Hello - it's flat here

[Jonathan Pallant]

Hello. This forum has been really useful while researching which bike to buy - there's an opinion on here about just about every bike out there! So, I thought I'd better say hello.

My criteria:

I need to do 14 miles each way, pretty much every day for a year (it's very very flat)
Crossbar bike with straight handlebars
Lights, pannier, mudguards
Nexus hub, preferably
At least a 36V/10Ah battery
Budget was £1200 on Cyclescheme (or £849 not)
LCD controller

I've got about 60 bikes on a spreadsheet here and after much (much) thought, I've plumped for a Kudos Tourer Nexus. The Woosh Big Bear was a close second but the Kudos works out about £180 cheaper, plus it has the Nexus hub.

I did think hard about the 10Ah battery vs some of the bigger options available (like the 15Ah on the Big Bear). As an experiment, I did the commute for a week late last year with a free loan of a Smarta LX (I think it was an LX) from Travel 4 Work in Cambridge. That bike was pretty old but its 10Ah pack had plenty of charge for each leg, so I think it will be OK.

Now I just have to wait for the voucher to sort itself out. For three weeks!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You're very lucky to have flat roads, which means you can get away with less power and get more range. It's pretty hilly here with some as steep as 30%. I've been logging my rides this year and figured out that for every 1km that I ride, I have to climb 10m, which means I've climbed the equivalent to a vertical height of 10 km this year already. If it weren't for that, I'd probably have something like a Kudos Tourer. Let us know how you get on with it.

I'd love to have seen your spreadsheet. I suppose that's the best one can do, but there's so many differences that would never show up in spec sheets for you to consider, but they can make a big difference to how the bike rides. Having said that, my first bike was very basic, and I was very happy with it for quite a long time.

 

[trex]

A bigger battery offers three advantages: your bike climbs hills faster, requires fewer charges over time and lessens range anxiety.
For your 28 miles a day commute, a 10AH battery is just about enough in nice weather, not on rainy or windy days.

 

[flapajack]

For your 28 miles a day commute, a 10AH battery is just about enough in nice weather, not on rainy or windy days.

Not necessarily. I have a 11AH battery and my commute is 38 miles and I still have 2 bars out of 5 remaining at the end of the day. Admittedly I mostly use Tour mode and also peddle a lot (a pedelec with no throttle) but that's part of the fun. I find this approach works perfectly for me.

It is all about your individual requirements.

 

[Jonathan Pallant]

I have no issue charging at work and at home so it only has to manage 14 miles. And the Kudos has an iron phosphate pack so it should be durable. I guess I'll just have to report back in about a year.

Oh, I should also mention that I asked in Halfords about the EBCO but the chap said all of their remaining stock had been cannibalised for parts and he wasn't getting more in any time soon.

 

[trex]

Not necessarily. I have a 11AH battery and my commute is 38 miles and I still have 2 bars out of 5 remaining at the end of the day. Admittedly I mostly use Tour mode and also peddle a lot (a pedelec with no throttle) but that's part of the fun. I find this approach works perfectly for me.

It is all about your individual requirements.

that depends also on how many miles you ride a year. The OP commute is 28 miles per day, most days of the year, that's about 6,000 to 7,000 miles a year. A 10AH battery will require one recharge at each commute - plus weekend rides, say 250 charges per year. Each charge reduces the battery capacity a little, after 240 charges (one year), the capacity is reduced by about 10%-15%, reducing the range. There is also a second factor, it's difficult to maintain the level of fitness when you move from normal bike to e-bike. Over time, people tend to use more battery.
edit:
Iron phostate batteries are good for 1,000-2,000 charges. The reduction in capacity is minimal.
The only negative is that the battery meter does not work well with this type of battery because its voltage does not drop much, you can be nearly flat without knowing.

 

[Jonathan Pallant]

Trex. That's all true, except I'm going from taking a bus to cycling. I really hope I use less battery over time!!

 

[Deleted member 4366]

OP has a LiFePO4 battery, which shouldn't degrade much over time.

I used to commute 28 miles a day with a 9ah battery, and my commute wasn't flat. I never charged at work. In the beginning, it was a close thing whether I made it up the final climb, but my legs soon became a lot stronger, so I could do the return trip on about 4ah.

 

[Jonathan Pallant]

Well the bike arrived, complete with about nine miles of bubble wrap.

I thought I'd make a few notes on things that surprised me ahead of my first proper run tomorrow.

