Just thought I'd hijack this thread with my experiences with this bike. I saw your review here and headed over to Worksman in Ozone Park. Checked out the bike, nice folks, and bought one of these for my mother. Total came to $497, which is worth it if you just want to take off the Heinzmann hub, controller and battery, which is a 36v Ni-Cad. Not sure of the total reliability of the battery, which has been dormant for seven years, according to the sticker. The extreme cold may be causing it to discharge quickly.

My mother really liked it, and it inspired her to ride a bike again, which she hasn't for 25 yrs. In fact, we went back the next day and picked up another one!

Front hub is a Heinzmann 400W 36V for anyone who's wondering. Total bike weighs--hold on--66lbs!!! I nearly killed myself carrying it up the subway stairs.

Anyway, if you're trying to get an older person into riding, this may be a good way to start. Check out

http://www.estelle.de to see the more modern incarnations of this bike and what they sell for. Also, I'm not sure how many they really have and how fast they're selling, since they kept saying "we only have a few left!"

BTW they also seemed to have a turquoise color in addition to the dark purple. Didn't get to see it.