Worth a punt, but don't expect too much at this price
There is a 24 speed demo machine here in Swindon, at E-motion EVC.
I was ask to give my opinion on them as an entry level machine. The machines are quite small, so would not suit anybody over 5' 10" or thereabouts. It did look tiny when standing next to the mighty Swiss Flyer. I would imagine the design would be appealing to younger riders, or perhaps those who just want to carry a short-range 'hack-bike' in their motor homes....It's certainly light enough.
The front hub-motor is quiet and smooth, giving 16-17 mph on the thumb throttle, I only had a short ride on the machine myself, so I can't say anything about climbing ability. The potential problem I found, was the motor cable entry facing upwards. This could easily be rectified by rotating the motor axle 180 degrees, there's plenty of spare cable to do this, and thereby creating a 'drip-loop' to prevent water ingress to the motor. As one would expect at this price point, all the Shimano 'bits' are entry level. Being a front drive, the road gearing is nicely matched to the characteristics of the controller, around sixty rpm cadence at 15 mph.
One thing I particularly liked, was the full function handlebar display. Road speed, trip distance and total distance all displayed, eliminating the need for an additional cycle computer.
At a liberal rate of 14 watt-hours per mile, the 7ah battery should give a range per charge of 18-20 miles in moderate terrain, for the first year at least.
The general assembly quality is surprisingly good. I paid special attention to the wheel building, but there were no problems with spoke tensions. Likewise, the disc brake calipers were correctly aligned to the rotors.
Perhaps most importantly, the importers recognise the desireability of a nationwide network of authorised dealers, the shop in Swindon perhaps being the first of these.
