Your views on Trek electric bikes.

Hi....I'm looking to buy another e bike and I had a 10 minute try out on a Trek.

It seems that there are 4 power modes, I set off in top and was amazed at the burst of power in this mode, much better than anything else I've tried but I suppose there is a price to pay in terms of range in useing this mode.

 

I thought that the Trek pedalled much easier without power than anything else I've experienced.

Presently I'm riding a UM44S U Sprite and in terms of comfort it is better than my 2 previous bikes, Wisper and Powerbike X6, but I feel that it is lacking in power, certainly compared to mode 4 on the Trek.

 

The dealer claimed that the Trek battery is Lithium Ion where as my UM is, he claims just Lithium....older technology, he says and hence poorer in terms of power.

 

Anyone have first hand experience of Trek or indeed any views.

 

Thanksfor any and all opinions....Mike

All lithium batteries are lithium-ion Mike, there's great confusion about the various terms. All the following are lithium-ion batteries:

 

Li-ion cobalt

 

Li-ion manganese

 

L-ion compound cathode

 

Li-ion iron-phosphate (also referred to as LiFePO4, the chemical formula)

 

The word additions above all refer to the cathode material(s) used.

 

Any of those can be polymer construction, sometimes called for short Li-poly.

 

The consumption of the BionX motor on level 4 is very high indeed, you pay dearly in terms of range, so it's best kept for steep hills. Levels 1 and 2 are best for normal use.

 

The Trek BionX models are good bikes and those in here who have tried them have been impressed.

.

Edited May 7, 201115 yr by flecc

Cheers for that Flecc....most informative, thanks.

The non-electric Trek bikes are very good indeed and I think are a good bike for fitting a kit too. So I'm not sure I would buy their electric version but look at adding a quality kit from the likes of eZee or Wisper Daahub...

Cheers NRG....when buying a kit, is the motor already stitched into the wheel ?

thanks....Mike

Yes, See the eZee PDF here: http://www.ezeebike.com/eZee%20Conversion%20KIT.pdf

 

Forum member Aldby will soon be able to supply these and the Daahub will be available from Wisper in the next few months.

I have a Trek mountain bike and a Trek road bike as does my partner Jannie. My in laws both have Treks as does my brother in law and his wife. My 2 nephews both bought new Treks on Friday.

 

As you can see we are a Trek family. They are really good bikes for any occasion.

 

However. When I looked at the Trek electric bike I was really surprised at the weight compared to other electric bikes. I may have been having an off day but the rear hub motor is huge and the bike seemed to weigh more than my 65cc motorbike.

 

The other thing was that it did not look modern. They may perform perfectly well but to me it seems that they have jumped on the bandwagon a bit too soon without thinking of esthetics.

 

It is only my opinion, but I like my bikes also to look good and the Trek electric bikes just do not do not for me. I am leaning towards Wisper bikes now.

 

Steve

Cheers for the link NRG...just 'goddit Energy

 

Thanks Steve, all a matter of opinion I know but I think the opposite, I have a Wisper...looking to sell it,

I don't appreciate today's "modern" look, I dislike the style almost as much as I dislike the style of the Juicy bikes.

 

To me the Trek e bike looks the same as bikes have looked like for decades..."if it 'aint broke, don't fix it"

...as for being heavier than a Wisper or other e bikes...just not on, I know they are not "lightweight" but they are certainly no heavier than most other electric bikes and that's a fact not an opinion

 

In fact one thing I didn't like about the trek was the thin wheels/tyres which I imagine helps to keep down the weight and I wondered if it would be practical to fit 1.75 Swalbe Marathon Plus Tyres.

I did that on my current bike and I'm much happier with them...had to change the mudguards but so

 

I'm quite willing to consider other brands and I know Wisper are incredibly popular and I wouldn't want to knock them but unfortunately they just don't do it for me.

 

....thanks for the input....Mike

Hi

 

If you want a small light motor kit at £415 + delivery

 

look at the Sunlova kit They do 26 inch rims and 700C rims

 

there web site is not working properly at the moment I think they are updating with new product

 

They are near Birmingham

 

There have been some good reports on this forum

 

Sunlova Product Page

 

Frank

I test rode the Trek before finally settling for the E-motion Sport Max. The problem with the weight is that it is very badly distributed with the motor and battery over the rear wheel - it makes the bike feel quite heavy and of course the bike crashes and bangs over all the humps and bumps. Other users are willing to put up with this but I couldn't. Also the battery is not big enough. You are right there is plenty of power and the motor is unobtrusive when un-powered - there is perhaps a bit of shunting when the motor gets to the cut-off point. The normal bionx kit has the battery in a better position and it is a bigger capacity as well but you pay a hefty price for that. If you really like the bionx why not give the Kalkoff a try at 50 cycles - you will want to get your choice right but again it will cost you (not as much as the bionx kit though)

Cheers Frank...not at all sure I possess the necessary skills to fit a kit...best left to the experts I think

 

Thanks Harry...at one point I did fancy the Kalkhoff pro connect but It's more than i'm prepared to pay,

...and I'm thinking it's heavier and impossible...for me...to pedal without power.

 

....Mike

Mike I think Harry was talking about this....A Kalkhoff bike with BionX system

 

http://www.50cycles.com/product.htm?product=kalkhoff-image-b27-bionx

Edited May 8, 201115 yr by eddieo

No I wasn't thinking of the pro-connect (which incidentally is very easy to pedal without power) but this Kalkhoff Image B27 BionX Electric Bike of course to get the right bike for you might mean having to pay a good price and the bionx is expensive.

