Reviewer: David Reed
Model: Galileo
Retailer: Powered Bicycles
Purchase Price: 699
Time Owned: 4 months
Terrain: Moderate Hills
Strengths: This bike is a proper full suspension mountain bike which from what I can tell is quite rare for an electric bike, and it has to be said that it is a very good looking bike too. It has a full 26 speed Shimano gear set, which again I believe is quite rare for ebikes, and disk brakes (both front and rear), making this a very full featured bike. It is pedal assist only which means there are no controls on the handlebars, there is only a pedal sensor fitted to the bottom bracket which detects if you are pedalling or not and turns the motor on/off accordingly and I have to say that it is very quick in detecting pedal motion (about 1/4 pedal turn). The bike itself is obviously heavier than a normal bike, although it is lighter than I expected it to be - I can lift it it comfortably with one arm and have managed to carry it over more than one stile without any problems. I was actually without the battery last week but commuted on it anyway and I didn't find it a lot different to commuting on a non-electric bike, I'd say I was riding one or maybe two gears lower up the hills.
The battery is a Lithium 24V 10A which charges at 33 Watts for a few hours (not sure how many because you plug it in and unplug it when the light has changed from red to green) and I get about 40 miles out of it which is good for me since my weekly commute is 37.5 miles - I tend to top up mid-week though. The key to the long battery life is the fact that the motor fades out at about 10.5 mph, meaning that if you exceed this speed (basically any time you are cycling along the flat without any strong headwind, or when you're going downhill) then you're not using the motor. Although this may not sound like a lot of assistance, I've come to realise that uphills and getting up to speed from a standstill incur the most energy from the rider and this helps with both so it's surprising how little energy you feel you've spent getting to your destination. The motor itself is a 180W motor (which doesn't mean anything to me!) but in terms of pulling power it can make it up all but the steepest road near me, albeit slowly, with me simply turning the pedals without applying any pressure. With pedal assistance I manage 6-8mph up the same steep road using the middle front gear ring, but if I drop it on to the smallest front gear ring it will manage the steepest, stoniest off-road hill I can get to near me which I used to struggle to get up on my non-electric bike, I think this may be in part due to the fact that the motor is in the front wheel effectively giving you all wheel drive. Muddy slopes which previously used to cause me problems are now a breeze! I'm not expert on suspension this being my first bike with suspension, but I've been very impressed with it. I feel a lot safer taking bumpy corners on the road and off-road it makes a big difference to riding comfort. More importantly, speed bumps are no longer an annoyance, I can hit them at speed while seated and the experience is reduced to a mild bouncing sensation. Another good thing about the bike is that it is effectively a normal bike which means all parts can be replaced with normal bike parts, the only exceptions to this are the front wheel which houses the motor in its centre, the front forks which are spaced slightly wider apart than normal, and the pedal cranks (but not the pedals which are completely standard) which have a slightly different sized hole to allow them to accomodate the small magnetic disk that is used by the pedal sensor.
Weaknesses:
One limitation may be seat height. Basically, the battery is clamped to the seatpost which as far as I can tell makes the minimum seat height 36.5 inches (ground to top of seat), and the seatpost maximum height marking is at 37 inches (of course you can extend it an inch or two past this or indeed you could get a longer seat post!). The rear suspension reduces this height in practise by about an inch as you ride. As it happens my normal seat height is 37 inches so this is ideal for me but I would recommend a test ride if you have shorter legs (I'm 32 inch inside leg). That said, my girlfriend has ridden it OK and she normally rides with a 33 inch seat height. The other main limitation is that the motor only assists up to 10.5 mph (although I've been told that there could be a revamped model soon which will be more powerful) making it a hill-climber only although the flip-side to this is that you get a lot of miles-per-charge. Personally I've found my average speed only increase from 10mph on my non-electric bike to 10.75mph on this bike, so there's not much of a speed gain. Another possible limitation that may be of interest to more serious off-roaders, is that the front wheel is quite heavy, which hinders (but doesn't prevent) jumping your front wheel over obstacles. Personally I stick to bridleways and pathways so it isn't an issue for me.
Summary:
I've deliberately waited a few months before posting this review to allow the honeymoon period to wear off and also to see how the bike performed with several hundred miles on the clock and I have to say that it has performed very well. I got the bike for two reasons, firstly I wanted it to replace my (written off!) car which meant I had to be able to commute on it without getting sweaty, and secondly I wanted a good off-road bike that I could take out at the weekends on bridleways and country tracks. I have to say that it has exceeded my expectations on both counts. Although it only assists up to 10.5 mph, I never get hot and sweaty on my commute even in the hottest weather. Off -road the bike looks and handles like a normal mountain bike (except the front wheel is heavier) and even exceeds normal MTBs when it comes to climbing slopes. Since this is my first ebike, I had a couple of doubts that someone familiar with ebikes would probably not think of. I'll address them for any other 'newbies' - firstly ebikes are advertised as 'up to 15mph' in assisted mode which made me wonder if your speed was limited when the motor was engaged, I can happily say that this is not the case and you can cycle at any speed you like with the motor on with no performance penalty that I can detect. Secondly, I wasn't sure how noisy this thing would be. It is actually quite quiet and you can only really hear it between 7.5 and 8.5 mph and then only if there is no traffic. It's also probably worth mentioning that Powered Bicycles are the designer/manufacturer and retailer of this bike which was important to me in terms of after sales support. Also you are able to test ride at their shop which I found very useful. The only other thing to say, which I'm guessing is applicable to any ebike, is that I now enjoy cycling more and find myself riding more than I used to. Trips that I'd previously take the car for e.g. shopping, chip-shop run, etc now end up being an excuse to take the bike.
