The Times seems to have discovered the electric bike!

Video review: Gocycle, the electric bike - Times Online

 

Edit - I see I was beaten to it by SEATALTEA in another thread. It is quite funny how amazed the piece is with the concept of pressing a button to get a boost from the motor.

Edited April 8, 200917 yr by lectureral

I was reading an article in the Times last week about this thing:

 

http://www.elementoneip.com/images/homeImage.jpg

Video review: Gocycle, the electric bike - Times Online

 

Edit - I see I was beaten to it by SEATALTEA in another thread. It is quite funny how amazed the piece is with the concept of pressing a button to get a boost from the motor.

The bike looks quite interesting as do many other newcomers,but is it any better than whats already available .

I was very dissapointed with the information given on the battery etc on the test,no battery type voltage etc were mentioned, or even the all important weight of the bike,also there was no estimate of its range, or other ebike options ,gocycle.com seems to have very little technical info available on the bike which also puts me off.

I was reading an article in the Times last week about this thing:

 

http://www.elementoneip.com/images/homeImage.jpg

 

I saw that article, it was the one after this strange phenomena:

 

http://www.haku.co.uk/pics/Fire.jpg

 

 

BTW, the Gocycle has a 250watt motor, I thought the UK legal limit on public roads is 200watts?

 

fishingpaul, the specs on on their website (I dislike entirely flash driven websites - can't copy text off them) say:

 

9Ah NiMH, controller is "Chip Tunable" with USB link, 3.5 hour for full recharge, EU mode = 8-20 mile range depending on pedal input, USA mode = 6-20 mile range depending on pedal input, race mode = varies depending on power band setting, 15mph max EU mode, 18mph max USA mode, 30mph+ race mode (depending on battery), no mention of weight of bike or battery voltage.

Edited April 9, 200917 yr by Haku

The Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative (a genuine worker's cooperative) are advertising them with a lot more detail here:

 

Gocycle (£1,197.99)

 

They also stock the Giant models from time to time:

 

Giant Twist Express Rs2 Womens '09 (£1,199.99)

Edited April 9, 200917 yr by rooel

Go-Cycle has clearly been on a PR offensive as there's also a fairly flattering write-up, albeit by someone who confesses not to like electric bikes, in the latest Velo Vision.

Edited April 9, 200917 yr by frank9755

There's a lot I dislike about the GoCycle, basically style over substance.

 

The brake levers are at a daft downward angle to allow the cables to run into the stem, and that makes them very awkward to access fast.

 

The three speed hub has wide spaced gears so limited and cannot be upgraded.

 

It's motor is very noisy and very low powered.

 

Range is short.

 

It has many folding bike disadvantages but is not a folder, taking far too long to dismantle for that.

 

The rims are poorly designed. Rigid wheels of that sort have long unsupported areas between "spokes" and the rim section should be deep for adequate strength. They are in fact shallow section and rely totally on large section soft tyres to protect them, but that may not save them from breakage if hitting a large pothole.

 

These wont stop it selling to those who buy style regardless.

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I saw the go-cycle in the Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative catalogue which recently came through my letterbox and was surprised to see it in there when there are far better e-bikes. IMO they would be better off (particularly with their co-operative ethos) becoming a dealer for Synergie/Alien (thus supporting a local Scottish industry) instead...

I agree, and their main warehouse near South Queensferry is just over the bridge from Inverkeithing.

 

The gocycle looks like a toy, and with no rack, useless either for touring or commuting. The Edinburgh Bicycle Coop catalogue describes, in relation to the gocycle, the experience of ebiking in glowing terms, but I am sure anyone who liked it would find my Alien motor powered Speed Tr much more serviceable in all respects, and would gain a far better experience of ebiking.

And funnily enough, I've just butchered my Alien Cruiser and installed the motor onto Edinburgh's Revolution Trailfinder. Fitted very easily and works like a dream.

These wont stop it selling to those who buy style regardless.

I can see it appealing a lot to iPhone fans who buy something purely because it's pretty.