1. The lights are wired in. There's a switch on the handlebars.
2. There is a frame lock on the rear wheel.
3. The pannier bag is actually rather nice.
4. The saddle is quite hard. I guess that's personal preference but I'll probably try and steal the one off my old bike. Both are made by Velo.
5. Nexus hub gears are awesome if, like me, you're terrible at remembering to change down before you stop.
6. There's a paint run on the front fork. Can't really argue for the money but it's a little disappointing.
7. Someone from Kudos UK should rewrite the manual as it is pretty awful.
8. The charge socket is under the battery handle. Took me ages to find it (see point 7).
Edit to add: 9. It comes with two proper spanners and two hex keys of the appropriate sizes.

Didn't fancy the rain today so we'll see how we get on tomorrow. Tagging along with a regular bicyclist ... to start with at least!

 

[Jonathan Pallant]

Well that was an unmitigated disaster. I got about half a mile down the road and the bike died. After a while I could turn it back on but anything above assistance level 3 and it died again.

After a call to eBikesDirect we concluded that the battery is refusing to charge, from either charger (I bought a spare). That charge I did last night actually did nothing. A new battery is on its way from Kudos but they can't tell me when.

Oh and I see Kudos have since knocked £100 off the price on their own website.

*grump*

 

[Jonathan Pallant]

OK, so, an update.

I received a new battery on Tuesday and this appears to be charging correctly (red light, battery voltage up to 42V).

I set off this morning (Wednesday) and the bike cut out after a few miles. The symptoms are that the LCD screen goes blank and the motor stops working (the lights go out too, but I didn't know that this morning as I didn't have them on). I'm pretty sure the battery is still full at this point, so I stop, eject the battery pack and refit it. Pushing the power button re-activates the control unit and we're off again. Another few miles down the road, this whole process is repeated.

The third time it died, I simply carried on cycling and 30 seconds later, turned the control unit back on. It fired up, and we're off.

The fourth time it died, I was so near the office I didn't bother.

I spoke to the supplier on the telephone and their technical guy rang me straight back. He agreed with me it sounded like a loose connection and invited me to lift the lid on the wiring compartment and check each of the push-fit connectors, one by one.



Oh my goodness. What a mess!

I checked all the connectors and despite the odd poorly crimped wire, the bullet connectors for the battery didn't seem too bad, so I put it all back.

I lost count of how many times the bike died on the way home (well over a dozen), but it almost always correlated with going over a bump. Sadly, this would also take out my bike lights. I was lucky to have a friend cycle with me, so we'd carry on by the light from his bike while I bounced up and down on the saddle until the lights came back on. I then knew I could power the controller up and continue.

Tonight, I took the liberty of re-soldering the power cable for the lights which was rather too loose for my liking. I also checked all the connectors properly and wrapped them in electrical tape to try and reduce any possible movement. I also slacked the nuts which held the wiring compartment and battery terminals to the base plate and re-aligned everything. The battery now fits much tighter and is no longer approaching the terminals at a slight angle.

So, confident, I took the bike for a quick spin around the block and, so soon as I headed off the path and on to the grass, the bike died.

Given the way the lights are wired straight off the battery without going through the control unit, my best guess is I'm getting a temporary loss of battery connectivity. It can only be a problem with the bullet connectors (which seem fine), the spade terminals and their receiving sockets, or something inside the battery itself. The temporary loss of power kills the lights until the connection is restored and puts the controller/display into the 'off' state. Sometimes I got over a bump and the lights just go out for a second (which is enough to reset the controller), sometimes they stay out for longer.

My only other observations are a) there is a detectable weight moving around inside the battery back when you move it around and b) one of the spring sockets on the battery isn't quite as nipped up as the others.

I'll ring the supplier again in the morning and see what else they can suggest. Third time lucky on the battery perhaps?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

There's also connectors inside the battery. Another candidate is the key-switch and its solder joints. You can take the key-switch end off the battery by unscrewing the four screws to have a look.

 

[Jonathan Pallant]

Opening the battery has been ruled out by the manufacturer. A third battery is on its way.

 

[Jonathan Pallant]

Had a lovely ride in this morning. 13.7 miles in 58 minutes dead. Wonderful.

 

[RobF]

Had a lovely ride in this morning. 13.7 miles in 58 minutes dead. Wonderful.

Presumably you commute from west to east.

 

[Jonathan Pallant]

In the morning, yes. Bit of a head wind between Longstanton and Oakington.