Wisper Works 905SE Owner Reviews

Phil the drill · Jun 18, 2008

Wisper Works 905se

Reviewer: Phil

Purchased From: The Electric Transport Shop

Purchase Price: £1200

Time Owned: 3 months

Local Terrain: Very Hilly

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Strengths: Nicely made bike, well packaged for delivery and a 'quality feel' to most of the components. Rides nicely, changes gear very smoothly, and reasonably comfortable (might want to change the saddle though - that's down to personal preference and shape). Looks good. Battery capacity appears good, haven't yet tested it to the limit, so can't be sure of the actual range for me. Great for speed on the flat, especially using the 'off road' option.

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Weaknesses: Over geared for steep hills. Promax disc on the front is not great (weak, difficult to adjust, tendency to bind going up hills). The rear promax V brake is also pretty unimpressive. Brake cables as supplied appear to be made of bungee cord. Have to remove the seat post every trip to get the battery out to recharge. £1200 and no manual, or setup instructions! - shameful!!

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Summary: I do like this bike. I have only had it a short while, it is replacing a powabyke 24spd I had for several years. I wrote that bike off in a head on crash with a white van when I was tearing down a steep hill on a narrow country lane. Still, I've mended (unlike the bike) and I fancied a change. The Wisper looked good, seemed to have decent reviews, and I went for it.
It is great for my daily commute (8 + miles of vicious hill, both up and down, precious little flat), but I have had to cutomize it to suit. First, the downhills are long, steep and very fast - good braking is very important to me (sic!) so the promax brakes have been dumped in favour of an Avid BB07 disc and single digit v brake at the back. Cables were upgraded to decent Shimano's. If nothing else you MUST change those cables! Second, I changed the gearing, replacing the front 52t chainring for a 42t, and changing the hub gears for Shimano mega range 11t-34t (instead of 14t -24t). This has been great - higher top speed (slight), with lower hill climbing gears - it makes all the difference to those long steep gradients with 1:6 or greater parts in them (I live in mid Cornwall, in case you were wondering. Those in the know will tell you just how vicious those valleys are to cycle across).
Overall I really do like this bike, but cannot see the sense in making a relatively expensive bike, and scrimping on cheap additions like brake cables and calipers, and the lack of any setup instructions or a manual is really inexcusable, even if it it is reasonably simple to work out yourself.
One further issue - the bike is described as suiting people up to 6' 4". I'd take this with a pinch of salt. I'm just under 5' 11" and I need the seat post up very high in order to get into the proper pedalling position, virtually to feet off the floor position. For an inexperienced cyclist this would be scary, so note that the frame is a little cramped for those who are tall. If you're short however, it may well be ideal.
I hope you don't take this criticism as meaning it is no good. That is certainly NOT the case. Practically every bike made has faults, or items that won't suit all. I do like this bike, and with the modifications I have made, it suits me right down to the ground.

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Overall Rating (out of 10): 8 (but sort out brakes, and instructions and I'd give it a 9. Go for the altered gearing and we'd be nudging a 10, - and I'm a harsh marker!).

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Phil the drill · Jun 21, 2008

Wisper 905se

Reviewer: Phil the drill

Purchased From: The Electric Transport Shop

Purchase Price: £1200

Time Owned: Approx. 2 months.

Local Terrain: Very Hilly

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Strengths: Nicely made, good looking and relatively light in weight. Bike harware has a good quality appearance, and the adjustable bars and suspension forks are decent quality for a road based bike.
The charger is a very solidly made affair, with a definite air of quality about it. Charging for the high capacity battery is relatively fast, though not quite as fast as the 3 hours from flat implied - still good though. The battery appears to last well in distance terms, but I haven't tested mine to the limit yet. It will however get my 15st. up a mix of long (3.5 ml) gentle hills and shorter (still quite long though) 1:6 or more slopes, on a 17 mile round trip. Note I never use motor alone, always pedal. On anything other than the absolute flat (I hardly have any), motor only is of little use to someone my size. The off road option is great, although it does not work in pedal only mode, I use it, and add in pedal effort (quite a lot on the very steep stuff), and that helps considerably, especially on long moderate slopes.
Power delivery is smooth, and quite adequate for most tasks. I'm sure folks smaller than me will find it very spritely.

