Cyclamatic or 8Fun kit

[sw123]

I am about to buy either a power plus or an 8Fun kit to fit my existing bike. I currently commute each day by bike but am getting older and starting to need a little extra help. The journey is a rather hilly 7 miles each way and as I have a small budget and no real experience of either option would be grateful for any opinions as to the best choice for me.

Thanks
SW123

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You'd get a bit more range with the 8Fun kit because it has a bigger battery. The power will be about the same. So I'd say it depends how good you are at DIY and how good your present bike is. If you could tell us what it is, we could advise on any problems for converting.

If you time it right, the Cyclamatic can be snagged for about £360 from Sports HQ. They do a 20% discount from time to time. and then you can get a further £40 from Quidco. The Cyclamatic is good value, but you need to give it a good check-over when you get it - especially the spoke tension.

 

[sw123]

Thanks for your reply
My current bike is a fairly new 24 speed mountain bike that fits me well. The kit seems to be ideal and I am happy to give the conversion a go.

However the cyclamatic is only £399 less 10% at top cash back at the moment and this seems too good a deal to miss. I just wondered how good it actually was. Most reviews seem very positive but some mention that it's a bit weak on hills. Don't mind pedalling, just don't want to have to get off and push.

 

[Fordulike]

Most reviews seem very positive but some mention that it's a bit weak on hills. Don't mind pedalling, just don't want to have to get off and push.

It won't go up the very steepest of hills without a fair bit of pedaling.
If it gets to the stage where you have to dismount, then you can always use a tiny bit of throttle to help you walk it up the hill.
I doubt that you would be disappointed with the Cyclamatic, and it's a good looking machine to boot

 

[banbury frank]

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Frank

 

[Biker44]

The Cyclamatic is good value, but you need to give it a good check-over when you get it - especially the spoke tension.

The impression I have of my Foldaway model is pretty good (though I've still only done a pitiful number of miles!).

But a lot of things have come loose in the first um ... 40 miles. Including the spokes of the back wheel.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

If you want a bit more power to climb hills, there's a small mod that you can do for more power at the expense of range. It doesn't cost anything to do. Have a look at the Beastamatic thread. This mod also applies to the 8Fun kit, where recently there have also been reports of poor hill-climbing. My guess is that 8Fun reduced the power for the bottle-type battery, which can't give as much. However they come from the factory, the 8Fun kit does have the potential to give more power because it has a 36v battery.

 

[Fordulike]

The impression I have of my Foldaway model is pretty good (though I've still only done a pitiful number of miles!).

But a lot of things have come loose in the first um ... 40 miles. Including the spokes of the back wheel.

Yes, you may have to tweak a few things early on in the bike's life.

What you have to bear in mind, is that these 'good value' bikes have been made in some low rent factory, with some poor, even lower paid worker, assembling them.

Unlike cars, every nut and bolt is not torqued to a specification, and as someone quite rightly mentioned, the wheels are machine built.

Look past these facts and you will own a dependable bike with 1 year warranty, plenty of forum help if things do need tweaking, and the availability of spare batteries (for the near future at least)

And if everything does go t**ts up after a year, then you haven't really lost a great deal of cash

 

[Greenwood's]

Cyclamatic or 8Fun

I am about to buy either a power plus or an 8Fun kit to fit my existing bike. I currently commute each day by bike but am getting older and starting to need a little extra help. The journey is a rather hilly 7 miles each way and as I have a small budget and no real experience of either option would be grateful for any opinions as to the best choice for me.

Thanks
SW123

I had a Cyclamatic for over a 18 months did 7,000 + miles on it
its a very good bike for the price just wished it had more gears on it as its very hard work going up hills with no electric, the bike was starting to play up so i looked around and found the 8fun bike this cost £700.00 as to £350.00 for the Cyclamatic but the 8fun did have 21 gears but i have only had this since sepetember covered about 1,800 miles on it. a few things have already started to go wrong on it, the battery charger failed within a month and the said there was no warranty on it, i just paid for a new one as its my only transport for work, then with in a few days the battery packe in the did replace this under warranty, but other things are now starting to go wrong with it.
if i was going to get another one it would be the Cyclamatic its a much better bike for the money, hope this artical help you in.

 

[kitchenman]

The battery charger failed within a month and the said there was no warranty on it, .

Thanks for sharing this. Sorry to here about your trouble. How much was the charger? Strange that this was not covered by warranty ...

 

[Caph]

the battery charger failed within a month and the said there was no warranty on it.

It doesn't come down to warranty. It's not a consumable so the law states that if you buy it brand new it must be fit for purpose. I would write them a letter stating what the law says and I would be very surprised if you don't get your money back. The law is the law and they will be very much aware of this fact.

 

[Greenwood's]

Thanks for sharing this. Sorry to here about your trouble. How much was the charger? Strange that this was not covered by warranty ...

It cost £28.00 I couldn’t be bothered to argue with her over the phone over warranty as I use the bike every day for work 9 miles each way with a couple of hills, but it is easier to pedal with out the electric as it has the 21 gears. I am going to contact them in the next few day about the bike not being very reliable and have just noticed the bottom bracket is worn (wobbling about) will in form you of the out come in the next few days. I don’t think these companies sell these bikes to people who really use them for work and not just as a weekend toy.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Don't waste your time replacing the caged ball races in your bottom bracket. I think that you'll find that the cage is broken and at least one ball has popped out. Take the spindle down to Halfords and get a cartridge one the same length for about a tenner.

Those caged ball races break in just about any bike that has them including many of the ones that you get from Halfords and other bike shops for less than £250.

 

[Greenwood's]

Thanks for the advice.
It just seems ashamed that the bike is only 5 months old and this bottom bracket is totally shot , compared with my old cyclamatic which is over 18mts old and done over 7,000 miles in all weathers.
I only went for the up grade to the 8fun as it had 21 gears & disc brakes. Its nice to be able to stop when you need to ? Have been in touch with the supplier about the problems with the bike, they are going to send a load of spares to me next week to repair it. Hope fully this will sort out the problems with it. You all might say what the hell are you doing this for, the way I look at it its going to give me good experience to repair these things. And some one is going to supply all the parts for me to learn to do this and at the end of the day they can’t say I didn’t try to help them out by trying to fix it, so they will just have to supply me a new bike, I mean you don’t go in to Currys and tell them that your new telly is broken and they will supply you with the spare to fix it ?

 

[Biker44]

Don't waste your time replacing the caged ball races in your bottom bracket. I think that you'll find that the cage is broken and at least one ball has popped out. Take the spindle down to Halfords and get a cartridge one the same length for about a tenner. Those caged ball races break in just about any bike that has them including many of the ones that you get from Halfords and other bike shops for less than £250.

The problem with bottom-brackets is that, once loose, the cup rattles in its thread until it wears out both. Even though it's not yet a stripped thread, there is enough movement such that it will never tighten and hold again.

It is possible to distort the outer (force the lower lip upwards in the jaws of a crescent wrench) and force the cup to screw back in. You may have to chamfer the cup threads to make it work. A trick that's saved many a bicycle from the tip.

Most people these days will go for the cassete option replacement!