 

PS really having trouble posting on the new forum!

Amen to that! having real problems navigating and having to constantly refresh etc.....A real pain!

I curently use a Trek Fx + so i am slightly biased but i did try lots of bikes before. In my opinion it really does take a lot of beating but i will cover the points raised first. As for weight, they have to be one of the lightest electric bikes on the market at 18 Kg, out of the main stream bikes they are indeed very light. I do agree the balance is not as good as i would like but once moving you would never know, i personally do not find any crashing or banging, exact opposite thats why i went for the Trek very quite and screwed together well. I test drove the wisper along side the Trek and sorry if you like the wisper but i just found it far too agricultural and the motor noise was just too intrusive. The bionx system is completely silent and very little drag without the motor. The one main plus is the range of frame sizes, i really do not know how any of the other electric bike manufacturers can be take seriously offering one frame fits all!

 

Now the down sides, the battery is a lower capacity but as i said before the Bionx system is so efficient it makes the best of the smaller battery. But on saying that its still a small battery and the range is compromised. If you use level 1 and level 2 you could easily gat 20 + miles but to be honest you would need to be reasonably fit to achieve a hilly journey on these settings. Level 3 is a great compromise and really offers a good help but the range is down to 15 -18 miles but you can get away with not being too fit. Level 4 is as you say very strong but the range really suffers and you could drop as low as 8 miles if you just kept it in 4 but you would use no effort at all. I commute about 40 miles a day and need to charge the battery at work as my commute home has a 12 mile uphill gradient and i struggle at the end.

 

The marathon plus were are surprise they just fell on with no effort and they are great.

 

as for looks, the fact that it does not look like an electric bike is a big bonus for me. In fact look at reviews for the FX 7.5 and many reviewers think the bike looks good. A small photo is shown below.

 

Forgot to add, do not underestimate the Trek warranty, they are obsessive about good customer service. When i had a problem with my bike both Edinburgh Electric bikes and Trek were fantastic. The bike was sent to trek fixed and returned in about 5 days, now thats customer service.

 

 

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20915414/Trek.jpg

Edited May 8, 201115 yr by overlander

I have a Trek mountain bike and a Trek road bike as does my partner Jannie. My in laws both have Treks as does my brother in law and his wife. My 2 nephews both bought new Treks on Friday.

 

As you can see we are a Trek family. They are really good bikes for any occasion.

 

Steve

 

Hi Steve

 

Hope you dont mind a non pedelec question in response to the above...

 

I`m about to buy a new non elec bike and have been looking at the Trek range. The FX7.2 has caught my eye as a reasonably priced hybrid, however, the FX 7.5 does look tempting. I`m wondering if I would notice any real world difference between the two once I have fitted mudguards and rear rack and am carrying some supplies?

 

Have you experience of either in your Trek family of bikes?

 

All the best

 

Bob_about

Overlander,

 

I agree, choice of frame size, Trek warranty/dealer network and normal bike looks/components make this attractive.

 

But, how do you find the controls? When I tested one of these, I found the concealed switches and toggling through the power levels awkward. I imagine it's even worse with gloves. Or do you just get used to it?

Been looking at similar bikes like this as well, the choice is vast. Trek are good and on my list then there's Whyte, Cube, Cannodale, Ridgeback.....

Hi NRG, at first they are shall we say not very intuitive, you do feel as though you have to concentrate to change power levels. After time it does get a lot easier but with gloves on it is more awkward and if they are too thick you can turn the bike off by accident ! But as with anything you do get used to it and over time you do not think about it so i guess they must work as i do not notice it any more. But using the regen mode from the console is a waste of time, in fact i recokn the whole regen is a waste of time but guess does no harm and it does save on brake wear and tear.

Thanks. That confirms my opinion - it just didn't seem practicable to toggle through the regen levels back to power at the bottom of a hill. No doubt experience would make it more useable.

...surely re-gen is activated by the brake lever or was on the one I test rode. You only use the re-gen on the panel if you want do some training or something for which I agree is a ridiculous feature.

Yes the regen works when you pull the front brake, just touch it before the pads contact and you are on 200 % regen. It does slow you down fairly fast but you still do need the brakes so do make sure they are still working ! I find i use the regen about 80% of the time it just needs a bit of forward thinking.

Cheers NRG....when buying a kit, is the motor already stitched into the wheel ?

thanks....Mike

 

Just to follow up on NRG Mike, you see more of the eZee kits here Gallery - Cyclezee Ltd

 

I will have stock within the next week.

Thanks everyone for your contributions to the thread, It has however thrown up so many questions and other options I'm no longer sure about the Trek.

I'm not sure about the too thin wheels and I don't like the regenerative braking thing.

 

I'm thinking that I'd like to know more about the E-motion Sport Max and the Kalkhoff pro connect.

...'gonna try to fix up a trip to Loughborough to find out more.

 

...again many thanks.....Mike

Thanks everyone for your contributions to the thread, It has however thrown up so many questions and other options I'm no longer sure about the Trek.

I'm not sure about the too thin wheels and I don't like the regenerative braking thing.

 

I'm thinking that I'd like to know more about the E-motion Sport Max and the Kalkhoff pro connect.

...'gonna try to fix up a trip to Loughborough to find out more.

 

...again many thanks.....Mike

 

Yes, come to Loughborough, we're likely to have a Kalkhoff Image B27 with the 48V BionX system on hand too, the first ones arrived today.