Well i took the plunge - finally!!

[Jon]

Hi Jon, At this stage can you answer these questions for me:
Score: e.g. 9 out of 10
Route: e.g. Moderate Hills, Very Hilly, One Hill, etc ...
Motor Noise: e.g. Almost Silent, Quite noisey, Very noisey
Battery Man. e.g. Panasonic, Toshiba, etc ..
Charger Full CUT-OFF?: Yes

Thanks - Alan

Score - This is still tricy to weigh up as i see a score to be a collection of elements and then averaged out and it scores better in some are more than others. So far for reliability, torque, speed, looks, comfort, quality of parts, noise, ease of use, weight, battery life, i would rate it about 8.6

Route - I have 2 sever hills on the way to work (up hill) and then flats with long down hills. On the way back i have a 3 mile uphill climb nothing steep but its a killer with no electric, i then have a steep half mile climb, a 1 mile hill climb and then flats.

Terrain is mainly road and cycle paths on the way to work. When i go out for fun over the country park i use dirt tracks, gravel tracks and grass as you can see on the pics i put up earlier this thread. Stoke on Trent is a very hill area but i average out at generally 15.7 mph but reaching speeds of 30.5 mph on the longer downhills.

Motor noise, im a little unsure on this i can hear something i thought was the crank which it isnt, i have set up the gears again and fine tuned them and that seems to have quietened the noise but the electric noise is audible on a scale of 1 to 10 1 been noisy and 10 been quiet i would say its about a 7 maybe 7.5 but it doesnt bother me at all and you can only really hear it when your using the throttle to get to the cruising speeed and then once there its about a 8.5 to 9

I weigh about 78 kg and carry an extra 6kg on the way to work

Battery tbh i have no idea on that one you could email Oxygen and Andrew should get back to you

Charger Full cut off i assume you mean once the battery is full it will no longer charge as far as im aware this is true. It says it uses and inteligent system to detect when the battery is full. When charging i have a red light and once full the charger goes to green.

Im setting it up for my wife to have a whiz on tomorrow over the country park, she hasnt had a proper go yet so i cant wait to hear what she thinks.

I hope that answers your questions Alan

 

[kitchenman]

Score - This is still tricy to weigh up as i see a score to be a collection of elements and then averaged out and it scores better in some are more than others. So far for reliability, torque, speed, looks, comfort, quality of parts, noise, ease of use, weight, battery life, i would rate it about 8.6

Route - I have 2 sever hills on the way to work (up hill) and then flats with long down hills. On the way back i have a 3 mile uphill climb nothing steep but its a killer with no electric, i then have a steep half mile climb, a 1 mile hill climb and then flats.

Terrain is mainly road and cycle paths on the way to work. When i go out for fun over the country park i use dirt tracks, gravel tracks and grass as you can see on the pics i put up earlier this thread. Stoke on Trent is a very hill area but i average out at generally 15.7 mph but reaching speeds of 30.5 mph on the longer downhills.

Motor noise, im a little unsure on this i can hear something i thought was the crank which it isnt, i have set up the gears again and fine tuned them and that seems to have quietened the noise but the electric noise is audible on a scale of 1 to 10 1 been noisy and 10 been quiet i would say its about a 7 maybe 7.5 but it doesnt bother me at all and you can only really hear it when your using the throttle to get to the cruising speeed and then once there its about a 8.5 to 9

I weigh about 78 kg and carry an extra 6kg on the way to work

Battery tbh i have no idea on that one you could email Oxygen and Andrew should get back to you

Charger Full cut off i assume you mean once the battery is full it will no longer charge as far as im aware this is true. It says it uses and inteligent system to detect when the battery is full. When charging i have a red light and once full the charger goes to green.

Im setting it up for my wife to have a whiz on tomorrow over the country park, she hasnt had a proper go yet so i cant wait to hear what she thinks.

I hope that answers your questions Alan

Yes. Thats great Jon. Thanks. Its really to help rsscott develope the review section. If you can think of anything that you'd like to see in a review then I'm sure all contributions are welcome!

 

[kitchenman]

I hope that answers your questions Alan

A couple more! ... sorry brain is working overtime again! ...
Battery Lock? Do you have one?
Battery Warranty? - How long is it? Is it measured in charge cycles or is it specified in years ...
Motor Warranty? - How long is it?
How long to recharge battery from near flat?
thanks ..

 

[Oxygen Bicycles]

info from the source

Hi everyone,

I feel I have to step in and clarify few point here as too many questions been left without answer. Firstly thank you Jon for purchasing our bike and also thanks for the very comprehensive review. All your comments are very important to us and I already took a notes of all those.

