First look at the new Woosh 26 x 4 Rio

[trex]

Woosh's first attempt to get into fat bikes. The Rio has Bafang fat motor, 13AH or 15AH Samsung celled battery, 14G black spokes, 8-speed, 26" x 4" fat tyres and should sell for about £999 with 13AH battery.
Usual all weather riding stuff, lights, bell, mudguards, rack.

Please let me know what you think.

 

[Nealh]

Looks like it's aimed as a fat commuter, at the very least rack and stayed guards need removing. Does nothing for me at all and looks very bland and uninspiring but to some one else it might be the bees knees ? Might be best offered as two price options with and without the gubbins, a pic unclothed might do it a bit more justice. Dissapointing esp after the Karoo.

 

[EddiePJ]

Afraid that I am with Nealh.

I'm sure that it is very good value for money, but fat bikes do nothing at all for me, and that is speaking across all bike brands, not just this one.

If fat bikes did appeal, then I wouldn't want the rack, side stand or mudguards.

The writing on the tyre side wall is also a turn off, as is the chrome handle bar ends on the grips.

I'm sure that it would still be great fun to ride though.

 

[kangooroo]

Ummm..... Well, actually I quite like it.

I like the fact it is quite rugged, has a pannier rack, broad and grippy tyres, mudguards and the 15Ah battery option. I use my bike for cycle touring and it would be just the thing for me on bumpy lanes and tracks and rough tracks with, presumably, a reasonable range too (I'd hope for 50-60 miles).

I also like the fact it is not the usual gunmetal colour of the rest of the Woosh range. (Trivial, I know...)

I can't see the rear brake - is it a disc brake? (Hope so).

Also, does it have front suspension forks? The pic is too dark to see.

The only thing I would change is the name: 'EFat Boy' doesn't have much appeal to a female buyer and could deter female potential customers.

 

[trex]

Thank you for your kind comments. I was hoping that someone would see it as a potential commuter bike on bumpy lanes so thank you kangooroo.
The fork is rigid. Avid disc brakes front and rear. I did tell them to install soft grips and thumb throttle but they forgot. On the production bikes, the el Fatboy will be replaced by Rio. I'll also get the crankset upgraded.
Will take on board what is said. I will have to confirm all the details with the factory (the same that make the Karoo) sometime next week. The weak Pound does not help, it's hard to stick to £1,000 C2W limit.

 

[EddiePJ]

The comment by Kangooroo, shows straight away that we all think differently, and what might not appeal to one person, might appeal to another.

You could perhaps offer the rack and mudguards as a no cost option, and show a photo on the website of both set ups.

The paint and graphics finish on the Karoo were superb, so hopefully they won't dispapoint with this bike either.

Just out of interest, what is the weight of the complete bike?

 

[Andy Bluenoes]

I quite like it.
My 15 mile commute is mostly on a trail which does get quite muddy, towpaths and a bit of normal roads.
I think something like this would suit that well. The mudguards and rack would be perfect for me too to carry my work clobber in.

 

[trex]

it's 25kgs at the moment. If the mudguards and rack are removed, that's about 1.5kgs off the bike. I think I will get the mudgaurds and rack put on at the factory, the customers can always remove what they don't need.
Which handlebars do you think look right on it? it has straight bars at the moment.
I still have about $100 on my budget. Thinking of changing stem, crankset and pedals for something lighter, and perhaps enough left in the kitty to spend on lighter tyres or upgrade the brakes to hydraulic. Can't have both.

 

[EddiePJ]

I happen to prefer straight bars, and run them on all three of my bikes. I've played around with other set ups, but always come back to straight bars. I could well be in the minority with that though. I don't think that it would be a deal breaker come purchase time, nor the stem.

If the guard around the chain wheel was removable by buyer, then that would be a bonus in respect of mud clearance.

Given that this is aimed at being a competitively priced bike, I don't really think that you need to do much else.
Hydraulic brakes would be a nice bonus, and one that could tip the sales balance, but that isn't to say that the cable set up wouldn't be adequate.

