Bikes Torq Wisper Giant Easy lit

Steve499

Finding my (electric) wheels
Apr 27, 2007
6
0
I tried out a Wisper 905e and this is what I found:

Yesterday 20th April 2007 I tested the Wisper 905e electric cycle on a trip into London. The ride was from Woodford, Essex to Whitehall, London SW1. Before starting I changed the saddle to a more comfortable one, added a speedo and the Pedalite pedals with the built in lights. Started at 5.20pm in the middle of the rush hour. Weather was quite warm, little wind. The route has quite a few hills and lots of nice straight bits. I only changed down from gear 6 to 5 once and that was for the flyover over the A12 near Mile End. The journey took me just under 55 minutes but I had to stop and quite a few traffic lights. The Wisper was wonderful, quiet, smooth, very comfortable, took the bumps and holes with ease, lots of power, very light and a joy to ride. The distance was 12.5 miles and my speedo recorded the average speed as just under 16 miles per hour.

12 hours later at 6.25am I made the return journey. It was a nice but very cold morning and with a bit of a wind in my face. I hadn't recharged the battery as I wanted to know the range. There was little traffic about which was nice. The cycle again was a joy to ride. The little charge warning light started to flicker at about 20 miles on a hill, then off on the straight. About a mile from my house the road starts going uphill, the yellow light was again now flickering, the last 600 yards before my road is a very sharp incline, the yellow light was now going crazy, but now on the straight only a flash and for the last 100 yards I used just the throttle with no peddling and it got me up to 14 miles a hour before I stopped. I was very impressed with the cycle. Total distance around 25 miles on one charge and it still had some power left. Return journey took 48 minutes which was on par with the 50 cycles Torq I had owned, also the range was about the same.

To add to the above, I have owned several electric cycles, first the Giant Lafree, then The 50 cycles Torq and then the Police bike The Power Cruiser.

The Lafree was a very nice easy ride, my brother has it now. I found it would not do, the distance I wanted,also was a little slow.

The 50 cycles Torq, a nice fast bike but mine was very dangerous, it did not like stopping, the journey into London took between 45 and 50 minutes. When you applied the brakes you received a lot of vibration from the front wheel or forks. Apparently there are a number of Torq's with this fault and the company are not sure what courses it. I did love that bike but after a car pulled out in front of me and I had to brake very sharply, it scared the death out of me also the vibrations knocked the engine out, and I ended up riding 7 miles on leg power alone and it was hard going. The back up services from 50 cycles was very poor, they had my bike back for repairs for over 3 weeks and when I phoned up to see if it was ready they had not even looked at it yet. (to be fair, apparently they are better now as they have taken more staff on). 50 cycles offered me my money back which I took.

I next got a Power Cruiser cheap on ebay, this bike is a large heavy mountain bike, so heavy it was hard to lift the rear up. This bike was a nice ride but heavy, I did the journey into London many times on this and it took around 1 hour. It didn't like bumps or holes and knocked the speedo out on each bump.

I also have tested the new 50 cycles ezee Liv, that also was a nice bike but if I was to go for a new one I would go for the Wisper 905e. The Wisper is very light, fast, comfortable and very importantly, the back up you get from the company. The company are very helpful, interested in what you have to say, give a good warranty, and they do want to help, they might be a new bloke on the block but they are worth looking into
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
52,760
30,348
Thanks for the report Steve499, very interesting from my point of view as a Torq and Lafree Twist owner. I take it the Torq was restricted as standard judging by the journey time you quote.

In fairness eZee have applied a fix to the front brake by the way, a change of lever make, type and brake setup implemented by 50cycles, supplied and fitted free to existing torq owners.
.
 

rsscott

Administrator
Staff member
Aug 17, 2006
1,398
193
Hi Steve,

welcome to the forum. That's quite a collection of bikes there!

As Flecc has stated, 50Cycles have taken remedial action to deal with those who have had problems, which to be fair is not everyone. My own Torq has been fine only exhibiting the juddering at new which was caused by myself not tightening the headset properly :eek:

It's good to see we have another bike on the block. The more we can encourage ownership of electric bikes, the more we all benefit as users, manufacturers and importers alike. Unfortunately each bike will have it's own set of issues but as long as we continue to have companies that listen to their customers and make modifications and improvements then it is a win win all around.

Are you intending to purchase the 905e? If so, a forthcoming review and photographs would be very welcome !

cheers
Russ.
 

nigel

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 18, 2006
467
0
Nigel

Nice one steve
i like the look of the wisper bike and its a bit lighter then the torq perhaps the quality not so good but its pleasing to the eye and no problems with the brakes it would need one more thing for me to be intrested and thats speed limiter switch for off road :D NIGEL