Very lightweight e-bikes
- Thread starter Kudoscycles
- Start date
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!
I'm quite sure it will have a charging socket on the bike, almost certainly in a frame tube.
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.
So I thought maybe bring 6 over to review...so far no reply.
Most Chinese suppliers want 30 per cent in advance,40 per cent prior to production,then 30 per cent against bill of lading.
Therefore,early in the negotiation process you do need to make a judgement about the company....most Chinese companies are honest but I have had some who have held my money for 12 months before shipping.
I will reserve judgement until I have met them-if they are not at the Shanghai Cycle Show then I would be disappointed.
I think they make all bikes to order.
KudosDave
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 The 6.8kg limit is very outdated and most top road bikes have to actually have weights added to them to make them race legal these days.
http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/08/the-6-8kg-limit/
But on the other hand the Green Jersey in last year's Tour de France was won by Cannondale's Peter Sagan riding the Super Six Evo. The lightest form of this pure race bike is 6.95 kilos so no added weights necessary. 
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
Last edited:
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.
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.
Exactly what I was thinking, so having had it confirmed, it's got to be a no no............not worth the risk.
Thanks for your input.
Bill
The boys on a bike forum I frequent, were discussing life spans of various bike fram materials, the general off the top of the head opinion was that Carbon would not last, but there were several people with 20+ year old carbon frames still going strong and a couple of references to the carbon frames lugged with aluminium stating that the aluminium failed not the carbon.
Having said that I know of a rider clamping his new carbon frame in a bike carrier to tightly and it broke in half on the next ride.
The flip side is I have seem photos of an aluminium bike that the rider clipped the top tube getting on causing a tiny dent it also failed on that ride.
If you are really paranoid there is only one frame material, steel preferably CroMo.
Having said that I know of a rider clamping his new carbon frame in a bike carrier to tightly and it broke in half on the next ride.
The flip side is I have seem photos of an aluminium bike that the rider clipped the top tube getting on causing a tiny dent it also failed on that ride.
If you are really paranoid there is only one frame material, steel preferably CroMo.
D
Deleted member 4366
Guest
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:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=broken mtb frame&newwindow=1&rlz=1C1ARAB_enGB522GB522&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=2QUVU-eVNIKShgf2wYDADA&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1152&bih=620
Old carbon frames are quite different, to the stuff produce in the last few years.
You need to pay attention to the weight limits on frames and carbon wheels.
If you only have 100kg limit you need to be light yourself and then the stuff you add on must be light.
Carbon is a directional material, it does not have in bike applications multi load considerations.
I would not put electrics on a carbon road bike frame. But the mtb frames that's where its at.
Carbon rims I would stay with 32hole spokes front or rear if driven.
You need to pay attention to the weight limits on frames and carbon wheels.
If you only have 100kg limit you need to be light yourself and then the stuff you add on must be light.
Carbon is a directional material, it does not have in bike applications multi load considerations.
I would not put electrics on a carbon road bike frame. But the mtb frames that's where its at.
Carbon rims I would stay with 32hole spokes front or rear if driven.
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
The comment that none were converted to electric isn't relevant, the point is that if they break so easily when unpowered, adding any additional and/or undesigned for stress can increase the likelyhood of breakage.
I've followed the road bike and road race scene for many years and have two close relatives, brother and nephew, who have been heavily involved in it, the latter still is. My warning on the Annad bikes is based on knowledge of how marginal the safety factors are on very light road bikes and their very high failure rates.
As I made clear earlier in the thread, I'm only speaking of the unsuspended road bikes. I have neither the knowledge nor interest in suspension mountain bikes, though I would assume the suspension protects against the same level of failures.
D
Deleted member 4366
Guest
Up 'til now, there's been no reports of Annad frames breaking. If you look at the frame (seat tube). It says "Superior quality", so it's better than the ones you showed. Therefore, no need to worry.
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.
flecc probably meant that you would fit the motor to the suspension fork if your bike has it, then there is no reason to think that the frame would fail.
Going back to very light weight e-bike, it seems that carbon frame and carbon forks are necessary to keep the weight down, then the obvious solution is to hide the battery in the seat tube and fit a crank drive (like 8-Fun BBS01) to the bottom bracket. Motor + battery weigh about 6.5-7kgs, a 15kg bike can be built for about £1,100 without any performance degradation.
Going back to very light weight e-bike, it seems that carbon frame and carbon forks are necessary to keep the weight down, then the obvious solution is to hide the battery in the seat tube and fit a crank drive (like 8-Fun BBS01) to the bottom bracket. Motor + battery weigh about 6.5-7kgs, a 15kg bike can be built for about £1,100 without any performance degradation.
I made clear that my mention of suspension was a guess since I have little relevant experience.
It's facile to pretend that bike weight reduction efforts are similar for all bikes, they clearly are not. It's on the lightest road bikes bikes that they are pushed to the limit. I repeat, the frame failure rates on very light road bikes are far, far higher than on any other type of bike.
D
Deleted member 4366
Guest
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.
Related Articles
-
MTF Enterprises announces acquisition of EMU Electric Bikes- Started by: Pedelecs
-
Wisper 806T folding bike wins Which? ‘Best Buy’- Started by: Pedelecs
-
Sustrans calls for protected cycle lanes- Started by: Pedelecs
-
Amazon launch their first UK e-cargo micromobility hub- Started by: Pedelecs
