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IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 14years old!
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RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
In exchange for a write-up I have been granted a week's use of an e-bike by Bikes For Refugees. It is an Orbea Katu with Bosch motor and 11-speed Shimano rear mech.
1) It is ugly.
2) This does not matter.
3) It is easy to ride.
4) Slap it in Turbo and it goes up Craighouse Road like a rat up a farmer's trouser leg.
5) I shall report on its effect on my commute. Stand by.
I rented one when we were in Harrogate, thinking I could follow my family up hills. but it rained so much i only managed to use it around town. Made me want to do more though.
Please also report on what it's like to do shopping and general utility gubbins on - is it easy to chain up, would you feel vulnerable parking it outside a cinema for three hours, would you still use it for quickly nipping to a post office before it shut when you might be generally needing to go faster than 15mph where the electricity wouldn't count etc.
@wingpig
Good call. It shall be so.
@wingpig, the one i use which is an old sit up and beg tank i sometimes just park without locking if nipping into the grocers on royal mile for a couple of `Mrs Unis Samosas. I do slip the battery out tho.
Similarly, if leaving outside cinema for three hours. I would take the battery out. In this instance I WOULD lock it.
You can get it up to about 18 miles per hour on flat but you are working against the flux capacitor then of course. So if your post office was on a completely flat TT stretch then the lecky bike would lose unless there was a strong head wind, then the lecky bike would win. Any uphill the lecky bike wins. Downhill you freewheel same as any bike.
In some ways the week thing is a bit short for a proper review. Sorry. The lecky bike is a winner short term for older folk taking exercise it is a no brainier. It should be a winner for getting out of driving a motor car. Should be.
You sort of need a 3 year long review. . What you need to consider is how many charges before replacing the battery (1000 is thought to be good) and how much bad behaviour (e.g. forcing it over the 15.5mph) will the batttery take. Will the battery conk out on you unexpectedly leaving a tank to get home et cetera. When the battery dies will you still be able to get a replacement et cetera.
I gave fake ID so the three year review is on. I shall ride it like I stole it.
Yes, i am liking this outlaw review
New Street is great for accelerating up away from cars, drivers cant work it out
Allowing roadies to draft you up hill is a laff
like a rat up a farmer's trouser leg
Should have worn his nicky tams.
I look forward to the review. Arriving at work not sweaty would be a plus for those without workplace showers or lockers.
@cyclingmollie - i use the council one to get to meetings during the day. Talkes same time but i am more efficient as not changing into civvies in the bogs before the meetings. Not sweating.
I shall be monitoring Strava for suspicious KOMS.
I shall be monitoring Strava for suspicious KOMS.
I think you can save your monitoring for something else Iain! IWRATS won the "least likely to use Strava" award at the CCE awards last year.
Had a full suspension e mtb a few weeks ago for the day. It was fast! Made climbing almost as much fun as descendents.
In an semi related incident I've been off the bike since with a cracked rib...
I am considering a ebike for my commute, there is a gtech I seen with a belt drive, the works looks like it would be ideal. But I'd also quite like a new mtb.
Glitches to date:
1) They forgot to give me the key for the battery
2) They forgot to give me the chain mandated by the insurance
Therefore Strava KOM will remain unmolested for the moment.
@gembo: "how much bad behaviour (e.g. forcing it over the 15.5mph) will the batttery take"
I'm not aware that riding at over the motor cutoff speed has any tendency to cause battery damage. Do you have any references for that assertion?
My understanding is that, at least on the Bosch system which is what IWRTAS' trial bike is fitted with, it mechanically disengages the drive from the motor if it senses that you are exceeding the cutoff speed. (Riding my Bosch-equipped eMTB at around 25kmph you sometimes hear a noise that sounds like a clutch mechanism hunting between being engaged and disengaged.) That also means that you're not fighting against an unpowered motor when pedalling the bike at speeds above 25kmph, or trying to push charge back in to the battery (which is what your post seems to be suggesting). The extra weight of motor + battery is still noticeable as soon as you hit a gradient, or try to accelerate smartly, though.
There does seem to be this idea that as soon as you reach 25kmph on an e-bike you hit a brick wall where the system actively works against you. That is absolutely not my experience of more than 12 months riding my eMTB. Pedalling at speeds significantly in excess of 25kmph on the flat is perfectly possible, though obviously not as much of a breeze as when you have a push from the motor at lower speeds. So you notice the loss of assistance, but only in the sense that you're then riding a heavy bike without the electric tailwind.
