I’ve been out playing on a Kudos Typhoon for a couple of weeks and decided it’s time to do a report on Pedelecs.
First off, I’ve had a Kudos Tourer for nearly 3 years and I find myself comparing the Typhoon to the Tourer. They’re different animals.
The Typhoon looks good when you take it out of the box. All it needed was the pedals put on, the handle bars lined up & tightened and the front reflector on the handlebars turned up and tightened.
A charge of the battery and out to play.
First impressions when you pull away is that it feels like a normal MTB except it’s powering away due to the electric motor. When you’re up to speed it feels normal and smooth. The gears change well. Pulling away the motor cuts in pretty much as soon as you start turning the pedals. It’s best to be aware of this when manoeuvring. Squeezing the back brake lever stops the motor cutting in when doing tight turns..
It has lots of torque for climbing hills and it does climb hills. It has taken every hill so far and gone up them. You have to put in some work on steeper hills to maintain speed but not as much work as you’d do on the Tourer.
I haven’t done as many miles in the last fortnight as I’d hoped as there were gales every day for almost a week. Still, I’ve done over 100 miles. Such is the Typhoon though that it begs to be taken out. So I obliged it and went to the Forth bridge which meant a long trip home directly into a gale. The Typhoon managed it very well considering the horrendous wind in its face. I’ve already posted a story here: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/kudos-typhoon-versus-real-typhoon.17177/#post-211536
The Typhoon is powerful and it accelerates up to and above the cut out speed quite quickly and easily. One thing I wasn’t sure about the bike though is when it reaches 15.5 MPH it is still pulling full power and then just cuts out. When this happened at first it kind of threw me out, my Tourer doesn’t do it like that. This means that when cycling up hills that aren’t steep the bike cuts out as you go over 15.5 and when the speed drops it cuts back in again at full power. I wasn’t sure I liked it. However after a few shots on the bike I realised how to minimise it. Dropping down to power level 4 on the Typhoon is a power reduction, it will still reach the same top speed but not as quickly which means you can, if you want, stop it overshooting the cut out speed up a hill. Power level 5 is the level of choice on steeper hills. I used power level 4 on a slight sloping/ undulating road and the power came in and out nicely as required.
The disk brakes are getting better as they get used but I think I might need to adjust them, they do however, stop me.
Out on the road on the Typhoon it cycles like a normal bike when not under power, so on the flats you spend a fair bit of time above the cut out speed. It also freewheels quite well.
The King LCD on the Typhoon works differently from the LCD on the Tourer and this also caught me out. On the Tourer the battery meter just drops down each digit after a certain amount of miles. On the Typhoon it drops down alarmingly if you are using full power up a hill. It returns to normal when the power usage eases. This meant the battery wasn’t going flat after a few miles as I first thought.
As to range, The Typhoon does 30ish miles. I did 30 miles and when I got home the battery wasn’t dead but showing signs of losing power. This is different from the LIFEP04 battery on the Tourer which gives full power and then just stops when flat.
The Kudos Typhoon is a good bike, it gets better the more you use it as you understand it more. That may be because I’ve been using a Kudos Tourer for nearly 3 years and the Typhoon is a different bike both in style and power. It might also be because I put my gel seat on it.
Out on the road the bike rides well and handles good. I came uphill through a woodland track coming home once and the bike felt OK, it didn’t slide about like my Tourer does when on the same track.
Would I recommend the Typhoon? Yes, oh yes.
So, what are the downsides? Well there’s a couple but nothing that can’t be sorted.
Number 1: The seat, it is too small for an oldie like me. I took the padded gel seat I bought for my tourer and put it on. It makes the Typhoon into a nice ride for distance work.
Number 2: The Typhoon comes bare, there’s no place for drinks bottles and no place for carrying things. I like to carry things, like toolkit, puncture kit and pump. This problem isn’t insurmountable. I guess a saddlebag would do. There will be a rack somewhere that would go on as well.
What is the difference between the Kudos Tourer and the Kudos Typhoon?
The Tourer seems to want you to relax and go for miles taking in the scenery with Perry Como on your ipod.
The Typhoon wants you to get there quickly, with meat loaf singing ‘Bat out of hell’ on your ipod. Relax though. Go down to power level 4 and the Typhoon can take it easy and enjoy Perry Como.
I’ve had people right up close to the Typhoon who thought it was a good looking bike. They didn’t realise it was electric. One guy actually thought the battery was a big flask that I carried for tea/coffee on a trip. (not a bad idea) I’ve now put the label off a 2 litre bottle of IRN BRU round it and that confuses them.
So: Is it a good bike? Oh yes!
Does it go well and climb hills? Oh yes!
