July 3, 20196 yr I borrowed a friend's ebike today, but was very disappointed. You appeared to need to pedal to about 6 mph before assistance started & it did not appear to be very powerful. Admittedly it is a cheap bike from an EU supermarket. Rear hub motor & rear rack battery, 3 levels of assistance, but either I could not get it to change level or there was little difference. The only thing written on the frame is EBike Casual. Does anyone have any further details about this bike or what I was doing wrong.
July 3, 20196 yr Depends on the controller,battery and the motor fitted. The motor might only be a weedy 20nm one or so. The three speed led is likely speed control so current will be the same in each PAS and only speed will vary. It is what it is, a leisure/pootling/errand bike. Not built built/designed to compete with the SW's of this world. For about < £100 it can be upgraded to be something better with a new electronic package that uses current control. Edited July 3, 20196 yr by Nealh
July 3, 20196 yr Probably a rubbish bike. The battery may be almost flat. What's that thing that looks like a tyre shredder attached to the seat stays in the first few photos?
July 3, 20196 yr Author Sorry it is not my bike, I am not sure what it is. I had better try a couple of other bikes.
July 3, 20196 yr Try a decent model, you will not be disappointed. There is a lot of cheap rubbish about, like most things in life, quality costs, buy cheap, buy twice.
July 3, 20196 yr It looks quite a neat bike. You get the same power in each level on the control panel, but you get a different cut-off speed instead. Is it 24V or 36V? 24V is often a bit weedy. The need to get up to 6mph is a bit weird. I've never heard of that before. Some motor controllers have a big delay on the pedal sensor, like 2 seconds. Is that what you experienced? Those sort of controllers were quite common 10 years ago, but they've more or less died out now. Modern ones have a much quicker response time.
July 4, 20196 yr You can easily tell when you are on a proper ebike - you smile as soon as you start to pedal! This one sounds like a right lemon.
July 4, 20196 yr Author Thanks for the responses, no smiles on this one. VFR400 your probably right about the delay, pedalled about 30 yards before assistant.
July 4, 20196 yr Assistance You were probably correct in the post before . You need an assistant in front to tow you along
July 4, 20196 yr Hi Audio2, definitely sounds like you had a bad experience on your first ebike. I've tested several ebikes and can also confirm that you would be amazed how easy / fun they can be if you get the right one. Maybe have a visit to halfords and take one for a free test ride, then you can be confident that the one you went on was definitely a lemon. Best regards Lee
July 4, 20196 yr A few years back when interested I was intersted in pedelecs the only place local to try out one was a Giant dealer with a cooking model granny pedelec and to be frank it was pants from just riding up and nr by the shop. Luckily there was a dealers test day held at a specialised cycle track with a variety of different eye opening better performing models - so search for a better test ride...
July 4, 20196 yr Halfords arrange 1/2 hour test rides if you ask in advance. And some their ebikes are quite good.
July 7, 20196 yr Only very few Halfords offer the 2 day trail. We were lucky here (Winchester) that Halfords is on the edge of town and close to a 'typical' local hill so 1/2 hour was enough to give a good idea. My wife and I took out two different bikes and swapped half way. In our case it told us that neither was suitable for different reasons; but did give us a much better idea of what we did want. (step through and hub gears).
July 8, 20196 yr Author Booked a 48 hour test of a Carrera Crossfire-E bike for this Wednesday. How does the power & hill climbing ability of the Suntour hub compare to Woosh's XF07 kit?
July 8, 20196 yr Note that there have been lots of issues with the Crossfire; see several threads on this forum. The Crossfuse has much better reports (at a much higher price). It may be they have sorted the Crossfire, but be aware. Not sure how it compares with the XF07. We are really pleased with our XF07. It really helps our tandem along, but it does need quite a bit of help from us on the steeper hills ... it isn't really designed to pull two people.
July 9, 20196 yr I have never seen an ebike with rim brakes, but then, I don't look at the super market brands. Looks like a loser to me
July 9, 20196 yr Several good quality ebikes had rim brakes a couple of years ago, including our Raleigh Motus. They are more than adequate for our needs.
July 9, 20196 yr I have never seen an ebike with rim brakes, but then, I don't look at the super market brands. Looks like a loser to me Mrs 13's Pendleton Somerby-e has V brakes. They are absolutely fine.
July 9, 20196 yr The Crossfire is a lovely bike to ride. It's fairly powerful and the torque sensor works pretty well. The downside is the cut-outs, though my neighbour has one, and never experienced that problem. She uses it every day for a short trip to work. Another thing, just in case it's a consideration for you, the Crossfire is not easy to derestrict.
July 9, 20196 yr Rim Brakes are a big Disc afterall except that some people would say that big disc is as soft as cheese... only joking. Hydraulic brakes are self adjusting, the pads' compound is hard wearing, two fingers are enough to stop the bike. On the other hand, V-brakes require maintenance, wear your rims and increase the risk of breaking spokes. With hydraulic brakes, you usually don't need to do any maintenance for 2,000-3,000 miles.
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