August 22, 20169 yr Hi all, A total e-bike newbie here so please excuse any of my ignorances! Wanting a couple of e-bikes for holiday jaunts with the motor-home and rides out at the week-end to start getting a little fitter. We'd be using them on roads, lanes and tracks (bridleways, old railway lines such as the Tarka trail etc) but not so much of the racing through mountainous trails! I've taken a liking to the KTM macina tour 10 P5 2016 and was wanting to know of anyone's experience with this bike. I suppose it's a hybrid and I'd like to know if the tyres it comes with (Schwalbe Energizer Plus Tyres? ) will be robust enough for say foot paths through forests (not 'off-road' though) as well as towpaths, gravel paths and the like? How do you know which frame size to get? What are the advantages / disadvantages of a cross bar or comfort cross bar frame? (2 men here..) I've looked at a few charts and they appear to suggest different sizes for different types of bike but they didn't have e-bike on the KTM chart as far as I could see. I'm 6 foot about 76 kg, the other half is about 6 foot with a bit more weight say 100kg? Also, the lights supplied (B+M Lumotek Eyk IQ, 50 Lux, 6VDC, TF), will these be bright enough for travelling along unlit lanes? It's a bit of a voyage of discovery so far...any input or advice most welcome!
August 22, 20169 yr Welcome. I'm a newbie also and clueless when it comes to advice / technical - hence why I haunt these corridors. I'm sure someone else will be along answering your questions but my advice on the lights, there are some good 4 or 5 cree bulb ones on flea bay (I have two) which work for me, but there has also been a light topic recently which lists others. Happy riding.
August 22, 20169 yr Welcome, In general I would expect the bike and lights to put up a strong performance.KTM and B+M are both quality priced brands and you are asking them to do a standard job. It's only if you go super fast and hard that any issues are likely to happen. But the most important advice is to test ride as many bikes as possible. Your spending a few bob here, spend some time test riding and it should save you from any glaring mistakes.
August 22, 20169 yr The BM dynamo light as supplied is actually very good. I spent last winter riding around dark country lanes and an old railway line now cycle path, on my wife's Macina Fun 10-400 without feeling that I needed more from the lights. They also run on for a period after stopping, so ideal for start stop riding, and it is simply a matter of removing a weather proof plug, should you need to remove the front wheel. In respect of frame size, you would be best advised to speak to the supplying dealer about that one, but the bike as shown here was a 46cm, but at 1,790mm tall, I had to have the seat post beyond it's maximum height, and it still wasn't an ideal riding position. The OE suspension seat post was very good though. As for the cross bar, I think that if us Brits were not so vain, we would all ride with the kind of style. http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/ae217/eddiejefferies/DSCF1388_zpskgik5woo.jpg Edited August 22, 20169 yr by EddiePJ
August 22, 20169 yr Frame size is the same as a push bike. At about six foot, you are in medium/18 or 19 inch/whatever that is in centimetres territory. B&M lights are proper. quality, bike lights which throw a well-defined beam pattern designed for the job, so there's no reason to look any further.
August 25, 20169 yr Hi, Pusscat. I have some KTMs and am based in North Devon if you want to get in touch . Email me at bikehigher@hotmail.co.uk
August 25, 20169 yr I've seen a KTM Macina locally, out in the wild once or twice. A Nuvinci model, I think. It was kept mint by the owner 'David' 82 and he had just done 26 miles on it, with the display saying that it could do another 52 miles. It's a beautiful bike, taller than my 26" wheeled bike, 27.5" I'm sure he said.. Then again, they're all lovely to look at. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoyTn0XhtOk
August 25, 20169 yr Lights that come with any bike is not an issue. For £15, you can get clip-on searchlights to supplement whichever useless ones that come with your bike. IMHO, 50 lux is not enough for unlit cycle paths. There's nothing to stop yoy clipping on as many lights as you want. This is what you can do if you want 1500 lux: http://i451.photobucket.com/albums/qq236/d8veh/lights.jpg Energizer tyres will be fine for what you want. Grip won't be fantastic, but they're very strong, you won't get punctures and they last forever. If you want good grip, you have to compromise on the other things.
August 26, 20169 yr Author Wow Dave...you could get a tan in front of that! Thanks for the comments. I do like the idea of a 'comfort cross bar'. The bike still looks really good with it and I don't care too much what hardened cyclists may think about it. I've found a place fairly locally that has a good range of bikes so next week end I'll have a few tries. Good to hear about the tyres, It has been suggested I got an eMTB and could change the tyres around if needed but I'm not too sure about that. Just don't think I would use those knobbly ones yo their full advantage.
August 26, 20169 yr The BM dynamo light as supplied is actually very good. http://i973.photobucket.com/albums/ae217/eddiejefferies/DSCF1388_zpskgik5woo.jpg Just a slight addition to Eddie's post. The 2016 versions of the KTM's now come with wired in lights, not the dynamo that was supplied in 2015. Its a subtle difference, but a nice change. Also, you'll find the geometry charts for the Macina Tour here: http://www.ktm-bikes.at/en/bikes/e-bike.html?action=bike_details&bike_id=173&cHash=1540a7dfee1aa5c74e91b94fd5adab53
December 9, 20178 yr I've just got myself a 2017 KTM Macina Tour (to replace a dud Kalkhoff Agattu Impulse). I couldn't find much chat about them online before I bought it, so any questions please ask. Although it is the 2017, they seem to have made very minor changes with the 2018 model. I'm 5'10 and this is the large size, which fits very well and still feels 'compact' and corners sharply. It is excellent up hills (better than the Impulse) but is slightly more bobbly around the top end 15-16mph mark (i.e. the speed moves around that mark rather than sitting dead on it as with the Impulse). It is also not as noisy as online videos make out - I would say it is a high quality reassuringly technological electronic whirring sound. The front suspension is great and the seat post suspension is also working well. It's my first time with disc brakes - I still don't see a great advantage - and also first time with a derailleur on an ebike. I'd have preferred another hub geared bike but a) the torque is reduced by Bosch for hub geared models b) I still don't trust innovations like Nuvinci. Videos you see online of derailleur changes on ebikes always sound very painful, but it's not quite as bad in practice. 10 gears is probably one too many (I can't see a use for the highest gear) and with four modes, that is also probably one too many. Tour mode is good for the commute, with Turbo for hills. I don't see the point of the mode in between which is 'Sport', and I think you'd only use the Economy mode if you were running low on battery and needed to get home. I forgot to put the battery back on it the other day, and tried it under my own steam, it was pretty easy to ride. The motor power level display part of trees handlebar display is quite small, and the push buttons to change mode don't light up in the dark as with the previous Agattu. The pedals are nice and tight to the frame (I found my feet were very wide apart with the Impulse) but that creates a problem as the chain stays are very splayed out, so I'm catching my heel on them when I pedal. I'm sure I'll get used to avoiding this, if not, I'll see if different medals work better. All the ancillaries - lights, mudguards, saddle, handlebars, rack, stand etc - all seem great so far.
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