Take off the blinkers chaps and chapess's.Ive met Gocycle and tried the bike ,theyre coming at the ebike market in a new and refreshing direction.There are better bikes out there for the money I agree.Most of you on here wouldnt be seen dead on a bike of this design.Its not about the small established ebike market,theyre trying to find a place in the brave new world.Yes,as mentioned ,the ipod users etc.Trendy city types who arent wanting to go up steep hills in Cornwall.Theyre going to throw a lot of resources at marketing this bike,I hope they succeed.Not just for their own sake but they will make the public more aware of electric bikes,some thing that other manufacturers are failing to do.It can only be good for the whole industy.

It's because we've got no blinkers on that we see all the design and application faults, the blinkers are firmly on those who buy this sort of thing out of ignorance.

 

However, I fully agree that it has a useful place in promoting the cycling and e-bike concept to a wider audience, but I also realise that's a double edged sword.

 

A few might realise there are better bikes and perhaps migrate to them, but many will just assume that's as good as it gets and give up the idea for good after a while. Many of the cheap and nasty Chinese shopper e-bikes have done this sort of market damage in the past. Once dissatisfied, people don't like taking a risk a second time.

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it was not that long ago I was a teenage boy; and I remember "solid spoke" type BMX's similar to this; these never took off presumably for the same reasons flecc mentioned.

 

Although most 20-30 something businessmen are unlikely to be trying many stunts; there are potholes in abundance in many cities...

 

TBH from experience of work colleagues (when I was in a more city/urban area) returning to cycling or taking it up for the first time the impression I got was that many trendy city types would either more likely buy the electrified version of something like a Brompton if it exists ; or if they felt the had been "forced out of their jam jar" by running costs go the "whole hog" and get a fast drop handle bar bike, lycra etc and ride like a London courier, enjoying much of the conflict as "asserting their place on the road" (provided of course they didn't crash!) to the point where many people (particularly pedestrians) would have preferred that they stayed in their motor!

 

That said if I was a 14-16 year old boy again this would be a cool toy; but obviously out of my price range unless I was a "courier" (and i don't mean delivering letters and parcels to offices!)

 

they should have brought this to market back in the dotcom days when people had more money to splash on frivolous items...

 

they should have brought this to market back in the dotcom days when people had more money to splash on frivolous items...

 

That's very true Alex, but it was conceived in much better times. I understand it's had a very long gestation of a few years with various revisions on the way. Velovision have had photos over the years of it in some of it's earlier guises.

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I think the Gocycle is really cool and something totally different from anything out there at the moment. It would definately appeal to image conscious city slickers.

 

You all should be supporting it, not finding fault as it would bring much needed publicity to the ebike market. No one is saying that it should compete with the other ebikes on the market, they are targeting a totally different type of customer with this bike so one shouldnt really make comparisons to other brands.

 

Also, there are pictures of accessories for the bike on the Gocycle website which look really cool. I think the bike is very stylish and would not rule it out until a test ride is carried out. Im sure it will suit the needs of many around town.

Edited April 11, 200917 yr by UrbanPuma

 

You all should be supporting it, not finding fault as it would bring much needed publicity to the ebike market.

 

No. If I supported it without observing the faults, I would just be misleading others. We're not finding faults, they're too glaringly obvious to need to be found.

 

Those who think this is cool will probably buy it regardless of what others say anyway, so where's the harm?

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No. If I supported it without observing the faults, I would just be misleading others. Those who think this is cool will probably buy it regardless of what others say anyway, so where's the harm?

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Maybe you should reserve judgement untill you've had a test ride! What you may not like about the bike may appeal to someone else. For example, I think the gearing is spaced out nicely and some people may prefer higher cadences which is certainly better for your knee joints than an extremely high top gear.

 

The Gocycle has some really nice features so why dont you point those out too!

Edited April 11, 200917 yr by UrbanPuma

Maybe you should reserve judgement untill you've had a test ride before pointing out faults!

