NEC Bike Show this Saturday

[Tubamanandy]

Ticket's booked for Saturday - anyone else going and is there anything e-bike related worth a good look at ?

 

[Wander]

Ticket's booked for Saturday - anyone else going and is there anything e-bike related worth a good look at ?

Last year there was a whole e-bike section, an e-bike test track & e-bikes on several of the other manufacturer's stands. This year expect the e-bike presence to be even bigger & better.

I'm interested in the new Habikes with the Yamaha motors & how they compare with the Bosch.

 

[EddiePJ]

KTM are there. Here is a list of the bikes. http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/ktm-at-the-nec-cycle-show-25th-28th-september.19003/#post-236917

Wander, don't forget that Giant already use the Yamaha motor, so they could be worth looking out for if that is what you are interested in. I really like the look of the Yamaha motor when I saw one earlier on the year. It somehow looked very robust seemingly built to last.




.

 

[Wander]

Wander, don't forget that Giant already use the Yamaha motor, so they could be worth looking out for if that is what you are interested in..

Yep, thanks, aware that they have been around a while but never seen one in the flesh.

It's more of a casual interest for me as whilst I drool over some of the newer, more expensive, bikes I need to get a lot more use out of my present £3.5k Haibike before I (read Mrs W) can justify any change!

 

[EddiePJ]

The one that I saw was on a commuter style bike, and was also the only one that I'd ever seen. I'd loved to have had a try of it though, and have a suspicion that it would have been very good.

 

[Jonah]

I will also be at the show on Saturday. Last year was great for looking at lots of bikes and talking to different companies. The test track was obviously very limited and only useful for a quick first impression of 'feel'. It's a shame there isn't a ski slope or something to try and cycle up like I've seen in a Haibike video.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I changed my mind now. £16 to get in. Plus, I thought tomorrow was trade day, so I missed it - blast. I'll have to wait 'til Excel now in January.

 

[RobF]

I changed my mind now. £16 to get in. Plus, I thought tomorrow was trade day, so I missed it - blast. I'll have to wait 'til Excel now in January.

The cost of getting to that there London will be more than £16, even assuming you can blag a freebie.

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

Check out the new Raleigh Captus. Seen for the first time today at the NEC.
My Raleigh Captus Article Here.

RRP: £1750

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The cost of getting to that there London will be more than £16, even assuming you can blag a freebie.

That's right, but I'm hoping to blag the lot - accommodation too!
I might see you there as I'm going to be there for a few days.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I went to the show after all - mainly to have a go on a Yamaha Haibike. Guess what! No Yamaha Haibikes to test. Anyway, it was nice to see all my friends: Roodog; Batribike; Powabyke; KTM; Cyclotricity, and I also bumped ito Russ and Helen the forum administrators, so it ended up a nice day out. I think I've seen most things before, but there were a couple of things that were of interest.

I wondered how long this bike would take to appear in the UK. I saw it in Shanghai last May, and IIRC I put a photo on the forum then. Here it is again on the Madhog stand, so I guess it won't be long before it's in the shops.

It's a carbon fibre frame with a crank motor, cable-hydraulic brakes and a nice display integrated into the stem. The spec says: Ceostator motor, 50Nm; 36v 5.8ah battery; £2999

The other thing I noticed was this jackshaft on a couple of Moustache bikes:



It looks like it lowers the gearing of the Bosch motor, but I'm not sure why they want to do that. Anybody got any ideas?

 

[EddiePJ]

From looking at your photo, it looks to be a fat bike, and from the angle of the final drive chain, it must also have a massively low 1st gear? That's some crazy low gearing, and potentially a very good climber.

The show looks to be very quiet.

edit.. I don't think that the drive sprocket to the final drive chain is any lower. I suspect that the sprocket is actually the same size as the sprocket that we can't see that's attached to the motor spindle. They have done this lash up to miss the swingarm, and centralise the design.

It looks like a case of trying to get over a poor frame/swingarm design. Whatever the reasons behind it, it looks a complete dogs dinner of mess.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

It's this one. I calculate the reduction to be about 3 to 1, which would mean about 10 mph top speed?

http://www.moustachebikes.com/starck_bike_snow.html

 

[EddiePJ]

So I was right then... A complete dogs dinner with an extra dollop of pudding poured over the top.

 

[RobF]

I made a snap decision to pay the show a visit.

Firstly, well done to all the exhibitors who showed confidence in their businesses by taking stands.

