What's new?

[Seanoge]

My Wife has a 2014 Freego bike....it still performs well.........If I bought an E-bike today...what would be better about it....10 years on?

 

[thelarkbox]

Not knowing the 2014 Freggo bike and too lazy to google, probably not a lot, possibly better hydraulic brakes, perhaps a bit of a nominal upgrade in the gearing, up to date colour scheme/design? but if the 10yr old battery is getting tiered, your best bet is probably just to get a new battery

 

[Seanoge]

1 possibly 2 changes of Battery already......

 

[saneagle]

My Wife has a 2014 Freego bike....it still performs well.........If I bought an E-bike today...what would be better about it....10 years on?

The Freegos were pretty good bikes with reliable motors. They're a little on the heavy side and they have crappy speed control controllers. You can make them much better by a relatively simple controller upgrade. A KT controller costs about £80 with its LCD. It gives a much better control system that makes your bike feel like a new bike. At the same time, you can get a new battery. If you're happy with the power, you can stick with 36v, but if you could do with a bit more hill-climbing, you can go up to 48v.

The best time to do any upgrades is when your battery gets a bit tired. If you like the bike, an upgrade makes more sense than replacement.

The controller upgrade requires a bit of wiring and soldering to connect some of the wires the right way, or you can replace the throttle and pedal sensor to get ones with the correct connectors.

The problem with replacement bikes is that modern ones have more bespoke components, which can be a problem in a few years time when something needs to be replaced.

Everything on the a Freego is fairly standard, so there are many other upgrades you can make to achieve whatever characteristics you want on a bike.

 

[Seanoge]

Sorry, forgot to mention, it's had the Controller upgraded. Freegos were super bikes....the 2014 bike has very little rust on it...Looks like new. I bought a 2018, s/h, same model, still looks like new. I found a 2012 Freego on eBay for a friend.....and she's pleased as Punch with it .My original post was asking "what innovations have there been in the last 10 years"?..............not much it seems

 

[thelarkbox]

You can buy a backlight thats 'smart' and can detect slowing down due to braking and shine a bit brighter to emulate a brake light..

Other than bleeding edge sports enhancements and an eventual trickle down I think that about sums it up

 

[Nealh]

The only real innovations are generaly cosmetic, built in or semi built in batteries and controllers , component upgrades mainly hydraulic brakes other wise very little bar may be some design tweaks.
The mid drive bikes seem to get uglier and uglier with their huge bulbous crank designs, these and other drive bikes have gainied some phones apps to make them work .
Intregrated battery bikes also looking very ungainly with a huge diamond frame diagonal but at least most of these uglier looking modern bikes are easier to notice.

If you are happy with the Freegos Hawks or other Freego models with upgraded control systems then don't be in to much of a hurry to change them as they will likely out last most of the modern ones.

 

[AndyBike]

Probably a bit lighter. more alloy components than steel ones - stem, bars.s/post, better brakes as standard.