geraldkealakai

I've had one since the fall of 2013. With the battery life, I'd ride up the mountain for about an hour, then down the mountain for another hour or so - this is with some stops along the way to loosen up the cramping muscles. The motor regenerates and partially recharges the battery on the downhill sections - you can program how much regen you want. The battery would be low at the end of the ride, and I'd be happily tired anyway. Always rode with earplugs. You don't get the engine sound of a gas engine, however you get the whine of the electric motor and the drivetrain. It sounds like a remote controlled toy truck that you see some people playing with, but louder. Overall though you could definately play with it in public areas without much complaint. More likely people would be fascinated. To recharge, seem to remember that it was maybe about three or four hours to a full charge. Photovoltaic recharging (you said "solar") is not realistic as you wouldn't get the amps required unless you had a large photocell array. If you had a large photocell array, it would be mounted on the roof of your house, so you would just replug the charger into your house circuit anyway. If you wanted to recharge the battery in the field you would use a gas powered generator - but somehow doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of having an electric trials bike??

That was my experience too. I've had an EM5.7 since the fall of 2013 however it has been stored unused in my basement since the fall of 2014 as it does not perform as was stated in writing by the Dealer. Spent months trying to troubleshoot the bike, but the manufacturer finally let me know that I was riding it at too high of a level. In my opinion and experience - if you are new to the sport or if you ride at a lower-intermediate level AND you do not ride steep hill climbs or rock faces with bursts of full power exceeding about 3 seconds, then it is a great bike. No fluids, no gears, no stalling, and best of all - no kickstarting. For me, I had a GasGas 300 before having the EM5.7, and I now am back on a gas bike. Probably nothing yet will perform like a gas bike performs for steep rock faces and climbs where full power is required for more than about 3 seconds. Another point - it was very disappointing to find that the "clutch" was 'on/off' and not what my copy of the manual described as a modulating clutch. I wrote the manufacturer about this, and all they did is rewrite that section of the manual and email me a new copy. That seemed to be kind of a cheesy thing to do.