JackRabbit e-bike review, the perfect fun toy

Our JackRabbit e-bike is a fun addition to our RVing lifestyle. It ranks really high on both the fun list and the useful tool list. This super small, super lightweight, electric bicycle has improved our RV life, especially in the fun department. It is great to swing your leg over for a quick zip around the area.

Toys for Christmas

This JackRabbit e-bike was a gift and most certainly it is a toy. If you want one, you can’t have mine. In fact, I am going to describe this bike as a first-run production model. If you want one just like mine it won’t happen. There will be a few minor changes (all improvements) to the version that is now available for purchase.

In some of the videos (in this article posted below) you see a newer more current production version that is now available for purchase. In the videos, you will have to look closely to see the differences; they are all minor.

Sometimes we get to try things before they are available to the general public. The JackRabbit e-bike is one of these things. JackRabbit e-bike is using our feedback to slightly revise the bike before it is ready for widespread distribution

To help improve the bike, I have provided a list of things that in my mind were not perfect. This ranged from the condition of the box when we unpacked it to things that could have been assembled a little bit better. All of this is to make sure that customers get the best product available. I didn’t need any assembly help to get everything exactly right.

Having fun

This JackRabbit e-bike is a fun micro e-bike (they call it a micro e-bike ) is a bicycle as opposed to a unicycle. It is not is a pedal bike. There are no pedals, no chain, no gears, no grease. It is an e-bike, a very fun e-bike. Instead of pedals, there are pegs to put your feet on.

My wife has a problem calling it a bike – but I do not. The very first bicycles didn’t have pedals, they were push bikes. This is like that, but you don’t have to push it. Some people might call it a scooter, but that term seems to apply to almost anything with wheels, ranging from children’s toys to small motorcycles.

The JackRabbit e-bike is a quick lightweight fun bike to have next to our RV for a quick zip around the campground including trails. The national parks just opened almost all primary roads and secondary roads and some trails to e-bikes. I am really looking forward to some exploring.

Since I expect to have the JackRabbit e-bikes live in our car, we don’t have to only ride at the campground or put our mountain bikes on the car to go to a dedicated bike trail. We should be ready for a ride everywhere we go.

No sweat or pedaling

Unless you count smiling as exercise it is not an exercise bike. You don’t pedal and thus all you feel is the breeze when you ride. Unlike pedal bikes, if you were to ride one to work, you won’t need a shower after you arrive.

You have two different tire sizes, the slightly smaller one is in the front and the front wheel reverses for storage. It folds to get smaller but it is not a folding frame bike. This is because if you have a complicated frame joint, both weight and the potential for failure skyrocket. Even then on bikes that have folding frames, they really only change shape from longer to fatter. The length changes but not the size and weight. Folding frame bikes change from long to bulky, remaining heavy.

This video also describes how to fold and unfold the JackRabbit e-bike and includes a demo of walk mode that I am going to describe later.

Storage

To make the bike smaller, small enough to fit in the back seat of our Subaru, first I remove the bicycle seat. After that, I remove the handlebar. Then I rotate the front wheel 180 degrees and attach the handlebar clip to the front fork. After folding the footpegs up the bike is easy to roll into the car. I could store at least six or maybe even eight JackRabbits in my Subaru. Putting two JackRabbitse-bikes in my Subaru wouldn’t even be a challenge.

My first choice is to put the JackRabbit in my back seat. It fits either standing up or lying down. In the back seat, I could leave the saddle on the bike.

Storing the bike is where the clean design, lacking a greasy chain really makes putting the bike in your car easy. I think I could stand three JackRabbits in the back seat and perhaps an additional three JackRabbits in the trunk. Of course, why would want to move that many e-bikes all at once? For that, I can’t come up with an answer.

I can also easily store the JackRabbit in my RV. In the following picture, the JackRabbit is on one of our slide trays that fit inside the RV storage compartment. Besides the JackRabbit I have one of my ultralight chairs strapped to the JackRabbit cargo rack.

Big enough but still small

My opinion is that it is just about the right size for me (I am not small or related to small). I think the JackRabbit fits people from about five and six feet tall. The JackRabbit e-bike is going to initially feel small even for smaller people. I still find that I have plenty of power.