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Weaknesses: £1200 and no manual or set-up instructions? Shameful. It's not too hard to work this out, but still....
The claims that the frame will suit people up to 6'4" may be a little optimistic. I'm 5'11", and to get into the optimum pedal position I need the seat post up very high, almost to feet completely off the ground level, chiefly because the frame places the seat relatively far forward over the pedals, so potential buyers should try this out to be sure. Shorties may find this a plus point.
Now the real stuff...the brakes...ahhhhhhhh! Why are the levers attached to the brakes by bungee cord? Surely a couple of quid extra on decent cables could be spent. Levers go straight back to the bars with minimal pressure as soon as you use them, and cannot be tightened without the brakes binding on the wheel. Went straight out and bought some decent shimano cable and housing and replaced mine - make sure you do the same. Similarly I binned the vexatious promax disc at the front, and V brake at the rear and replaced them with an Avid BB07 disc, and Avid single digit V brake at the back. A big improvement, but if nothing else - do those cables!! I stress this as a result of my previous experiences (on my old bike) on steep downhills - see my introductory posting for details.
The hill climbing ability is fine if the hills are not over about 1:8, but lacking above this (even compared with my previous heavy old powabyke 24spd). Basically this is because the standard bike is over geared. This however can be addressed. I replaced the Shimano 14t-34t megarange hub with an 11t-34t one, also replacing the 52t front sprocket with a 42t one and reducing the chain length correspondingly (fit the chainring inside the crankset not on the outside, as due to the chain path it will constantly fall off in the low gears otherwise). This makes a terrific difference. The bike now has a slightly higher top gear and can actually go faster on flat or downhill, but all the other 6 gears get progressively lower than their predecessors. Result? major improvement in steep hill climbing as well as the flat. Please take note Wisper - why not consider doing this on future models?
Lastly, its a pity that you have to remove the seat post to take the battery out (unless you have the optional tilt seat) but this is not a major problem.

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Summary: Don't mis-interpret the above. This is a great bike as standard. The perfect bike for everyone doesn't exist. I like to give a constructively critical review however, and some of the imperfections listed can be easily and cheaply remedied. If you do this you can turn a basically very good bike into a great one. I liked the bike when it arrived. I love it now.

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Overall Rating (out of 10) :8.5 (as supplied). 9.5, with a little work, as above.

Phil the drill · Jun 30, 2008

Wisper 905se review

Reviewer: Phil the drill

Purchased From: The Electric Transport Shop, Cambridge.

Purchase Price: £1200

Time Owned: 2 months

Local Terrain: Very Hilly

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Strengths: Nicely built, solid and goodlooking.
High capacity battery.
Most components of decent quality.
Rides nicely. "Off road button" very handy at times.
Handles nicely.
Quick recharging, with a good quality charger.
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Weaknesses: Braking. Mainly due to poor quality very stretchy cables.
I found it overgeared for my area (very hilly), but I'm a pretty
heavy chap - about 15st), so that may not apply to everyone else.
Seat very uncomfortable, but again may be down to personal preference.
Supplied with headset bearings not properly tightened, and same for crankset.
Where's the manual?
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Summary: A great bike. I really look forward to my daily commute on it. It is growing on me more and more as time goes by. The 'off road' speed boost option is really useful at times when you want to crack on into a headwind on the flat. Unfortunately this setting does not apply to the pedelec mode (which I mainly use - I always pedal assist even in throttle mode). This is such a shame, if it could be wired to allow the motor to contine to assist up to 19mph in pedelec mode it would be great.
I found the brake cables very stretchy, and had to replace those. The braking improvement was dramatic. I improved this further by replacing the promax front disc with an Avid BB07 (they're the business!)
I found that changing the chainring from 52t to 42t, whilst also eplacing the 14t/34t hub for an 11t/34t one really helped. This gives me a slightly higher top gear, as well as some much better low ratios on the steep stuff (in other words a wider range of gear ratios than standard). To my mind this is ideal, but to be fair it is also a matter of personal preference, and others of different build and/or in a different area may find the standard gearing perfectly satisfactory.
The seat had to go, but then I've never bought a bike yet that couldn't be considerably improved by changing the saddle, and this again is down to personal preference.
The bottom line, if the bike was nicked, would I replace it with the same model? At the moment the answer has to be yes, definitely.
This is a bike that grows on you, the more you use it the better it gets. You could do much worse!
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Overall Rating (out of 10) : As standard 8.5. With proper brake cables 9.0, Supply a proper manual, and a minor rewiring of the off road boost, and we'd be at least 9.5, perhaps nudging a 10......How about it you chaps @ Wisper?

