Woosh Krieger Review

[acm2000]

NOTE: Quick preliminary review of the Woosh Krieger e-bike after a 4.3 mile 20 minute shake down run, will update with a full review after running it in some more in a couple of weeks.

After making this video i went for another 5 miles 20 minute shake down in which i barely broke a sweat, however you do still feel the workout in the legs (unless you are super lazy and just use the throttle) and this is what i was hoping for to build up my muscle strength and fitness gradually.

Purchased this on Saturday at their store in Southend after trying out a few models, really really helpful staff in there who were eager to help in anyway they could.

The crank drive bikes require a bit more skill and thought while riding having to tap the brake before changing gears like a clutch and knowing what gears to use when, but the benefits outweigh this by giving you much more control over the speed and torque that the assist provides along with being much more efficient on battery usage.

The motor is really quiet (more so then the hub bikes) and with the massive battery this thing will go for miles and miles which makes it great for both commutes and bike rides. The 5 levels of assist vary greatly in the power they provide from 1 giving virtually no help at all to 5 requiring you to simply make the pedals move and it will fly you along, i found a good middle ground is assist level 3 along with the middle 3 gears which will take you anywhere you need to go bar the steepest of hills.

All in all, this thing Is fantastic so far and I thoroughly recommend going to either their store in Southend or the showroom in Cambridge to check it out or any of the other models they have.

250w TCM Brushless Chain Drive
8 Speed Shimano Gears
Topgun Front Suspension
Front Disc Brake/Rear V Brake
36v 15AH Lith-ion Samsung Cells
26" Wheels/18" Aluminium Frame
Kenda Kevlar Shield Tires
5 Levels of Pedal Assist & Throttle Control
Kingmeter J-LCD Computer
NCX Seatpost
Lishui 20A Controller

http://www.wooshbikes.co.uk/?krieger

In the UK the law restricts road legal e-bikes to 15.5mph/250w and riders must be 14 years or over, all e-bikes however are fairly easy to derestrict but this will both render your bike illegal for road use and usually void your warranty. The hardware itself is perfectly capable of not being limited (as seen in parts of EU and USA) but to be honest 15mph is more than enough for assistance especially up hills, if youre really struggling then slap it on assist level 5 and enjoy the ride.


NOTE FROM ADMIN:
To follow on from this initial review, ACM2000 has kindly given a fuller review after several weeks' use here: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/woosh-krieger-review.22174/page-2#post-279533'

 

[Tomtomato]

Good comprehensive review and video. Well done.

Regarding the bike:

• Seems to be indeed very cheap for a crank driven bike, and well equipped for the price (including the large capacity, 15aH battery)
  
• I haven't seen many crank-driven bikes with a throttle so that's a probably unique selling point. Surely, Bosch bikes or Kalkhoff ones don't have a throttle
  
• I think the integration of the motor, the massive battery and the controller could have been better (looks a bit bulky/wide). In my opinion, the Sirocco-CDL from the same company looks better (bigger frame and wheels, rear battery). I actually wonder why it's even cheaper (£110 less!)
  
• The brown transparent chain guard does not give a modern look (but then maybe it could be painted)
• Those tires look quite bulky
• It should have been possible to put disc brakes at the rear, even with the kick stand and the rear baggage rack. Many bikes combine those
• It's a shame there is no mechanism to cut off the motor while gears are being changed. The workarounds provided by the manufacturer don't seem to be intuitive
  
• The USB port on the battery seems an obvious addition. Shame many premium bikes don't have this yet

 

[acm2000]

• I'm not entirely sure how they keep their prices down on a crank drive bike with such a huge Samsung battery pack but it's great so far. Speaking to Woosh owner, Hatti, in the store saturday it sounds like they source all their components direct from manufacturers in china and then they are built there to their specs and shipped over to the uk by the container load thus saving them a huge amount cutting out the middle man.
  
• Indeed this is another fairly rare feature, before test diving I had read about CD bikes spinning the crank when using throttle which meant you had to pedal no matter what but after test riding I was pleased to see this isn't the case.
• The motor really doesn't get in the way at all, I have never hit myself on it and its right down at the centre of gravity meaning it balances the bike Nicely. The battery is part personal preference (i HATE rear rack batteries) and part for balance yet again, being in the v means the bike remains perfectly balanced where as rear rack feels like you have a small child riding on your back wheel.
• The Krieger replaces the sirocco CD with a much better, quieter and more efficient motor along with Samsung 2900mah cells (50 of them! seriously, you could kill an otter with the sheer amount of juice this battery contains and if that failed, you could smash its head in with the sheer weight of it) And a more powerful 20A controller.
• I agree the guard is a bit dated looking but easily replaced if needed and it serves its purpose, tires are ideal for UK weather let's put it that way lol but they aren't big tread off roaders.
• I agree on the gear change cut off but it's really not that much of an issue once you learn to just tap the brake (doesn't slow you down) the motor them cuts out for about 2 second like a clutch allowing you to keep pedalling and change gear.

