This is the start of a long term review of the Hemiway Cruiser.
uk.himiwaybike.com
The background :-
As some of you will know, I have owned, ridden and reviewed many ebikes over the last 15 years, but when the pandemic came along, my interest in everything cycling related, vanished. I packed social media in, got rid of the fb pages, Instagram account, and just went my own way.
I sold the KTM Fogo at the start of everything, and bought a nearly new Riese Muller Roadster cheaply, that I rode about 5 times and sold it after about 2 years of it just sitting doing nothing. BTW, it was beautifully finished bike, but far to cramped and uncomfortable for me.
My interests switched to wild camping, and it is a hobby that I enjoy greatly. Watching a YT channel late last year called The North Outdoors, the person running it, was using a Hemiway Cruiser for his exploits. That was when a flame of interest flickered again within me, and I started a lengthy process of researched. What I liked about the Hemiway Cruiser was that it didn’t have an integrated battery, and was something that I could easily work on.
Despite having a semi integrated battery, I almost bought a his and hers RadRhino 6 at Xmas time, as they were on special offer at a £1,095.00 each, and it would have been a good way of getting my wife out on a bike, and also allow me a means of having a second battery. Sadly, it wasn’t to be as the checkout failed, and I missed the deal. I did contact them, but there was nothing that they could or wanted to do to reduce the price.
Back on the hunt again, and back with Hemiway, they had one of their seemingly frequent sale offers on again, and I bit the bullet and bought one.
I didn’t go into this purchase blindly, and from comments on YT and American forums, the company has some consistently negative remarks made against them in respect of poor customer service and very sketchy warranty cover. I don’t intend to get bogged down with that on here though.
I love mid drive bikes, and hub drive bikes alike, with no real preference between the two, but being honest, I do love the seemingly relaxed laziness of ride that you get from a hub drive motor. My days of chasing the next gear are long gone. The choice of a fat tyre bike was certainly something that I had never previously given thought to, and had no clue of what to expect. More about that in the actual review.
The bike :-
What I hadn’t realised when I bought the bike, was that it wasn’t shipped to me from the UK. It arrived from Poland. Strange how the companies mission statement talks about environmental cycling, given the roughly 8,700km that it took to arrive in the UK. I realise that is the same for almost all brands, but it still doesn’t ease the conscience.
The bike arrived in what was easily the best packaging that I have ever seen, and the box alone weighed 8kg! Sadly there was a gouge out of the downtube, but this must have happen prior to being packed, as everything was perfect around the bike, as was the box. After being sent around the email garden of differently named Hemiway staff, I reached a satisfactory agreement about it. In hindsight the agreement was insulting, but life is too short to get hung up about things.
Assembling the bike was easy enough, with a very clear instruction manual for those that might need it, although there is a mistake in it. The front wheel QR axle goes through from the brake disc side, but the photographs in the manual show it going through from the other side. It could explain why I have seen YT clips showing both.
My first impressions of the bike were firstly how ugly that it is, followed by, how on earth is this sold as a one size fits all? It is a monster of a bike, and the sheer size of it doesn’t come across on the YT clips that I have watched, but it certainly explains why so many people have the saddle set too low for an efficient, comfortable pedaling style. The tyres are also massive, and I was beginning to already regret the purchase. At 5’10” tall, I would say that I am at the true minimum of height spectrum for the bike.
The finish of the frame is very good, and it was actually the frame with its front welded on carrying lugs, that drew my attention to the bike in thefirstplace, along with the Radrhino 6. Speaking of the RadRhino, the Hemiway Cruiser and Magicycle are almost certainly clones of a Rad Power product.
The component specs are very basic, but they function just as they should, and I wasn’t too concerned about that any way, as I bought it intending to change the gearing and switch from mechanical disc brakes to hydraulic. The Radrhino has hydraulic brakes fitted as standard, so really there is no excuse for the Hemiway not to come supplied with them from new. I am also not a fan the freewheel set up that competitively priced bikes come fitted with, and long for the day that manufacturers switch to a cassette set up.
I shall edit and go over spec etc at some point, but moving onto my first ride impressions, I have to say that I loved and do love every second of riding the bike. My reservations about the fat tyres were quickly eliminated, and my significantly pot holed road, is now a pleasure to cycle on. More so that on any other bike that I have ridden. No more back jarring bumps. Cycling along without any motor assistance isn’t something that I would want to do for any length of time, and the bike suffers badly from understeer on the road, although this isn’t noticeable when riding off road.
