New Baby - KTM Macina Bold 2016 Model

[Will Tinker]

Hi folks,

My new bike arrived on Wednesday.

It's a KTM Macina Bold (56cm frame) 2016 edition. Powered by the Bosch Active Line motor, and with a 500 Watt hour battery.

It seems fairly light compared to my previous e-bikes. It has really wide 'Big Apple' tyres that i was initially concerned might slow me down, but in truth it doesn't seem to make any difference to how fast I go. Hopefully the size of the tyres might help with punctures - Bristol roads have quite a lot of glass around in the centre and I was getting quite a lot once the Energizer tyres started to wear a little.

Build quality feels excellent, and it's really well presented.

The Bosch Active Line motor produces noticeably less torque than the Impulse 2.0 and Yamaha Syncdrive, but is very smooth and in all honesty the torque doesn't seem to add time to my journey or cause me to tire out faster. The ride is very good, the way the motor behaves when changing gear is excellent and the feedback is very fast with no realy noticeable latency between pedalling and the assistance kicking in. Thus far it hasn't tried to push me forwards when waiting at the lights and moving slightly, which is great - all very predictable.

Downsides - I'm not a fan of the pedals at all. My feet have slipped twice, and once got a big scratch down my calf! But no worries - have ordered some Shimano ones online and will swap them over. Also, though the tyres are said to have 'suspension' capabilities, the lack of a suspension on the front forks mean that there is noticeably more shock through the arms when going over bumps. I can get used to that though - it's not too bad.

Difficult to tell what the battery life is so far, but first impressions are very strong. I haven't given the battery a full charge yet. Charged it to about 80% and have cycled 23.5 miles (on 'Turbo' assitance). Battery is now down to about 40%, so guessing I can get about 50 miles on Turbo depending on conditions.

The main test for me will be how reliably it can get me to/from work over the coming years. I pedal fairly hard and there are some reasonably demanding hills. I'll let you all know how it holds up.

But yeah, first impressions are really good.

 

[Artstu]

Also, though the tyres are said to have 'suspension' capabilities, the lack of a suspension on the front forks mean that there is noticeably more shock through the arms when going over bumps. I can get used to that though - it's not too bad.

I had a short test ride on one and it was the forks that put me off, far too much shock getting to your arms. I have a few bikes with solid forks and none give anything like the ride of the Bold.

An Alfine chain tensioner could prove to be a good addition, although they need a small mod to fit unless they've made a horizontal drop-out version since I bought mine.

 

[Will Tinker]

I had a short test ride on one and it was the forks that put me off, far too much shock getting to your arms. I have a few bikes with solid forks and none give anything like the ride of the Bold.

Yeah, there is definitely more than with the suspension forks that's for sure. For me it hasn't been so much as to make it difficult to ride, but it's certainly not as smooth over the bumps.

I guess on the plus side we have less overall weight due to no suspension on the forks/seat post. I was quite surprised yesterday in that I got up to about 26 mph on a flat-ish cycle path on my way home, so guessing the weight is helping me a little when cycling above the cutoff (either that or I just had good cycling conditions yesterday - time will tell).

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the cutoff. Full assistance up to about 15.5mph, then tapers off between 15.5mph and 17mph. At 17mph there's zero assistance. So about the same as the Impulse 2.0 there.

 

[Will Tinker]

Need to remember to edit my posts before posting them :-D Sorry.

 

[Artstu]

Need to remember to edit my posts before posting them :-D Sorry.

It was that good, it was worth saying twice

It was that good, it was worth saying twice

 

[Will Tinker]

It was that good, it was worth saying twice

It was that good, it was worth saying twice

I'm typing them out on Notepad and pasting them in here... think I hit CTRL-V twice. Oops!

 

[EddiePJ]

In some respects I consider the Active Line motor to be the best of the bunch.

It doesn't obviously have the torque of either the Performance Line or CX motor, but it does excel at your proposed role, and is really pleasant in use.
I also found it to be very frugal when it come down to battery consumption. Coupled to a 500wh battery, I suspect that you should achieve quite a respectable distance.

Enjoy the bike.

 

[Will Tinker]

In some respects I consider the Active Line motor to be the best of the bunch.

