[Phil the drill]

Reviewer: Phil the drill

Purchased From: The Electric Transport Shop

Purchase Price: £1200

Time Owned: Approx. 2 months.

Local Terrain: Very Hilly


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Strengths: Nicely made, good looking and relatively light in weight. Bike harware has a good quality appearance, and the adjustable bars and suspension forks are decent quality for a road based bike.
The charger is a very solidly made affair, with a definite air of quality about it. Charging for the high capacity battery is relatively fast, though not quite as fast as the 3 hours from flat implied - still good though. The battery appears to last well in distance terms, but I haven't tested mine to the limit yet. It will however get my 15st. up a mix of long (3.5 ml) gentle hills and shorter (still quite long though) 1:6 or more slopes, on a 17 mile round trip. Note I never use motor alone, always pedal. On anything other than the absolute flat (I hardly have any), motor only is of little use to someone my size. The off road option is great, although it does not work in pedal only mode, I use it, and add in pedal effort (quite a lot on the very steep stuff), and that helps considerably, especially on long moderate slopes.
Power delivery is smooth, and quite adequate for most tasks. I'm sure folks smaller than me will find it very spritely.

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Weaknesses: £1200 and no manual or set-up instructions? Shameful. It's not too hard to work this out, but still....
The claims that the frame will suit people up to 6'4" may be a little optimistic. I'm 5'11", and to get into the optimum pedal position I need the seat post up very high, almost to feet completely off the ground level, chiefly because the frame places the seat relatively far forward over the pedals, so potential buyers should try this out to be sure. Shorties may find this a plus point.
Now the real stuff...the brakes...ahhhhhhhh! Why are the levers attached to the brakes by bungee cord? Surely a couple of quid extra on decent cables could be spent. Levers go straight back to the bars with minimal pressure as soon as you use them, and cannot be tightened without the brakes binding on the wheel. Went straight out and bought some decent shimano cable and housing and replaced mine - make sure you do the same. Similarly I binned the vexatious promax disc at the front, and V brake at the rear and replaced them with an Avid BB07 disc, and Avid single digit V brake at the back. A big improvement, but if nothing else - do those cables!! I stress this as a result of my previous experiences (on my old bike) on steep downhills - see my introductory posting for details.
The hill climbing ability is fine if the hills are not over about 1:8, but lacking above this (even compared with my previous heavy old powabyke 24spd). Basically this is because the standard bike is over geared. This however can be addressed. I replaced the Shimano 14t-34t megarange hub with an 11t-34t one, also replacing the 52t front sprocket with a 42t one and reducing the chain length correspondingly (fit the chainring inside the crankset not on the outside, as due to the chain path it will constantly fall off in the low gears otherwise). This makes a terrific difference. The bike now has a slightly higher top gear and can actually go faster on flat or downhill, but all the other 6 gears get progressively lower than their predecessors. Result? major improvement in steep hill climbing as well as the flat. Please take note Wisper - why not consider doing this on future models?
Lastly, its a pity that you have to remove the seat post to take the battery out (unless you have the optional tilt seat) but this is not a major problem.

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Summary: Don't mis-interpret the above. This is a great bike as standard. The perfect bike for everyone doesn't exist. I like to give a constructively critical review however, and some of the imperfections listed can be easily and cheaply remedied. If you do this you can turn a basically very good bike into a great one. I liked the bike when it arrived. I love it now.

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Overall Rating (out of 10) :8.5 (as supplied). 9.5, with a little work, as above.