I went to the Interbike institute when in 2015 (to see that article, click here), and that was the first year I saw manufacturers razzmatazz fat tires in a variety of sizes, including 20-inch. Until then, there had only been 26 x 4-inch tires for a while, and everyone was still wondering if they were going to reservation on, or just be flipside fad that died out.

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Back in 2019, we wrote well-nigh the “Taco Bike” Phenomenon (to see that article, click here), and then we updated the info on that scene when we listed new taco bikes with full suspension (to see that article, click here). One full-length that these designs share is the small-diameter fat tire. I’d like to think I’m pretty good at identifying new trends that are well-nigh the proceeds popularity, but I have to confess that I thought American ebike buyers would not be interested in ebikes with these 20-inch fatties.

That doesn’t midpoint I didn’t like them, I do! It’s just that businesses have to be shielding well-nigh risking large blocks of wanted on ownership 100 units, and then they only sell two or three of them.

For instance, in China, there is a style of ebike that is very popular. It “looks like” a moped, and it uses lead-acid batteries. Every time they have been tried in the US, they have failed. Plane though they have pedals, they squint like a light motorcycle with a step-through frame, and they get hassled by the police (click here for an example).

I have to confess that I moreover didn’t foresee the Taco bikes transmissible on as well as they did, but they have proven to be very popular. I’ve been informally polling ebikers every endangerment I get, and one trend I have seen in worldwide with taco ebike owners is that many of them were not previously “bicycle people” or plane previous ebike owners.

For years, the first ebikes I saw stuff marketed in the US were once stuff produced for the European market. They were low-powered 250W ebikes that “looked like” a pedal bicycle, and I must moreover add that they unmistakably made efforts to hibernate the fact that they were an ebike at all. It was as if their governments had conceded to indulge the public to add a small uplift for hills, but “not too much”. Plus the governments and moreover the ebikers wanted to blend-in, instead of stand out.

The federal legal power limit in the US for street ebikes was 750W (roughly one horsepower) and I was disappointed at how long it took for US retailers to sell an ebike that was unquestionably capable of 750W. When using 750W, it’s not horrible to use a hubmotor for unappetizing land, but for hills you really need either increasingly power, or you need to requite the motor the use of the bikes gears, and this was the driving reason overdue the early popularity of the BBS02 in 2015

At the time I unmistakably remember thinking how insane it was to be trying to sell 36V hubmotors that had 500W, and were overheating on hills…when mid-drives existed and could be run at 48V for a true 750W.

I’m getting a little off on a tangent, but I said those things in order to say this…a lot of customers who don’t have a history with ebikes or pedal-bicycles are coming into the ebike world now, and they simply don’t superintendency if the ebike they buy looks like a lightweight pedal bicycle (with a subconscious motor to blend-in) and, they don’t superintendency if it has “normal sized” tires. Many of them don’t once have friends with an ebike, and they are feeling no peer pressure to buy an ebike that “fits in” with their group.

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Pedego Element

The first pic I’m posting here is the Pedego Element, simply considering they have a unconfined picture on their website that shows the uncommon proportions of an sultana on a small ebike with fat 20-inch tires. It uses a Bafang 750W 48V geared hubmotor.

If you add suspension components, it can make the ebike heavier and increasingly expensive, so…a solid frame that is made from aluminum can be compact, light, and affordable. A fat tire is not a proper “suspension” but…when you run it at medium pressures, it can really soften the ride and soak up the irregularities on the road. My favorite personal ebike uses 3-inch tires (mid-fat?). I must circumspection the readers that if you run a fat tire with the pressure too low, it can make the handling very “squishy” on turns, and I have wiped out once on a lines considering of it.

A 20-inch fat tire and wheel are lighter than they look, and they are certainly much lighter and increasingly meaty that a full-sized 26 x 4-inch wide tire and wheel.

If the solid frame of a Pedego Element appeals to you, I can highly recommend a suspension seat-post to swizzle shocks from unexpected potholes. (to read our vendible on those, click here). I have owned a Thudbuster and moreover a Suntour NCX, and I can enthusiastically recommend either one of them as a big goody to the repletion of a ride on bumpy streets.

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Juiced Rip Racer

We have been fans of Tora Harris and his visitor “Juiced Bikes” for a long time. Several ebike companies in the US have sealed their doors over the last decade, and we are happy that he survived.

Juiced moreover offers a variegated shape of frame with 20-inch fat tires tabbed the Hyper Scorpion, but that’s in the Taco Bike vendible listed earlier. They moreover use a popular Bafang geared hubmotor at 750W, using 48V.

