first 500 miles on Chinese Folder.....

[LeonardYoung]

.....and I seem to have hit lucky. I posted a review a few months ago on this excellent, wholly Chinese made folding electric bike, and all the qualities described in that review still hold after 500 miles and over four months of varied terrain - shopping trips, rural rides and town excursions.

I feel my initial comments about the absurdly high prices of some folders with quite modest hub motors have been vindicated.

To remind anyone interested, here is the review:http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bike-reviews/7514-ebay-e-folder-mk-220-a.html

And here is the bike: New QBP-MK220 20" 6 Speed Electric Folding Bike/Bicycle | eBay UK

This bike cost £570 plus £30 delivery.

My brother, who is a talented engineer and mechanic, informed me that the seam welding on this bike is very well done and if anything, over-engineered. It is just a tad heavier than the most expensive folders in this class, but it is very very solid.

The rear hub motor is extremely quiet and hasn't let me down yet, and the battery charges if anything better and lasts a little longer than it did on day one.

The bike running gear is extremely quiet and it free wheels very well indeed....as well as my partner's non-electric hybrid bike. It also comes with an included bike bag, a good quality bike cover, front and rear lights, a very good carrier, a horn, and fair quality shimano gears. The only weak spot is that the brakes are not stella, but are perfectly serviceable.

To me it looks quite similar to a UK brand discussed recently on this forum. To be fair the price of each is quite similar, but my Chinese bike pips it to the post by some margin.

Of course I AM aware that many UK supplied bikes already have many Chinese made parts.

I thought I'd post this so those considering spending well over £1000 and in some cases as much as £1600 for what they perceive to be a quality folder might benefit from shopping around outside of the conventional wisdom about quality often discussed in various forums, including this one, regarding bikes.

All the best,

Leonard

 

[flecc]

Thanks for the report Leonard. It's certainly true that there's a good choice of low cost folders on the UK market and many of them perform well.

There's two areas where they can fall short though. One is the battery, there have been many cases of premature failure of lithium batteries, so a one year warranty on what can be an expensive item might not be felt to provide enough protection. Another problem is the availability of a replacement battery that fits when the time comes, since ebay suppliers can often be very short lived, as can their supplies of any product.

The other subject widely complained of with these folders is the inadequate gear range, the small wheels with compact chainwheel and derailleur leading to a top gear that's too low. This means very high pedal spin speeds and difficulty in keeping up with the motor drive in many cases. The more expensive folders often have much better gearing arrangements.
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[LeonardYoung]

Hi Flecc,

Agreed on batteries and time will tell but there is no indication so far that my battery is any worse or better than on other bikes. What I do know is that a replacement, if needed, is around £120 and available.

I don't think narrow or low gearing on folders is confined to the cheaper models. I recall many posts here about premium folding bikes having slightly low gearing. Mine is a tad low, but not so low that I resemble a cartoon character above say 17 mph. I did consider retrotfitting a higher set but have now got used to what I have and it is very rare that I go fast enough to justify the expense.

 

[flecc]

That's an excellent battery price, making it immaterial if the battery lasts half as long as the more expensive ones. The usual question mark on availability a year or so later remains, normally they aren't on ebay models which tend to change all the time. However, the usual solution of a rack mount battery then gives plenty of choice.
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[onmebike]

That's an excellent battery price, making it immaterial if the battery lasts half as long as the more expensive ones. The usual question mark on availability a year or so later remains, normally they aren't on ebay models which tend to change all the time. However, the usual solution of a rack mount battery then gives plenty of choice.
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Just read on ebay add that a replacement battery is £210?

 

[flecc]

Ah, so the £120 was a typo. That changes the price from excellent to good for li-ion 36 volt battery.
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[LeonardYoung]

Sorry if I got the price wrong. Well, even if my battery lasts a couple of years, and the indications are that it should last at least that much, £210 is not too bad.

 

[flecc]

It's good when a few 36 v 10 Ah ones, admittedly latest tech li-polymer, are around £500, and there's one almost double that!
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