[johnl]

Reviewer: John L

Purchased From: Bird RV, Denver, Colorado

Purchase Price: $1195.00 (US Dollars) A little discount was given to me because I bought the 24 volt 250 watt Lithium-Ion model at a time when most people wanted the 36 volt 350 watt model.

Time Owned: Six months. Now have 622 miles on the unit (1000 kilometers). Used the kit for 800 kilometers on my RANS Formula V2 long wheel base recumbent. I've ridden 200 kilometers with the kit installed on an old mountain bike that I use for winter riding.

Local Terrain: Hilly. My 6.6 mile ride to work includes one thousand feet of climbing and 300 feet of descending. I climb 427 feet in the last mile of my trip to the office which sits at an altitude of 6300 feet overlooking Denver, CO.


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Strengths: Regenerative mode and regerative braking. Ease of use. Reliability. Hub rolls freely when unit not in use. Light weight. Adds about 15 lbs. to total bike weight.



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Weaknesses: Stick on styling highlight strip on battery case needed to be taped back on.



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Summary: This unit does exactly what I wanted it to do. It takes the edge off of the monster hill I have at the end of my ride to work. For the most part I use the electric assist at the lowest level to get up the hill. Then I run the unit in regenerative mode for most of the ride home. When I do this I can go indefinitely without ever using the plug in charger. If I wake up not feeling much like riding, I can always use the assist all the way to work. If I'm late, I can turn the assist up to the second level and get to work pretty quickly and then charge the battery when I get home. After 1000 K, the battery is still strong. I guess I should qualify that by saying that I've used the assist for about 150 K, and the unit as a generator for about 500 K, and the unit as just an odometer/speedometer for 350 K. Having the assist gets me more motivated to use the bike for my work commute.



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Overall Rating (out of 10) : 10