Not cheap - thousands a day depending on size.

Of the regulars on here, I had a few words with David Miall from Freego Wisper Group - one of the nicer guys I've come across in the ebike business.

Happily he was too busy with visitors to chat long.

Another nice guy is Nick Williams of Velospeed, who were promoting Moustache at the show.

First time I'd seen a 'tache and I was impressed.

Yes, they are all £2K plus, but the finish on them is excellent.

I took advantage of the testing facility to have a spin on a few bikes.

Hard to make proper judgment from such short rides, but one of the disappointments was the KTM Panasonic hub drive.

Nice quality bike, but I didn't like the way the assistance was delivered and it seemed to have less poke than the Oxygen MTB I tried recently.

Another underwhelming experience was a Bergamont with a NuVinci gear and belt drive.

The gearbox worked OK, but I reckon it was over-geared and perhaps not suited to a Bosch motor.

I'd have given it a longer go, but the belt popped off.

The Smart ebike looks, er, smart - shame about the gutless motor.

I liked a Gazelle/Bosch step through, excellent build quality and the more often I try a Dutch bike, the more I like the riding position.

The testing also confirmed my experience that noise varies quite a lot with Bosch bikes.

If you get a quiet one, great, but some of them do whine a bit.

Back to KTM, who had push bikes as well.

One that caught the eye was a tourer with a Pinion bottom bracket gearbox and belt drive.

I couldn't see how the rear triangle split to remove the belt.

Turns out there's a tiny removable fillet just by the axle - very clever.

The guy from KTM said it took them a day or two to work it out.

I should also give KTM an honourable mention for a free bottle of alcohol free Austrian lager.

It tasted revolting, as all these things do, but kind of them all the same.

Here's that tourer:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=KTM+pinion+gearbox&client=firefox-a&hs=Xgz&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&channel=fflb&tbm=isch&imgil=_Fs8P0SMEdKUOM%3A%3Bc-il0M3BC7ERSM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.leftfieldbikes.com%252Fproducts-page%252Frecreation%252Fktm-life-lontano-p1-18-pinion-28%252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=_Fs8P0SMEdKUOM%3A%2Cc-il0M3BC7ERSM%2C_&usg=__RP9IB7qxN4sUESarqlYfXzz5Wzs=&biw=1131&bih=557&ved=0CC4Qyjc&ei=wBInVLz9LeTg7QbJrYEY#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=_Fs8P0SMEdKUOM%3A;c-il0M3BC7ERSM;http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leftfieldbikes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fktm_life_lontano_p118_pinion.jpg;http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leftfieldbikes.com%2Fproducts-page%2Frecreation%2Fktm-life-lontano-p1-18-pinion-28%2F;900;568

 

[Tubamanandy]

What about the massive and very tasty pack of waffle biscuits you got in your bag from the Gazelle stand - awesome. They gave me a bag, which I assumed had just leaflets in it, after walking fore a bit I nthought "wow, this is heavy" only to find a large and very tasty pack of Waffle biscuits - result

 

[Jonah]

Just got back. I thought there were a fair number of visitors but fewer e-bike exhibitors than last year. As expected, the test track didn't really enable much of a test of the assist systems. With all the bikes I tried it was honestly difficult to tell the difference between the motors. Not much new to see (although some had prototypes of new bikes / motors). New crank drives seemed more talked about than new hub drives. Surprisingly I quite liked the Smart e-bike although it's not something I would buy (or be able to sell). The Gazelle range seemed promising.

Around the show as a whole 'fat' bikes with extremely wide tyres were all over the place.

 

[Jonah]

Forgot to mention, lots of belt drives appearing on premium bikes.

 

[Geebee]

It looks like it lowers the gearing of the Bosch motor, but I'm not sure why they want to do that. Anybody got any ideas?

If it is designed to be used where a fat bike excells then it makes sense, sand and snow equal hard pedalling on an already heavy bike.
I actually saw a fat bike in the flesh locally (it takes a while for trends to reach here) the gearing was extremely low it had 4 1/4 " tyres, see pic same bike.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I guess it's too late now, but if anybody else goes to the show, could you ask them about it. I'm kicking myself now for not asking. I thought originally it was to lift the chain off the frame. It was only when I got home that I noticed the speed reduction. I can understand maybe a 1.5 to 1 reduction for a fat bike, but 3:1 seems much too much.