One of the reasons that I don't buy cycle related magazines.

[EddiePJ]

I don't buy bike magazines, but someone gave me a copy of Mountain Biking UK, thinking that I would be interested in an e-mtb article that had been written by their journalist Jake Ireland.

Both the following immediately caught my eye, and I couldn't then be bothered to read the rest of the article. What a complete load of rubbish on both counts.

This one really got me though, and they must have used a very different Bosch system to the one that I or anyone else that I can think of that rides off road has. I'd happily challenge him to ride the 100 miles of the South Downs Way on one battery and one charge. I'd take three fully charged batteries to his one, and still be sweating it.

Ignoring the first statement, people reading bike mags that have no prior knowledge of e-mtb's could easily be mislead into believing that they could both ride almost all day in turbo and also easily cover 100 miles of off road riding. Statements such as the above, really can't do bike dealers any favours when disgruntled owners buy and return a bike because the new owner considers that the bike must be faulty, when they can only get roughly 30 miles of range.

 

[flecc]

Bonkers, clearly written more from guesswork rather than actual experience. Typical of today's journalists, given a task they look it up on Google and Wikipedia and then copy what they've read, including sales spiel.
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[Kudoscycles]

Written straight off some traders optimistic sales literature. The trouble is that customers believe these numbers,responsible dealers state 3.0 miles per Ah,off road that is probably 2.5 miles per Ah.
Customers buy the 'long range' bike,find it doesn't do the stated range and then blame themselves for using the bike incorrectly.
KudosDave

 

[EddiePJ]

Just noticed that the second paragraph of the article states the following.

"tracking an e-mtb down for a test ride proved surprisingly difficult. After some extensive leg work, a Cube van finally arrived containing a Stereo Hybrid 120 HPA Pro 29 and a charger. Dan from Cube was keen to deliver the bike personally, so that he could give us the run down of how to ride it and make the most of the motor system."

So perhaps 'Desperate Dan' from Cube could be the culprit in all of this. Nice one Cube!

The article formed part of the October 2014 magazine, and I'm quite surprised by the statement that "tracking one down proved difficult" I guess that other UK bike distributors and dealers, perhaps had more sense.

 

[flecc]

Well, he might have tried it out briefly, but the figures he gave clearly didn't result from that. Such brief trials can't result in a valid opinion anyway. It takes more than a day to properly judge an e-bike's worth, two to three days in my experience and A to B in it's long review history similarly used to take days with each bike.
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[EddiePJ]

Twice in the same day.

Taken from the following link. http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/20-off-festive-sale.22971/

"2016 also sees the introduction of BOSCH'S 500wh POWERPACK, Pushing you further than ever before, combined with the PERFORMANCE CX you can expect to see 133 miles in ECO (50% assistance) and 46 miles in TURBO (300% assistance)."


I'd like to put this to the test, but already suspect that you could easily halve the above.

Another very disappointing and wild claim.


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[soundwave]

The new 500wh Powerpack, will provide you with more confidence than ever before, to discover new places further and higher. Combined with the Bosch Active line you can expect to see a staggering range of up to 130miles in Eco and 60 miles in Turbo.

14 miles more there pmsl

 

[EddiePJ]

The claim for the Yamaha motor is just as bad.

"YAMAHA's 400wh BATTERY provides105 miles with the new ECO+ mode and 43miles in HIGH mode. The range is confirmed with your ride style on the Heads Up Display, and the battery can be charged in a couple of hours. Keeping you in the saddle for longer, for the maximum level of enjoyment."

It makes me quite disenchanted and disappointed to see and read such wrongful claims being made.




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[flecc]

The trouble is that when one manufacturer makes such a wild claim in advertising, their competitors feel obliged to do the same or lose sales. The Bosch and Yamaha claims you provided Eddie are both quite positive and might be challengeable in law by Trading Standards or the Advertising Standards Authority on the basis of being misleading.

The claim that Soundwave provided says "up to", making that one secure from complaint.
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[EddiePJ]

I also picked up on the "up to" claim, and also thought that it is their 'get out of jail card', and that any purchaser wouldn't be able to pursue a case. Obviously, it still doesn't make such a wild claim right though.

In respect of "expect" in the case of the CX motor, it is clearly wrong, as is the Yamaha claim of "provides" both are open for challenge, and rightly so.

 

[EddiePJ]

Today's ride highlighted the fact that there is no possible way that a manufacturer can state battery range.

http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/how-many-people-are-using-there-e-bike-off-road.15780/page-67#post-288316


31.8 miles on the South Downs covered, and by the time that the ride was over, I had fully drained one battery, and half drained the second. Power settings used were no assist, eco and tour. I'm not actually convinced that I would have managed to complete the ride on just one battery, even if conditions had been dry and perfect.

 

[flecc]

Today's ride highlighted the fact that there is no possible way that a manufacturer can state battery range.

We had a classic illustration of this with the original eZee Torq back in 2006/7 in this forum and beyond.

Very popular at it's introduction, the Torq was owned by 38% of forum members declaring their bike make and model. Very fast with 22 mph assist and a peak power measured at 1000 watts, it was naturally a greedy beast, so we had a thread asking members for the mileages they achieved from it's 36 volt 10 Ah battery.

The majority including me returned an identical 15 miles, which was using the bike to the full. An odd two returned 18 and 20 miles, while one said he only got 11 miles!

All this was preceded by David Henshaw's A to B magazine review leading to it's high sales when he got 22 miles from it. He went on to own that bike and powerful cyclist that he is, won the Presteigne e-bike rally race riding it.

A few months later his uncle Peter Henshaw also tested the same bike in the same area and obtained a staggering 45 miles range.

So there was it's range 11 miles to 45 miles, a 1 to 4 difference!

The only consistent figure was the 15 miles from the majority, illustrating that a manufacturer must quote a range near the low end which most can get if they are to be honest.

Quoted ranges at the upper end are unacceptable, for as this example shows, only a select few powerful cyclists riding in certain favourable circumstances can achieve them.
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[KTM Bike Industries UK]

I know Jake (who wrote that for MBUK) and Dan from Cube pretty well.

Jake uses the uplift services at FOD to get to the top of the hill regularly, so I'll be sure to ask him about cheating next time I see him. Whilst Dan from Cube is one of the most passionate people I've spoken to in the traditional cycling industry about eBikes... he's a big fan. So I can assure you nothing negative will have come from him.

When Jake said, "tracking down one proved difficult" that will and was indeed true. Getting hold of a "spare" full suspension eBike from a brand last summer was very very hard, we'd all sold out and all the demo ones had been sold to make space for 2015 stock which is always due end of summer.

MBUK just like to wind people up, so don't take it too seriously, they've been doing it for 25 years now I think.