Replacing a 'Cheapo Chinese special'

[Geriatric]

My wife has used a 'Sunlova' folding ebike from new for 3 years, but last night the battery went poof and blew out the connector! It was quite cheap, but I realised when I attempted to contact the company c/o 'Mao Tse Tung House' in West London, two years back, that customer after care was not a priority, and spares were not an option.

I was considering the Viking Eco Stepper (Eco - Stepper Folding Electric bike - Black, 20 Inch from Eco - Stepper - Viking Bikes as a replacement?

Mrs 'G' only travels 3 miles a day return, twice a week along the concrete promenade here by the seaside, with no hills, or open country. It would be nice to have something that could fit in a car boot as well. I selected Viking, because I had one as a boy, 50 years ago (Hosteller), and they still 'appear' to be British. Also hopefully basic things like batteries could be purchased without 3 hours of googling first?

It's amazing how many firms don't show their products 'folded', a mistake in my opinion when selling 'folding bikes'. One good point of the late 'Beijing Banger' is that it doesn't actually fold, but 'telescopes' closed, rather like its been squashed front to rear, but I can't seem to find any current bikes that have this feature, perhaps The EC say we can't have them nowadays, like bent banannas?

Has anyone out there got any feedback about Viking as a product, or know of any 'telescopic' folding small frame Ebikes? Also more interested in the electric bit, rather than the health benefits of pedalling!

 

[saneagle]

All spares are still available for the Sunlova because all the stuff is standard Chinese. A new battery, controller and pedal sensor will cost less than £200 from the Chinese suppliers. If you have the magnet disk type pedal sensor rather than the thicker optical ones you probably don't need to replace the controller and pedal sensor.

if you want to have a go at repairing it, post some pictures so that we can see exactly which one it is.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

The Viking Eco Stepper is the same bike as the one that Tesco sell for £399. It also appears on Bid.tv at £439, but with three interest free payments over 12months plus £7.00 (?) delivery charge.

I'd love to see what actually went wrong with your Sunlova, whether it was a short circuit or a cell in the battery puffed. It may be repairable.

 

[flecc]

Has anyone out there got any feedback about Viking as a product

As d8veh has shown, Viking mainly market generic Chinese made bikes, though their high end road models do appear to have design input from them. As you've probably seen, they are a well established company but these Chinese e-bikes are a very recent venture for them. There was an earlier Viking e-bike model which was certain to have been designed by them, but it was a crude and gimmicky design with an oversize motor housing over the rear wheel friction driving onto the rear tyre. No longer in production here's an image of one:

 

[4maddogs]

If you are interested I have an AS bikes 20" wheel step through folder bike (mk3 36v) for sale. It has hardly been used and is less than a year old. I bought it as it was a folder to put in my motorhome, but it is such a pfaff getting it in and out that I have put a rack on the back and bought a full sized bike.

After service is excellent, the bike runs well without bells and whistles, but has a throttle and goes well enough. Pm me if interested it was £695 new so could be a bargain!

 

[bigroy]

you could try 8Fun Ltd
sure this is Sunlova just with a new name.

 

[Geriatric]

Sunlova

All spares are still available for the Sunlova because all the stuff is standard Chinese. A new battery, controller and pedal sensor will cost less than £200 from the Chinese suppliers. If you have the magnet disk type pedal sensor rather than the thicker optical ones you probably don't need to replace the controller and pedal sensor.

if you want to have a go at repairing it, post some pictures so that we can see exactly which one it is.

Here's a pic of the Sunlova bike. it's is/was known as the "16" New Patented Electric Stretch Folding bike-E16F01S"

I'd repair it if it were possible and retain it as a spare, but my problems are;

1) I'm a one armed Economist, with no bent for things mechanical.

2) I am therefore also unable to source parts etc without the practical knowledge needed to know the wood from the trees.

Also agents/shops etc prepared to work on it last time a fault developed around the Frinton/Colchester area were zero. Thankfully a friend managed to trace a simple problem eventually and it has run for a year since 'Battery Armaggedon' occurred last week.

I'd gladly pay, if I could source the service? Hence my reasoning to try and find either a British Manufacturer (seems a no brainer), or a Chinese importer with back up and ethics (Viking, or A.S. at Coventry maybe?).

It's a shame, because despite the shambolic service from the seller, it's not been a bad little machine and its telescopic folding is very easy for a lady to operate. However I understand the ever helpful Mr Van Rompuy's meddlers from Brussels appear to have put the ki-bosh on our choice to buy what we want yet again here, and accordingly it's been banned in Never Never land Europe!

 

[Geriatric]

8Fun Ltd

you could try 8Fun Ltd
sure this is Sunlova just with a new name.

Thanks Roy,

Yes it is the same address as was/is used for Sunlova. I sincerely advise anyone considering dealing with these people to avoid them like the plague. They were extremely unhelpful and never replied to emails about parts enquiries. Unlike there lightening response to a sales question!

 

[Geriatric]

As d8veh has shown, Viking mainly market generic Chinese made bikes, though their high end road models do appear to have design input from them. As you've probably seen, they are a well established company but these Chinese e-bikes are a very recent venture for them. There was an earlier Viking e-bike model which was certain to have been designed by them, but it was a crude and gimmicky design with an oversize motor housing over the rear wheel friction driving onto the rear tyre. No longer in production.