AndyB · Jul 3, 2008

Wisper 905 se First Impressions

Whilst I was considering buying an electric bike I found this website enormously helpful, so having just purchased a nearly new Wisper 905 SE I thought it might be useful to give some first impressions. I bought a second-hand 905 just over a month ago, it was nearly new with some improvements made by previous owner.

It would be worth me saying that I’m mid 40s with a sedentary job, so not particularly fit, although I do have 2 children! I purchased the bike with a view to commuting to work, 11 miles away with 2-3 small hills, maximum climb of 35m, an overall climb of 30m from work to home. I often have to carry my laptop home. My aim was to get a little fitter, but not arrive at work too exhausted, and, as my job is looking at low carbon technologies, to practice what I preach by reducing my carbon footprint.

I was hoping to have used it a bit more by now but travelling with work means I’ve only done five trips to work on it so far and some shorter excursions. I’ve had some interesting reactions in the bike sheds so far from “That’s cheating” from an ardent cyclist to “I think this is the future” from someone a little more farsighted.

Overall: I’m very pleased with my purchase, it does exactly what I want, my journey time to work is consistently 40 minutes and I arrive without feeling exhausted or hot and sweaty. My negatives below are really just niggles rather than serious problems.

Appearance: I like its looks very much.

Competition: As I live near 50 Cycles in Loughborough I took an Agattu out for a test run up the highest hill on my journey to work. Although it was probably better at hill climbing, at the end of the day it was out of my price range, and even the smoke damaged bargains were still over my £1k budget, and they were the Step-through frame which I didn’t really want.

Controls: Probably the most disappointing area. The biggest issue is there is no indication of which mode I was in or what to press to get to another mode. On my initial trips out it took a lot of experimenting to work out if the switches toggle or needed holding continuously. There’s no indication of which switches do what. The instruction manual was pretty poor too, in fact it said nothing about the controls. The green “derestriction” button seems to just turn the power down to a very low level, I can’t see any value in being in “restricted” mode given that it limits speed to about 5 mph (wiring error perhaps which seems to plague these bikes?). The pedelec mode is a little primitive, taking as it’s signal the speed of the pedals, rather than the torque applied (unlike the Agattu), and seems a bit slow to realise you’ve started or stopped pedalling. Therefore I tend to always use the bike in derestricted throttle mode as it makes me feel in control. Finally it’s too easy to knock a switch and toggle into a mode you don’t want requiring some experimentation to work out how to return it back to the setting you want.

Display: The speedo is pretty useless (only displays when power is applied, is very granular, is in kmh and is a bit dim). It would’ve been better replaced by a mode indicator. The battery indicator goes from empty to full, but actually seems to just indicate battery voltage. So under load, eg up a hill, the display lights drop but recover when the throttle is released. It still has value but something better that told you what was really left in the battery would be more useful.

Lights: A bit naff and tyre driven dynamo is quite a drag. Previous owner had added extras which is probably necessary for night cycling.

Speed and power: Very good, I find there’s no reason to drop below 15 mph, except for the steepest climbs when speed may drop to 10 mph for a short while. This is the main reason for buying it and it delivers well here.

Unpowered cycling: I wouldn’t want to do a lot of this, the weight and drag are significantly more than a normal bike, but that is to be expected.

Battery: It has sufficient range for my 22 mile commute. However towards the end of this the battery is dropping to 1/3rd on the display when under load and is therefore losing significant power, so I wouldn’t want to go a lot further. I have been charging it for 7 hours overnight (yes, I’m stingy trying to use Economy7 electricity for charging!). However I’m not convinced that’s enough because battery can drop in power quite quickly on consecutive days. I have an adapter that measure wattage so have found that most of the charging is done in the first 2 hours, after that it is a little trickle. An indicator on the battery about it’s state of charge would help.

Gearing: A little low, I may address this with a bigger front sprocket if possible. I never use 1st gear, spend 90% of my time in top gear and often find I’m pedalling uncomfortably fast when going downhill > 20 mph. Now those of you living in hilly terrain may disagree with this so I think the real problem is the lack of range from top to bottom, I notice another reviewer has had to address this.

Brakes: Previous owner had sensibly changed these so no complaints.

