I’m now the proud owner of an Alien Gents Special II bike. I’ve been looking at a lot of commercial E-Bikes for a while now and settled on the Alien as it seemed to fit my requirements the best IE: Be affordable with a good basic spec. and also have better hill climbing capability than my DIY E-Bike. Also, unlike my DIY bike it must be more usable without motor assistance. As much as I like my DIY version the direct drive and heavy motor has significant drag that makes unassisted riding a very unpleasant experience …
The Alien Gents Special II looks as good in the flesh as in the pictures…I liked the slide in battery idea with integrated rear light and the basic feature set. The design seems well though out with the wires running inside the frame and the exposed gear change wires housed inside teflon tubing. The paint finish is very good although not perfect (some small runs on the frame by the seat) post but the rest of the bike seemed up to scratch…there were a few marks on the handle bar head(?) and the rear mudguard is a bit deformed for some reason but other than that all seem OK cosmetically. The bike is much lighter than my DIY one and the frame seems to be made well enough.
I checked the bike over thoroughly and had to adjust the front and rear brakes and also the rear Derailleur as this was not aligned with the rear sprockets…in fact it looks a little bent and may have taken a knock in transit. The gear selection works OK though. The rear wheel runs freely but the bearings don’t sound like the highest quality… there’s a bit of a hollow grounding sound coming from them and it’s something I’ll need to look into.
The Chainset is nothing special and the chain ring doesn’t have a bash guard….something I feel should be fitted to all bikes so a bit of a black mark...The brakes are V brakes and I’ve not had the chance to go for a run yet but I have my concerns over them. There is a fair amount of flex in the calipers resulting in the levers having a sponge like feel to them, this I’m not used to and at the moment they don’t inspire any confidence, the proof will be in the riding of course so we’ll see if they are up to it. One item I am definitely going to replace are the pedals, they are not large enough and feel incredibly rough when rotated…
The front forks are a cheap affair with no preload or rebound setting and just 50mm of travel. They may prove worthwhile upgrading in the future but I’ll see how they perform on the road before condemning them outright.
The tyres are Kendals and the wheels black rimmed with black spokes, they give the bike a nice look IMHO. The front mounted Bafang looks neat and spun up instantly when I quickly tried it, the free wheel looks impressive….this was one area that I had concerns about after reading stuff on the forum and elsewhere but I can knock those concerns right on the head…this motor runs very freely, even more so than in the video on the Alien web site, it’s nothing like my direct drive motor on the DIY bike and simply moving the wheel by hand you can feel that there is virtually no resistance a good result! Both wheel s run true.
So far the verdict is a positive thumbs up….for the money it’s very good, sure there are areas where costs have been kept low as you would expect but it would not take much to improve those areas and enhance others to give a better feel and perhaps make the bike more reliable. Time will tell and I’m itching to get out on the road….but not in these icy conditions!
The Alien Gents Special II looks as good in the flesh as in the pictures…I liked the slide in battery idea with integrated rear light and the basic feature set. The design seems well though out with the wires running inside the frame and the exposed gear change wires housed inside teflon tubing. The paint finish is very good although not perfect (some small runs on the frame by the seat) post but the rest of the bike seemed up to scratch…there were a few marks on the handle bar head(?) and the rear mudguard is a bit deformed for some reason but other than that all seem OK cosmetically. The bike is much lighter than my DIY one and the frame seems to be made well enough.
I checked the bike over thoroughly and had to adjust the front and rear brakes and also the rear Derailleur as this was not aligned with the rear sprockets…in fact it looks a little bent and may have taken a knock in transit. The gear selection works OK though. The rear wheel runs freely but the bearings don’t sound like the highest quality… there’s a bit of a hollow grounding sound coming from them and it’s something I’ll need to look into.
The Chainset is nothing special and the chain ring doesn’t have a bash guard….something I feel should be fitted to all bikes so a bit of a black mark...The brakes are V brakes and I’ve not had the chance to go for a run yet but I have my concerns over them. There is a fair amount of flex in the calipers resulting in the levers having a sponge like feel to them, this I’m not used to and at the moment they don’t inspire any confidence, the proof will be in the riding of course so we’ll see if they are up to it. One item I am definitely going to replace are the pedals, they are not large enough and feel incredibly rough when rotated…
The front forks are a cheap affair with no preload or rebound setting and just 50mm of travel. They may prove worthwhile upgrading in the future but I’ll see how they perform on the road before condemning them outright.
The tyres are Kendals and the wheels black rimmed with black spokes, they give the bike a nice look IMHO. The front mounted Bafang looks neat and spun up instantly when I quickly tried it, the free wheel looks impressive….this was one area that I had concerns about after reading stuff on the forum and elsewhere but I can knock those concerns right on the head…this motor runs very freely, even more so than in the video on the Alien web site, it’s nothing like my direct drive motor on the DIY bike and simply moving the wheel by hand you can feel that there is virtually no resistance a good result! Both wheel s run true.
So far the verdict is a positive thumbs up….for the money it’s very good, sure there are areas where costs have been kept low as you would expect but it would not take much to improve those areas and enhance others to give a better feel and perhaps make the bike more reliable. Time will tell and I’m itching to get out on the road….but not in these icy conditions!
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