It doesn't obviously have the torque of either the Performance Line or CX motor, but it does excel at your proposed role, and is really pleasant in use.
I also found it to be very frugal when it come down to battery consumption. Coupled to a 500wh battery, I suspect that you should achieve quite a respectable distance.

Enjoy the bike.

Thanks - yeah, the battery life seems pretty great. The meter is showing between 20% and 40% left, so I've used probably 50-60% and travelled about 33 miles on highest assistance (as it was only charged to about 80%).

If it can stretch a little over 60 miles, that will go the whole working week for me without a charge.

 

[grldtnr]

The Macina is the bike I should have bought,rather than the Kalkhoff, hope you get on well with it.
When my impulse motor finally dies,a KTM , is the bike I'll be looking at.

 

[IR772]

That is a very good looking bike. I like the tyres a lot.

Motor torque is like car maximum speed, great to quote but hardly ever required.

I started out for the first week using the highest level of assistance then started turning it down, now I use 2 of 4 levels, so do not use the motor maximum at all.

I think you have a great replacement and it will just work, like so many of our bikes.

Enjoy.

 

[LEBC Tom]

A very nice buy. Sold quite a few of these over the 3 years I had my store. It is a very 'solid' bike but the Schwalbe big apple tyres make up quite a bit for the lack of shocks. Get the pressure right in the tyre and they'll soak up most rough road surfaces.

I'm a big fan of the KTM range and although I was spoilt with a lovely range year on year of different models to use the Macina Bold seemed to be the one I always turned to, to show potential customers. It was stable, steady, easy to ride and felt like a high end quality bike and 'smarter' to ;-).

Neat touches like the seat clamp finished in the KTM logo orange, adjustable height handle bars, a very comfortable saddle and many more small things just helped the bike to really sell itself.

One thing to consider when buying one, the 2014, 15, 16 and 17 models are identical in spec other then the battery which is now 500 compared to 400.

Pictures never seemed to do this bike justice, many customers commented that in the flesh the bike looked very stylish and modern.

A really good commuter or leisure crank ebike.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Torque doesn't mean anything. It only depends on the gearing, which can be easily changed. It's maximum power that counts on a crank-drive.

 

[IR772]

Torque doesn't mean anything. It only depends on the gearing, which can be easily changed. It's maximum power that counts on a crank-drive.

Yes it does; simply, I do not have to change gear going up a hill as the torque or stalling force helps out, more help more torque, no gear change.

Surely high stalling force (torque) at low speed is the holy grail.

Very easy to make a motor go fast and be difficult to stall, but when that motor is going slowly and then make it difficult to stall, such as an ebike, that is what everyone wants.

If you have to keep changing gear that is defeating the point.

Taking this to the extreme, with the ultimate high torque engine you would only need one gear on an ebike as you could not stall the engine.

 

[Will Tinker]

Yes it does; simply, I do not have to change gear going up a hill as the torque or stalling force helps out, more help more torque, no gear change.

Surely high stalling force (torque) at low speed is the holy grail.

Very easy to make a motor go fast and be difficult to stall, but when that motor is going slowly and then make it difficult to stall, such as an ebike, that is what everyone wants.

If you have to keep changing gear that is defeating the point.

Taking this to the extreme, with the ultimate high torque engine you would only need one gear on an ebike as you could not stall the engine.

With the Active Line motor, ideally I do need to be at least in gear 5 of 8 in order to get satisfactory acceleration. Also when climbing, 5th gear seems to be the best compromise (one short steep section needs 4th gear).

So far I've only used 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th gear on my 8-speed (6th most often).

Similar to how I used the Impulse 2.0 really.

 

[IR772]

You only find out why you have 1st 2nd and 3rd once you turn the assistance level down which for commuting to work you probably are not going to want to do.

 

[Will Tinker]

You only find out why you have 1st 2nd and 3rd once you turn the assistance level down which for commuting to work you probably are not going to want to do.

You're right - I think it will spend most of its time on the highest assistance, unless I'm trying to conserve the battery.

Just had to have a fairly minor operation, so frustratingly I'm now stuck on the bed with the bike all lonely in its shed! If recovery goes to plan, 2 weeks and I'll be back on (and the bike will have some nice new Shimano pedals, to boot).