Looks: Very smart.

Frame: A nice sturdy frame. Saddle seems close to pedals, so optimising distance from saddle to pedals means having it very high off ground, and I’m only 5’10”.

Support: Not had to call upon this but found the answer to my question about warrantee validity a bit disappointing, looking for lots of wriggle room, whereas I think warrantee should automatically transfer with no problems. This accelerates depreciation a little.

Score: 8/10

wibble · Aug 15, 2008

Reviewer: me

Purchased From: The Electric Transport Shop

Purchase Price: £1200

Time Owned: 2 weeks, 18 minutes and 3 seconds

Local Terrain: Very Hilly

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Strengths:

It actually looks like a mountain bike!. This was the main reason for me choosing the Wisper.

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Weaknesses:

You've still gotta pedal quite hard to get up them steep hills.

It's quite a heavy bike and so I feel uncomfortable when riding rough trails. It feels like I could quite easily break something if I hit a rock at a bad angle. I reckon rear suspension is necessary for a bike of this weight when riding off-road. But then rear suspension would slow the bike down on tarmac. To be fair, this probably applies to all electric bikes. So please don't take this as a criticism against the Wisper.

The brakes are quite poor, but once again, I believe this is partly because of the weight of the bike. It just means having to break earlier and not blazing down country lanes. I really don't want to know what happens when a irresistable e-bike meets an immovable sheep.

The bike also seems to have an unusual amount of drag when going downhill. Considering the dodgy brakes, this isn't necessarily a bad thing!.

Mudguards are a little flimsy and both the front and rear mudguards were bent when I unpacked the bike.

The derestrictor switch doesn't seem to have any noticable effect.

The seat is a little chunky looking, but wow it sure is comfortable!. I've just replaced it for a more slimline stylish seat. I've not tested my new seat yet and I have a feeling I'm gonna end up going back to the original chunky seat.

My eyes vote 'Stylish' while my ass votes 'Chunky'. I'll let you know who wins.

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Summary:

Despite all the words I placed under the 'weaknesses' section, I'm quite happy with my Wisper. This is my first e-bike and so I had no idea what to expect. I was hoping for a little more power when going uphill, but overall it's great fun to ride. It literally makes cycling cool again.

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Overall Rating (out of 10) :

8.13

dodgyal · Sep 5, 2008

Reviewer: Alan (15 1/2 stone 6'3")

Purchased From:Wisperbikes Southampton

Purchase Price:£1200

Time Owned:1 week (120 miles on the clock)

Local Terrain: Flat a couple of long but not steep hills

Model: Whisper 905SE Sport

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Strengths:

Speed! I love leaving everyone behind, in de-restricted I can do a constant 18-20 mph with peddle assist and throttle

Battery life (22 miles assisted daily and still power left, that's de-restricted full throttle)
Build quality on the frame.
Comfy seat, wireless computer, lights and rack included.
Design, there are not many ebike that look good, this is the first one I've seen that looks right. Most ebike are like early DAB radios they all follow a rule about style and just dont look right, but the Whisper 905SE Sport has got it right. It is a mountain bike which has an electric motor!

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Weaknesses:
Brakes, just not good enough, spongy and don't stop you quick enough, I've tried adjusting them but it does not help.
Crank mi-shaping when I peddle hard and the left side fell off on the way home.

(good job its electric!)
Battery case poor, one screw on the case was not tight and very stiff to lift out, so stiff that I broke the handle lifting it out, I'm waiting for a replacement from Stuart at Wisperbikes Southampton (Update 19 Sept 2008, Stuart did a grand job and got me another handle within a week) , also there was some damage to the casing near the lock as if it had been pulled at while in the locked position or not moulded properly.
Headset, there is a lot of side-way movement from the headset and I'm not happy with that and I will be changing it.
Handle bar grip on the left comes off (the glue did not hold it) and the grips are not long enough for my hands.

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Summary:

I've been biking all my life, currenlty have a montain bike and a cruser.
This is my first electric bike and quite an investment at £1200, I'm very happy with the bike and I'm sure it will serve its purpose as a commuter doing 22 mile a day. I do feel whisper have some issues with the quality of some of the components, brakes, brake cables, headset, battery casing, grips and crank all need looking at by whisper and improvements need to be made to make this a truly world class piece of equipment. I think a lot of money has gone into the technology on this bike, the motor, controller and battery really do seem to be up to the job and in my opinion this is the first ebike to have the potential to be a replacement for the car. Well done whisper!

