# Sondors on the beach review



## singletrackmack (Oct 18, 2012)

Had a great day at my sister in law's out at the Hollister Ranch today surfing, riding and hanging out on the beach. They have quite a few different type of ebikes for the ranch, but the sondors efats are their dedicated beach bikes.

I have been on these before, but not on the beach or in sand. I was never impressed with it, especially on trails as it is difficult to maneuver on twisty trails, but wow, this bike made a lot of sense in the sand. I was really impressed how well the sondors handled the deep sand and how it could keep its speed up thru it. I was able to easily cruise above 15mph without having to pedal. Having these for beach days brought a new element of fun for a place that is already fun filled. It was great to be able to just hop on the bike and go explore for miles from the surf spot and back throughout the day.

The battery life was very impressive as well considering we were riding them off and on throughout the day for a few miles at a time and I was pretty much throttle only. I am not a fan of pedal assist. There was still half the battery life left at the end of the day. While the fork was garbage and had a terrible top out clang, the brakes were pretty bad too and it could have used some lower gears when riding steeps, for about 1k i think it is a great deal if your looking for something to cruise and explore with.


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## singletrackmack (Oct 18, 2012)

Ok, well that was short lived. Apparently, HR is going to be requiring ebikes to be permitted to use the beach and the beach just north from there, Cojo, is banning all ebikes.

What is interesting about the ban is that it is not because of damage to natural surfaces, it is not because of closing speeds or people riding too fast. It is because all of the sudden, there are way more people crowding areas that before saw much less traffic. Cojo was difficult to get to taking about an hour to get there and another hour to get out without the use of a motor. With the introduction of ebikes, specifically ones that can go off road, the area has begun to be overcrowded. The natural barrier (effort), that help protected this area from human impact was bypassed by ebikes.


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