Overall Rating: 9
Model: Galileo
Retailer: Powered Bicycles
Purchase Price: 699
Time Owned: 4 months
Terrain: Moderate Hills
Strengths: This bike is a proper full suspension mountain bike which from what I can tell is quite rare for an electric bike, and it has to be said that it is a very good looking bike too. It has a full 26 speed Shimano gear set, which again I believe is quite rare for ebikes, and disk brakes (both front and rear), making this a very full featured bike. It is pedal assist only which means there are no controls on the handlebars, there is only a pedal sensor fitted to the bottom bracket which detects if you are pedalling or not and turns the motor on/off accordingly and I have to say that it is very quick in detecting pedal motion (about 1/4 pedal turn). The bike itself is obviously heavier than a normal bike, although it is lighter than I expected it to be - I can lift it it comfortably with one arm and have managed to carry it over more than one stile without any problems. I was actually without the battery last week but commuted on it anyway and I didn't find it a lot different to commuting on a non-electric bike, I'd say I was riding one or maybe two gears lower up the hills.
The battery is a Lithium 24V 10A which charges at 33 Watts for a few hours (not sure how many because you plug it in and unplug it when the light has changed from red to green) and I get about 40 miles out of it which is good for me since my weekly commute is 37.5 miles - I tend to top up mid-week though. The key to the long battery life is the fact that the motor fades out at about 10.5 mph, meaning that if you exceed this speed (basically any time you are cycling along the flat without any strong headwind, or when you're going downhill) then you're not using the motor. Although this may not sound like a lot of assistance, I've come to realise that uphills and getting up to speed from a standstill incur the most energy from the rider and this helps with both so it's surprising how little energy you feel you've spent getting to your destination. The motor itself is a 180W motor (which doesn't mean anything to me!) but in terms of pulling power it can make it up all but the steepest road near me, albeit slowly, with me simply turning the pedals without applying any pressure. With pedal assistance I manage 6-8mph up the same steep road using the middle front gear ring, but if I drop it on to the smallest front gear ring it will manage the steepest, stoniest off-road hill I can get to near me which I used to struggle to get up on my non-electric bike, I think this may be in part due to the fact that the motor is in the front wheel effectively giving you all wheel drive. Muddy slopes which previously used to cause me problems are now a breeze! I'm not expert on suspension this being my first bike with suspension, but I've been very impressed with it. I feel a lot safer taking bumpy corners on the road and off-road it makes a big difference to riding comfort. More importantly, speed bumps are no longer an annoyance, I can hit them at speed while seated and the experience is reduced to a mild bouncing sensation. Another good thing about the bike is that it is effectively a normal bike which means all parts can be replaced with normal bike parts, the only exceptions to this are the front wheel which houses the motor in its centre, the front forks which are spaced slightly wider apart than normal, and the pedal cranks (but not the pedals which are completely standard) which have a slightly different sized hole to allow them to accomodate the small magnetic disk that is used by the pedal sensor.
Weaknesses:
One limitation may be seat height. Basically, the battery is clamped to the seatpost which as far as I can tell makes the minimum seat height 36.5 inches (ground to top of seat), and the seatpost maximum height marking is at 37 inches (of course you can extend it an inch or two past this or indeed you could get a longer seat post!). The rear suspension reduces this height in practise by about an inch as you ride. As it happens my normal seat height is 37 inches so this is ideal for me but I would recommend a test ride if you have shorter legs (I'm 32 inch inside leg). That said, my girlfriend has ridden it OK and she normally rides with a 33 inch seat height. The other main limitation is that the motor only assists up to 10.5 mph (although I've been told that there could be a revamped model soon which will be more powerful) making it a hill-climber only although the flip-side to this is that you get a lot of miles-per-charge. Personally I've found my average speed only increase from 10mph on my non-electric bike to 10.75mph on this bike, so there's not much of a speed gain. Another possible limitation that may be of interest to more serious off-roaders, is that the front wheel is quite heavy, which hinders (but doesn't prevent) jumping your front wheel over obstacles. Personally I stick to bridleways and pathways so it isn't an issue for me.
Summary:
I've deliberately waited a few months before posting this review to allow the honeymoon period to wear off and also to see how the bike performed with several hundred miles on the clock and I have to say that it has performed very well. I got the bike for two reasons, firstly I wanted it to replace my (written off!) car which meant I had to be able to commute on it without getting sweaty, and secondly I wanted a good off-road bike that I could take out at the weekends on bridleways and country tracks. I have to say that it has exceeded my expectations on both counts. Although it only assists up to 10.5 mph, I never get hot and sweaty on my commute even in the hottest weather. Off -road the bike looks and handles like a normal mountain bike (except the front wheel is heavier) and even exceeds normal MTBs when it comes to climbing slopes. Since this is my first ebike, I had a couple of doubts that someone familiar with ebikes would probably not think of. I'll address them for any other 'newbies' - firstly ebikes are advertised as 'up to 15mph' in assisted mode which made me wonder if your speed was limited when the motor was engaged, I can happily say that this is not the case and you can cycle at any speed you like with the motor on with no performance penalty that I can detect. Secondly, I wasn't sure how noisy this thing would be. It is actually quite quiet and you can only really hear it between 7.5 and 8.5 mph and then only if there is no traffic. It's also probably worth mentioning that Powered Bicycles are the designer/manufacturer and retailer of this bike which was important to me in terms of after sales support. Also you are able to test ride at their shop which I found very useful. The only other thing to say, which I'm guessing is applicable to any ebike, is that I now enjoy cycling more and find myself riding more than I used to. Trips that I'd previously take the car for e.g. shopping, chip-shop run, etc now end up being an excuse to take the bike.
Overall Rating: 9