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Overall Rating (out of 10) : 8

Route Profile

Route

Mussels · Mar 3, 2009

Reviewer: Mussels
Purchased From: Electric Transport shop
Purchase Price: £1150
Time Owned: 6 months
Local Terrain: Flat through to steep Hills and offroad

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Strengths:
Customer service is the best I have seen in a long time. ETS and especially Wisper have worked hard to resolve all issues.
The battery is very good and I believe still the highest capacity on the market, the motor pulls well and over a good range of speeds.
It doesn't look bad and being black it doesn't stand out which is a nice thing when parking in London.
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Weaknesses:
Still a work in progress, there are some gremlins in the design and it may take some patience to get a good bike that suits you out of it. I think this will be the case with almost all pedelecs.
Lack of gear range - this won't be a problem for many but in hilly areas or city centres the ratio is too high, I dropped the chainring from the standard 52 teeth to 36 and it's much better for me.
Not a standard bike by any means, this can make servicing or upgrades difficult.
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Summary:
I like the 905se a lot, it is enjoyable to ride and comfortable. It can take me 20 miles to work with minimal effort from me or I can put in the effort and get a rewarding ride, my journey time is fairly constant even if I'm not feeling up to much exercise. I've done almost 5000 miles on it so far so and looking forward to many more miles to come, this beats sitting on the train by a long way.

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Overall Rating (out of 10) :8

joanna · Mar 26, 2009

Wisper 905SE city

Retailer: The Electric Bike Shop

Purchase Price: £1145

Time Owned: 2 months

Terrain: quite a lot of hills!

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Strengths:

It looks a good bike - I have impressed everyone at work, where I leave it with out the battery (it is in being charged) and no one realises it is electric. It keeps it's charge for a good long while, and makes it up and down lots of hills - I cycle 18 miles to work over the Chiltern hills. It is quiet, responsive, and reliable (so far).

There is the choice of 20 and 80% power, which can be useful for start up, though I keep forgetting that is what happens, and worry that the bike has stopped working! There is also a green de-restricter button, which gives an extra push. Once these are understood it is simple and easy to ride.

The saddle tips to get the battery in and out, it has decent panniers, stand, good lights (especially the front dynamo). The handle bars have a easy lever for moving their position which is useful if you share a bike with a much taller husband. The after sales service has been excellent, and the instructions on the new wisper website are good.
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Weaknesses:
An instruction manual doesn't come with it, and the instructions on putting it together were limited, however there are some very good downloads on the wisper website.

At first the pedal assist mode didn't work at first, so I contacted the Wisper guys, who were great and talked me through a process that was simple and works fine now. I cannot tell the difference between 6th and 7th gear, but I was sold it as a 6 gear bike, so that doesn't worry me.

The bike is excellent, but the bits it comes with could be better, especially for the price. The pump doesn't work well enough, and where it has been put means the saddle doesn't go down far enough for me to sit on. I had to take a hack saw to it! The cycle computer doesn't work (though I have not yet got round to seeing if I can change it), and the saddle is very uncomfortable. The tyres could be better, and both inner tubes came with faulty valves. None of this was exactly a big issue, but it is a lot of money!
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Summary:

It is an expensive bike, but it is fast, and powerful, good over most inclines and does the distance I need easily. I have not found out how far it will go, but can cycle for well over 2 hours (over 20 miles up steep hills) with no loss of power. Up very steep hills (in particular a 1 in 7 incline) it does struggle a little, but then so do I! I forget it is electric, and hardly notice the hills, which is great as there are a lot of them.

It has a few things to get used to. I have not come across the gear lever system before, but once I grasped it, I liked it, though I have on occasions turned off the power instead of changing gears. Oh and the power doesn't work if it is not plugged in or switched on (see the comment above re forgetting it is electric).

It is heavy - though lighter than most other electric bikes I have come across, but at the bottom of a flight of steps it still feels like a long way to carry it up.

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Overall Rating: 7 for it as is, but probably 9 with a better saddle, tyres, pump, cycle computer etc.

Tonyo · Oct 27, 2009

Wisper 905 SE City

Purchased: March 09
Retailer: Powarider, Woking
Mileage: 1500+
Rider: 14 stone fairly fit 50 year old

Having covered over 1500 miles I thought it was about time I reviewed the experience and the bike.