Now regarding the battery our new 15Ah Lithium Polymer pack is built up with 70 cylindrical lithium polymer cells 3.7V, type 18650 with 2200mah/each. There are 10 series of 7 cells which in total actually give 15.4Ah. We just mark it as 15Ah. For those who are interested in chemistry it's a LiNiMnCo04. The whole pack is managed by o2 Microchip BMS. We give a 2 year warranty on our batterries.

Motor is 8FUN SWXH and we give a two year warranty for it just like for any other electrical components.

Hope that info helps,

best regards

Andrew

 

[trex]

What is the difference between the Oxygen LiNiMnCo04 and Lipo? is LiNiMnCo04 better?

 

[Oxygen Bicycles]

Hi Trex,

Li-Po is a short of Lithium Polymer and the LiNiMnCo04 is a chemistry of Lithium Polymer cells, it's a mix of Liithium, Nickel, Managanese and Cobalt. Hope that helps

Best regards

Andrew

 

[trex]

Is LiNiMnCo04 a better choice than Lipo that most e-bikes seem to have though? does it charge faster or is it more reliable? the one that caught fire (Lithium..... really hot batteries thread) - which type of chemistry is it?

 

[Oxygen Bicycles]

Hi Trex,

LiNiMNCo04 and Li-Po is the same battery. re the one that caught fire I have no idea what type it was. Normally pure Lithium Cobalt batterries have been quite pouular with catching fire, Cobalt tend to crystalize and puntch the internal films causing shortcuts which eventually cause fire.

On our cells we also use tiny amount of cobalt but it in the very low proportion and mixed with Nickel and Manganese to keep it safe. The thing is Cobalt itself provides excellent performance whereas Managanese is not that great but all of them mixed together currently provide the best ratio of safety, performance and lifecycle.

all the best

Andrew

 

[trex]

Thank you Andrew. By the way, your bikes look absolutely fab!

 

[Oxygen Bicycles]

thanks Trex

 

[Jon]

I just noticed a shed load of spelling mistakes in my last post sorry for the teachers in here spelling is not my strong point and it was late

A couple more! ... sorry brain is working overtime again! ...
Battery Lock? Do you have one?
Battery Warranty? - How long is it? Is it measured in charge cycles or is it specified in years ...
Motor Warranty? - How long is it?
How long to recharge battery from near flat?
thanks ..

Ye is ha a lock on the battery in fact i was impressed with the set up of that. When i picked it up there was a slight rattle but i realigned the battery support bar and it hasnt rattled now for 76 miles over some hard terrain too. The battery support bar slides inside a groove on the battery which will make it very hard for someone to compromise and it cant be slid out as there is a lock at the top. See the pics i have just taken on my flickr where you can see this.

I recharged it for the second time last night at 72 miles and a full deep cycle charge took about 8 hours. This did surprise me but once i have conditioned the battery i wont need to charge it so long as they suggest when using LI batteries they shouldnt be totally discharged every time.

When i checked the charger this morning it was cold instead of a luke warm feel when charging so i assume that means it does cut off charging once full

Thank you Andrew. By the way, your bikes look absolutely fab!

It actually looks better in person that in the pics they just dont do it justice. I have had quite a few comments about its look all good. And with my mudguard on and saddle bag etc most people fail to realise its an electric bike I have been snubbed a few times by Lycra cyclists though

 

[Jon]

An update at 107 miles

Ok so i have done 107 miles now so i just wanted to do a quick update

• The Oxygen Race is making very light work of the hills in Stoke on Trent and people love its styling. They pull a face at the price though.
  
• It is lighter than most bikes but sometimes when lifting up steps you notice it so god knows what other bikes feel like lugging them up steps
  
• It has no problem cruising at 15.5mph even on most hills with little effort
  
• As the battery gets low the drag is very high - not sure if this si the same for all bikes but tonight as i ran the battery low it really was an effort on the slightest of hills but on the flat the throttle would still cruise at 11 mph well eventually (i have got 1 more deep cycle charge to do)
  
• As easy as it is to go uphills its not as easy to roll down them. You can feel the drag once you go beyond the range of the motor so on a hill where you need the speed for the other side its counter productive. It would be nice to disengage the motor say with a clutch and free wheel down
  
• As the battery is getting low i have noticed a slight vibration and noise on pull off but it subsides after 5mph
  
• The front light did go faulty some solder came off so i soldered that back on and its fine now
  
• Brakes are good, very effective
  
• Seat is comfortable at times on the way home tonight it was annoying me but for the past 100 miles ive had no issues so it might be my bum
  
• Handles corners well, there have been times where i have nearly clipped the pedal on the floor as i keep forgetting that the crank arms are slightly longer than my non ebike, which im used to.
  