I will make a couple more videos showing how quiet this motor really and test ride if i can work out a decent way of filming it without a gopro.

Good comprehensive review and video. Well done.

Regarding the bike:

• Seems to be indeed very cheap for a crank driven bike, and well equipped for the price (including the large capacity, 15aH battery)
  
• I haven't seen many crank-driven bikes with a throttle so that's a probably unique selling point. Surely, Bosch bikes or Kalkhoff ones don't have a throttle
  
• I think the integration of the motor, the massive battery and the controller could have been better (looks a bit bulky/wide). In my opinion, the Sirocco-CDL from the same company looks better (bigger frame and wheels, rear battery). I actually wonder why it's even cheaper (£110 less!)
  
• The brown transparent chain guard does not give a modern look (but then maybe it could be painted)
• Those tires look quite bulky
• It should have been possible to put disc brakes at the rear, even with the kick stand and the rear baggage rack. Many bikes combine those
• It's a shame there is no mechanism to cut off the motor while gears are being changed. The workarounds provided by the manufacturer don't seem to be intuitive
  
• The USB port on the battery seems an obvious addition. Shame many premium bikes don't have this yet

 

[acm2000]

done a quick dry run motor noise level video,bare in mind its without any of the normal bicycle road noises and the motor running full speed in 1st gear.

Have to admit i was expecting it to be a lot noiser.

 

[Kuorider]

you could kill an otter with the sheer amount of juice this battery contains and if that failed, you could smash its head in with the sheer weight of it)

Tarka doesn't like this.

 

[Tomtomato]

Have to admit i was expecting it to be a lot noiser.

Probably not too bad when there are other noises anyway (e.g. wind, road etc), but much noisier than a Bosch or Kalkhoff I am afraid... However, if the bike is new, the drive components probably have to bed in.

 

[Tomtomato]

If the bikes are made in China, as per Woosh's specification, and then shipped to them directly without middleman, then it does explain the low prices. However, it means they would also have the opportunity to sort a few small issues.

You are going to have to find a few drawbacks for "your" bike, else it is going to start sounding like an advert, given when you joined, how many posts you have made, and all the insights you seem to have about the bike details...

 

[JohnCade]

I think he’s just pleased with it and letting us know. Nothing wrong with that, some people post a lot more about their bikes.

I’ve never ridden this model but I did have a Woosh CD for a short time, and the gear changing is not a problem as long as you don’t try to change down on a steep hill. I found that just stopping pedalling for a moment stopped the motor enough to then soft pedal through the gear change which was done before the power kicked in again.

The one I had took a lot less effort to ride on hills than my Kalkhoff, and that’s one reason why I moved on from it to TS. I do want exercise as well as fun; and these speed sensor bikes are fun. This model has one of the most powerful motors you can buy apparently, and you don’t have to work the pedals to access the power. So you can see how it would appeal. Even if for me I prefer an e bike that rides like a bicycle and adds to the power you put in.

I’m glad the OP is enjoying it.

 

[acm2000]

did a commute to work this morning at last as the heavens have decided NOT to open, some cons so far:

handle bar grips are very hard so for long journeys would need to think about replacing with nicer softer ones.

8 gears is probably not enough if you plan on doing long journeys with little to no assist unless its pure flat roads as the bike is obviously quite heavy at around 25kg (battery is 3.2KG alone)

rear disc brake would definitely be a bonus along with motor sensor on the gear wire similar to the brakes so it cuts the power momentarily when changing gears

biggest complaint was that it got me to work too quickly so i ended up having a whole hour to kill! biked up to waitrose to get a free coffee and find something for lunch, added extra 1.6 miles to my journey lol

6ish miles (forgot to start MyTracks and then forgot to resume it after getting my coffee!), varying -18% to 10% hill grades, ave speed 12mph

 

[Tomtomato]

I think you forgot another issue from your list of "negative" points: the bike is so cheap that you have a spare £1,000 or so, and you don't know what to do with that money...

 

[acm2000]

well £889 IS cheap for a chain drive as youre looking at £1500 minimum usually, i was looking at the e-bikes cs2 hub drive bike for £650 but then recently i got £2000 of unexpected inheritance from my grandad who died before i was born so figured what the hell, take the plunge on a chain drive.

