Hello everyone, just took the plunge and bought my first e-bike. Having got a new job some 15 miles away the daily drive was proving too frustrating so I started cycling an old sub £100 mountain bike to work - not a wise move. I am quite fit but found the hills to be a chore and it was taking me 1 hour 20 mins. Came across this website whilst looking for alternatives and bought a cyclotricity revolver.
Did my first commute today and was amazed to find I did it in under 50mins! I was more than a little shocked by this as my understanding was that e - bikes are limited to 15.5 mph. I find with a little peddling I can can cruise at 20 mph and the motor is still providing some torque. Its a direct drive 500W rear motor and whilst I'm fully aware how to derestrict this motor it is still happy in its normal 250W mode to cruise at these speeds. I'm not complaining but am not sure of the legality around this.
The bike itself seems ok, I am far from an expert on bikes but it looks well made and feels pretty solid.
My main issue however are the brakes, I had to do an emergency stop (only from about 15 mph) today as someone pulled out of a side road without looking. The driver looked more shocked than me and apologised immediately but it left me wondering about those brakes. Like I said I'm not an expert, just someone who loves cycling and would be interested to hear your opinions on the best type of brake upgrades for a commuter bike. I'm willing to spend some money, as far as I'm concerned a decent set of brakes are more important than a helmet in traffic but don't know which ones are best (discs, rims hydraulic etc) and don't know which ones would be compatible with the electric motor cut off.
Anyway, if anyone's reading this and not sure about buying an e bike, I certainly don't regret buying mine. Hills are a breeze, my commute time has been cut down drastically, I'm still getting some significant exercise (I only use the throttle for filtering around traffic at low speeds), the monthly payments are a third of what I would spend on a train ticket, its safer than a normal bike (cars don't overtake me on the hills as much), its greener (although I'm not too bothered about that!), it should give a reliable commute time and most of all the feeling you get overtaking all the roadies on their high end racebikes up a hill can't be beaten. Get one!!
Did my first commute today and was amazed to find I did it in under 50mins! I was more than a little shocked by this as my understanding was that e - bikes are limited to 15.5 mph. I find with a little peddling I can can cruise at 20 mph and the motor is still providing some torque. Its a direct drive 500W rear motor and whilst I'm fully aware how to derestrict this motor it is still happy in its normal 250W mode to cruise at these speeds. I'm not complaining but am not sure of the legality around this.
The bike itself seems ok, I am far from an expert on bikes but it looks well made and feels pretty solid.
My main issue however are the brakes, I had to do an emergency stop (only from about 15 mph) today as someone pulled out of a side road without looking. The driver looked more shocked than me and apologised immediately but it left me wondering about those brakes. Like I said I'm not an expert, just someone who loves cycling and would be interested to hear your opinions on the best type of brake upgrades for a commuter bike. I'm willing to spend some money, as far as I'm concerned a decent set of brakes are more important than a helmet in traffic but don't know which ones are best (discs, rims hydraulic etc) and don't know which ones would be compatible with the electric motor cut off.
Anyway, if anyone's reading this and not sure about buying an e bike, I certainly don't regret buying mine. Hills are a breeze, my commute time has been cut down drastically, I'm still getting some significant exercise (I only use the throttle for filtering around traffic at low speeds), the monthly payments are a third of what I would spend on a train ticket, its safer than a normal bike (cars don't overtake me on the hills as much), its greener (although I'm not too bothered about that!), it should give a reliable commute time and most of all the feeling you get overtaking all the roadies on their high end racebikes up a hill can't be beaten. Get one!!
