Reviewer: Barnabear
Purchased From: Portswood Cycles, Southampton
Purchase Price: £729 + £130 Upgrade to Lithium Polymer Battery
Time Owned: 8 months
Terrain: Long steady hills, tedious but nothing very steep
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Strengths:
- Folding bicycle (including folding pedals)
- Very stable, pleasant to ride, with straight handlebars
- Stylish
- Generally engineered to a high standard
- Functional
- Luggage rack as standard is very useful
- Good battery technology
- Torque sensing chainwheel gives smoother power delivery
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Weaknesses:
- Very long delays in delivery due to new battery technology (~4 months)
- Difficulty with supplies of spares and accessories
- Poor customer support from Urban Mover, who refuse to own problems
- Repeated failures of rear spokes
- Occasional temporary loss of drive
- Gearing is too short, cannot fit bigger chainwheel or smaller sprocket
- Doesn't fold particularly small
- Front brake is very jerky
- Handlebar twist grip throttle no longer supplied as standard (but can be retrofitted)
- 3 second delay in power only mode is very annoying
- Twist grip is too stiff
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Summary
This is generally a good electric folder that is let down by technical problems and poor support from the manufacturer.
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Overall rating (out of 10): 6
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Detail
Generally I have been happy with my UM24, but with some issues.
I have the LiPol battery and I now do an 8 mile journey to work with about 660 ft of hill climbs (and corresponding 540 ft of descents) in about 38 minutes. This was a journey that used to take me about 55 minutes at best on an ordinary bike as I was not able to keep going on some of the hills. I also arrive in better condition.
Given my weight and the hills, I find that the range with LiPol is only about 12 miles so I'm really glad that I upgraded to LiPol rather than the then standard NiMH battery.
I keep a spare charger at work, so the battery recharges at my desk in about four and a half hours ready for my journey home.
So the UM24 has allowed me to cycle to work on a regular basis whereas it was not a pratical alternative for me on a conventional bike. However there are other bikes around which would also have satisfied that requirement.
The UM24 is a folder, which is comparatively rare for an electric bike and it's quite quick to fold up. However it doesn't fold particularly small - I think the wheelbase is quite long.
The flip side of that is that the UM24 is very stable for a folding bike. In fact I compared it with one of the larger wheeled UM's and I preferred the ride of the folder. I didn't like the handlebar style of the larger UM's, the UM24 having a much straighter handlebar. The stability of the UM24 makes for a relaxed ride - I tried a conventional folding Dahon once and it was very hard work as it seemed pretty unstable.
The gearing is stupidly short - my legs twiddling round and round without actually doing any useful work. So I tend to use the twist throttle on the flat and downhill, but pedal hard on the uphill sections.
The front brake is pretty jerky - like the rim is not particularly smooth.
I had a very long wait between ordering and receiving the UM24 due to the lack of availability of the LiPol battery.
Customer support from Urban Mover is notoriously poor. I have an ongoing issue with spoke failures in the rear wheel - that's the main problem. I don't feel that UM have taken ownership of the problem. Provided you are well below the maximum load of 90 kg spoke failures may not be a problem for you.
The UM24 standard equipment seemed to change. It now comes with the Torque Sensing cranks/chainwheel and the rear wheel lock as standard but without the handlebar throttle control. My dealer was somewhat horrified and basically told UM that he wouldn't be able to sell bikes without the throttle control (much of his clientel are elderly not able to pedal effectively). So they supplied the parts for him to retrofit which he did for free. So I got the best of both worlds. Check the standard equipment configuration before making a buying decision.
Spares are generally hard to obtain, there was a problem with the spring loaded battery contacts on the bike. I took the bike in for repair and the dealer only managed to get replacement because a new bike arrived damaged so he cannabalised it. Similarly this was how he got me the spare charger the same way. It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good.
The throttle control on the handlebar has a 3 second delay which many find annoying. This is true across the UM range. The throttle control is also quite stiff.
There have been times when the motor has cut out (no assistance) for periods of say 10-20 seconds. It's a real weird, but using the twist throttle seems to reset the problem state. Don't understand it, but other people have experienced this across the UM range. Happens maybe on average once every 30-50 miles.
The bike is really really useful for my 2 mile journey into the centre of town to go shopping. It takes me about 10 minutes, and parking is free and very easy.
So a range of technical issues - it's a brilliant concept and generally well engineered but with some technical flaws.
Not sure I would buy a UM24 again, mainly because of the issue with the spokes and the lack of effective customer support. It is useful that it folds as if I ride it to work and then it's raining when it's time to go home I can take the bus instead then drive in the following day and put it in the boot of the car.
So a bit of a mixed bag. I love it when it works, but am frustrated by reliability issues particularly the spoke failures.
