As I said, I believe that the problems are/were deeper than just a motor fault.
They were indeed much deeper, commencing to my knowledge with a case of appalling service for a customer on their doorstep in Loughborough who had bought a pair of Sparta e-bikes from them. That was the first of a pattern over the years of taking on many makes, then abruptly dropping them and not giving adequate subsequent service.
In 2007 there was a bitter row with Ezee Kinetics, maker of the Ezee pedelecs which they were the UK agents for. In fairness that started with a major problem with the Phylion batteries the bikes used which caused 50cycles big customer problems during the long period until January 2008 when Ezee had sourced a battery able to deliver the high currents their bikes demanded.
By then though the two companies had parted and 50cycles had adopted the Kalkhoff brand, hitting the jackpot with two excellent models for that time. Sadly though Kalkhoff later dropped the very reliable Panasonic motor in favour of the home grown in Germany Daum motor which they branded the Impulse.
That first series was reasonably reliable but didn't compare with the power of the newly launched Bosch motor, so the Daum Kalkhoff partners upgraded the power and software functions of the motor, branding it Impulse 2. That turned out to be a mistake, making the unit very unreliable and subject to very early mechanical failures.
Kalkhoff didn't handle that well, failing to give an adequate response to their agents like 50cycles, in turn bringing out the worst in 50cycles as they struggled against an impossible situation of huge numbers of failures and inadequate backing from Derby Cycles gmbh, the Kalkhoff brand makers in Germany. Eventually Kalkhoff belatedly agreed a rolling two year warranty, meaning it transferred the two years free replacement to each and any replacement units indefinitely, but by then the number of infuriated customers were too great.
Again in fairness Kalkhoff and 50cycles did introduce Bosch and other power unit alteratives, but coming to those late when they were already in high demand elsewhere meant nowhere near enough of them. With hindsight both firms should have shrunk business to what they could get of those, but sadly they carried on persisting with Impulse 2 and the later Daum Evo sales as well.
As far as both companies are concerned, I'd say caveat emptor (let the buyer beware), since both have proven that they cannot always be relied on to give adequate service.
For 50cycles that is very sad, since they have been valuable innovators in the e-bike market. They were the first to bring good quality folding pedelecs here in 2002. Also in 2002 they were the first to bring in a high quality Lithium battery on an e-bike.
In 2004 they were the first to bring in really powerful moderate weight e-bikes, and in 2005 the first here with a high speed S class e-bike. But of course innovation brings risks and they suffered accordingly.
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