• Cruise control would be nice on them long flat roads which are so boring
  
• Front suspension is actually quite impressive, i was unsure about this when i got the bike but its been very comfortable and soaked up a lot of off road tracks
  
• Im getting a consistent 36 miles per full battery charge
  
• It would be nice if it had more accurate battery lights even a digital read out would be very useful
  
• One concern is the LEDs on the control panel they are very bright and distracting in the dark. It should have a function where if you put the light on it should dim them. Im sure this problem exist on other ebikes
  
• One thing i cant seem to solve is some random noise coming from the gear set/hub. I thought it was the crank but ruled this out and i have set the gears up properly as they were actually mis aligned and that reduced the noise but there is definitely something there i cant work out what as it seems to be a load/weight thing

Thats about it so far, as you can see there is nothing major at all in fact im really pleased on how it is performing my biggest mark against the bike is the down hill drag. I wouldnt recommend cycling without the pedal assist or throttle as it will tire you out very quickly!

 

[roadster]

Hi Jon - a fellow stokie - nice review - just got myself a Emotion sport max - will keep a look out for you on your Oxygen....

 

[Jon]

I am based in Shelton but i cycle from Longton way to Normacot, Shelton, hanley, Stoke and Bentilee. Thats my patch. I did Weston coyney to Shelton in 14m 28s earlier today as i was running late and i was very shattered after lol but it was good fun. Then tonight on the way home i went up City Road heading towards Vicky Road and flew past a few cyclists that were struggling.

Where are you from and do you commune to work?

 

[NRG]

As the battery gets low the drag is very high - not sure if this si the same for all bikes but tonight as i ran the battery low it really was an effort on the slightest of hills but on the flat the throttle would still cruise at 11 mph well eventually (i have got 1 more deep cycle charge to do)

As easy as it is to go uphills its not as easy to roll down them. You can feel the drag once you go beyond the range of the motor so on a hill where you need the speed for the other side its counter productive. It would be nice to disengage the motor say with a clutch and free wheel down

Don't forget you will be used to having the assistance and as that diminishes when the battery gets low it can feel like somebody has put the brakes on...so keep that in mind. However, check your tire pressures as they can have an affect on drag as can the tire type...the Marathon Plus rolling resistance for instance is higher than non puncture resistance tires.

Some drag will be added by the motor (they are fitted with an internal freewheel that engages above the assist speed) and although this is disputed in some circles as perhaps being of no consequence some people are more sensitive to it than others...this will get better though to a certain extent as the motor bearings, seals and gears bed in. Also the weight of an electric bike has an effect being typically around +10Kg heavier than a non powered bike.

 

[Jon]

NRG i think its just that, im used to the power and when it goes you notice it etc. Plus i expect it as the battery gets lower but once i have finished deep cycling the thing it shouldn't be an issue. The down hill thing is more well not a issue more of an inconvenience, but, one im will to have as the assistance i get up hills out weighs the downhill drag.

On a fresh charge this morning i broke my home to work record from 16.35 secs to 14.29 i was running late for a meetings and peddled my socks off.

As for the weight this bike is much lighter than most ebikes and only 4.8ish kg heavier than my none electric bike as that is a steel frame 14 years old or so. The weight is handy tbh when im coming down steep grass hills it keeps the back wheel on the floor and makes it more fun

 

[Oxygen Bicycles]

drag

Hi Jon,

There is a very little drag on the 8FUN motors and I think all companies using them had the same feedback from some users.I personally ride Race and don't really notice that (maybe because I usually ride with full charge). Obviously Bafang motor have their own pros and cons. Overall however these are great performance motors with a great reliability record. As you said once you are on the full power you don't really notice that and now when you completed full conditioning with our 15.4Ah battery I hope you won't run low on power and won't feel it anymore.

 

[Oxygen Bicycles]

...and I forgot to mention. We do take the users comments very seriously and we are now in the process of develepoing the new motor with the proper internal clutch which will be totally drag free. The clutch has actually been designed by my dad and we are already inplementing it with another motor company (not 8FUN) The design will be patented and the new motors with bigger hub shell will be able to generate a lot higher torque which will improve the climbing ability. We are expeting now to have a the frist samples ready fairly soon so if you would be interested we could fit one on your bike to see how you feel about it.

 

[flecc]

That's really interesting, the SB clutch could certainly do with being a better design and I think it has been the source of the cycling-only drag many have experienced either full time or intermittently on some SB motors.

Of course eZee were also not entirely satisfied so went with their own motor design in the end.

But as you say, the SB motors are well established, reliable and perform well in most circumstances, meeting most peoples needs well.

 

[dellpitch]

I have also taken the "plunge" and have ordered a"Compy" from Powerpedals.
Went and had a try on one in S.Moulton yesterday, impressed enough to order and found Phil to be a most helpful and easy to "deal" with.
Will post more when I have had chance to try it out on the hills of Bristol, many of them!

As an aside looking at a spare motor the drive is a bevel gear not a worm gear as I thought.

Regards