The JackRabbit Micro E-Bike is a relatively new e-bike that offers a slightly different experience than its competitors. If you’re looking for a review from someone who has personal experience with the bike, you’ve come to the right place. I bought the bike with my own money and am not connected in any way with JackRabbit, I just wanted potential customers to have a good idea of exactly what they’re getting into with this thing.
Personal Background
First things first: You might be wondering why a video game site is reviewing this e-bike. Well, while I was deciding whether or not to buy it myself, I noticed there wasn’t much out there about people’s personal experiences with the bike, just a lot of informational videos from the company. Now that I bought the bike and have had the chance to ride it around for a while now, I feel I can help people decide where or not it’s for them, and I figured my video game site right here was at least a somewhat appropriate place to talk about an e-bike.
Anyways, I’ve been wanting to get an e-bike/scooter or something like that for a while now. My wife and I recently moved to a new city, and since we’re pretty centrally located I knew that an e-bike would help me get around to quite a few places. At first, I thought we might look into getting an electric car or a plug-in hybrid, and while we do plan on doing that eventually, particularly for my wife’s commute, let’s just say we decided we were a few years away from that budget-wise. That’s when I decided to look further into e-bikes. Sure, I had a stationary bike that I got good exercise on, but it had been a while since I’d biked for transportation. We’re on a good bus line, so it has been easy to ignore until recently.
That’s when there was a deal on meh.com for a great folding e-bike for $500. I couldn’t believe it! I thought these things cost $2,500 at very least, so this blew my mind. I was trying to decide whether I should get one for me and another for my wife, but then the deal sold out. I was bummed, but I was also inspired at the idea that I could actually swing paying for an e-bike right now. After searching around a bit, I found the JackRabbit.
JackRabbit vs E-Bike
The JackRabbit is a bit different than the other e-bikes I was looking at. For one, although it looks like a normal bike, it doesn’t have any pedals, just footrests. This means it has no pedal assist, as its motor is entirely throttle-powered. Because of this, the JackRabbit only has a 12 mile range, which is much lower than the vast majority of e-bikes out there. However, this mechanical simplicity also makes it much lighter than most other e-bikes around this price range, as the JackRabbit only weighs 24 pounds, while also being shorter from wheel to wheel than I’ve seen from any competitors.
JackRabbit Bike Street Legality
Aside from those major differences, the JackRabbit can essentially be considered an e-bike in many ways. My state, which is not known for being particularly bike-friendly, seems to have very similar laws to the rest of the United States. Here, it is classified as a “motorized scooter”, but one that appears to be legally equivalent to a “class 2 e-bike”, as it tops out at 20mph, meaning you can ride it on all city streets, just not highways. This means you might need to be 16 years old and have a driver’s license to use one, but it does not need to be special in any way (in other words, if you can drive a car, you’re good to go). Ultimately, there is nothing special about the JackRabbit that muddles questions about its street legality compared to, say, a low-powered moped: I feel comfortable saying that in the United States, it is street legal.
Further, there is no helmet requirement in my state, but then again you don’t legally have to wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle in this state either. While there is a valid debate about helmets, their effectiveness, and how they shape the way the road works, I personally wear one with a $50 crash sensor so my wife can see my location just in case anything happens. My perspective is that when you hit the top speed of 20mph on this thing and you’re going downhill, it’s nice to have the helmet just in case the worst happens.
JackRabbit Pricing
The JackRabbit by itself costs $1,200. This makes it surprisingly entry-level considering how much it’s designed for style/aesthetic appeal/convenience. However, it’s a fairly barebones package. Personally, I have also bought the following accessories from JackRabbit:
- a $25 cargo box that doubles as a place I can put my phone and still see the screen
- a $25 mountable shoulder sling so I can carry the bike around
- a $15 set of front and back lights
- and a $99 basket rack.
