Kalkhoff Agattu C8 Impulse - one for the hills!
In short: The new 8 speed Agattu Impulse is definitely better than my 3 speed Agattu with the Panasonic motor on hills, and gives a slightly faster overall average speed on mixed terrain circuit. I am strong enough only to need the higher gears, but an infirm rider looking for just very light pedalling exercise would probably make more use of the lowest gears at lower speeds. It has a neat, light battery which will give excellent range, and ought to provide a 5 year service life. The rest of the bike looks and feels like it will last forever. The comfortable, upright riding position and the low step-through frame suits me perfectly. If I were younger, I might choose a more streamlined riding position, but at the age of 70 I much prefer to sit up so reducing the strain on the body, and the motor easily overcomes any wind resistance.
Background: one year's experience with a Kalkhoff Agattu C3 (Panasonic)
Before describing my test rides of the new Agattu Impuse I will describe my one year's experience of ebiking in order to explain what I need out of an ebike, and the baseline I am judging the new bike against.
One year ago I was experiencing my first ride on my brand new Kalkhoff Agattu which I had chosen because of the reputation of the brand and its Panasonic crank drive for reliability and hill climbing.
The hills I sometimes encounter have slopes up to 13%. However, a lot of my use of the bike in measuring road race running courses is on flatter terrain, and here I just need to be able to comfortably keep up the ideal measuring speed of 10 mph over long distances. I do occasional spurts at higher speed when my desired measuring line takes me across the path of traffic. To save money I chose the 3 speed version for my first e-bike. I had test ridden it on a hill averaging 12%. See Nightingale Lane Test
Ordered in a January Sale, it cost around £1400 with the 25.2v 18Ah Li-ion battery providing 453Wh of energy, which proves to be enough for over 80 miles, if I am frugal in low assist using around 5.5Wh per mile. On maximum assist the range very comfortable exceeds my requirement of 30 miles (enough to measure a hilly marathon) and should continue to do so as the battery degrades. Indeed, to judge from my first year experience this battery is going to last 5 years see my post.
In my travels around the country to measure races I have only ever encountered one hill I could not ride up - in Newborough Forest in Anglesey, where in one place the sandy trail was so steep I had to get help from a fit runner who was showing me the route to push the bike up. I was tired out with riding over sand dunes on a very hot day last summer. Such extremely steep and rough slopes are very much an exception for me.
Kalkhoff Agattu C8 Impulse
As I have explained above, my 3 speed Panasonic Agattu suits me very well. Nevertheless I was curious about how the new “Impulse” system would compare, and I also wanted to try a bike with more gears. So I read with great interest the announcement by 50cycles the arrival of 2012 model Agattu C8 bikes for sale in the UK and their availability for testing. See http://www.50cycles.com/kalkhoff-impulse-ebike-introduction.htm
Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to receive the new Impulse on loan for a few days of testing. Here it is in front of my 3 speed Agattu. The frame has changed slightly with a wider down tube at the front, but with neater welds. Painted white the tube appears wider than it really is: 17.5 cm circumference compared with 15 cm for my bike.
With the battery case being elegantly curved to hug the back mudguard, the overall length of the bike is reduced by 2 cm to 189 cm. The Li-ion battery, 36V 15Ah, is very slightly lighter than the 25V 18Ah battery on my Panasonic Agattu, yet holds 540Wh of energy: some 19% more. A nice improvement is the 3 amp charger which improves the charge time from 10 hours to around 5 or 6 hours. There is a socket on the battery so you can plug in the charger and charge with the battery in situ on the bike.
This page from 50cycles website give more information on the new Impulse system and here is a Kakhoff flyer on the Impulse features(pdf).
I will upload my test data in a second post here.
In short: The new 8 speed Agattu Impulse is definitely better than my 3 speed Agattu with the Panasonic motor on hills, and gives a slightly faster overall average speed on mixed terrain circuit. I am strong enough only to need the higher gears, but an infirm rider looking for just very light pedalling exercise would probably make more use of the lowest gears at lower speeds. It has a neat, light battery which will give excellent range, and ought to provide a 5 year service life. The rest of the bike looks and feels like it will last forever. The comfortable, upright riding position and the low step-through frame suits me perfectly. If I were younger, I might choose a more streamlined riding position, but at the age of 70 I much prefer to sit up so reducing the strain on the body, and the motor easily overcomes any wind resistance.
Background: one year's experience with a Kalkhoff Agattu C3 (Panasonic)
Before describing my test rides of the new Agattu Impuse I will describe my one year's experience of ebiking in order to explain what I need out of an ebike, and the baseline I am judging the new bike against.
One year ago I was experiencing my first ride on my brand new Kalkhoff Agattu which I had chosen because of the reputation of the brand and its Panasonic crank drive for reliability and hill climbing.
The hills I sometimes encounter have slopes up to 13%. However, a lot of my use of the bike in measuring road race running courses is on flatter terrain, and here I just need to be able to comfortably keep up the ideal measuring speed of 10 mph over long distances. I do occasional spurts at higher speed when my desired measuring line takes me across the path of traffic. To save money I chose the 3 speed version for my first e-bike. I had test ridden it on a hill averaging 12%. See Nightingale Lane Test
Ordered in a January Sale, it cost around £1400 with the 25.2v 18Ah Li-ion battery providing 453Wh of energy, which proves to be enough for over 80 miles, if I am frugal in low assist using around 5.5Wh per mile. On maximum assist the range very comfortable exceeds my requirement of 30 miles (enough to measure a hilly marathon) and should continue to do so as the battery degrades. Indeed, to judge from my first year experience this battery is going to last 5 years see my post.
In my travels around the country to measure races I have only ever encountered one hill I could not ride up - in Newborough Forest in Anglesey, where in one place the sandy trail was so steep I had to get help from a fit runner who was showing me the route to push the bike up. I was tired out with riding over sand dunes on a very hot day last summer. Such extremely steep and rough slopes are very much an exception for me.
Kalkhoff Agattu C8 Impulse
As I have explained above, my 3 speed Panasonic Agattu suits me very well. Nevertheless I was curious about how the new “Impulse” system would compare, and I also wanted to try a bike with more gears. So I read with great interest the announcement by 50cycles the arrival of 2012 model Agattu C8 bikes for sale in the UK and their availability for testing. See http://www.50cycles.com/kalkhoff-impulse-ebike-introduction.htm
Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to receive the new Impulse on loan for a few days of testing. Here it is in front of my 3 speed Agattu. The frame has changed slightly with a wider down tube at the front, but with neater welds. Painted white the tube appears wider than it really is: 17.5 cm circumference compared with 15 cm for my bike.
With the battery case being elegantly curved to hug the back mudguard, the overall length of the bike is reduced by 2 cm to 189 cm. The Li-ion battery, 36V 15Ah, is very slightly lighter than the 25V 18Ah battery on my Panasonic Agattu, yet holds 540Wh of energy: some 19% more. A nice improvement is the 3 amp charger which improves the charge time from 10 hours to around 5 or 6 hours. There is a socket on the battery so you can plug in the charger and charge with the battery in situ on the bike.
This page from 50cycles website give more information on the new Impulse system and here is a Kakhoff flyer on the Impulse features(pdf).
I will upload my test data in a second post here.
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