I was looking to buy a new Orbea Gain e bike. I live in a very hilly region (Argyll) in Scotland so was looking to buy the auxiliary battery quoted in all of the Orbea marketing material. None of the retailers had any information so I e mailed Orbea. They have no release date for the battery but advised me to watch their website. I noticed on Pedelecs website that they told a customer in May that the battery would be available early 2019. I think they must be having difficulty in the development stage so will put off purchasing or look for a similar product.
Orbea Gain auxiliary battery
- Thread starter Inveral
- Start date
We've soon passed "early 2019". Still not a single word about the aux battery.
Could you ask them? I've been meaning to buy the F30 for a while now, but need the extra battery for longer trips. It's really strange that they haven't released any AUX battery yet =/
I'm surprised that an entrepreneur somewhere hasn't come up with an Aux battery for this system. Its not just the Gain that would be the market, there are now lots of manufacturer using this system so I think there would be a fair amount of demand.
Wow! They're ready to share some information in the coming weeks - probably about it being delayed further 
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Here's the eBikemotion page (I also e-mailed them, but haven't received an answer yet): https://www.ebikemotion.com/web/x35-range-extender/
I'm really hoping for it to be available at least some time during summer, for those longer weekend rides
What do you think it will weigh? A 400 Wh bosch battery weighs in on about 2.5 kg, so maybe ~1,5 kg?
Most light weight X35 systems (Gain F40 for example) weigh in on about 15 kg, so that would bring it to ~16,5kg for 450 Wh. Not that bad?
.Here's the eBikemotion page (I also e-mailed them, but haven't received an answer yet): https://www.ebikemotion.com/web/x35-range-extender/
The range extender for the X35 system offers about 200 Wh, so 250 Wh+200 Wh=450 Wh. No info about the weight yet.
I'm really hoping for it to be available at least some time during summer, for those longer weekend rides
What do you think it will weigh? A 400 Wh bosch battery weighs in on about 2.5 kg, so maybe ~1,5 kg?
Most light weight X35 systems (Gain F40 for example) weigh in on about 15 kg, so that would bring it to ~16,5kg for 450 Wh. Not that bad?
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That would bring the weight of battery, motor and drive train to 4.7kg for 450W/hr or about 5kg for 500W/hr.
The Bosch ALP motor and drive unit is 3.2kg plus battery weight, so for the 500W/hr one it's 6kg.
That's a relatively small edge in weight terms. It's certainly going to be interesting watching the battle between the X35, ALP and other third-party motors for this segment over the next couple of years...
The Bosch ALP motor and drive unit is 3.2kg plus battery weight, so for the 500W/hr one it's 6kg.
That's a relatively small edge in weight terms. It's certainly going to be interesting watching the battle between the X35, ALP and other third-party motors for this segment over the next couple of years...
Yes, the Bosch ALP system only weighs about 30% more, but you also gain ~10% capacity. If our approximation of the weight is correct
But the mount/frame required to accommodate both the motor and the removable battery itself still needs to be sturdier/heavier for the Bosch system, I guess? That will probably add some weight (most of them weigh around ~20 kg).
It would be very interesting if Bosch decided to develop a battery that fits inside a solid tube. I know they offer a tube battery, but it's quite large/not suitable to entirely encase within a solid tube. Their focus so far seems to be on supplying easily removable batteries. (Not that it's very hard to remove/replace a battery that's entirely encased within a tube, just takes longer. Trouble is you can't carry it with you).
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I weighed my Cannondale Neo the other day, came out to 18.46 kg. I think if you live in an area with lots of steep hills, and also lots of wind then a Bosch equipped bike is probably a wiser choice. Unless of course you already have a decent level of cycling fitness and can get up most hills with little motor assistance required.
If money was no object and you were to buy the top of the range Cannondale Neo and then trick it out with all the super expensive but light weight components that money can buy. What weight could you get it down to?
I've just read on another forum that the aux battery for the Gain and I assume other bikes using the same system is soon to be released. Some details here
https://www.ebikemotion.com/web/x35-range-extender/
Word is that its going to cost £510 , the capacity is 208 Wh, I'm guessing there must be quite a profit margin in that price.
I think the Bosch 500 Wh power tube battery is around the £650 level so not sure how they justify £510 for a battery with less than half this capacity.
The £510 is only what I have read on another forum it has not come from Orbea so the cost could be less than this.
https://www.ebikemotion.com/web/x35-range-extender/
Word is that its going to cost £510 , the capacity is 208 Wh, I'm guessing there must be quite a profit margin in that price.
I think the Bosch 500 Wh power tube battery is around the £650 level so not sure how they justify £510 for a battery with less than half this capacity.
The £510 is only what I have read on another forum it has not come from Orbea so the cost could be less than this.
An extortionate price for a battery case that holds 20 18650's at best total cell price will be about £100 plus a bms, tis the price you have to suffer for having a bespoke small power supply.
P.s
Battery is only 5.8ah 10s2p so 2900mah cells, probbaly PF's in which case cells are about £60 max. Orbea probably get them cheaper then that.
P.s
Battery is only 5.8ah 10s2p so 2900mah cells, probbaly PF's in which case cells are about £60 max. Orbea probably get them cheaper then that.
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I was expecting maybe £250-300 at most. Not twice that. That's a shame.
Maybe a good idea to contact them and explain that there's no way we'll ever pay what they're asking.
Maybe a good idea to contact them and explain that there's no way we'll ever pay what they're asking.
I would imagine so, I assume its like most things if you buy in bulk you will get a big discount. Orbea will presumably be buying hundreds or even thousands at a time and so will pay a lot less than what Joe public will have to pay.
That price seems almost too high to be true.
Bosch make a killing selling their 500W/hr battery for about £600 and at least it has a class-leading BMS and can be easily sold on.
£510 for 208W/hr moves well beyond 'bleeding edge' into 'taking the p^ss' territory IMHO.
At that price the ALP powered bikes are a much better buy if you care at all about range, especially if Nev's reported 40% use for 50 miles and 2000 feet of climbing with the Neo on the standard battery is correct.
What about the Fazua based systems? What's the battery pricing like on those?
Bosch make a killing selling their 500W/hr battery for about £600 and at least it has a class-leading BMS and can be easily sold on.
£510 for 208W/hr moves well beyond 'bleeding edge' into 'taking the p^ss' territory IMHO.
At that price the ALP powered bikes are a much better buy if you care at all about range, especially if Nev's reported 40% use for 50 miles and 2000 feet of climbing with the Neo on the standard battery is correct.
What about the Fazua based systems? What's the battery pricing like on those?
As mentioned in my post I don't think the price has been quoted by anyone official yet. The £510 came from someone on another forum. It could be just a rumour, and perhaps the price might turn out to be a lot lower we shall see.
Perhaps I should give a bit more detail about this, as I would not want someone thinking everyone is going to get that kind of range from an ALP powered bike.
The battery indicator dropped from 4 bars down to 3 bars within a couple of miles from home, it does not provide exact percentage read out but my guess would be I probably had about 57 or 58% capacity left.
To provide some more context I did exactly the same ride last summer on a Cube e-mtb with the CX motor. I had two bars left but it had switched from 3 bars down to 2 several miles from home so probably would have had about 30% capacity left.
I do ride quite a lot above cut off though, and this is much easier on the Cannondale Neo than on the Cube, for this reason its sort of difficult to compare say a CX equipped mtb with a an ALP equipped racing bike, as one is going to be riding above cut off more often on the racing bike than one is on the mtb.
Seems to be ~€400 or ~£340.
https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/fazua-evation-1.0-battery-250wh-755157