Hi ….I'm considering buying a GTECH ebike, available at the moment with an extra battery for £995.
I'm currently using an Oxygen and in the last 12 months I've notched up 4000 miles,
over 20,000 miles in the last 10 years over 9 ebikes……
but at 79 years old I'm not as agile as I once was and it is too heavy for me,
I was considering buying the Oxygen step through but that's £1450 and weighs considerably more than the GTECH (16kg)...why does my Oxygen weigh 10 kg more ?.
Who's got a GTECH ?..you happy with it ? ...any comments appreciated
any advice appreciated.....Mike
Hi Mike,
I just bought a GTECH ebike as it was on a reduced offer and they also threw in some other extra goodies. Although it is a great bike, I've had to send mine back - it may be fine for others, but was not the bike for me. In fairness, they took it back without any problems, so I can't fault the team at Gtech.
This is my first ebike experience, and I did the non advisable thing and just jumped in with both feet without doing any research, primarily due to the good offer by Gtech. In fairness, I did find it difficult to find balanced reviews for the bike, as people seemed to love it, but didn't say much about it.
So.... I got this to help me cycle around very hilly West Wales. I was wary about the single gear, but had read somewhere that it is still fine for going up hills.....Well; it is up to a point. Moderate hills (apologies but I have no idea steep these were - typical A Road type of hills - the kind of hills that I could happily get up using a normal geared bike, but it would be slow and hot work), these were fine. What tended to happen was that I would cycling nice and fast on a flat, then found that I had to slow down a lot and loose a lot of momentum until the motor sufficiently assisted. It then did assist, and the ascent was reasonable and I must admit, quite good fun. For anyone interested, this was the road from New Quay to Llanarth in Ceredigion.
I then, free wheeled back down all the way into New Quay harbour (around 3 miles) and cycled back up Church Street. Now, Church Street is a steep hill (maybe 1 in 10 in places), and whilst I made it up to the top, it was out of the saddle serious effort all the way up, or I would have stopped. Very hard, and I fear many people would not have managed it (I am 46 years old and reasonably fit).
After Church Street, I went up Penrhiw Pistyll, this is a steep hill outside of New Quay. It is one of the steepest hills I know, and I always get a sweat on, when simply walking up here. I would guess that it's around 1:10, perhaps a tad steeper in places, but I simply could not get the Gtech up it. I had to stop and once stopped there was no way I could get going again!
So after I had walked up, I continued up to Maenygroes, slight uphill and around 1 mile and the bike was sublime on this and really enjoyable. I then took the B road towards Llangrannog and did the 3 miles to Peapod junction, going up and down a couple of steep dips and inclines on route - again, the last one I only just made it and was out of the saddle (Aberto Contador style) side to side and really putting in a huge amount of effort but made it.
I then cycled to back to New Quay and the battery ran out on the way back. Luckily, it was flat and downhill by this time, but even so I was amazed that the battery ran out from full in just 1 hours local cycling around New Quay West Wales.
I think, the bike would make a fantastic commuting bike somewhere like London, where the hills are only moderate. I would go so far as to say that the bike is almost perfect for that role (In my younger days I cycled 20 miles a day in London and this would have been heaven). What it is clearly not good at is going up very steep hills on minor back roads like in my area. I think this is primarily the downside of the single gear system. Usually the electric motor compensates more that enough (like accelerating from traffic lights), but it just doesn't have enough power to get up these steep hills and without being able to change down a gear I simply couldn't get up (note that my failed hill called Penrhiw Pistyll, I can climb on a low gear on a mountain bike, but it's obviously very hard work - I say this to try to give some context).
So, on the plus side - great looking bike, quite light, good fun on flat and moderate hills, and loved the carbon belt in lieu of chain. On the downside - can't get up steep hills, battery runs out quickly in hilly areas (1 hour's cycling). There is also a design fault in the battery remaining display, in that when cycling due to the angle you can't read the lcd display. This was primarily why I ran out of battery. I was far away from home when I got off the bike to look at the battery level and was shocked to have around 10% left - If I could have seen it whilst cycling I would have turned back earlier.
Seeing as my primary reason for getting an electric bike is to manage to get up the very steep hills in my area, the bike clearly did not suit and had to go back. I am now seriously increasing my budget and thinking of going for a crack drive motor that can really benefit from different gears, but this time I will properly try them out. Thinking about a Volt Infinity, which I suspect will suit my needs, but admittedly, it is 3 times what I paid for the Gtech, and will also try the Volt Pulse X to see how the hub with gears manages. No real idea which will be best and I would hope that both would get up my Penrhiw Pistyll hill, but have learned that I have to properly try them out to see.
I hope this helps in terms of the Gtech, as it is the sort of thing which would have helped me in my initial decision.
