Review Woosh Rio MTB Review/Initial Impressions

[Volusia25]

After a lot of research with a more budget price range in mind, I went looking for an ebike, my criteria was as follows:

Must be a hybrid or MTB
Must have a battery capable of 30 miles on one charge
Must be at a max £1200
Must have half decent components suitable mainly for road use

And settled with the Rio MTB.

Ease of assembly:

Very easy. The bike comes in two boxes for added protection. All you need to do is put the front wheel on, pedals, handlebar, mudguards and lights. Then tweak as necessary. I took my time as it's been a while since i've owned a bike but the manual explains it well. Worth double checking all nuts and bolts and follow the separate maintenance manual.

Build quality:

Seems sturdy enough. Again this is initial impressions. Frame seems well built, gears work smoothly, front suspension is great with preload and lockout. I tend to not have it locked out as I use farm tracks and bumpy roads a lot of the time which it helps a lot with. Hydraulic brakes are bedding in nicely and stop the bike with ease, very easy to lock the back wheel. The front brake makes a high pitched high speed clickclickclick noise when engaged however, not sure why as it runs true, might be something to do with the motor cut off.
Paint quality could be better, it chips easily. No creaks or weird noises.

Features:

Easy to see backlit LCD display. Shows speed, two odometers, average speed, journey time. Power ranges from 0-5, I like being able to have 0 assistance but still have the display running. Also shows how much power is going to the motor. I believe there are settings to increase the motor cut off speed but will void your warranty, so maybe do that after a year or leave it alone. Battery will suffer anyway.
Hydraulic disc brakes front and rear.
Bell
Lights front and back, AA batteries, cheap but does the job.
Mudguards, the back one is nice but front is more for show than anything.
USB charging from the battery, lockable battery with 2 keys
Throttle
Push assist

Performance/battery life:

From powers 1-5, 1 hardly helps at all, useful if you're already really fit but then why buy an ebike. I tend to be using powers 2-3 for 90% of my rides. I'm 5ft 11 and 164lb. Worth mentioning I have a rack and heavy lock on the bike adding about 4kg.
I use powers 4-5 only on steep hills and it does fine. It will get me up a steep hill on throttle alone, but it will drop down to 12 or so MPH, will suck the life out of the battery so I always pedal. Yet to be out of breath from a hill.

Battery life, early days but still showing 2 bars left and 29 miles covered. So the bike meets my needs of 30 miles on one charge. Something I was concerned about.

Downsides:

Paint quality
Due to frame design, not much space to add things like bottle holders or a lock mount. Even a frame back isn't really possible because the cross bar is flat and not a tube so most conventional ones will slide all over the place.

Customer service:

Great. My bike came damaged, the wheel had rubbed against the battery casing scraping some paint off. Woosh arranged delivery and collection of a new battery and also sent some stickers to cover one scratch on the frame. They have since added more padding to prevent this from happening to someone else. Quick to answer emails too. The bike was build well with only a minor tweak needed on the gear tension.

Modifications:

Gel seat cover
Slime in tyres
Mobile phone holder
Rack
Bottle and holder (not sure where to put it yet)
Ulock and mount

Quick video demonstrating the bike, towards the end I use the throttle only. The clacking noise you can hear is not the bikes fault, the cheap rack I bought has a vibrating plate on it, need to stick it down somehow. The motor just has a quiet whine really.

Overall very pleased, will update at 50 miles, 100 miles and so on.

 

[Woosh]

USB charging from the battery

I am very sorry about this, the USB port on the battery is not connected.
The online manual has been updated accordingly.

 

[Volusia25]

I am very sorry about this, the USB port on the battery is not connected.
The online manual has been updated accordingly.

Oh fair enough, its not something I had any intention of using anyway to be honest

 

[Woosh]

its not something I had any intention of using anyway

I hope some brightsparks may think of some good use for the free USB socket!

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

Good honest review
Sounds like a great bike. Looking forward to your updates

 

[Deleted member 4366]

AfThe front brake makes a high pitched high speed clickclickclick noise when engaged however, not sure why as it runs true, might be something to do with the motor cut off.

They all do that - motorbikes too. It's the holes in the disc going through the caliper.

 

[lalves]

L,"/

Sent from my YD201 using Tapatalk

 

[Volusia25]

Up hill climb video, this is on a fairly drained battery.
The display has just dropped to 1 bar after 35 miles of mixed assist. Tyres are OK in the wet but lost grip on a farm track, managed to correct it so i didnt drop it but it was lucky.

 

[topographer]

Can you use the throttle alone indefinitely or does the motor cut out after a bit?

 

[Woosh]

If you hold the speed steady on throttle, it will cut off after a little while, you have to wiggle the cranks a bit to re-activate it. To keep it going without pedaling a bit, you can gently wiggle the throttle instead.

 

[Volusia25]

Small update.
Not used the bike much due to weather, but just did a 5 mile run and the LCD shows one bar and 40 miles ridden.
The motor still won't cut out even using throttle alone up hill and power 5 won't cut out either. The journey was easy on the legs, but I could tell it had less volts. Basically power 3-4 felt similar to power 2 on a full charge. Nevertheless i'm still averaging a very leisurely 15.2-9 MPH with little effort, with max speeds (usually slightly downhill) of 21-28mph. I like the tall gearing very much. Since the battery life was my main concern, as stated before, it has exceeded expectations. I could run it flat but instead have just put it on charge.

