Oxygen MK1

[RRB]

Hello everyone, new here, need advise please, I have seen 2 Oxygen Mountain Bikes, 1 crossbar & 1 step through, they are 2016 MK1 in excellent condition, one has done 771 miles & the other 433, not seen in the flesh yet but the seller wants £1200 for both, can anyone tell me if they are worth it has our budget is £1000 for 2 E-Bikes, i.e. will the battery & motor be ok after 7 years with the low mileage & will the mileage be genuine as stated from the seller?
Thank you

Roger

 

[AGS]

Most manufactured bikes with integrated batteries look much better than kits, because cable routing and battery sits nicely within the frame.

The problem comes when the controller or the battery needs replacing after a few years and when you try to buy one or the other you can find they are obsolete.

The e-bike market is progressive and the bikes you buy today won’t be available in a couple of years time and you can have trouble sourcing these items.

Another thing to consider is your riding style and whether a hub or mid drive motor is best for your needs.

For example, if you are an aggressive off road rider then a mid motor is preferable over a hub motor.

Owners are usually locked out of the display on manufactured e-bikes so you are limited to what parameters you can change on the display. This includes the mileage, so those two bikes are probably genuine miles.

Some people prefer kits over prebuilt bikes for several reasons.

1. They like their existing bike but want to add a motor.
2. Obsolescence is not so much of a problem with the battery, controller, display or motor.
3. Displays for kits aren’t locked, so the controller is configurable.
4. Many owners although they don’t want to publicly admit it, want more power than is legally available from a manufactured bike, so build from separate parts or from a kit that is capable of much more power.

7 years is a long time in the e-bike world. Batteries will definitely improve during that period and will become cheaper with more range. And today’s batteries are unlikely to still be working at good capacity in 7 years time if used regularly because they will run out of charge cycles.

There are a few things to be mindful about motors.

1. They aren’t particularly waterproof, so if you are constantly wading through rivers they will get water inside which will start rusting the internals.
2. Bearings will wear out after high mileages, but these can be replaced.
3. If you hot rod your motor by running it at a high power than it is rated for, then it can overheat and cause magnet damage, burn out the windings and melt plastic gears.

 

[RRB]

Most manufactured bikes with integrated batteries look much better than kits, because cable routing and battery sits nicely within the frame.

The problem comes when the controller or the battery needs replacing after a few years and when you try to buy one or the other you can find they are obsolete.

The e-bike market is progressive and the bikes you buy today won’t be available in a couple of years time and you can have trouble sourcing these items.

Another thing to consider is your riding style and whether a hub or mid drive motor is best for your needs.

For example, if you are an aggressive off road rider then a mid motor is preferable over a hub motor.

Owners are usually locked out of the display on manufactured e-bikes so you are limited to what parameters you can change on the display. This includes the mileage, so those two bikes are probably genuine miles.

Thank you, we only want to ride them for fun, maybe 10 or 20 miles a day, I have a price for 2 new batteries for £480 from Aton Bikes, the seller says the batteries are still holding their charge & he seems a genuine guy as he has been very honest with details, he showed me the invoice from 2016 re the spec etc from Oxygen , he and his wife have looked after them they look brand new, no scratches or dents & the tyres have plenty of tread on so I guess the mileage is genuine, the motor is a Bafang 250w, is this s good motor, thanks for the advise

 

[AGS]

The Bafang 250 watt motor is very good. It’s my favourite motor because it’s so versatile.

 

[sjpt]

The mileage is likely to be genuine.
A battery will almost always appear to take full charge; that just indicates that it has got to the appropriate voltage. However, 'full' is likely to be much less than it was new. It will probably have a much lower range than it did originally, and might cut out under heavy load. You might not care too much about the range, and if your will mainly be riding on the flat not too much about inability to generate full load.

One thing that can kill batteries is leaving them for a long time without charging. If they get very low and stay there they can quickly degrade. That's particularly likely with a very low mileage bike.

If you can ride it and take it up a steep hill and see how the battery meter responds. It may well drop a bar or two; if it drops more than that the battery is probably on its way out. It's fairly unlikely that the battery will last more then a year or so from now even under quite light usage.

