Mod Easy: A retro e-bike with a sidecar perfect for Indiana Jones cosplay

Battery, lights, and comfort

The Mod Easy bike has a MOD Samsung 48 V 15 Ah (720 Wh) battery that promises a 50- to 100-mile range. This tracks with my experience. I first charged it after 25 miles, when it fell to about 50 percent. Most of that mileage was with the sidecar attached.

The Mod Easy has a vintage-looking headlight and a bright back brake light. It doesn't have turn signals built in, but the bike's system can be paired with a Lumos smart helmet, which has lights on the back that act as turn signals when you push the left or right buttons on the control panel.

The bike has front suspension and suspension in the seat post. There's also a very comfortable Selle Royal gel saddle. I took the bike on a variety of terrain and found the ride was always well cushioned.

Assembly

The Mod Easy comes partially assembled, with the handlebars unmounted. As a reviewer, Mod gave me the option of assembling it myself or having a bike technician assemble it for me for free. Not wanting to back down from a challenge, I chose to do it myself. But boy, was that a mistake. As a cycling newb, I had no idea what I was signing up for, and assembly became a lengthy struggle. The biggest problem was that I'm just not familiar with bike assembly generally, let alone e-bike assembly. But I also struggled with the directions themselves. Mod provides written directions as well as YouTube videos of assembly. In my inexperienced hands, they both had points that weren't clear, and the directions didn't always match each other or what came out of the box. I'll be honest: This assembly was not pretty, and it had me longing for Lego-style instructions.

If you're an experienced cyclist, you could probably put this bike and the sidecar together in two or three hours. I would estimate it took me about eight (I worked on it in stages at different times). The two biggest sticking points for me were making adjustments to the placement of the back brake caliper and the derailleur cable, which are not exactly part of the assembly. According to the cyclists on Ars' staff, minor tweaks to these are common when assembling a bike and are relatively easy to handle if you know what you're doing. But they took a lot of time for me to work out.

While the assembly definitely made me intimately familiar with the bike's workings—something I might value if I was a new owner—it was a lot of work. If you're a newb like me and can afford to spring for the expert assembly (it may run a few hundred dollars), I would strongly consider it.

In all, the Mod Easy Sidecar 3 is a stylish, fun, and well-designed bike perfect for head-turning cruising with a small passenger. Just know that the sidecar adds bulk that might not be practical for transportation needs.