The wisper is used mainly for commuting to work (total 26 miles per day) for between 1 and 3 days per week plus some leisure riding at weekends with Angie my wife riding a wisper 705.

The ride is quite hard but the bike feels very strong, well balanced and as others have also reported inspires confidence on the road. I have a number of gradients on the route to work including a fairly steep hill on the way home and the bike seems to take this in it's stride I never have to change down below 6th gear although I do pedal quite hard.

The range of the 14 amp battery is superb. I can cover approx 20miles before the green light goes and this is on 805 power but not using the throttle. The bike comfortably will do two commutes to work (52 miles)between charge and still give quite a bit of assistance. I usually charge the battery each day.

The advantage of this bike is that I get to work still feeling refreshed, I get to see and hear birds, rabbits and other wildlife including deer on the way to work and I feel I am contributing to reducing my carbon footprint. Plus the biggest buzz that I get from just riding it. It is quick and has reduced my commute time to 50 minutescomparedto my normal MTB of 1 hour.

I have only had mior problems including 1 flat rear tyre, which I repaired with the wheel still in situ. A useless pump replced by one from Bike Hut and high wear rate on the front rim brake pads although I have never had problems stopping. I am now on my 3rd set.

Overall Impression

This is a great bike, it rides well is fun and delivers a great deal. Yes there are some minor faults but overall it is really good and well put together. It meets my requirements and provides me with a real alternative to the car for getting to work and one that I enjoy even in the rain. I rate this bike as 9/10.
Also ought to mention the great dealer back up. Steve at Powarider has always been very helpful and this further adds to the confidence in the product

Well done to David and all at Wisper

Tony

jasono · Jan 10, 2010

Wisper 905 SE Sport - 2009

Reviewer: Jason Owen

Purchased From: Top Gear Electric Bikes, Mountsorrel

Purchase Price: £1350

Time Owned: 4 months

Local Terrain: Moderate Hills

Background: I have been a keen cyclist for the past number of years, using my bikes for leisure, local trips and the occassional commute to work. I decided to purchase an electric bike to enable me to increase my bicycle use for both commuting and for mid/longer journeys, where I would have previously used a car. Plus, I have to wear smart clothes for work and an electric bike would enable me to cycle in these, rather than having to change when I got there

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Strengths: After test riding a couple of bikes, I plumped for the Wisper 905 SE Sport. The deciding factors for me were (in no particular order): price, positive reviews, ride quality, battery range and locality of dealer

I have owned my bike now for 4 months, during which time I have covered 600+ miles and have used the bike for a variety of journey. From communiting to a couple of 50+ mile trips
I am enjoying riding the Wisper, in fact I have used it far more than I initially thought I would and have hardly ridden any of my conventional bikes. So far it has proved 100% reliable and despite riding on salt/grit encrusted roads the finish is still excellent. The ride is comfy and being able to adjust the handlebars helps to tailor the riding position. I have read a few reports of the brakes not being up to it, which made me a little wary, but I have found them very capable. Perhaps initially they lacked a little bite, but after a little use they settled in very well
The delivery of the power assist is excellent, although to begin with I found the Low setting a little to low, but as I have learned to ride the bike more efficiently I have come to appreciate it more and more. The High setting gives real umph enabling the bike to pick up speed very quickly. The ride unassisted is okay, very smooth and free rolling on the flat, but through in a gradient and you can feel the additional weight of the motor and battery
Range wise, although the handlebar indicators seem to drop quite quickly, the actual battery range is proving to be excellent. I thought it would drop noticebly in the very cold weather of late, but it has held up well with no real difference
A quick word about the dealer - Top Gear Electric Bikes in Mountsorrel, Leics. They have been excellent, very helpful, and for me, are on my doorstep - being only a 5 minute walk away!

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Weaknesses: Being picky I would have liked a better quality, brighter front light. The one fitted is okay for being seen, but doesn't really throw enough light on the road during the dark nights of Winter to enable you to ride as swiftly as the bike is able
A medium power setting would also be handy, offering a useful compromise between range and power, particularly in more undulating terrain. I think Wisper are addressing this with their 906 model? Also an incorporated speed/trip meter would be a useful addition
Finally, a more reliable handlebar battery indicator would be useful. The one fitted is okay as a guide, but something like that which is on the batter itself would be great

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Summary: Overall, I am extremely pleased with the Wisper and cannot wait for the better weather to come around again so I can put a few more miles under its wheels. It has been everything I expected from an E bike and more some. As I mentioned earlier, since owning the Wisper, my other bikes haven't really had a look in!