 

[Tomtomato]

I think he’s just pleased with it and letting us know. Nothing wrong with that, some people post a lot more about their bikes

Well, the usual pattern is for people to join the forum, ask some advice about various bikes, make a decision, purchase the bike, and then post some reviews with some positive points and some areas of improvements (as no products are ever perfect).

The first post on this thread does look like an advert, from a brand new poster, along with a video...on a bike that does not have many reviews yet. "Viral" marketing sponsored by Woosh?

 

[JohnCade]

Well, the usual pattern is for people to join the forum, ask some advice about various bikes, make a decision, purchase the bike, and then post some reviews with some positive points and some areas of improvements (as no products are ever perfect).

The first post on this thread does look like an advert, from a brand new poster, along with a video...on a bike that does not have many reviews yet. "Viral" marketing sponsored by Woosh?

They don’t need to do that because they get lots of coverage here as it is, and they wouldn’t anyway because they are a pretty straight company. Anyway trex is always here to recommend their bikes. Just teasing trex. You do recommend others sometimes.

 

[Tomtomato]

Well, I think it would be a smart and cheap way to do marketing. Many companies give free products to online bloggers etc. in exchange of reviews. Manufacturers do the same on Amazon (Amazon Vine programme).

I was expecting the OP to dispute such accusation straight away (there was some provocation), but he didn't.

 

[JohnCade]

Well, I think it would be a smart and cheap way to do marketing. Many companies give free products to online bloggers etc. in exchange of reviews. Manufacturers do the same on Amazon (Amazon Vine programme).

I was expecting the OP to dispute such accusation straight away (there was some provocation), but he didn't.

If 50 Cycles wants to give me a new Integrate I’ll praise it to the very heavens. But there really aren’t enough visitors to this forum to make that sort of thing worthwhile. Even if a company wanted to be sneaky like that.

 

[Tomtomato]

Me too. I would also if I had a significant discount on one (Tim, Scott? any offers?).

It's not just traffic on this forum that matters, but also SEO (and this forum is ranked high, so can provide some good link equity). The first post conveniently had a link to the shop/manufacturer page.

If people don't know what SEO stands for, then it's probably not relevant to them anyway.

 

[acm2000]

i can confirm i am in no way affiliated to Woosh but its the British way to be presumed guilty until proven otherwise. (do i need to post a copy of my receipt? paid £650 card/£250 cash)

as stated i was originally going to go for ebikes cs2 (or cyclotricity but was scared off by the sheer number of issues people seemed to have) but i did a couple weeks worth of research and decided i would need crank drive motor for commuting around the steep hills across Ipswich and after shopping around on google i discovered that it only really left me one option as i wasnt prepared to pay over £1000 for a bike.

since no one had done a review about this particular model i decided to sign up and post here as it seemed the best uk based ebike forum.

edit: also i can confirm the bikes electrics are waterproof, i however, am not..... and even worse now im sat at work soaking wet and the sun is out... *deep breath* fortunately Aldi have waterproof cycling gear in so screw you rain, wont get me next time!

 

[JohnCade]

i can confirm i am in no way affiliated to Woosh but its the British way to be presumed guilty until proven otherwise. (do i need to post a copy of my receipt? paid £650 card/£250 cash)

as stated i was originally going to go for ebikes cs2 (or cyclotricity but was scared off by the sheer number of issues people seemed to have) but i did a couple weeks worth of research and decided i would need crank drive motor for commuting around the steep hills across Ipswich and after shopping around on google i discovered that it only really left me one option as i wasnt prepared to pay over £1000 for a bike.

since no one had done a review about this particular model i decided to sign up and post here as it seemed the best uk based ebike forum.

edit: also i can confirm the bikes electrics are waterproof, i however, am not..... and even worse now im sat at work soaking wet and the sun is out... *deep breath* fortunately Aldi have waterproof cycling gear in so screw you rain, wont get me next time!

Keep on reviewing it as the milage goes up and don’t worry about the cynics.

 

[Nealh]

Yes agree keep posting ACM, some forumites are to quick to point the finger, I saw nothing sinister in your opening post. Usually reviews are posted after a good useage period but one straight out of the box gives other potential buyers good info. I have had very good dealings with Woosh with kits unfortunately their bikes don't quite appeal to me with the rugged looking build/design but the new Karoo is a bit different from their stable.

 

[acm2000]

Yes agree keep posting ACM, some forumites are to quick to point the finger, I saw nothing sinister in your opening post. Usually reviews are posted after a good useage period but one straight out of the box gives other potential buyers good info. I have had very good dealings with Woosh with kits unfortunately their bikes don't quite appeal to me with the rugged looking build/design but the new Karoo is a bit different from their stable.

the karoo does look very sleek, but im a short arse so with its big frame and big wheels i would look like im riding a penny farthing