They do black as well, shown as an alternative photo on the individual product page. A sub-page says minimum order 10 bikes. The home page says 1 only!(except for the white frame, which I have an peculiar personal aversion to).
Must admit it doesn't bother me so much the idea you'd have to mess with the forks to remove the battery, provided that you can charge 'on-bike'. Does anyone know if this is possible ?
Alex,they are very difficult to communicate with...I managed to get a set of prices from them but cannot get an answer to simple questions,I was asking about 50 bikes mixed,they offered a 3 per cent discount.I wonder if this one really is sub-12kg and how decent the frame and forks really are :
http://annad.en.alibaba.com/product/1437861210-218567348/11kg_electric_road_carbon_buy_electric_bike.html
What exactly would it really cost to land one here ? Notwithstanding all the concerns, would really like to test ride one as for non-commuting "weekend use" use away from the local 'cols', without spending stupid amounts of money for branding the design itself is appealing (except for the white frame, which I have an peculiar personal aversion to). The Shimano 105 is the minimum gear set I would be happy with also on a bike of that sort. Wonder if it's genuine ?
Must admit it doesn't bother me so much the idea you'd have to mess with the forks to remove the battery, provided that you can charge 'on-bike'. Does anyone know if this is possible ?
I thought long and hard about the pros and cons of "building in" a battery on the Trek project and in the end it has proven to be absolutely fine. I've never had cause to take it out. You might want to for transporting - but not on a 12kg bike !
It would be good to see if the Keyde motors last the course. My only experience of them was hearing one whining with a high pitched resonance at the NEC show last year and seemingly having trouble cutting out !
should just point out that if you want to race on a road bike they have to weigh 6.8kg. For normal people just wanting to ride, road bikes can weigh a lot less than this, and not cost that much money. The 6.8kg limit is very outdated and most top road bikes have to actually have weights added to them to make them race legal these days.Flecc,remember that the batteries and motor weigh only about 3-4 kilos,so the bike ,less electrics,could weigh less than 10 kilos....Wiggo and his mates roar down mountainsides at 50 plus mph with a bike weighing only 7 kilos.
So in theory it should be possible to make a safe e-bike weighing less than 12 kilos (road bike) or 14 kilos (MTB bike).
Not ridiculous at all.I think that the idea that the frame won't be strong enough is ridiculous.
Thanks for that Flecc.........would you be happy spreading a carbon rear frame 5mm ?I've happily spread alloy rear frames far more than 5 mm Bill. You can either spring them apart that much to get a tight entry or overstretch them at greater risk to make the width increase set permanently. On large wheel bikes the risk to get a 5 mm permanent gain is small.
I've even changed tubes and tyres using frame stretch as shown here on this 26" wheel alloy frame, entailing an over 30 mm stretch:
I don't have the experience to say, but my instincts are to say no. Carbon forks and frames can be very rigid and unyielding, and when they fail they do so suddenly and catastrophically.Thanks for that Flecc.........would you be happy spreading a carbon rear frame 5mm ?
Exactly what I was thinking, so having had it confirmed, it's got to be a no no............not worth the risk.I don't have the experience to say, but my instincts are to say no. Carbon forks and frames can be very rigid and unyielding, and when they fail they do so suddenly and catastrophically.
With carbon you wouldn't be able to introduce a permanent offset, so the frame would be permanently in a distortion mode. That could easily set up internal stress fractures and eventually a sudden failure.
But as said, I have no relevant experience of doing this, so a question in a road bike forum could be a good idea to get some knowledgeable and experience based responses.
What's that supposed to prove? I notice that none of them broke because they had been converted to electric. Anybody can do a search of the internet and find details on broken frames on every kind of bikes. Frames break for all sorts of reason. Have a look at these:Not ridiculous at all.
It's all very well people quoting exotic road bike weights, but clearly they are unaware of just how common failures are. Road bike breakages are commonplace, particularly among the very light ones like these Annads. A quick search revealed these covering a few makes and three frame materials. There are plenty more but these show enough in photos and text. One owner in example 7 has suffered four failures, and a reply to him further down is from an owner who has suffered 3 failures, showing how very common broken road bike frames are:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
Example 6
Example 7
Broken frames are an exception on most types of bike and generally rare. What's proven beyond any possible doubt by the links in my post is that they are commonplace on lightweight road bikes to the point of normality. Just look at the last contributor to example 7, his experiences are frequent enough to be able to give predicted lives to road bike frames, you won't find anything like that in any other field of cyclingWhat's that supposed to prove? I notice that none of them broke because they had been converted to electric. Anybody can do a search of the internet and find details on broken frames on every kind of bikes. Frames break for all sorts of reason.
two slightly conflicting comments there.Broken frames are an exception on most types of bike and generally rare. What's proven beyond any possible doubt by the links in my post is that they are commonplace on lightweight road bikes to the point of normality. Just look at the last contributor to example 7, his experiences are frequent enough to be able to give predicted lives to road bike frames, you won't find anything like that in any other field of cycling.
,,,,,
I have neither the knowledge nor interest in suspension mountain bikes, though I would assume the suspension protects against the same level of failures.
I made clear that my mention of suspension was a guess since I have little relevant experience.two slightly conflicting comments there.
however I'm afraid, you're wrong with both really. In all aspects of cycling, designers are pushing to get the weight down, and the suspension does not protect against failure.
The drive is to make things cheaper, lighter and stronger, and as has been said many times... you can only pick 2.
You have to be careful drawing conclusions from any statistics. The reason they break might be because they crash more since they're often used for racing and riding at the limit of tyre adhesion.I repeat, the frame failure rates on very light road bikes are far, far higher than on any other type of bike.