The other accessories you can buy are:
- a $75 fast charger (though the included “slow” charger only takes about 2 and a half hours to charge up from dead, in my experience)
- a $125 “Air-Sea-Land Travel Bag” for taking your JackRabbit on trips, such as on the plane
- a $15 cup holder (probably best for commuters with fully closable travel mugs)
- a $15 mobile phone mount (for people who don’t get the cargo box, I guess?)
- a $20 front and rear fender set (since there is no built-in splash protection)
- and a $200 mountable extra battery.
In other words, if you end up buying some accessories, you could end up spending somewhere between $1,300-$1,800, which is obviously more than $1,200, but still not even really approaching the “moderate” range of e-bike prices, much less the expensive range.
Finally, while the JackRabbit is small enough to bring right into a store (which I have already done for one store, with no problems), I did buy a ~$100 lock to protect my investment, as well as a $50 helmet and the aforementioned $50 crash sensor, but I am separating these because they are not JackRabbit accessories and because I chose them myself out of a vast range of options.
Personal Experiences
Now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way, let’s get to the point: What’s it like actually riding this thing?
Well, it’s a lot of fun, which I expected, but it’s also quite useful, which I was less optimistic about. I have used this bike for all sorts of errands taking me to different parts of the city, and I have only had one problem (with the battery specifically, which I will describe in the story about my blood draw below). Sure, I make sure to plot out my routes so that I can use side streets and avoid traffic, but I’ve also crossed very busy streets with no issues. It feels like a completely capable personal transportation vehicle, even feeling more like a weak motorcycle than a really strong bicycle. The brakes are capable but you might need to pump them a bit and glide into a stop; you can’t really slam on the brakes and stop right away, but that also means you’re less likely to get flung into traffic from braking too quickly.
I have the basket attached, but I got that after my initial purchase. I also have a duffel bag that I can throw around my shoulder and carry on my back which collapses to a very small size, and this has helped me carry moderate amounts of groceries home (now that I have the basket, I can make pretty solid grocery trips between that and the duffel bag). While I do feel the bike going a bit slower while climbing when I have other things with me, it never feels unstable or anything like that.
By the way, it came pretty much fully pre-assembled, with the handlebars and seat mounted to the bike in a space-saving manner and the front wheel turned around to further save space. That said, these are all things you can and might do yourself to store the bike and save space, so it’s hard to really call that assembly. In other words, the bike comes almost fully ready to ride (with an almost fully-charged battery as well, at least for my bike).
Anyways, let me talk about the one issue I’ve had.
I needed to get a blood draw downtown at a building about 4 miles away, so I jumped on my JackRabbit and crossed a decent part of the city core. This was my longest trip yet, and it felt amazing seeing streets I’d never seen before just cause they were a few miles away and off the beaten path. I was able to lock my bike up where I could see it from the waiting room, got my blood drawn, and hopped back on the bike to get home.
But then the battery just about completely gave out when I was a few blocks away from home. I had to walk/kick my way back home, which definitely put a damper on my elation. When I got home I saw that the bike (which was fully charged when I left) had gone about 7 and a half miles before dying. This is definitely less than the advertised 12 mile range. That said, I was taking side streets that had a lot of elevation changes (much more than my typical routes), and I was pretty much slamming the throttle the whole time, even when I was already going pretty fast and could probably have let it cruise a little bit. Hey, I was enjoying myself.
Still, if I had been able to give it just a little bit of juice while I was parked, or if I just used the throttle a little less, or if I even bought an extra battery (for $200), this would not have been a problem. I don’t feel misled about the range, because I bet it could give me something closer to 12 miles on a route without significant elevation changes and if I had cruised a little more. For the record, their battery projections are based on a 165-pound rider (I weigh a shade over that at 170).
All that said, if you need to regularly travel 8 miles without a charge, the JackRabbit might not be able to make it. However, if you have a 5- or 6-mile commute, you can charge the bike at work (since it doesn’t take up too much space) and avoid this issue.
