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Old 15th August 2008, 23:20
wibble wibble is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 65
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Reviewer: me

Purchased From: The Electric Transport Shop

Purchase Price: £1200

Time Owned: 2 weeks, 18 minutes and 3 seconds

Local Terrain: Very Hilly

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Strengths:

It actually looks like a mountain bike!. This was the main reason for me choosing the Wisper.


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Weaknesses:

You've still gotta pedal quite hard to get up them steep hills.

It's quite a heavy bike and so I feel uncomfortable when riding rough trails. It feels like I could quite easily break something if I hit a rock at a bad angle. I reckon rear suspension is necessary for a bike of this weight when riding off-road. But then rear suspension would slow the bike down on tarmac. To be fair, this probably applies to all electric bikes. So please don't take this as a criticism against the Wisper.

The brakes are quite poor, but once again, I believe this is partly because of the weight of the bike. It just means having to break earlier and not blazing down country lanes. I really don't want to know what happens when a irresistable e-bike meets an immovable sheep.

The bike also seems to have an unusual amount of drag when going downhill. Considering the dodgy brakes, this isn't necessarily a bad thing!.

Mudguards are a little flimsy and both the front and rear mudguards were bent when I unpacked the bike.

The derestrictor switch doesn't seem to have any noticable effect.

The seat is a little chunky looking, but wow it sure is comfortable!. I've just replaced it for a more slimline stylish seat. I've not tested my new seat yet and I have a feeling I'm gonna end up going back to the original chunky seat.

My eyes vote 'Stylish' while my ass votes 'Chunky'. I'll let you know who wins.


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Summary:

Despite all the words I placed under the 'weaknesses' section, I'm quite happy with my Wisper. This is my first e-bike and so I had no idea what to expect. I was hoping for a little more power when going uphill, but overall it's great fun to ride. It literally makes cycling cool again.

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Overall Rating (out of 10) :

8.13
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