Second observation. Mudguards and tyres aren't very good at all in the wet. To be fair i hit about an inch of wet mud going too fast and nearly came off, the bike was sliding all over the place. Mud splashes all up my trainers and legs, and some kicked up on the rack and rear of the saddle too. Deflating the tyres a bit might help, i have mine at 55psi. Returning home, i crawled over that same muddy area and the bike still slid around. Was fun though, just need to clean the bike now.

Woosh, is waterproof, dielectric grease OK to use between the battery and bike connection point?

 

[Woosh]

yes, any dielectric grease will do, it's mainly to keep the contact clean, waterproof and the sparks away when you ride over bumps.

 

[BornAgainCyclist]

Thanks. As you know I have been chipping in on the other thread and have looked forward to your review. The 27.5 FB is still the one of interest for me. What battery did you go for? The 17 A is interesting timewise as roughly when the 27.5 becomes available and capacity wise for removing range anxiety as much as possible.

 

[mountainsport]

They all do that - motorbikes too. It's the holes in the disc going through the caliper.

Like a static noise and that noise tends to reduce when the pads become worn. I tend to hear this sound when brake calliper has been replaced with fresh pads.

MS.

 

[mountainsport]

Up hill climb video, this is on a fairly drained battery.
The display has just dropped to 1 bar after 35 miles of mixed assist. Tyres are OK in the wet but lost grip on a farm track, managed to correct it so i didnt drop it but it was lucky.

It does a very good job though and I'm still not convinced, so prove to me what this bike can do down hill the steeper the better okay!

MS.

 

[Volusia25]

Just got back from the best and worst ride all in one.
Decided to do the trip to Leicester. Had a blast getting there, especially when i joined the national cycle route which was so much fun and pretty flat all the way into the centre. But coming back once I left the city was a nightmare. Massive headwinds made even downhills feel like uphills. For the last 10 of the 40 total miles ridden I was using a mix of assist 5 and throttle alone because I was totally spent. Didnt help that I did legs at the gym yesterday so was already sore.
Anyway got back with 1 bar left on the battery after 40 miles. This was with me at 11 1/2 stoneish, 2 U locks and on the way back a rucksack with some shopping in it.
Total miles on the odo is 95 so I think its time I did a bit of a service, mainly just a clean of the whole bike and chain (bottom of the bike is covered in mud) and check the spokes? What else should I do Woosh? I've already greased the whole steering and fork area and checked bolt tightness, everything seems fine. Brakes working very well and gears too. Is there a manual for the braking system incase I ever need to bleed them? I know they are Zoom branded which aren't anything special (from what i've read) but they do the job.

Couple of pics from the ride and how I got around my lack of room for a second lock mount and bottle holder. I've transformed the bike into a neat little commuter, still waiting on my chinese imported rack bag though.

 

[Volusia25]

It does a very good job though and I'm still not convinced, so prove to me what this bike can do down hill the steeper the better okay!

MS.

It will run out of gears at about 21-23mph, after that point you're just spinning and not propelling the bike. Very rarely will you get to that speed anyway unless down hill, especially if you have locks attached to it at all times like I do. Think i'm going to just insure it and carry one lock.

 

[Woosh]

incase I ever need to bleed them?

you will need to borrow a bleed kit from Woosh, or buy it for £10. We don't have stock for sale yet, they come in August. You can only borrow for now.

The kit comprises two nipple adapters, two syringes, a small bottle of Shimano brake fluid and instructions for burping and bleeding these brakes..

At the moment, nobody else stocks the right size of the nipple adapter. The rest of the kit is the same with all Shimano hydraulic brakes bleed kits.
If you only want to replace the brake pads, you don't really need the bleed kit but it's useful to have it around.

 

[mountainsport]

Just got back from the best and worst ride all in one.
Decided to do the trip to Leicester. Had a blast getting there, especially when i joined the national cycle route which was so much fun and pretty flat all the way into the centre. But coming back once I left the city was a nightmare. Massive headwinds made even downhills feel like uphills. For the last 10 of the 40 total miles ridden I was using a mix of assist 5 and throttle alone because I was totally spent. Didnt help that I did legs at the gym yesterday so was already sore.
Anyway got back with 1 bar left on the battery after 40 miles. This was with me at 11 1/2 stoneish, 2 U locks and on the way back a rucksack with some shopping in it.
Total miles on the odo is 95 so I think its time I did a bit of a service, mainly just a clean of the whole bike and chain (bottom of the bike is covered in mud) and check the spokes? What else should I do Woosh? I've already greased the whole steering and fork area and checked bolt tightness, everything seems fine. Brakes working very well and gears too. Is there a manual for the braking system incase I ever need to bleed them? I know they are Zoom branded which aren't anything special (from what i've read) but they do the job.

Couple of pics from the ride and how I got around my lack of room for a second lock mount and bottle holder. I've transformed the bike into a neat little commuter, still waiting on my chinese imported rack bag though.

View attachment 19689 View attachment 19690 View attachment 19691

You need to be very careful when bleeding your braking system if you lack experience. Have it done first via an experience person to see how it is done. Then maybe sometime in the future you can have a crack at it.

MS.

 

[Volusia25]

You need to be very careful when bleeding your braking system if you lack experience. Have it done first via an experience person to see how it is done. Then maybe sometime in the future you can have a crack at it.

MS.

Done it loads on motorbikes and the clutch fluid in my car, i'd imagine its basically the same just smaller