Should you try one? Definitely!
Jim.
First off, I’ve had a Kudos Tourer for nearly 3 years and I find myself comparing the Typhoon to the Tourer. They’re different animals.
The Typhoon looks good when you take it out of the box. All it needed was the pedals put on, the handle bars lined up & tightened and the front reflector on the handlebars turned up and tightened.
A charge of the battery and out to play.
First impressions when you pull away is that it feels like a normal MTB except it’s powering away due to the electric motor. When you’re up to speed it feels normal and smooth. The gears change well. Pulling away the motor cuts in pretty much as soon as you start turning the pedals. It’s best to be aware of this when manoeuvring. Squeezing the back brake lever stops the motor cutting in when doing tight turns..
It has lots of torque for climbing hills and it does climb hills. It has taken every hill so far and gone up them. You have to put in some work on steeper hills to maintain speed but not as much work as you’d do on the Tourer.
I haven’t done as many miles in the last fortnight as I’d hoped as there were gales every day for almost a week. Still, I’ve done over 100 miles. Such is the Typhoon though that it begs to be taken out. So I obliged it and went to the Forth bridge which meant a long trip home directly into a gale. The Typhoon managed it very well considering the horrendous wind in its face. I’ve already posted a story here: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/kudos-typhoon-versus-real-typhoon.17177/#post-211536
The Typhoon is powerful and it accelerates up to and above the cut out speed quite quickly and easily. One thing I wasn’t sure about the bike though is when it reaches 15.5 MPH it is still pulling full power and then just cuts out. When this happened at first it kind of threw me out, my Tourer doesn’t do it like that. This means that when cycling up hills that aren’t steep the bike cuts out as you go over 15.5 and when the speed drops it cuts back in again at full power. I wasn’t sure I liked it. However after a few shots on the bike I realised how to minimise it. Dropping down to power level 4 on the Typhoon is a power reduction, it will still reach the same top speed but not as quickly which means you can, if you want, stop it overshooting the cut out speed up a hill. Power level 5 is the level of choice on steeper hills. I used power level 4 on a slight sloping/ undulating road and the power came in and out nicely as required.
The disk brakes are getting better as they get used but I think I might need to adjust them, they do however, stop me.
Out on the road on the Typhoon it cycles like a normal bike when not under power, so on the flats you spend a fair bit of time above the cut out speed. It also freewheels quite well.
The King LCD on the Typhoon works differently from the LCD on the Tourer and this also caught me out. On the Tourer the battery meter just drops down each digit after a certain amount of miles. On the Typhoon it drops down alarmingly if you are using full power up a hill. It returns to normal when the power usage eases. This meant the battery wasn’t going flat after a few miles as I first thought.
As to range, The Typhoon does 30ish miles. I did 30 miles and when I got home the battery wasn’t dead but showing signs of losing power. This is different from the LIFEP04 battery on the Tourer which gives full power and then just stops when flat.
The Kudos Typhoon is a good bike, it gets better the more you use it as you understand it more. That may be because I’ve been using a Kudos Tourer for nearly 3 years and the Typhoon is a different bike both in style and power. It might also be because I put my gel seat on it.
Out on the road the bike rides well and handles good. I came uphill through a woodland track coming home once and the bike felt OK, it didn’t slide about like my Tourer does when on the same track.
Would I recommend the Typhoon? Yes, oh yes.
So, what are the downsides? Well there’s a couple but nothing that can’t be sorted.
Number 1: The seat, it is too small for an oldie like me. I took the padded gel seat I bought for my tourer and put it on. It makes the Typhoon into a nice ride for distance work.
Number 2: The Typhoon comes bare, there’s no place for drinks bottles and no place for carrying things. I like to carry things, like toolkit, puncture kit and pump. This problem isn’t insurmountable. I guess a saddlebag would do. There will be a rack somewhere that would go on as well.
What is the difference between the Kudos Tourer and the Kudos Typhoon?
The Tourer seems to want you to relax and go for miles taking in the scenery with Perry Como on your ipod.
The Typhoon wants you to get there quickly, with meat loaf singing ‘Bat out of hell’ on your ipod. Relax though. Go down to power level 4 and the Typhoon can take it easy and enjoy Perry Como.
I’ve had people right up close to the Typhoon who thought it was a good looking bike. They didn’t realise it was electric. One guy actually thought the battery was a big flask that I carried for tea/coffee on a trip. (not a bad idea) I’ve now put the label off a 2 litre bottle of IRN BRU round it and that confuses them.
So: Is it a good bike? Oh yes!
Does it go well and climb hills? Oh yes!
Should you try one? Definitely!
Jim.