Speaking of riding off road, I couldn’t stop smiling at how well the bike performed with its fat tyres and cheap pogo stick front forks. The bike doesn’t really need suspension forks, and rigid front forks would be more suitable, but wouldn’t make the bike as marketable.
I was also very surprised by how the bike performed in shallow mud, and how little mud was thrown up by the tyres. This was commented upon by someone that I came across when I stopped for a chat. Clearly the bike isn’t going to be used for tackling terrain that I used to love, but that isn’t what the bike was bought for.
Some people have commented on sharp power delivery, but that isn’t something that I found, but I did change the power setting from the as supplied 5 levels, to 9 levels, with the 1st set at 30% assist, and the 2nd at 40%. I had forgotten about the slight over run of hub drive bikes, but that can be used as an advantage for off road use.
Before buying the bike, I had concerns about the bikes climbing ability, and Hemiway despite two emails, never answer my questions about it. Fortunately it tackles the14% hill that I live on with relative ease, and the forest ride produced my second fasted climbing time up Kidds Hill, without me even trying.
One thing that I can say about this bike with absolute certainty, and that is that it is the most comfortable bike that I have ridden. The riding position leaves me with with zero neck and shoulder tension, which is something that I have often suffered with. I guess that the high bars attribute to comfort, as does the relaxed riding position and reach.
Touching briefly on the range of the bike, I haven't really ventured too far on it yet, but hope to do so this coming weekend. It is a heavy lump of a bike, and my prediction is that with 1,200ft of elevation gain for about every 10 miles travelled, I suspect that I shall get about 35 miles from it. My 50- 60 mile rides are a bit of thing of the past now, so if I can get 35 miles out of it, without breaking a sweat, then I shall be happy.
Time hasn’t been on my side and isn’t now, so I am going to have to end things here for a moment but will edit and add content at a later stage.
I shall also add the YT clip that got me interested in the bike in the first place, as well as a couple of others, and hopefully some ride photos etc.
Best High-Performance Fat Tire Electric Bike In UK | Himiway Bikes
Live a healthier and more active lifestyle with a Fat Tire Electric Bike from HIMIWAY! HIMIWAY Cruiser is equipped with 48V Samsung battery, 350lb. payload capacity and anti-puncture fat tires.
uk.himiwaybike.com
The background :-
As some of you will know, I have owned, ridden and reviewed many ebikes over the last 15 years, but when the pandemic came along, my interest in everything cycling related, vanished. I packed social media in, got rid of the fb pages, Instagram account, and just went my own way.
I sold the KTM Fogo at the start of everything, and bought a nearly new Riese Muller Roadster cheaply, that I rode about 5 times and sold it after about 2 years of it just sitting doing nothing. BTW, it was beautifully finished bike, but far to cramped and uncomfortable for me.
My interests switched to wild camping, and it is a hobby that I enjoy greatly. Watching a YT channel late last year called The North Outdoors, the person running it, was using a Hemiway Cruiser for his exploits. That was when a flame of interest flickered again within me, and I started a lengthy process of researched. What I liked about the Hemiway Cruiser was that it didn’t have an integrated battery, and was something that I could easily work on.
Despite having a semi integrated battery, I almost bought a his and hers RadRhino 6 at Xmas time, as they were on special offer at a £1,095.00 each, and it would have been a good way of getting my wife out on a bike, and also allow me a means of having a second battery. Sadly, it wasn’t to be as the checkout failed, and I missed the deal. I did contact them, but there was nothing that they could or wanted to do to reduce the price.
Back on the hunt again, and back with Hemiway, they had one of their seemingly frequent sale offers on again, and I bit the bullet and bought one.
I didn’t go into this purchase blindly, and from comments on YT and American forums, the company has some consistently negative remarks made against them in respect of poor customer service and very sketchy warranty cover. I don’t intend to get bogged down with that on here though.
I love mid drive bikes, and hub drive bikes alike, with no real preference between the two, but being honest, I do love the seemingly relaxed laziness of ride that you get from a hub drive motor. My days of chasing the next gear are long gone. The choice of a fat tyre bike was certainly something that I had never previously given thought to, and had no clue of what to expect. More about that in the actual review.