To IWRATS' point about turbo mode: I recently had the firmware on my Bosch system upgraded to the latest version and it feels like turbo mode - which was always "lively" - now acts almost like an on-off switch: if you put any effort in to the pedals at all then the motor kicks in at full chat, rather than the more subtle graduated input-torque-sensing assistance you get in the other modes. It's great for demolishing long, straight, boring hills but not at all easy to control if you're on nadgery ground like a switchback climb at a trail centre: put a little bit more oomph through the pedals at the steep apex of a tight hairpin bend - which is a fairly instinctive thing to do - and you're likely to find yourself heading rapidly towards the scenery.
@IWRATS: "They forgot to give me the key for the battery". Doesn't this mean that you can't recharge the battery? It would on my eMTB: the same port on the battery pack is used for connecting it to the bike, and for charging.
@ejstubbs
Just so. I cannot charge it and I cannot park at the shops therefore I am on the SUNLIT Uplander today.
@ejstubbs
My evidence is one single salient exemplar of what happens to me. Reference Gembo Does An E, Journal of Nonsense (2019)
THe e-bike is older, non-Bosch - there is definitely resistance rather than disengagement over the 25kmh
There definitely was resistance pedalling against the motor once I exceeded the assist limit on the eMTBs I've ridden on holiday over the last few years (this year it was a Haibike SDuro Hardnine 3.0, with a Bosch motor).
The drive definitely wasn't disengaging - but then again perhaps these bikes use old Bosch motors that didn't do that?
I'm well-pleased with my new Boardman ADV8.9e with a Fazua drive though - it definitely disengages, and the drive pack (motor and battery) can be dropped out to remove the additional weight if you fancy riding it around unpowered like a normal bike.
There's a definite speed limit on the Katu at 25-26kph. I think it's just down to the big fat tires on small wheels and me suddenly finding myself in a tall gear without mechanical doping.
My work have acquired an extremely underutilised electric folder as one of the new pool bikes. To save it from neglect I might sign it out for a business trip to Orkney next month. Not as my primary means of transport - but to see how it handles the train / ferry / b&b transition, and for wider experimental site visit purposes. Not sure about the ridiculously wide saddle they have on it mind...
@darkerside has just tweeted some average times taken over several weeks of use on commute south of Glasgow.
https://twitter.com/Darkerside/status/1183724738641911811?s=19
@iwrats - I think the only downside is fear of buying the 'wrong' model. In real terms most upright e-bikes used on a road with mid-drive (Shimano/Bosch/Yamaha etc) will save time on a commute and carrying extra luggage isn't a worry. On longer commute the need for rider to change and refuel is less.
@threefromleith - Boardman bike is new to me - more a Sportive machine though that you would expect to ride fast, with or without assist. Looks very integrated. Drop bars mitigate wind resistance with motor on low setting or off and will save battery. Recumbent bike can remove 30% of this above 15mph etc
Like having 100w of extra power. On a 250w motor that's a huge saving - only available factory fitted on reclined trikes so far.
I just take this to mean we haven't yet discovered his Strava nom de plume
@iwrats, bust 25kmh, then drop down gears, if still fighting, you got resistance
@iainmcr, just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean you aren’t paranoid
@Iain McR
Noms de guerre on Strava.
I'm betting it's STARWI
Just to chip in on Point One, I thought the Orbea Katu quite pretty in the pastel colours. It's got a pleasingly utility aesthetic, like an everyman (non-folding) brompton, I think. Edinburgh Bicycle were selling a visually similar model a year or two back by B&M, iirc.
@gembo: "THe e-bike is older, non-Bosch - there is definitely resistance rather than disengagement over the 25kmh." Maybe so, but I was primarily questioning your suggestion that pedalling over 25kmph could damage the battery. The fact that resistance might be felt doesn't mean that the battery is going to be fried. Basically, it's the first I've heard of it.
I can believe that older systems didn't disengage the motor when pedalling over the EAPC assistance limit. I can imagine that it would actually be rather more compicated to arrange for front and rear wheel drive systems to disengage the motor. But it's still not clear that this would damage the battery. I've yet to hear or see any warnings or horror stories to that effect.
@ejstubbs, from the same paper that I reference, the battery is fried. The battery used to conk out if you reversed the bike when the battery was on etc. Error messages, stopping to reboot etc.
Basically these issues are n older models and you have a newer model Happy days.
I thought the Orbea Katu quite pretty
Designed by Paolozzi I expect.
One thing I've wanted to ask about some eBikes - I think Bosch motor ones? - is that the chainset doesn't appear to be very big.... is there internal gearing some where that steps the ratio up - I ask as I don't do spinning, I'm a low rev slogger!
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