...not something you see every day...

[Beeping-Sleauty]

...a German manufacturer, copying a Chinese design.....

POWERPAC - MOUNTAINBIKE ELECTRIC BICYCLE BIKE E-BIKE on eBay (end time 13-Oct-09 20:29:03 BST)

this is a high-tech redesign of that 5 year old Chinese original - one of which was purchased by a new esteemed member of our fraternity for about £325 just this week.

the original is known to us in its' various guises Whirlwind/Cougar/UrbanGlider/Cyclone/Ranger.


bought one myself 3 years ago for about the same money. shown below.

i'd need a little ride on it before i decided if the German one is worth 3 times the Chinese one.

hhmmm....

beeps

 

[wibble]

Looks great. Nice modern style.

I bet it's very heavy though. If the battery conks out then you're gonna need a Chinook to airlift you back to base.

 

[Bigbee]

It says its 28 kgs,the £325 one with lead acid would be around 10 kgs more I guess.Theres at least one German company I know of who have German management teams based in a Chinese factory.I think this may be one of them.They wont be made in Germany,its misleading.

 

[Alex728]

It says its 28 kgs,the £325 one with lead acid would be around 10 kgs more I guess.Theres at least one German company I know of who have German management teams based in a Chinese factory.I think this may be one of them.They wont be made in Germany,its misleading.

doesn't current EU law state that if some/all of the final assembly is carried out in an EU nation then its "made" in that nation?

There are Dell computers at work marked "Made In Ireland" when of course 99% of the components all come from China...

 

[flecc]

Yes, assembly does qualify as manufacturing. It has to of course, since it's impossible to fix a cut off point below which the proportion of components made elsewhere didn't disqualify the final product.
.

 

[Alex728]

actually one thing I find admirable with both Powacycle and Wisper is that they are both 100% honest about explaining how the bikes are designed in the UK but manufactured in China...

provided the quality remains up to standard I don't have a problem with this (and Wisper's full transparency of quality control procedures, including a tag with the actual name of the quality manager is something I was particularly impressed by).

TBH I would expect the design/manufacture is a circular process with both the Chinese and Western staff getting involved. It certainly looked that way from the videos that Wisper release of their factory, and I think there is a Chinese chap at Powacycle in Essex who liases with the factories in China.

 

[Bigbee]

actually one thing I find admirable with both Powacycle and Wisper is that they are both 100% honest about explaining how the bikes are designed in the UK but manufactured in China...

provided the quality remains up to standard I don't have a problem with this (and Wisper's full transparency of quality control procedures, including a tag with the actual name of the quality manager is something I was particularly impressed by).

TBH I would expect the design/manufacture is a circular process with both the Chinese and Western staff getting involved. It certainly looked that way from the videos that Wisper release of their factory, and I think there is a Chinese chap at Powacycle in Essex who liases with the factories in China.

I think you'll find that Powacycle are owned by a " Chinese chap "

 

[Alex728]

I thought Wazz and Humayan Mughal are from Pakistan - I remember them from other dealings in the electronics industry.

I have heard rumours that Powacycle was a smaller company which Akther Electronics bought up a few years ago, and then improved some of the safety aspects of the Chinese manufacture (they were the first to discourage the use of IEC connectors for low voltage DC - not suprising as they make a lot of educational kit which has to comply with strict safety regs).

IMO irrespective of what countries everyone is from I think the e-bikes industry encourages a very positive form of internationalism where people keep their identities/cultures yet contribute towards a common cause, and the higher prices seem to hint that factory workers are better treated than in more cut-throat hi tech industries..

 

[Wisper Bikes]

Pakistan

I have met Waz a few times now, very nice guy into massive solar power instalations as well as electric bikes and he certainly is not Chinese!

All the best David