do it often, so a suspension wheel for me, would need make street ride smoother. Im still waiting, but tbh, Gotway has caught my eye. Its not that they are making higher quality than before, its simply that everyone else is making lower quality than before. Who knows, maybe Gotway with an aftermarket quality pack, IS the king of the hill atm. Just thinking it, kinda makes my head hurt. For now, Ima stick with the 3 I got and wait it out.

Good news is that quality used wheels from recent past years, should be a golden ticket. As the gamblers like to believe marketing and keeping up with the Jones' comes in to play, used will come up to feed their addiction.  A person should be able to find a good used wheel of 2 years ago. You know, when things actually went kinda right!

Edited April 24, 2022 by ShanesPlanet

[gon2fast]

I would skip the suspension wheels for now. I feel that we are still in the first generation with performance/long range suspension wheels (minus the GW EX, but that wheel had its issues). I would suggest looking into the Sherman. You will have a good top speed/ceiling, larger rim/tire to help with the roads and one of the largest battery configs currently offered. In addition it has a roll cage that protects the wheel very well.

[Tawpie]

This is just a guess, but for street my money would be on Master/EX20S. For off road, S22. While BG likes to show video on rocky roads, I do believe they're intending their wheels to be kings of the road, and have designed their suspension for primarily road use. Not that the S22 isn't fine on the street, from what I hear it is. I just don't think you really need 130 mm of suspension travel for street riding so it's a bit overkill.

That said, the coil over shock on the S22 when properly sized, will make it very very good at the smaller bumps you'll encounter on a so-called paved road. But it costs money and time to adjust the coil over shock, Master's shock just needs strong arms.