Review of £360 Argos E-Plus bike

[saneagle]

It arrived today. Yesterday, they gave a slot of 12:00 to 14:30 for delivery, then sent me a message at 12:00 today to say that it would be 60 minutes, which turned out to be very accurate. 10/10 for delivery

The spec is:
36v 10ah battery
3 levels of assist plus zero
7-speed gears
250w motor (forgot to look for markings, but typical type)
The rest you can see or isn't really important

Here's what you get plus the battery, charger, a toolkit, pedals and instructions. The battery had come out of it's padded bag, so was loose in the box during transport, which is a bit dodgy because the terminals could short if they touched the wrong thing. Some of the packing had fallen off, but I don't care about that sort of thing. there were a couple of minor handling marks on the bike, but nothing for me to worry about. The tyres were very low, in fact you could say one was flat. Already, those with keen eyes might be able to spot a minor issue.



It took me about 10 minutes to fully assemble using the suppled toolkit. There was only one thing to look out for: The first time I put the steerer round to the front, the front brake cable was wrapped around the steering head. It was still functional, but it pulled the cable at extreme steering angles. Some people wouldn't have spotted it. I had to take the bars back off and rotate the steerer 360 deg.

Now the issue. You know how much I hate it when they put the motor wheel in upside down, and I thought I had one here if you look at the cable exit in the above photo, but when i pulled the rubber cap off, I found this. The wheel was in the right way up, but the cable was not in its slot and it had been routed incorrectly. A normal customer would never have known this and the bike would have worked for some time until the cable wore through:


This is how it should be:



I checked all the bearings and all adjustments. It had been setup perfectly. No other issues to report.

 

[saneagle]

Here it is fully assembled:

 

[Ghost1951]

Nice.

The pedals look better than I would have thought for the price point.

 

[saneagle]

Now the proof of the pudding. How good is it? Well, it's exactly what it's supposed to be. Nice quiet motor, though I could hear a bit of working on level 3 at about 10 mph when it was making max power. It's very smooth too. handling was more than acceptable, though not as good as some. The brakes needed to bed in. I've now heard that they're much better after the first few miles.

My knee problem has come back, so I could only do a minimal amount of testing - just enough to figure it out. My student has got the job of long-term testing. He's very happy to do that.

It uses speed control algorithms in the controller, so you get the same power to start off in all leveles and when you're climbing slowly up a steep hill. The only thing that the levels change is the maximum speed. I have a medium steep hill right next to my house. Even though I could hardly pedal, It got me (93kg) up that, no problem, with minimal pedal effort. I'd say it's typical of any 250w 36v hub-motor bike - nothing special, but OK. As above, the brakes were useless at this stage, though I have seen worse.

I didn't weigh it, though it didn't seem to be very heavy. I would have guessed at about 22kg. When Mikel visits next Friday, I'll weigh it for you.

So, apart from the very minor issue of the motor cable routing, I'd give the bike full marks. It was very well setup and it should give many years of use with minimal maintenance as all the parts are robust and well-proven. If I were to guess, I'd say that the first point of failure will be the stupid membrane switches in the display/control panel, but those things are all over Aliexpress for next to nothing or you can get 10 for £70 from Alibaba:

Lvco T320 Led Ebike Meters E Bike Display Waterproof Electric Bicycle Parts Lcd Display - Buy Lvco For Asian Market Electric Bike Lcd Display Led Cheap Price E-bike Lcd Display lvco Hot Selling Other Electric Bicycle Part T320 Led E Bike Lcd Display For E-bike Product on Alibaba.com

Lvco T320 Led Ebike Meters E Bike Display Waterproof Electric Bicycle Parts Lcd Display - Buy Lvco For Asian Market Electric Bike Lcd Display Led Cheap Price E-bike Lcd Display lvco Hot Selling Other Electric Bicycle Part T320 Led E Bike Lcd Display For E-bike Product on Alibaba.com

www.alibaba.com

How can anybody complain for £360?

 

[saneagle]

Nice.

The pedals look better than I would have thought for the price point.

Theye're just the cheapest pedals. Maybe the photo makes them look better than they are. That reminds me, the bearings were a little stiff, but I expect/hope that they're going to loosen up with use.

I also forgot to mention that the bike has a really good kick-stand that makes me jealous because I don't have one on any of my bikes.

Also, the forks are steel. That would be useful if you wanted to nick them for a front motor project, where you could swap the forks. These forks are not that good. I could see them flexing when using the brake. I had them on another older bike that was very worn out. Although they clattered when you went over a bump and twisted when you applied the brake, they worked fine over the 1000 mikles I tested them. These ones don't clatter yet, but probably will when they're worn.

 

[Az.]

Do you have another 36V Hailong battery? Could you check if it fits in Argos battery base please? I just wonder if it is difficult to find battery replacement.

 

[Nealh]

Batteyr replacement will be easy , they are generic so simply buy any battery with a integrated docking unit or upgrade all with a Kt controller system .

 

[saneagle]

Do you have another 36V Hailong battery? Could you check if it fits in Argos battery base please? I just wonder if it is difficult to find battery replacement.