Thank you for this information. It sounded a right lash-up, 'friction drive' sounds something Fred Dibnah would have been more familiar with. I'm surprised there wasn't a 'steam driven' alternative, with a coal tender too.

I'm worried that Viking might not have a focused position towards after service and parts, and relying upon China for those functions in anything seems wishful thinking too. I emailed them with a few questions on Friday, which were clearly buying signals. I've not even received the decency of an acknowledgement.

Whatever I get, I'm going to get a spare battery from the off, so when the model becomes redundant after a few months, I can hopefully revert to a spare for the next couple of years and pray everything else holds together.

 

[Geriatric]

If you are interested I have an AS bikes 20" wheel step through folder bike (mk3 36v) for sale. It has hardly been used and is less than a year old. I bought it as it was a folder to put in my motorhome, but it is such a pfaff getting it in and out that I have put a rack on the back and bought a full sized bike.

After service is excellent, the bike runs well without bells and whistles, but has a throttle and goes well enough. Pm me if interested it was £695 new so could be a bargain!

Thanks,

PM sent Sunday

 

[flecc]

Whatever I get, I'm going to get a spare battery from the off, so when the model becomes redundant after a few months, I can hopefully revert to a spare for the next couple of years and pray everything else holds together.

Unfortunately lithium batteries deteriorate with age even when unused. It's vital to charge them at leas once every three months and preferably every two months, to avoid total failure during storage. Therefore a battery bought at the same time will be rather second hand at two years old and could have lost up to one third of its capacity even if looked after as described.

The safest course is to but an e-bike from a company that's known to be in it for the long haul. One outstanding example is the eZee brand, they haven't changed their in-frame battery mounting since the start in 2004, so every eZee bike of any age benefits from every advance in battery technology over the years as batteries are replaced.

 

[Geriatric]

Unfortunately lithium batteries deteriorate with age even when unused. It's vital to charge them at leas once every three months and preferably every two months, to avoid total failure during storage. Therefore a battery bought at the same time will be rather second hand at two years old and could have lost up to one third of its capacity even if looked after as described.

The safest course is to but an e-bike from a company that's known to be in it for the long haul. One outstanding example is the eZee brand, they haven't changed their in-frame battery mounting since the start in 2004, so every eZee bike of any age benefits from every advance in battery technology over the years as batteries are replaced.

Thank you for the information, their folding range seems to be the next 'price-up' bracket from Viking, AS etc, but if the quality's better it's worth it,

 

[skidders]

viking bikes

they are owned by avocet and have lots of diffrent brands just so you should know
Avocet Sports

 

[hopper_rider]

I read somewhere, either on this site or the Tesco review site, that someone buying a Tesco hopper was sent a Viking e2go. I have always suspected that they are actually the same bike sold under different names, and different prices.

Sports direct are also doing one that looks the same these days.
E-co Electric Bike - SportsDirect.com

I guess its just a case of who you want to give your money to.

 

[skidders]

thatl be me i got the e-go it is the eaxct same but looks better i think

 

[Kudoscycles]

Geriatric....we have the Kudos Cheetah and Versatile on special offer at the moment at £595.00....I guarantee that we will maintain spares for all Kudos bikes for 2 years after the last unit is sold
KudosDave

 

[patpatbut]

I think the price for the chinese cheapo bike has gone down quite a lot. (compared with 1-2 years time)

Just checked some bikes out from amazon and found some really good price bikes

Electric bikes 250W ebike black 36V10ah RRP 899 FREE P&P BY EROLLING: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

£459...not bad for 36v 10AH battery with rear motor.

Pat

 

[Chainring]

Try and contact them....

I think the price for the chinese cheapo bike has gone down quite a lot. (compared with 1-2 years time)

Just checked some bikes out from amazon and found some really good price bikes

Electric bikes 250W ebike black 36V10ah RRP 899 FREE P&P BY EROLLING: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

£459...not bad for 36v 10AH battery with rear motor.

Pat

This is the firm I tried to email for information. EMails were bounced back. I paid a bit more and bought from Woosh. Have a look at the AliBaba site. Put in 'electric bikes', then choose how big a container you require!!! It all seems to be down to the service you receive this side of the water.

 

[billyx22]

Just to add..... I have an Ecostepper that is also from Avocet only few weeks old bought brand new from auction.
On ebay at the moment.

 

[falmouthtony]

Unfortunately lithium batteries deteriorate with age even when unused. It's vital to charge them at leas once every three months and preferably every two months, to avoid total failure during storage. Therefore a battery bought at the same time will be rather second hand at two years old and could have lost up to one third of its capacity even if looked after as described.

The safest course is to but an e-bike from a company that's known to be in it for the long haul. One outstanding example is the eZee brand, they haven't changed their in-frame battery mounting since the start in 2004, so every eZee bike of any age benefits from every advance in battery technology over the years as batteries are replaced.

Hi Flecc
This is the most worrying comment I've noticed on the forum for ages.
If a new battery is only two thirds efficient after it's been on a shelf for two years, how do we know how 'fresh' replacement or additional batteries we buy are? Is there any legislation or consumer protection in place?
The new generation Bosch batteries are £800 a pop!! I'd want to KNOW it was fresh as a daisy before paying that out.
Sorry to hi-jack the OP.