My First Electric Bike - HOVSCO HovAlpha 26' Electric Fat Tire Bike with Torque Sensor

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100$ off for any HOVSCO ebike: thetechprepper
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In this video, I'll share with you my experience with the HovAlpha 26" Electric Fat Tire Bike. This review is from the perspective of someone who is completely new to e-bikes, fat bikes and mountain bikes. It is perfect for someone like me who lives in a semi-rural area, needs transportation when traveling in the RV, and wants something besides a vehicle for general preparedness. Note: The HovAlpha weighs 72.8 lbs (not 77 lbs as indicated in the video).

GEAR

SUPPORT

0:00 Introduction
1:33 Unboxing
3:06 First Ride
4:36 Another Ride
5:42 Review
6:48 Tires
7:52 Bike Size
8:29 Motor & Pedal Assist
9:42 Torque Sensor
10:04 Battery
11:11 Pros
12:23 Cons
14:02 Issues
14:46 What's Next?

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#thetechprepper #hovsco #ebike #fatbike #prepper

[roscoe]

👍🏼 Looking forward to see what you come up with in relation to ham radio. Want to do something with my own e-bike.

[WKAB-]

Been tyre kicking an off-road e-scooter for patrolling our 200 acre farm. Hadn’t really thought too much about e-bikes. With the ability to strap on luggage, the bike certainly has a big advantage. Also, as you mention the prepper in you, the ability to use the bike even if the assist feature fails is a good backup plan. And finally, since they don’t use as much energy as a scooter, being able to charge it with solar in the field becomes more feasible. For me the biggest plus of using electricity in these cases is that they are quiet! All in all, a great presentation! Thank you for taking the time to explore outside of your normal topics.

[zeebraeend]

Nice weels! Some 2cents on that from a dutch cyclist:
* Have a look at a solar charging possibility (like f.i. OH8STN has).
* Know your ride a.k.a. take a course or 2 on maintenance (as you'll be doing).
* If you're looking to buy an electric bicycle, a plus is low to no resistance when pedalling with a low battery.

Gaston, I wish you many miles with it and please keep us updated 🚲🚲

[JacobSalvia]

Tire Slime is the way to go. Used to live in AZ, holes in my tubes all the time.

[hovsco]

Thanks for your informative review! And so happy that you and your wife both like this ebike! Hopefully, it will make your life more convenient in the future!

[bt]

I've been contemplating an ebike. They were very useful after the hurricane last year. You could take them to sanibel Island on a chartered boat when all the cars were flooded out. With the range I could have saved hours in traffic by using an ebike into the devastated areas vs staying in the one lane traffic jams

[Swamp-Fox]

Enjoyed it! Electric bikes are something I definitely plan to explore. The weight is a little more that I would have expected. Looking forward to the 3 month review.

[blankreganon]

You have fun making the videos. We have fun watching them.

[roscoe]

👍🏼 Looking forward to see what you come up with in relation to ham radio. Want to do something with my own ebike but havn’t thought much about it yet.

[TheDroopYJ]

Tubeless is pretty much a requirement. Everyone I rode with ran tubeless. Look up Stan's No-Tubes awesome set-up! Fat bike air pressure is much lower than road bike. I run 19psi on my 29er, fat tire is around 5-10psi. Helps to have tubeless to run that low because that pressure will pinch a tube and cause a flat. Your ride will be much better if you can run lower pressures and you will not be walking the bike at all.

[TheTechPrepper]

COUPON CODES
100$ off for any hovsco ebike: thetechprepper
300$ off for HovScout full suspension ebike only: W300
200$ off for HovBeta folding ebike only: HovBeta200

[RyanBarber-gl]

You are going to love it. I have almost the same bike but from Admotor, The first thing you need to do is go get some Tannus tubes for the tires. I flattened those big tires my first week. But since getting the tubes I haven't had any more issues with flats

[LibertyEver]

The HoxAlpha is a very nice looking e-bike. I've been eyeing a fat tire e-bike as an urban assault commuter bike with SHTF capability. I'm looking forward to your solar charging video.

I did a lot of mountain biking when I was younger. I have a small ADV motorcycle now. I did mostly convert my old mountain bike to an e-bike probably ten years ago when I stopped mountain biking but stalled halfway through building the battery from 192 of the 18650 lithium cells. Today, four 12V LiFePO4 batteries in series would be an easy solution. I should do that. Charging would be much safer too.

I made sure to get tubeless tires on my G310GS adventure motorcycle and I'm sure those will serve you well in the desert although I never tried tubeless bike tires. I've read a lot of complaints about mountain bike flats from cacti. Barring tubeless tires, you might look into a tube protector. Mr. Tuffy was the original. They nearly eliminated flats when I was commuting 28+ miles a day on a bicycle.

A mountain bike can provide a good recovery exercise if you are injured while trail running, and that's probably even more true with an e-bike.

[MattsGarageMiscDIY]

Not sure how well they work, but I have thought about trying the “Slime” self healing tubes on my mountain bike. Might be worth a testing cycle? You’d still need to remove any thorns and add air pressure, but could be less effort than changing a tube. I’d always carry a tube in case of something worse than a small puncture, even after you go tubeless. It’s never fun changing a tube, but being able to do it away from home is sometimes a necessity.

[kcowl]

Enter the scene from the movie A Christmas Story where they had the "blowout" 😂. Great great video and really good use cases on the versatility of the eBike as an option. One pro tip that might help on really rough surfaces - to ride very slow and maintain balance, ride with the rear brake on. I first learned this in my motorcycle class but same applies for regular bikes.

[Littrell]

Love the bike and should be a stealthy way to get around while staying off grid!

[stone]

It would be neat to utilize a buck converter and run your radios off of the bike. That would add a whole new dynamic that could e very beneficial. With the right panels you could potentially run radios as you charge your bike.

[Sean-AIEQ]

That bike looks pretty nice! I've heard tubeless is the way to got for any type of off road. When do you mount a manpack to it? 😉

[lasantiagoa]

Welcome to the awesome world of amateur radio and fat tire e-bikes. You're going to have Tons of fun.

73 de Luis, HB9HJU

[The_Privateer]

For flat prevention - go full tubeless. All you need is some Gorilla tape (to put a sealing layer down on the inside of the wheel) and some real tubeless bicycle tire sealant. Thats all you need.
Most punctures self-seal with the sealant you put in the tire. Any other punctures can be easily fixed with a general automotive tire plug kit.
It's still a good idea to take a tube along as a 'just in case' - but you'll probably never use it.

I take my e-bike on HAM adventures all the time - and... you have a large battery that you can operate the radio with if you need to.
Also... My best investment was a small trailer for the bike - to pull behind the bike to carry 'stuff'. We use it all the time in the fall to pack out harvested game during hunting season.
(edit): The trailer makes it nice for camping so you can drop the trailer at base camp and then you have a (relatively) lighter load for exploring.