It's a standard hailong battery with blade terminals. It has 4 blades, but I think 5 are more common, though I can't remember for sure, not that it matters because you can buy the connectors separately and swap them over:

hailong G70 battery discharging connector/socket 5 pin-Greenbikekit.com BBS, ebike batteries, Bafang M620, Bafang M600, Bafang M500, Bafang M510, KT controller with display-GreenBikeKit.com

hailong G70 battery discharging connector/socket 5 pins.

www.greenbikekit.com

Unfortunately someone else has the bike for testing now, so i can't check anything until next Friday.

 

[Ghost1951]

It is a great shame the motor cable was routed wrongly.As you pointed out, had this been handed over to a beginner in this game, which most of them will be, the machine would have failed in a few weeks because of water ingress or cable failure.

When you re-routed it, I suppose you must have had to cut off the cable ties and unplugged the motor cable, before putting it in correctly. That's a pain on a new bike.

Still - for the money - well worth it.

 

[saneagle]

When you re-routed it, I suppose you must have had to cut off the cable ties and unplugged the motor cable, before putting it in correctly. That's a pain on a new bike.

Still - for the money - well worth it.

It only took me a minute, as I already had the side-cutters out to cut the packing cable ties, but you're right. I know what I'm doing. It's always possible that anybody else could make the problem worse by trying to solve it, like cut into the motor cable with the side-cutters or not plug in the motor connector far enough

 

[Ghost1951]

I'm hoping mine will arrive on schedule tomorrow and that it won't need any cable re-routing or steerer shenanigans to get it going. Mine will be heavier and more clunky I suspect since the frame is steel and not Reynolds fancy light-weight tubes.

 

[throwawaychap]

It looks great value, and it's a nice looking bike too.

I can't wait to see what the £245 folder is like.

 

[egroover]

Thanks for the detailed review and pics @saneagle .
Mine is due for delivery on Thursday so I'm looking forward to setting up and testing.

But from your review it does look like a genuine bargain for the money. Glad a few forum members managed to nab one.
I missed out on the 245 quid folder, what a deal that turned out to be too

 

[egroover]

Mine arrived today, efficient service from Argos delivery team.

The bike was pristine, not a single mark or blemish and securely packaged.

Had to adjust the brakes, but gears indexed perfectly. The build was easy setup

I had the same issue as @saneagle where the motor cable was outside of the derailleur guard, however, when I unplugged and routed inside the guard, when the derailleur was in 7th gear then it was in contact with the motor cable. I was worried that this might lead to rubbing of the cable, so I have decided to place back outside the guard, but have angled the cable downwards by providing more of as loop downwards, so it's at at angle of about 45 deg, so I thinks that's sufficient to avoid water ingress.

I replaced the pedals and saddle from my parts bin as both were rubbish.

The side stand is a nice touch

My existing 20ah and 17ah Hailong batteries fit perfectly !

Might get some 50 mm rise MTB handlebars as the supplied are flat bars and a bit low for me. And some mudguards and that's about it, don't want to pimp it too much and add any more value to make it more appealing increasing the risk of some scrote taking a angle grinder to my d-lock when it's parked up at the shops or down the gym. The tyres I'll stick with until they wear out, they are fine too

Charged the battery and took it up some hills nearby, it goes very well in top speed mode, pulling well. Gears change smoothly. The brakes need bedding in and further adjustment as they squeak and braking modulation is rough. Not had much experience with cable disc brakes, all my other ebikes have got hydraulics, so have been spoilt. But they are fine for tootling about.

The forks are the weak point on this bike, they do pogo about, clunk and flex, but for what I'll be using the bike for, again they are fine.

There's a lot to be said for these cheap and cheerful ebikes, the attraction is the simple setup and cheap to replace parts if needed. It actually looks quite nice too !

I'm very impressed so far, for £360 it has to be the ebike bargain of the year (alongside the £245 Argos folder)

edit: forgot to add, I weighed it and it was 20.3kg

 

[Peter.Bridge]

edit: forgot to add, I weighed it and it was 20.3kg

View attachment 59375

Is that including the supplied battery ?

 

[egroover]

Is that including the supplied battery ?

yep

 

[Ghost1951]

yep

Glad you are happy with it.

I just weighed my £245 folder.

25.8KG!

Made out of a girder.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Glad you are happy with it.

I just weighed my £245 folder.

25.8KG!

Made out of a girder.

It feels like that weight is because its more overbuilt than many of its competitors which surely isn't a bad thing. Weight is less of an issue when you have assistance anyway. Admittedly it is still about 2kg over what I would expect it to be in weight but there must be a reason for that which likely is a good reason which makes the ebike stronger. The Decathlon version is 21.3kg but you can see how they have achieved that with a thinner frame, much weaker wheels etc, lower battery capacity etc.

 

[saneagle]

After one week and about 30 miles, my bike is still running perfectly. The brakes have bedded in, so work a lot better, but the front one still growls a bit.

 

[Ghost1951]

After one week and about 30 miles, my bike is still running perfectly. The brakes have bedded in, so work a lot better, but the front one still growls a bit.

Probably the same type as on my Argos folder. Noisy, but the other day when it got wet, it growled like a lion. People turned around in the street when I pulled up. The next day it was back to normal. Maybe the disk needs to get polished more before it will truly settle in. My folder has done about forty miles. I have kept a log book and used plota route to keep track so far - nuts or what?.

It might get better in time. We will see. I did have a mechanical disk brake on another bike and that one did get better, or maybe I just became accustomed to its noise.