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Overall Rating (out of 10) : 9 (10 if it came with a better front light!)

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__________________
cheers
Russ

sjoroveren · Aug 21, 2010

I have owned a "early 905 SE" for over 2 years now, and have a mileage of over 6000 Km at the moment.

My bike is one of the oldest that was produced so it had a lot of problems at the begins, as I described, and had to change the battery that did not work at all.
After many changes, the most important are a new Bafang BPM whit Ambrosi wheel and Aprilia spokes and new Avid brakes both front and back, and of course a decent seat the bike is another, much faster, there are not more broken spokes and it brakes sufficiently, of course the original levers are not good enough, as they are made for cantilever brakes, I should change with V-Brake levers, but I will lose the cut/off and with a 350 high torque BPM it is not a good thing, now the bike almost jumps if I press the pedals when stop.

The new battery is very good, I have at least 60-70 Km range using the bike in "off/road" mode, and it helps to 34-36 Km/h, with little help I can ride about 100 Km with the 14 Ah battery.
If the way climbs I can spare some minutes compared with my Scott racing bike, and that's not bad for a bike that with fenders, bags and lights is almost 30 kg!

I think the 905 Se could really be a good bike, if some parts were not so cheap ( it looks as a supermarket bike for many things) and if it was assembled decently, the biggest troubles come from the poor brakes that are not enough for a normal use on open way in Italy, and for the approximate assembly of the electrics wires, that I had to remake from start.

Anyway the frame is solid, maybe little small for people over 180 cm, and the back rack and fenders work as they should.
If it should be finished better and with better small components it would be a great competitor in its price range.

z0mb13e · Sep 15, 2010

Whisper Sport 905SE (2009)

Reviewer: z0mb13e

Retailer: Atmosphere Electric Bikes - Bristol

Purchase Price: £1450

Time Owned: Just over a year / 3000 Miles

Terrain: Moderately hill/Windy

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Strengths: Very solid build throughout, excellent customer service.
Powerful motor, high capacity battery. Throttle is really handy.

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Weaknesses: Tyre blow-out early on, but the other Kenda is still as good as the day it rolled out the shop.

Snapped spokes for the first 800 miles - lost about 8 spokes, 4 or 5 the first time (from around 150 miles to about 400), then trued wheel and lost 3 after another few hundred miles. Trued again and so far so good.

Bottom Bracket lets in sand. Over the first winter I had to replace bearings every few weeks. Fitted a few rubber O-rings and bearings lasted about 6 months. However the bottom bracket itself is now in need of replacement as it has worn off-centre.

Break pads (Tektro IOX) - not something you can get at your local bike shop, which is very inconvenient when a pad decides to leave the calliper unexpectedly.
Front Forks while solid, are prone to sticking. Currently the adjuster is locked solid in the middle. Not a massive problem, just a pain to have to rebuild.

Top speed in pedelec mode is lower than throttle (12.5 vs 15mph) which is annoying.

Noticeable drop in battery capacity/power after 12 months (Bike will still do 30 miles and more on a single charge, it just slows down a bit sooner than it used to).

Weight - the bike is heavy and not something you want to ride without power.

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Summary:Great bike and a great introduction is the world of ebikes. Perfect for the daily commute.

There are a few quirks and foibles that have been addressed with newer models (like the lack of speed settings, integrated computer etc).

Front Break pads last about 1500 miles, rear, about 800.

Front tyre is still the original Kenda, rear tyre is Marathon Plus fitted at about 80 miles.

Don't read too much into the fact that there are more weaknesses listed than strengths. For the most part the bike just works and that is what counts.

What should speak volumes is that this bike has gotten me to work and back almost every working day of the week for the last year and a bit come rain or shine, wind or snow, when I would have given up long ago and a normal push bike.

I have also reached the brake even point (compared to the cost of running the car) at 3000 miles.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Whisper to anyone looking for their first ebike. But expect to do basic bike maintenance regularly.

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Overall Rating: 8.5/10 (Would have been a 9 but for snapped spokes and break pads being a pain to find).
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