Schwinn Continental E-Bike - No reviews?

[Intex]

Has anyone had any experience with the new Schwinn Continental?
Suppossedly it has a gear drive, as opposed to a chain drive, and also uses a Shimano Nexus 7 speed internally hubbed shifter, and a Schwinn Front Hub drive (Panasonic??)

It sounds interesting, any comments??

 

[flecc]

The terms are getting mixed up here Intex. It's best to refer to motors in the wheel as hub motors, and most are internally geared, but it best not to say geared drive since that makes it seem like the drive through the bicycle gears.

There are no Panasonic wheel hub motors. The only Panasonic unit is the one that mounts in the middle of the bike and drives the bicycle's chain, as you see it on the Gazelle Easy Glider and Kalkhoff Agattu bikes.

We haven't any members with the Schwinn Continental since Schwinn made a mess of it's design and withdrew it from the market. They have released it again, but naturally people are nervous about being the first to buy it now. It uses the same front wheel hub motor as the Cytronex we discussed, and it's made by Tongxin as the Nano model. As I've mentioned in previous replies, it uses rollers instead of gears in it's drive system and is very free running, whether on motor drive or pedalling.
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[Intex]

What I meant by "gear drive" , was that there is no chain. There is a sealed gear tube from the pedal unit directly to the rear wheels. This is the first that I personally have noticed on an e-bike.

 

[flecc]

Thanks, now I understand, it's actually termed a shaft drive.

These Zero shafts have been around for some while on the Zero bikes:

Zero Shaft Drive Bicycles

The are fairly good, though not as efficient as chain drive. Their weakness is that they are only used with the Shimano Nexus hub gears and the drive bevel gears at the back are not fully enclosed, they just have a cowling around.

When the wheel is taken out, the two greasy bevel gears are fully exposed to grit etc.
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