I wrote a set of three blog posts some time ago about our new bikes and the trails we ride them on. I guess this is the fourth installment of that series.
This post was prompted by our meeting with a couple of hikers on the New River Trail. They were very curious about the e-bikes Diane and I were riding. I was more than happy to tell them about them. I am more than happy to tell you about them here also. This is a review of the GoTrax Dolphin e-bikes.
Let me jump back in time a bit first. Four years ago, Diane and I decided we wanted to start riding bikes again. We had owned a couple of street racers when we owned a house in Portsmouth, ten speeds they were, but now we wanted mountain bikes, foldable ones, that we could throw in the back of our SUV and not have to worry about using a bike rack, plus I felt that since we towed our car behind a motorhome it would be safer also. We bought two X-Spec 26-inch foldable 17-speed mountain bikes, and they were, are good ones. Then a couple of things happened. We bought a house and sold our coach. I guess more than two things happened. We found that riding a mountain trail when you're over seventy isn't easy when pedaling uphill. Add to that a couple of health concerns, especially for Diane, and I decided it was time to make a change. It was time for a bike for Diane that could assist on a long ride.
I started researching and looking for one on Amazon. There was no shop around that I cared to buy one from, Walmart did not sell e-bikes, not yet, so ordering one from Amazon seemed like the best idea. I wanted one that met a few criteria.
It had to have 26-inch wheels, not 20-inch; my experience riding those showed they could be top-heavy, a bit unstable.
I did not want a twist throttle. Sometimes you can accidentally accelerate the bike when mounting it, and it takes off out from under you, not a good thing.
I had to have a step-through frame. Diane has a hip problem. Swinging her leg over the bike seat is uncomfortable for her.
I wanted an aluminum frame, not a steel frame. I wanted the bike to be light.
I wanted a bike that did not ride like a motor scooter. It should assist the rider, not take over. In other words, the motor kicks in when the pedaling starts, and the motor stops when the rider stops pedaling.
The biggest thing was that it needed to be affordable for us, not cost a grand or more, like a lot of e-bikes.
I did not want a fat tire bike. Those tires add a lot of weight to the bike, and they are noisy. I don’t care for them. Gravel/trail tires, or hybrids as they are sometimes called, are what I wanted.
A must, it has to have good-quality disk brakes and shift gears easily, no spocket jumping allowed.
I know it is a picky list, but if any e-bike didn’t meet the whole list, it would not be purchased.
After a lot of searching and reading reviews of many e-bikes, I found one that met all my requirements.
It is the Gotrax Dolphin, a 26-inch bike with 27.5-inch hybrid tires. It has a step- through aluminum frame. It has five pedal-assist modes or no mode at all if you want to do all the pedaling yourself. It has a thumb throttle that turns the bike into a motorbike, which can reach a top speed of twenty-two miles an hour on a flat surface.
The Dolphin has a 500-watt battery with a range of 30 miles, about half the capacity of many expensive bikes, but plenty far enough for Diane (and me).
It has a front-spring suspension, so it is technically a hard-tail bike, a description I do not particularly care for; however, it helps reduce bumps and jars when riding through ruts and over sticks and bumps.
The bike has very good Shimano brakes and a rear shifter, the Derailleur, as it's called. More about that later.
As a little bonus, it has a handlebar-mounted bell and a powered headlight, which can come in handy when riding through the Gambetta tunnel.
I purchased a white Gotrax bike for Diane; she did not want a black one, on sale, for just about 525 dollars, including shipping. I crossed my fingers that it would arrive on time in good shape and be as good as many of the reviews said it was. I also ordered a set of inexpensive but good-looking fenders, a good seat cushion, which I learned from miles on a mountain bike was a necessity, and a water bottle holder. Later, I would add a phone mount to the bike.
That bike was, or should I say, IS that good? It arrived in just under three days, packaged to protect it from being damaged. I had to cut many zip ties and remove a lot of foam to get it out of its container. I needed to assemble the front wheel to the frame, add the handlebars, attach the front brake, and install the seat. Except for inflating the tires and fully charging the battery, that was all the assembly I needed to do from the box. I added the fenders and the water bottle cage. Diane was sitting on the bike as I adjusted the seat and tilted the handlebars for her comfort.
The next morning, I took it for a test ride. I couldn’t get Diane to take it out first. I think she was a bit nervous about its speed and handling. I found it to be super right away. The Shimano gear system shifted the seven gears smoothly and quietly, with no chain rattling. The pedal assist was just as I hoped; it could be a speedy motorbike or a normal pedal bike, the choice was entirely mine. I loved it, and ten days later, after our first ride out, I ordered another white one for myself. Due to a mix-up, I received a black one, which I liked very much, so I kept it. Amazon customer support was glad to hear that.
Along with the bike orders, I had to purchase a hitch for our car and a bike rack, two things I did my best to avoid with our first pair of bike purchases.
A bike rack can be an expensive purchase. Not for me. I purchased a Maxx-haul 150 lb hauling capacity four-bike rack for less than 80 dollars. It folds in half, so it does not stick out when parked, waiting for some lucky car to hit it. I also purchased a hitch and pin lock to ensure it stayed on the car when parked. The Curt hitch costs a bit more than that, but it, too, has been worth every penny.
Diane soon learned which PAS (Pedal ASsist) mode she is most comfortable with. Other than one handlebar adjustment and one brake adjustment, both very simple things, the bikes have performed flawlessly. We have discovered that we don’t use the five-setting pedal assist past setting two or three. I admit I have exercised the thumb throttle when riding by myself, when the trail is almost empty, to see what the bike can do. It can do almost 25mph without much effort.
The Gotrax Dolphins have made riding more enjoyable for us both. We now have a couple of hundred miles on our very good bikes, all ridden on the New River Trail. We look forward to hitting the trail again soon.
Gotrax is a Texas company that sells many types of e-bikes and scooters.
Amazon sells and ships the Gotrax Dolphin themselves, which I think is a good thing. They stock three different colors: black, white, and purple!