Overall, since I’ve gotten my JackRabbit, I haven’t even used my car once. Granted, my house is pretty centrally located, we’re on one of the only really useful bus lines in this city (which is a nice alternative to the JackRabbit for rainy days), and I have been a remote worker since before the pandemic. Still, there are millions of people in the United States alone that live in similar situations, not to mention all of the people in the rest of the world who live in cities that were not necessarily designed around SUVs.
Altogether, my experiences with the JackRabbit have blown away my expectations, and I feel very comfortable considering this my primary mode of transportation for the near future.
JackRabbit Is For
Based on my experiences, the JackRabbit is made for people who live in urban areas where businesses and other destinations (such as work) are within a ~5-mile radius. It could be someone who takes the bus or train to work and then needs a solution for “the last mile”. It could be a college student who lives just off campus and doesn’t want to deal with parking headaches. It could be someone like me, who would love an electric car but can’t quite afford it yet. If you live in a central location and have good public transportation around you, the JackRabbit might just be perfect for you.
Outside of urban settings, it seems (based on the website reviews/comments) like a lot of JackRabbit customers are actually seniors who travel around the country in RVs and use the JackRabbit for more nimble transportation beyond that. With its robust 20-inch tires, I could definitely see this handling some light offroading, though I might not take it blind down a trail with gnarled roots. I think it’s pretty cool that JackRabbit has already found an audience even outside its obvious target demographics of urban commuters.
By the way, here’s a picture of me on my JackRabbit (I’m 5’10” and sitting on the seat, you can see my one foot on the footrest and my other foot on the ground). The seat is not at its maximum height in this picture. Anyways, you can see here that this is a really small bike, but still one that is absolutely designed to support an adult.
JackRabbit Is Not For
Based on my experiences, the JackRabbit is not made for people who regularly have to travel more than 8 miles on a single charge, people who do not want to have to watch the road ahead of them the whole time they’re riding, people who live in rainy areas, people who exceed the weight (240 pounds) or height (6’2″) limits, or people who want an e-bike so that they can exercise.
I personally have a stationary bike that I use for exercise, so I truly only wanted the JackRabbit for transportation. However, I know some people want to replace their car commute with a bike commute specifically so they can get a bit more in shape, and this is not necessarily the e-bike for that. Sure, you’ll probably get some core benefits from regularly riding the JackRabbit, but you literally cannot pedal on this thing, so you are not going to get anywhere near the workout that you can get on a lower level of a pedal assist e-bike.
Further, the JackRabbit is rated IPX4 waterproof, but the company itself recommends you do not ride it in the rain. I used to live in Portland, and this would mean I could not use the JackRabbit around, oh, 9 months out of the year. Make sure you think about what the average day is like around you before you buy this for commuting or general transportation.
Finally, I say it’s not for people who don’t want to watch the road ahead of them because this is an active ride. The JackRabbit feels surprisingly stable, even when riding on a rough city street at near 20mph, but you definitely feel the road. This means you want to avoid cracks and you might be lifting off your seat for a few seconds at a time to get over bumps and things like that. For me, and for a lot of the target market, this type of “active ride” might actually be a pro, not a con, but I think it’s important to note that this is not the same sort of “hands-off” routine experience as driving to work is.
Wrapping Up
So, is the JackRabbit for you? I don’t know! Our individual transportation needs vary substantially based on where we live, where we work, and personal factors. That’s why I’ve tried to talk at length about my personal experiences and impressions about the JackRabbit in an honest way so you can make your own decision. For me, it’s pretty much the perfect e-bike. For you, it might have too small a range, or you might actually want pedals, in which case you’re better off looking for a $1,000-$1,500 pedal assist e-bike.
At the end of the day, our electric future will rely on a vast array of vehicles, from electric planes and trains to electric cars and bikes. The JackRabbit is one more entry into this market that caters to a specific niche that is actually not that small. If you fit into this niche, the JackRabbit might just be the bike for you.
