GolfEbikes

Menu
Menu

Important Elements for Golf

If you are considering purchasing an ebike for golf, we obviously recommend our GolfEbike which has been designed for golf from the tires to the handlebars.  However, if you already have an ebike or if you might be considering a less expensive entry-level ebike on the Internet, we encourage you to make sure it has these important elements for golf, some of which are required by golf courses.

The first 3 are the most critical. But the others are almost as important for an ideal experience on the golf course. If you are only considering using your ebike to transport your clubs to-and-from the course, then these elements are not as important.

1. Your ebike should have a low AND open step through.

Some ebikes have the battery or a stabilizer bar in the step thru area, and that reduces the space.  You will be getting off-and-on between every shot, so it is important to make that as easy as possible.  The accompanying photo compares most ebike step-thru areas with our more-open GolfEbike step-thru space by superimposing the images.

2. It should have 4 inch wide fat tires to protect the turf. 

It is also important that the tires not have knobby tread for 3 reasons:

  1. Golf courses don’t like knobbies on their grass.  There are many examples of golf courses that don’t allow ebikes with knobby tires.
  2. Knobby tread can be treacherous on wet pavement or when there is dew on the grass which makes the tires wet and slippery even on dry pavement.  Bikes with knobby tread can slip out from under you even when going around a corner slowly. They just don’t have much rubber in contact with the pavement.
  3. They wear out faster which makes them all the more unsafe.

Many golf courses are adopting Minimum Rules for Ebikes and they include 4 inch wide tires and “no knobby tread”.

3. It should have a sturdy rear rack.

Many ebikes have bolt-on rear racks.  Many are made with “wire frames,” are made out of thin-wall tubing, and only have 2 support arms.   

You will want a sturdy rear rack than can support your golf bag without bending or breaking.

The following features are also important for optimum golf, but not necessarily critical.

  • Make sure it has a high quality battery with name brand cells like LG or Samsung. Batteries with cheap no-brand cells don’t last and don’t provide as much power. The battery is the most expensive part of the bike, so you don’t want to have to replace it early. You can read more about the importance of a quality battery here.
  • It should have an independent throttle that is not limited to the pedal assist setting. You will be accelerating after every shot to “get up to speed,” and will want to get a run at hills. Most ebikes limit the throttle to the PAS setting, so you have to adjust the PAS setting before the throttle will give you maximum power, then adjust it back down to match your desired level-fairway-riding assist setting.  Our GolfEbikes have an independent throttle that can produce 100% power any time you need it, so you can leave the PAS in the same setting all day.
  • Avoid bikes that brag about being light weight. You want a heavy duty bike for golf where there are constant bumps and dips. You don’t want it to develop frame cracks.
  • Make sure the bike has a full front fender so you can attach our Diamond Plate Rubber Mudguard on the fender. It won’t work on short fenders. Golf courses are always fresh-cut, and any dew or moisture on the grass will be thrown all over your shoes, legs, and bike without the front fender mudguard.  Click here to see more about the mudguard. Note:  Our GolfEbikes don’t need a mudguard because they have a custom extra-long front fender.
  • Most ebikes come with 7 gear sprockets that have a 14 tooth high gear and a 28 tooth low gear. So low gear isn’t low enough to get up steep hills such as to elevated tee boxes, in which case you have to get off and walk the bike. High gear isn’t high enough, so  your legs can’t keep up with the pedals which is called “ghost pedaling.”Our GolfEbikes have an 11-to-34 tooth gear set which provides a super low granny gear for steep hills, and it eliminates ghost pedaling at high speeds between greens and the next tee, or if you are using it to ride to-and-from the golf course.  Ebike sellers don’t include the gearing in their specification list, so you will need to ask, “How many teeth are on your low gear sprocket and on your high gear sprocket?”
  • We do not recommend ebikes with rear shocks because with every compression, the rear rack gets lower to the ground.  So if your ebike has rear shocks, you have to mount the bag carrier higher which means it also leans over at a greater angle when tilted out into the kickstand orientation.

Will the Bag Carrier work on my ebike?