The bike :-
What I hadn’t realised when I bought the bike, was that it wasn’t shipped to me from the UK. It arrived from Poland. Strange how the companies mission statement talks about environmental cycling, given the roughly 8,700km that it took to arrive in the UK. I realise that is the same for almost all brands, but it still doesn’t ease the conscience.
The bike arrived in what was easily the best packaging that I have ever seen, and the box alone weighed 8kg! Sadly there was a gouge out of the downtube, but this must have happen prior to being packed, as everything was perfect around the bike, as was the box. After being sent around the email garden of differently named Hemiway staff, I reached a satisfactory agreement about it. In hindsight the agreement was insulting, but life is too short to get hung up about things.
Assembling the bike was easy enough, with a very clear instruction manual for those that might need it, although there is a mistake in it. The front wheel QR axle goes through from the brake disc side, but the photographs in the manual show it going through from the other side. It could explain why I have seen YT clips showing both.
My first impressions of the bike were firstly how ugly that it is, followed by, how on earth is this sold as a one size fits all? It is a monster of a bike, and the sheer size of it doesn’t come across on the YT clips that I have watched, but it certainly explains why so many people have the saddle set too low for an efficient, comfortable pedaling style. The tyres are also massive, and I was beginning to already regret the purchase. At 5’10” tall, I would say that I am at the true minimum of height spectrum for the bike.
The finish of the frame is very good, and it was actually the frame with its front welded on carrying lugs, that drew my attention to the bike in thefirstplace, along with the Radrhino 6. Speaking of the RadRhino, the Hemiway Cruiser and Magicycle are almost certainly clones of a Rad Power product.
The component specs are very basic, but they function just as they should, and I wasn’t too concerned about that any way, as I bought it intending to change the gearing and switch from mechanical disc brakes to hydraulic. The Radrhino has hydraulic brakes fitted as standard, so really there is no excuse for the Hemiway not to come supplied with them from new. I am also not a fan the freewheel set up that competitively priced bikes come fitted with, and long for the day that manufacturers switch to a cassette set up.
I shall edit and go over spec etc at some point, but moving onto my first ride impressions, I have to say that I loved and do love every second of riding the bike. My reservations about the fat tyres were quickly eliminated, and my significantly pot holed road, is now a pleasure to cycle on. More so that on any other bike that I have ridden. No more back jarring bumps. Cycling along without any motor assistance isn’t something that I would want to do for any length of time, and the bike suffers badly from understeer on the road, although this isn’t noticeable when riding off road.
Speaking of riding off road, I couldn’t stop smiling at how well the bike performed with its fat tyres and cheap pogo stick front forks. The bike doesn’t really need suspension forks, and rigid front forks would be more suitable, but wouldn’t make the bike as marketable.
I was also very surprised by how the bike performed in shallow mud, and how little mud was thrown up by the tyres. This was commented upon by someone that I came across when I stopped for a chat. Clearly the bike isn’t going to be used for tackling terrain that I used to love, but that isn’t what the bike was bought for.
Some people have commented on sharp power delivery, but that isn’t something that I found, but I did change the power setting from the as supplied 5 levels, to 9 levels, with the 1st set at 30% assist, and the 2nd at 40%. I had forgotten about the slight over run of hub drive bikes, but that can be used as an advantage for off road use.
Before buying the bike, I had concerns about the bikes climbing ability, and Hemiway despite two emails, never answer my questions about it. Fortunately it tackles the14% hill that I live on with relative ease, and the forest ride produced my second fasted climbing time up Kidds Hill, without me even trying.
One thing that I can say about this bike with absolute certainty, and that is that it is the most comfortable bike that I have ridden. The riding position leaves me with with zero neck and shoulder tension, which is something that I have often suffered with. I guess that the high bars attribute to comfort, as does the relaxed riding position and reach.
Touching briefly on the range of the bike, I haven't really ventured too far on it yet, but hope to do so this coming weekend. It is a heavy lump of a bike, and my prediction is that with 1,200ft of elevation gain for about every 10 miles travelled, I suspect that I shall get about 35 miles from it. My 50- 60 mile rides are a bit of thing of the past now, so if I can get 35 miles out of it, without breaking a sweat, then I shall be happy.
Time hasn’t been on my side and isn’t now, so I am going to have to end things here for a moment but will edit and add content at a later stage.
I shall also add the YT clip that got me interested in the bike in the first place, as well as a couple of others, and hopefully some ride photos etc.
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