 

[RRB]

Thank you to everyone for their replies, I think I will go & ride them then let you all know, thank you again

 

[egroover]

Yep need to ride to check batteries as they would be at least £400 each replacement from Oxygen or about £250 each for a non branded Dorado equivalent from Aliexpress , yosepower, pswpower etc

 

[RRB]

Yep need to ride to check batteries as they would be at least £400 each replacement from Oxygen or about £250 each for a non branded Dorado equivalent from Aliexpress , yosepower, pswpower etc

Yes will do test ride, not sure what to look for as never had E-Bike before, but will work it out, thank you

 

[egroover]

Yes will do test ride, not sure what to look for as never had E-Bike before, but will work it out, thank you

@sjpt offers good advice, but 7 year old batteries will detoriate over time so regardless of how they have been cared for, factor in having to replace, and if they do work well once you have bought the bikes then bonus

 

[georgehenry]

Sounds harsh but I would want the price to reflect a new battery for each bike. Maybe not from Oxygen but the price of two batteries from a generic supplier like Yose.

 

[RRB]

Sounds harsh but I would want the price to reflect a new battery for each bike. Maybe not from Oxygen but the price of two batteries from a generic supplier like Yose.

Hi, that's what I said to him but he still wants £1000 for both bikes, so I might have to decline this sale, I have been looking at the following bike,
Eleglide city crosser mountain bike, on Amazon £899, would this be a good buy for just having a nice steady ride on the road, maybe 5 to 10 miles a couple of times a week, thanks for your help everyone

 

[saneagle]

Hello everyone, new here, need advise please, I have seen 2 Oxygen Mountain Bikes, 1 crossbar & 1 step through, they are 2016 MK1 in excellent condition, one has done 771 miles & the other 433, not seen in the flesh yet but the seller wants £1200 for both, can anyone tell me if they are worth it has our budget is £1000 for 2 E-Bikes, i.e. will the battery & motor be ok after 7 years with the low mileage & will the mileage be genuine as stated from the seller?
Thank you

Roger

What you're saying doesn't make sense. The mk1 Oxygen finished in 2011. 2016, would be about mk4. You need to say what models they are, which you can more or less tell from the batteries. There were the E-mates that had the battery behind the seatpost. mk1 had a plastic battery and one power level. The differences between the next three were all wiring, displays and controllers, then in 2014 they changed to the Emate MTB that had the trapezium shaped downtube battery, which ran along side the Citybike versions, which were designated Emate CB. Not long after, they sold some re-badged Battribikes that had full suspension and a standard downtube battery. The versions with in-frame batteries came after 2016, so I won't talk about them.

Some of those models are probably best avoided unless you're happy to change some parts around yourself. The mk1 had an Aurora motor. The next versions had a motor, who's name I can't think of (Japanese name IIRC). It was good quality, but very difficult to repair because it needed a special tool. The MTB used a Bafang, but I think the CBs continued with that motor until they brought out the S-cross versions.

Batteries in 2014 were not nearly as reliable as the ones you get today. Leaking cells was a big problem. I'd count on replacing the batteries unless you're only going to do short journeys. Personally, I think those bikes are over-priced if they're 2014 Emates. I would have thought £500 would be more like it. The MTB is a good bike, but you have no chance of getting replacement batteries, though you can convert them for about £350, which would make them pretty good.

If you can give more details of what bikes they are, I can give you more specific advice.

 

[Nealh]

7 y/o batteries are of scrap value thye can fail at any time, £500 the pair at the most .
Tbh look elsewhere and decline the them as they are over priced., George Henry of yhis forum ought and oxygen of 2011 vintage for £100 and he was very lucky that he is still running the original battery.

 

[georgehenry]

TBH Nealh after buying a second Yose battery in March 2022 to take advantage of a price drop on ebay to £165 including a spar charger and delivery for a new 15Ah silver fish , the original battery from the £100 Oxygen Emate is now more of a back up, however it does still work, though as we know getting little use except an occasional maintenance charge is not going to be good for it.

That is the trouble with lithium batteries, if you buy a new one there is no point saving it, you are much better off using it regularly even if there is still some life in your old one.

As per my review after I bought the bike, both I and the person I bought it from assumed the battery was dead, but only after having it for a week or two did I think to try and charge it. I was amazed it came back to life and even more amazed after a few test rides to check its capacity, that it could get a heavy me, and two full panniers, 10 miles to work using the highest assist level and the speed cut off set higher by the previous owner to probably 20mph, so it had to work quite hard. I could then charge it at work before the ride home.