This question usually boils down to whether or not your ebike has a rear rack, and if it has a step-thru frame. I will address both issues here in more detail for your review.

Fit – Our universal-fit ebike Golf Bag Carrier will fit on any ebike with a rear rack, even tall bikes, but not necessarily small bikes with less than 20 inch tires. However, not all racks are ideal. We have had some customers adapt them to motorcycles, scooters, and recumbent bikes which you can see toward the bottom of the Photo Gallery. So if you have an unusual rack design, you might need to use some creativity. Please review the Installation Instructions here before purchasing so that you know it is within your skill set.  If you do not believe you can mount it on your ebike, please do not purchase it without solving those issues first.  We will gladly help you if you have questions about it.  You can send pictures of your bike and rack to sales@golfebikes.com.

Function – If your ebike isn’t a step-thru frame, then you will have to lean it over toward you and step over the bar every time you get off and on because you can’t swing your leg over the top of your golf clubs. That may not be a problem if you are only doing it once or twice such as if you are only using your ebike to transport your clubs to-and-from the golf course. But it might be too difficult between every shot if you are riding your ebike on the golf course. It would require significant flexibility and athleticism. We have many customers who do not have step-thru’s, but some of them only use their bike to ride to-and-from the course, or they are OK with the difficulty that a high or mid-bar requires. You can see an example of a mid-bar bike and lots more valuable information in our FAQ’s.  (Note that our refund policy does not apply for difficulty stepping over a mid or high bar ebike since this is a known issue.) 

Golf Course Response – Using ebikes on golf courses is a new adventure. There is natural resistance to new things.  Not all golf courses are ready to allow them…yet.  We believe the day will come soon when most golf courses will have ebikes to rent, and they will welcome golfers to bring their own ebikes. But our customers need to be aware that not every course is doing that yet. Based on customer feedback, about half the courses are allowing customer-owned ebikes on their courses and only charging the normal walking greens fees. However, some will charge a “trail fee” that is usually more than the walking fee but less than renting their cart. We think that competition will move the industry to a standard of walking fees because bringing our own wheels shouldn’t require a premium when it doesn’t put any more wear and tear on the course than walking, and certainly not any more than a motorized bag cart. And it speeds up the game which the entire golf industry wants to do so that it attracts more golfers.  Still, as ebikes are in the early stages, our customers need to have a pioneering spirit. Those of us with ebikes today will be the ones that open up the golf courses for those who will follow later. There is more information about this topic on our Golf Course page, including the best way to ask your golf course permission to ride. Don’t take the risk of asking the wrong way. See Section 4 on this page first.

Power – We are very fortunate in the United States that the maximum power allowed on roads in the USA is 750 watts. Bicycle rules apply.  More power than that requires a motorcycle license.  It takes quite a bit of power to overcome the resistance of the fat tires on soft grass.  This is even more important if the golf course has hills.  The power restrictions in most other countries is 250 or 350 watts.  Canada is 500 watts.  250 watts is enough for pedal assistance on pavement with thin tires, but marginal on soft grass with fat tires. 500 watts is enough on soft grass, but not enough power for steeper hills.   750 watts is plenty of power for golf courses, and combined with our custom low gear can climb steep hills.  Also, other countries don’t allow a throttle…the motors can only assist pedaling.  Most ebikes in the US with throttles limit their output to the pedal assist setting. But a fully-independent throttle like we have on our GolfEbikes is very helpful while playing golf because you are accelerating after every shot, and not riding very long distances before you stop again.  

Please review our FAQ’s and Installation Instructions for more details.

SUMMARY

These are the most important elements for golf.  You definitely don’t want to buy an ebike that golf courses won’t allow as they develop minimum rules for ebikes such as requiring 4 inch wide tires that can’t have knobby tread.

Our GolfEbikes have over 20 other unique features relative to comfort, convenience, and safety.  Not only are they ideal for golf, they are great for everyday riding.  They are the only folding ebike that is also cargo-rated.

You can review all of the features and upgrades here. 

Helpful Links On This Topic