Tyres is a tough one, as I'd imagine that the OE ones might be a compromise, but sooner or later an owner would probably change to a prefered brand, and I'm not sure that in this price bracket that anyone will give too much thought to it.

 

[Nealh]

Personally I think fat bikes are a fad and in 10yrs they may well be history.
I just don't get the tow path or slightly muddy trail commuter bit, not an option a lot would consider or use to get to work unless you are into your mud plugging. The close fitting and poor mudguard clearance would soon crud up .
HDB's yes if money is in the kitty would save an upgrade possibly later on.

 

[EddiePJ]

Just noticed that the rear cassette looks to be quite high geared for an mtb styled bike. That might be something to think about altering for lower gearing.

 

[John_S]

It looks a decent bike. What specific Bafang motor does it have?

 

[trex]

the motor is Bafang G06 running at 36V 17A.
my biggest concern is how to reduce support work for Andy. In general, the younger the customer, the less they care for their bike. Andy writes maintenance manual for each bike but the young customners don't read anything nowadays. The bike has to be as impervious to the weather as possible. So, smaller LCD less easy to fog up; rigid fork means no spots on the chrome and nobody asks about what the preload is for or how to grease the tubes etc. The Karoo is a good bike on this.

 

[RobF]

Some prospective owners may prefer the steel fork, particularly as they should realise for this price a sus fork would be a cheap one.

Two theories as far as I can gather.

1. A fat bike doesn't need a sus fork because the tyre does the job.

2. A fat bike does need a sus fork because without one the whole front end of the bike can bounce around like a pogo stick.

I think the latter theory is preferred by more extreme users.

 

[kangooroo]

Personally I think fat bikes are a fad and in 10yrs they may well be history.
I just don't get the tow path or slightly muddy trail commuter bit, not an option a lot would consider or use to get to work unless you are into your mud plugging. The close fitting and poor mudguard clearance would soon crud up .
HDB's yes if money is in the kitty would save an upgrade possibly later on.

Not sure I agree. I think it depends also on where you live.

For any journey I make, I have a 2 mile roll along our local lane which is deeply rutted and used by a number of farms also on the lane so is normally covered in mud/cow dung. Add to this single-track lane the slippery line of grass and moss running along the centre and you get the picture. I am not commuting but to go anywhere, my bike has to handle 2 miles of this first before reaching a more typical surfaced road. If I turn out of my driveway in the opposite direction, then it's a good 5 miles to the nearest 'clean' road.

I have a non-electric bike with 1" road tyres which does nothing more than slither and skid along the lane so is unusable, especially now that autumn is here and the lane is usually permanently wet.

If any traffic, usually tractors, is also on the lane as my bike then this necessitates pulling onto the bank. Road tyres would sink in so good, broad grippy tyres are needed, along with mudguards to keep clothing clean. Mudguards wouldn't clog - the mud is too sloppy and the cowpats remain semi-liquid!

There is a definite need for a bike with chunky, grippy tyres on some roads, particularly in rural and agricultural areas such as here. A mountain bike would be overkill whereas a typical road/commuter bike would struggle. This Rio could be a good middle-ground offering the capability of riding on lanes (vs. clean roads) and tracks. It's not everywhere which has smoothly-surfaced tarmac or concrete roads!

 

[IR772]

For the money you won't be able to keep them in stock.

 

[Tabs]

I like the look of it.

 

[flecc]

Although I'm not a fat bike fan, I quite like it. I think there's probably a market for a road-ready sensible powered fat bike like that.
.

 

[Gringo]

I like it, it looks practical in a good way, posibly the bike equivalent of a pickup truck.
I'm yet to try a hub drive bike, even so it's the sort of bike (if fitted with a throttle) I'd chose to replace my cube.

 

[anotherkiwi]

If large tyred electric bikes had been on the market when I was a farm hand I probably would have had one.

Fat bikes are for fat people? I don't speak much American these days...