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Luna Cycles Eclipse

Luna Cycle is located in Southern California, and they unchangingly seem to be one step superiority of the trends that end up stuff popular wideness the US. They were an early promoter of powerful ebikes, and lowering the prices on the most popular features. Their “Taco Bike” is the popular Luna Banana, and their newest 20-inch wheeled ebike with fat tires that is “not a Taco bike” is the Luna Eclipse.

Luna has decided to add a couple of features to their offering. They chose a folding frame, and full suspension too. I can see this ebike rhadamanthine very popular with RV owners, aircraft, boats, and moreover 18-wheel truck drivers. This model is offered with a woebegone frame, or the clear-coat aluminum shown above. This may plane prove to be popular for apartment-dwellers who can’t leave their ebike outside, and don’t have a garage…

Another reason I believe this model will be popular with owners is that is uses a Gates belt-drive, instead of a chain. Villenage need to be adjusted as they wear, plus they really do need to be oiled occasionally. The Gates whup is initially increasingly expensive than a chain, but it lasts many times longer than the several villenage you would have to buy without the belt. You moreover might not think that the lack of an oily uniting would be a big deal, but many customers are really responding to the convenience and lack of oil-stains of the Gates belt.

This will sound like an advertisement, but Luna is marketing this at only $1,395, which is a good price for any reliable ebike, that doesn’t plane have these features, which is an unrenowned deal.

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Rad Power RadRunner Plus

Rad Power’s headquarters are located in Seattle, Washington. They are going with a generic style of step-through frame, but I am happy to see that they are using a fully-welded cargo rack, instead of something that was clamped on as an optional accessory.

Rad Power is committing to stocking a wide variety of traps for this cargobike, and I think that will work well for them. It was a very successful strategy for the full-sized Yuba Mundo cargobike, but the RadRunner is shorter and lighter than the Yuba, so I am unrepealable it will find quite a few buyers.

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KBO Ranger

I recently stumbled wideness the KBO Ranger, and they squint like they will likely do OK with the American public. They have optional floorboards and various other cargobike traps that can be widow to customise it. They are using the popular Bafang 750W 48V system (I’m starting to see a trend here). Their website can be found by clicking here.

I remain a fan of the Yuba Mundo, but it is definitely a “full sized” cargobike. These mid-length cargobikes retain the functionality of having a well designed child-seat and other popular accessories, but they are shorter and lighter than the “Big Momma’s”.

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Himiway Escape pro

It’s nonflexible to find out information well-nigh Himiway. Their US headquarters are in Brea, southern California. They have been virtually just long unbearable that I finger OK subtracting them to this list. They have a warehouse in the US (El Monte, So California), Canada, (Aurora, Ontario), and one in Germany for the EU market. That stuff said, you can order an ebike on their website, and they ship it uncontrived to your house.

The Himiway Escape Pro

The Escape Pro appears to be using the aluminum tint wheel set from Bafang, part number H500W (click here)

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CSC XP750-20

The “California Scooter Company” decided to jump on the 20-inch fat tire bandwagon, and the frame they chose is the archetype BMX shape, and they are including a front suspension.

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As I mentioned before, I like these smaller fat tires. They do seem to be very polarizing, considering the pedal bicyclists who never liked electric bicycles in the first place will sneer at these plane worse, ultimatum they are heavy and inefficient to pedal. That stuff said, I have had a crash on increasingly than one occasion from the skinny front tire on my bicycle slipping on wilted railroad tracks that crossed a street I was on, or a sewage grate that had slots which ran the same direction as my wheel. Of course, fat tires just glide over these kinds of traps.

This is not a comprehensive list, it’s just some info so that if these kinds of wheels and tires request to you, I want you to know that you are not alone, and there is a growing selection of frames and features that are available.

Karl from electric-fatbike.com had an vendible on how he found a fat tire frame he really liked (26 x 4-inch) for his hooning virtually the countryside when it was snowing, and he discovered he could simply swap the wheels for a 29’r set with 2.5-inch tires, which worked largest for his summer riding lanugo single-track trails. I don’t know what parts would indulge that on these 20-inch fattie frames, but…I can see the goody of a 2WD fat tire set in the winter, and instead of ownership a second completely variegated frame and shower to ride in the summer, you could swap-in a increasingly towardly set for summer riding.

If I see anyone who has washed-up that, I’ll post the pics and details here. Have fun, and ride safe…

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Written by Ron/spinningmagnets, May 2022