Electric Bikes - please advice

hello everybody,
i purchased a new e-bike, a folding model from a local cyclery. cost was 1399+tax=1525. it has a lithium ion battery that i was told would last me 1000 4 hour charge cycles. it is a very sturdy bike and does not rattle when i go over bumps etc. it has rear drum breaks and front pad brakes. it has 20 inch wheels with thick spokes. rear wheel hub motor, battery is 36V 10AH,and power is 240W. top speed is 18 mph but it does not even top 16 on flats. it has some kind of cruise control that kicks in after you hold the accellerator for about 10-15 seconds, and cuts off when any break is applied. it also has power assist that kicks in after a few peddles.

there were two things that i noticed. one was that the battery would run out of charge and would show on the indicator,and lights, that was mounted on the handle bar. the dealer said that i would need to cycle many charges to get the battery performance up to the peak 20 miles per charge. i have charged the battery about 8 times and still cannot get more that 8-9 miles on flat ground. the lights on the battery show full charge (three green lights), but the dealer told me to ignore that (because they will always show full charge on the battery) and look at the battery meter lights on the handle bar. should the battery show the proper level when the small button is pressed on the battery itself?

the other thing i noticed was that the drum brake began to pulsate and gave me jerky stops. he tried to fix it but to no avail,so he is going to replace it with a new rear wheel. the brand name of the bike is "XUNDA", which was originally the famous "ZUNDAPP" mopeds and bikes, that had sold it's rights to a taiwan company who in turn sold it to china. it is a very sturdy bike and i like the way it rides, but i don't know if the dealer is telling me the right thing about the battery.

please chime in if you have any advice for me.
thank you
grc

If this bike is rated up to 20 miles per charge, the dealer should have told you this range was only achievable under "ideal conditions". Ideal conditions would be flat terrain, no wind, rider weight of 150lbs and constant pedaling. Since most people won't pedal constantly and conditions aren't always perfect, the average rider will usually get 8-12 miles. We never tell our customers to expect the max rated distance provided by the manufacturer. It's never accurate...

A good rule of thumb (if you don't plan on pedaling much), is to expect a range close to the AH rating of the battery. In this case, a 36V/10AH battery should get you about 10 miles. Sounds like that's what you're getting...

Battery meters included on most bikes aren't very accurate. After a few rides you should be able to figure out when to expect power to run out (either based on distance -- or on how the lights change)...

:: rolling eyes :: don't get me started on foldable electric 20 inch wheel ebikes. Here's my experience with one: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=440775&highlight=don%27t+buy+canadian+tire

I was able to achieve the range and speed that I wanted by building my own.

Another victim of "sales engineering" - unrealistic claims and limited real world experience.

Yes, 1 mile per AH is about right for real world range. Can be more, can be less - depends on the rider, wind, grades, etc. The other part of this sad story is that when you drain batteries to extreme limits - they will wear out much faster than if you only use 1/2 of the battery capacity. In other words - good luck with that 1,000 charge cycle thing...

Sort-sighted retailers will promise the moon but deliver gravel. In most case they don't even know what the range really is because they don't actually use the product.

Either research discussion groups comprised of people who actually use this stuff or you find a retailer who actually uses this stuff. Anything else is going to fall under fiction category...