SlashGear

Schwinn has announced a new Pedal Assisted Bike that, as the name applies, assists the user with pedaling. This in turn takes half of the effort that you would normally put into pedaling a bike up a hill. ShashGear had a few moments to test drive these bikes and now I feel I must have one.

The bike itself will take whatever watt your pedaling at and double it in output. Powering the 250 watt motor is a Toshiba SCIB supercharged battery that will provide roughly 15 miles of riding on a single 45 minute charge. The battery is guaranteed to last for 3,000 charges but has been tested up to 6,000 with 85 percent capacity. That is really great compared to the 500 charges that competing bikes boast.

These Pedal Assisted Bikes are available in the $3,000 range, which these days seems a whole lot more affordable than a car, insurance and gas.