The first thing to notice in this picture is the size difference between my mountain bike and the JackRabbit. The second thing I want to point out is the size difference between the brake disc on the JackRabbit and my mountain bike. The bigger the brake disk, the longer the moment arm of the brake. Bigger brake discs work much better than the smaller discs on my mountain bike. Also, a bigger brake disc will dissipate heat much better for extended braking on a long downhill.

JackRabbit e-bike ride quality

Bumps are easily absorbed by the big tires without the extra weight of shock absorbers. Unlike children’s bikes (especially the Stingray designs) there is little tendency for the front wheel to rise into the air or lose traction. The front wheel stays firm to the ground giving you an ideal feel of control.

Quick and stable

As you might imagine by looking at the pictures, this bike is quick both in acceleration and turning. I initially thought it might be unstable. Yes, the bike is very responsive to your body movements but this didn’t translate to an unstable ride.

Braking

Just like the bikes of my youth, there is only one brake, a big modern disc brake on the rear tire. Because the braking is only on the rear tire you don’t have any feeling of undesired weight shifting over the front wheel when braking. Since the brake is on the rear wheel there is no tendency for the front wheel to skid or slide in loose soil. The brake is powerful enough to lock up the rear tire but this has only happened in loose gravel.

Fast enough

I have not measured the speed, but it is plenty fast enough and feels stable at all speeds. With a twenty-mile-per-hour tailwind, I was flying at full speed, maybe I exceeded twenty miles per hour. The motor wasn’t working very hard and the bike didn’t want to go any faster. My guess is that the speed is electronically limited. Then I turned around and went straight into the wind. My speed was obviously limited by the wind. Still, I zoomed past two other bike riders that didn’t have e-bikes.

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We have friends that would say that an e-bike is cheating. I agree that this is true if your intention is to get some exercise. With a JackRabbit e-bike, exercise isn’t part of the intention. The JackRabbit e-bike is all about fun and quick transportation.

JackRabbit e-bike build quality

The JackRabbit e-bike is not like our other bicycles. The build quality is equal to or better than bicycle shop quality bikes. Nothing about the bike is lower-shelf or discount. The rear tire is a big four-inch wide twenty-inch knobby (newer production models will have a four-inch smooth rear tire) and the front tire is over two inches wide.

The seat was a little narrow, but I swapped it out for a more comfy seat. Speaking of lightweight, the JackRabbit weighs about twenty pounds with the battery installed but with the seat and seat post removed. I can easily lift it with one hand.

Lightweight

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the fact that this bike is super lightweight. It makes everything I do with both riding and storing the bike ideal. In my opinion and for everyone I have shown it to they love how lightweight the bike is.

One thing that other e-bike makers seem to ignore is how a lightweight bike improves riding. It doesn’t matter that the bike is providing all the power. I don’t like bikes that feel truck-like. I especially don’t like bikes that feel like semi-trucks. This JackRabbit e-bike is lightweight even with the seat, motor and battery installed. I love this fact when putting the bike on my bike rack. In my previous post about our Swagman bike rack, I included pictures of both my mountain bikes and a friend’s e-bike. Swagman RV Approved Bike Rack

The JackRabbit e-bike is about twenty pounds, our mountain bikes are about forty-five pounds. Our JackRabbit e-bike weighs less than half of one of our mountain bikes. The cargo e-bike (picture below) in our article about our Swagman RV-approved bike rack weighs almost as much as the two of our mountain bikes combined. There are several reasons why the JackRabbit is so lightweight but one of the biggest ones is that the JackRabbit doesn’t have anything you don’t need and everything you do need.

(I have noticed that some companies are not being completely truthful about how heavy their bikes are. It is almost like they aren’t that proud that their twenty-inch tire e-bike weighs more than three times the weight of a JackRabbit.)

Popular

We are in a very friendly place. You would not believe the number of people who stopped to lend a hand when I was taking the bike out of the box. I nearly had to hide it to get it out of the direct view of the other campers to get the plastic and boxing materials off the frame. On that first day, and every day since we got here in Key West I explored the local area on the JackRabbit. On every trip, I have been stopped and asked what I was riding. Not one person had ever seen anything like it. I get to run through all the typical questions about how much fun it is. The feedback I get is all positive.

Range

All e-bikes have a limited electric-only range. I ran the battery all the way to zero (only once). It wasn’t moving any further after that. After that, I installed my backup battery (extra two pounds) and continued on my merry way. How far did it go on a single charge? I’m not sure. It took about two days of occasional buzzing around to exhaust the battery. I am sure I could easily use all the battery power in less than one day. The JackRabbit is not intended for long-range. The stated range is twelve miles per battery charge.