 

Read what I said here and you'll see that 5 out of the 6 things I mentioned cannot be observed better through a test ride, so i don't understand the point you're trying to make.

 

The same is true of someone else's mention of no carrier or provision for one.

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The same is true of someone else's mention of no carrier or provision for one.

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If you had a look at the Gocycle website you would see there is a provision for a front and rear carrier, so i dont understand your point!

You've added to your reply while I was answering it, so here's the additional answer.

 

I've made no mention of cadences, but have been aware of the benefits of high cadences for well over half a century. My objection was to the ratio spacing and it was my opinion. You are entitled to yours.

 

My posting was about what I don't like about the GoCycle as I made clear at the outset, simple freedom of expression.

 

The only worthwhile advantage I can see is as a style icon, nothing else, so please tell me what I've missed in your opinion.

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If you had a look at the Gocycle website you would see there is a provision for a front and rear carrier, so i dont understand your point!

 

That was not my comment as I made clear, so I wasn't verifying it's accuracy. My point as stated was that a bike doesn't need to be ridden to see it has no carrier.

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The only worthwhile advantage I can see is as a style icon, nothing else, so please tell me what I've missed in your opinion.

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Well, there are a few things:-

 

1. The pitstop wheels are a great idea, easy to remove and would make repairing punctures and replacing inner tubes a breeze.

 

2. The slot for the battery, hidden out of view and easy to insert and remove.

 

3. Easy attachements for provisions of the accessories to the front and rear for storage.

 

4. The widely spaced out gears (for reasons i've expressed previously)

 

5. Sealed chain - no maintenance required

 

Overall, i think its a fun bike which looks great and would suit short journeys and and city use, but also can be ridden like a normal bike so maybe assistance and a long range would be totally unnecessary, in my opinion.

Edited April 11, 200917 yr by UrbanPuma

It's the worthwhile bit I mentioned that calls some of these into question

 

1. The pitstop wheels are a great idea, easy to remove and would make repairing punctures and replacing inner tubes a breeze.

 

One sided support does have advantages as the Mike Burrows designs show (Giant Halfway and 8freight), but without the disadvantage of those thin and fragile rims with their long unsupported sections.

 

2. The slot for the battery, hidden out of view and easy to insert and remove.

 

A very small low energy battery in consequence, so not the advantage it seems.

 

3. Easy attachements for provisions of the accessories to the front and rear for storage.

 

All bikes have those available in a huge variety.

 

4. The widely spaced out gears (for reasons i've expressed previously)

 

Knowledgeable cycling opinion differs, hence the multiple gears used on the most efficient bikes. I can't think of anywhere in the main cycling world where I'd find someone who thought wide spaced gears a benefit, quite the opposite.

 

5. Sealed chain - no maintenance required

 

Agreed, a benefit resulting from the new hub design.

 

Overall, i think its a fun bike which looks great and would suit short journeys and and city use, but also can be ridden like a normal bike so maybe assistance and a long range would be totally unnecessary, in my opinion.

Agreed again on the range, but not an advantage, just a valid reason for the range. It's normal bike efficiency will be inferior to good conventional designs though, so why design it this way? The answer is that this racecar engineer wanted to get away from conventional design as he stated. That's not the right reason for doing this in my opinion, a better reason would be to make the bike better, both as a bicycle and as an e-bike, not just to make it different.

 

Bikes have long needed an an enclosed, better and stronger chain and gear transmission and with the work and expenditure put into the GoCycle, the basis for a universal system could have been achieved, more gears and higher strength being important parts of that. The greatest failing with virtually all small wheel bikes to date has been the lack of an adequate range of gears and all manner of after-market efforts have been made to try to correct that. This could have provided the way forward, but I think the opportunity has been missed.

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Well, i still think too many people are fixated on high gearing for speed purposes but i think for those who are leisure cyclists the current ratios will be fine. The accessories are very stylish and you'd have a hard job finding anything that fits and looks as good as they are designed specifically for the Gocycle.

 

Anyway, in future i'd like to see more positive contributions about new bikes...in addition to the downsides - thats all!