[Andrew.r.w]

Model/Year/Version:

PL-350 / Aug. 2006 / 2.2

Bike:

20" Mountain bike, hard tail, no shocks.

Rider:

100kg., carrying laptop and change of clothing.

Time Owned:

4 weeks, used 8 times (236km)

Local Terrain:

Hilly. 15km downhill to work, 15km uphill home. About half the trip is 8% grade.

Strengths:

Excellent power and light weight compared to most electric units.
Does not upset the essential character of the bike.
Easy install, great user experience. Simple, sensible, natural.

Weaknesses:

Expensive. You need a good business case to justify the purchase.
When the battery is dead at the bottom of a hill, it's a load. Pretty much limits the use to commuting. For leaving home in the morning and riding around all day it's a drag unless you have time and places to charge it during the outing.
See below for my trouble report (warranty replacement).

Summary:

As others said, it does what I expected of it. It lives up to the expectations as laid out by the promotional material, and the distances and capabilities are accurate. High praise indeed! I really think this is a terrific product.

I would give it a 10 but ... read on:

I bought my kit from a local "dealer" which is a home-based business. I took the kit away and installed it myself. Then after 8 days' use the motor hub died. It stopped pushing and made a rather disturbing grinding/clicking noise.

I called the dealer, who was very helpful; he gave me BionX's phone number.

The number turned out to be a fax so I faxed a letter explaining what happened and describing a few little things that seemed to lead up to the failure. The BionX people were terrific. Each of the 3 people I dealt with were helpful, professional, intelligent, and prompt. They quickly assured me they would take care of things and get me back on the road.

I was asked to take the unit back to the dealer for shipping (he was supposed to handle the whole affair in the first place). I had already packaged it, but they wanted him to be responsible for the packing and shipping. Good! Now it's on the way back to BionX.

No shop bats a thousand, and anything can break down, so I'm not worried or losing confidence in BionX. I just want mine back so I can install it on my new bike!

The one stipulation is they want me to take it to a different dealer for installation. One fellow said it shoud be installed by an authorized dealer. That was the first I'd heard of that. I explained that it was sold to me as a kit, that I figured it was a do-it-yourself thing, and I'd read about lots of people installing their own. They agreed, but still they want me to have a dealer do it.

I don't mind. I understand that after the first one failed they want to make sure it's done right. I know my installation was good. I followed the instructions to the letter and it went on easily. No forcing anything or struggling. It worked first time, and it ran fine for 236km., still I understand their concern.

So now it remains to be seen what comes of this. Will they turn it around quickly? We'll see. I'm betting they will.

I had a couple of other small issues with my system. It was often difficult to get it to start charging. I often had to try several times to get it to go, but it always worked eventually. I don't know if it was the charger or the battery.

Sometimes when powering up a hill the system would just cut out for several seconds. I told the dealer about it and he said I was probably just fading out so the system would back off, but I paid careful attention and it really was just cutting out. This behaviour got worse over the last few days of its life and I think whatever was causing it ultimately caused the death of the system.

Anyway, like I said earlier I still have total faith in the BionX and the people there. They handle this warranty like they have handled things so far and I'll give them a 10/10.

Andrew.r.w
N53° 54' W122° 41'
Canada