Battery

The JackRabbit battery is the biggest battery allowed on commercial airlines. Of course, the battery size relates directly to the bike range. If a bike has a bigger battery and you want to put the bike on an airplane, you will need to ship the battery separately. I don’t intend to take the bike on an airplane but if you did, the JackRabbit e-bike fits the bill.

Hills

I can’t comment on hills yet, Key West doesn’t have any. I will tell you that hills are going to limit your speed and range. Hauling a load up a hill is going to consume more energy. It is just a math question.

Walk mode

Maybe I would have figured it out someday all by myself but the JackRabbit has a walk configuration. If you unlock the handlebars and rotate them 90 degrees the bike gets very narrow. The same walk configuration could be used for office or bike rack storage. The upper handlebar becomes an easy handle to walk your bike. If you didn’t click on the video above here is a second chance. Folding your JackRabbit micro eBike

Charging

You can charge the battery either inside or outside the bike. Other than testing to see if it works, I am charging the battery after I remove it from the bike. Lithium batteries hold energy without leaking but I top them before riding nearly every day. So far I have only needed the second battery once.

JackRabbit e-bike accessories

I have a few accessories that I have added to the bike to make it a little more useful. First I already mentioned the second battery. It should be apparent that when you get far enough from home to need a second battery, you should be heading toward home.

Rear Basket

This is a quality basket that I have used both on my JackRabbit and my mountain bike. It works great, just like you would expect it to. The basket is a perfect fit for our bicycle helmet, or a beverage cooler. I have also used the rack without the rear basket.

Cargo Box

This is a small case to hold your wallet, keys, cell phone, and other small things. It is great, very compact. I have used this on both my JackRabbit and mountain bikes. When we park the bikes and do other things I take the cargo box with me. It makes a nice carry-all.

Accessories that I want

I really think that you should get the Air, Sea, Land travel bag. This bag fits the JackRabbit perfectly. I hope that the bag is waterproof so I can keep the JackRabbit on my bike rack on the back of the RV.

I already mentioned that I don’t have the travel bag and my JackRabbit is white) so I stole this picture of the JackRabbit from their website (with permission). This picture shows how nicely the JackRabbit folds.

Better than a JackRabbit e-bike?

I rode some similar-sized e-bikes. All, even the smaller ones, were much heavier. Of course, they had pedals and multiple gears (some and smaller wheels). I did this after riding my JackRabbit. I was hoping to compare them to the JackRabbit.

For a bike to quickly get around the campground, I like the JackRabbit more than any of the other heavier bikes. I also don’t think that the JackRabbit e-bike is the only answer for e-bikes. JackRabbit is a great answer for a small, quick, lightweight, no-sweat RV bike.

I have tried to keep up with Tami with her on the JackRabbit and me on my mountain bike and couldn’t do it for very long. The answer to the above question is some JackRabbit marketing stuff and I agree with JackRabbit on the answer.

What is better than a JackRabbit? Two JackRabbits.

More details

I found a great article about the JackRabbit e-bike on this website. Camper Report

Videos

I found a few videos that were not included in the Camper Report article so even though I don’t usually include videos in my blog JackRabbit gave me the OK so I included them. The action of a video can sometimes relate to things that I miss or have a hard time describing. Besides that, videos are cool.

Here is a video with some action shots.

This is a link to the JackRabbit e-bike Youtube channel where you can get more videos. JackRabbit Youtube

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Links

Link to JackRabbit e-bike website. JackRabbit

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Links on our website are freely provided. We do not get income or commissions. No, we don’t make paid endorsements.  We don’t make recommendations but instead, we will tell you what we like (or dislike).

Just like the rest of the stuff on our blog, we hope that it helps you. We are so happy you find these articles worth your time. Thanks, we are really enjoying our JackRabbit.

Update: January 2023

We still love our JackRabbit e-bikes. As I mentioned above they are great for scooting around the campground. They remain totally functional and are the same as the day they arrived from the factory. Over the last year, the only thing that doesn’t work is the lock that holds the battery in place. We didn’t like using it anyway. A couple of things changed for us over the last year. First I had my review picked up by Escapees Magazine. Here is a link to that story. JackRabbit article

The second thing that happened is that we no longer have our mountain bikes, just our JackRabbits. I really do love all bikes.